061229 - Santiago de Chile, CHL

"Are you still here?" Suddenly I wake up out of my dullness that was surrounding me. What has happened? I was still in the kitchen in the Andes Hostel in Santiago - and that seemed to be the problem. Well, I had left the kitchen, hence the TV in front of which I was lazing around, to get some food. But that had slipped by by Eva. To her I hadn't moved since the last 2 or 3 hours that we had talked last. But come on.. gimme a rest. I was anything far from being in good shape.

I had gotten to Santiago this very morning after a tiring bus ride. We left Mendoza, ARG, on time around 22:45. But soon the air conditioning went out, and shortly after the headlights of the bus. Which didn't seem to bother the busdriver at all who kept going through the dark night. Some passenger already got a funny stomache feeling. And when we got to Uspallata a couple of hours later to have a brief stop for taking on more passengers rebellion broke loose. People got off the bus and started arguing with the bus driver who still wouldn't see a problem driving on without any headlights. He simply would continue tailing another bus until we got to Santiago. But luckily the people convinced him that this is not a good idea. So we called it in and asked to have another bus come. Meanwhile the passengers started stopping buses who would pass by asking if they'd have any empty seats. And yeah - soon after a bus stopped that took on almost all passengers. Gladly not having to wait half the night for the next bus to arrive in the middle of the night we got on. But it was a low cost carrier. No leg room. Air conditioning broken. So

when we got to Santiago at 7am I was a wreck. Took the train. Went to the hostel, checked in and went to bed. Around 12am I woke up again, went to the kitchen and made my usual porrage. And that's when I first talked to Eva who had also arrived here the same day, but flew in from Madrid. Eva, a girl from Germany who I first thought was from Spain (had worked 1.5 year in Madrid), on a three-week vacation would become my travel companion for the next two weeks. And since we both were new to the city we joined forces to discover Santiago. To me a perfect deal since I hadn't read anything and didn't have the slightes idea of what to do nor to see here. While Eva had done her homework. The first day was just a quick stroll around downtown and conquering the top of Cerro Santa Lucia.

The next day -- ohh, my god! I don't know how much we walked but pretty far. And near the end, unfortunately, we became witnesses of a robbery. We were in the old part of town were London and Paris Street cross when we met a group of retirees from Germany who sat down on the banks next to us. Suddenly a boy is approaching and I am starting to wonder to what he is up to. But before I can even finish my thoughts, I see how his arm reaches out - and with a quick pulls steals the necklace from the woman next to us; starts running down the street.

And everybody remains like statues. Unbelievable. Nothing we can do anymore. Wow... Just like in a bad movie. And for the first time that I became a witness. And yes, you act completly different than from what you ever have expected. I wanted to run after him, but with the flip-flops -- impossible. And I also was kinda shocked.

However, Santiago was a lot better than I had expected. Many people I met along the way didn't like it. Maybe it was due to my nice new comrade but I really did like it a lot. Especially the subway is one of the best I have ever seen. Of course, you have to get used to the Chilenean accent -- but, hey, come on! it could be worse. ;o)