Where to Go in Chile for the Best Adventure Travel in Spring on a Budget
Before coming, I read online that Santiago is very unsafe, with phone and luggage thefts everywhere, so I was a bit worried. After leaving the airport, I saw through the Uber that it looked a bit like a slum outside, and when entering the city center, it was very congested, feeling similar to the traffic jams back home. I’m really grateful for modern technology; Uber has built-in translation, otherwise, I wouldn’t have understood when he told me to go to the second floor departure level.
The hotel looks quite old-fashioned, with dated but thoughtful decor. The front desk was great, letting me check in at 9 AM, while the normal check-in time is 3 PM. The furniture is solid wood, and the air conditioner is a window unit that can both cool and heat. There’s no kettle in the room, which is a problem for me as a Chinese person who loves hot water (it’s winter now), and the bottled water is cold, which I don’t want to drink.
The room’s heater wasn’t working, and I was freezing after a few hours of revising my speech. Later, I turned on the air conditioner and found that the heating worked well, though it was very noisy. I then asked the front desk, and they turned on the heat supply (which still fluctuated between hot and cold).
The front desk also helped me print out my speech.
I asked the front desk where to buy a SIM card, and they told me to go to the tall mall across the river. The river flows rapidly, and there are graffiti on both banks. When I got there, I found all kinds of brands, expensive and cheap, including Miniso. The telecom operator’s advertisement featured a surfing video, which shows how good the waves in Chile are.
The staff here generally don’t speak English, and I only know “hola” and “gracias,” so I relied on Google Translate for communication. This tall building is the highest in Santiago.
After buying the SIM card, I went to register at the venue. I kept hearing a raspy meow, and when I came out, I saw a dirty cat. It seems like the campus life here isn’t very comfortable.
On the way back to the hotel, I was extremely hungry and went into a pizza place I saw on the street. The waiter, seeing I was a foreigner, seated me next to the fireplace. I ordered crab pasta, which looked like large wontons, filled with crab meat and cheese, and topped with a lot of cheese. It tasted pretty good, and I definitely exceeded my dairy intake for the day. People here walk their dogs without leashes, and this German Shepherd was huge, watching me, but my meal hadn’t arrived yet.
While walking past a pile of garbage, a pattern popped out, and upon closer inspection, it was the Chinese character “new” on a plastic bag, which seemed to be from a Chinese takeout restaurant.
Finally, my phone was safe on the first day. Actually, it was also safe on the second day (which is today), but I’ll write about today’s events next time.
