San Pedro de Atacama (La Isla Bonita...yes, it sounds like a Madonna song if you sing it the way we do..."it all seems like yesterday, not far away"..., San Pedro de Atacama...)

All that makes you wild and free...San Pedro de Atacama

     I'm on one hell of a whirlwind of a journey, life is being thrown at me from every direction. My senses are constantly being teased, tantalized and even tortured; my body taken to places it has not otherwise known existed. Adventure seeks me out, finds me, and throws a sequence of complex creature like abstractions at me. I try to decipher them but quickly realize that I am indeed lost, confused and wanting to leave San Pedro... 
 So I did.

Wouldn't you want to leave if this guy kept making bird sounds with a leaf?

    





That was my experience in this wild, weird, and demented desert town. Aesha, on the other hand was having a wee bit more fun, so for the first time in the history of the universe, two friends split up while traveling. Wow, what an insane idea. I'm super impressed that we came up with such an original concept. Aesha wanted to enjoy a few days more in San Pedro and I surmised that Santiago had been calling my name for way to long. Hasta Luego Aesha Rosa Tigresa...see you in a few days. 
 I thought I was ready for some alone time, but what I wanted and what I  received were two completely different  situations!

One quick travel "do" and "don't"... if you will : 

Do take time for yourself once in a while. 

Don't do it the evening you have a 24 hour bus ride to a city you have never been to, in a country whose language you barely speak. 

Not as fun as it seems...

 Aesha hurry back, Por favor! I can barely order my lunch without you!!!!!

All joking aside, the bus ride to Santiago was tortuous without anyone to talk to, the battery on my phone was dead (so no music), and I had just finished my last book. Talk about some serious time for self reflection. Gross. I was completely debilitated from  having multiple conversations with myself that by the time I reached the hostel in Santiago I almost screamed at the first person English speaking soul that I met, and wow, did I get Lucky!!!

It just so happened that this very kind gentleman named Ari, owns the hostel i was at. He could tell that I was out of sorts and offered me something special. He said "I don't usually do this, but I own some high-end condos across the street, and there is a pool". Before he could say anything else I was running to get my bathing suit!!!! Ari unlocked the door to the pool for me and said...just relax and lock the door whenever you decide to leave. Wow, I already love Chilean hospitality, yet there was so much more to come in the days and weeks ahead...

View from our "Pimp Palace"

Santiago Backpackers " Ari's place" www.santiagobackpackers.com/ is a dynamite little hostel. It has a homey feel, the staff are energetic and fun, and the place is spotless. Other than one ferociously insane evening when a wildly intoxicated Korean girl tried to steal Aesha's bed and almost left with her suitcase, it was one of our favorite hostels to date. But wait, there's more... The third night they accidentally overbooked the hostel. They gave away our beds!!! It was an oversight and was beginning to look like a grim situation for these Savvy Nomads when...Bam!!!!! Since, well, I had a new-found friendship with the owner I called him over to discuss the issue at hand. He replied with a smirk "I'm so sorry about this Samantha, we will just have to put you girls up in the condo across the street. Will that be o.k with you?" Hahahahahahahhah!!! The one with the rooftop pool?? Yup, that'll be just fine.  

     The place was PIMP!!!!!! It was a two bedroom modern palace with a kitchen, bathtub with HOT water (I have never in my life enjoyed a bath more than I did that night), and a 180° view of Santiago. We couldn't contain ourselves upon entering. We were squealing and jumping up and down and squealing some more and jumping and ...OK, you get it. We were stoked out of our minds. This type of thing doesn't happen, but it did. Hot water, oh my.

Mine

Side note...
I must briefly talk about the food in Chile for a moment. It sucks. Plain and simple. If you are on a meager backpacker budget such as ourselves, you eat "completos"...ans a ton of them. A completo is nothing more than a jazzed up hot dog, and by jazzed up I mean covered in mayonnaise, sauerkraut, ketsup, mustard and guacamole. Disgusting yes.. Making me look disgusting yes. Delicious??? Why, yes.

     Aesha and I get into the habit of not eating until its too late and we are hangry. 

Hers

           She is Gluten intolerant and can not have wheat...which means, no bread for her! We were cruising the gargantuan mall one steamy Santiago afternoon and realized that we were hangry. We approached the food court with apprehension then realized that they had completo place. Now, mind you, two healthy girls such as ourselves would never, ever consider eating hot dogs at a mall in America, but when in Chile....do as the Chileans do...eat mayonnaise drenched hot dogs. That, my friends is not where the story ends though. She ordered her completo "sin pan" which means without bread. You would have thought she pulled a gun on them or something. The wide eyed hot dog lady shreiked at Aesha in Spanish "EN SERIO!!!!!!!!??", which means SERIOUSLY!!!??? They couldn't seem to get it together. The place was crumbling before our very eyes. It took five sweaty cooks, two idiotic cashiers and a apathetic manager to finally grasp the concept that someone would actually order one of these slimy things without a bun...and she ordered two. What happened next made us laugh so hard we nearly pissed ourselves...for real. Uncontrollable laughter and just sheer madness. This is what they served her. EN SERIO!!!!!  Nuff said.  

Our day at The French Barber Shop and Restaurant. Fabulous.

Haircut anyone???

 Santiago is a classy city with a raging nightlife scene. It actually reminds me a lot of Chicago. The sun doesn't set here until 9:30 pm so people go out for dinner and drinks around midnight. This took some getting used to but eventually I got the hang of it. The city is beautiful, very cosmopolitan and is wrapped in an ornate coat of history. There are tons of cafes, shops, and plenty to see and do. Mostly we spent our days strolling through city parks and neighborhoods, sipping on espresso (I made a coffee drinker out of her), and enjoying the scenery. People watching quickly became our favorite pastime and we would just sit for hours and hours discussing the unique clothing choices of Chileans. It's quite a different style than what we commonly see at home, and we found it to be ultimately amusing, hilarious actually.
After a few pleasant days of sightseeing we were ready to head to the beach. VAMOS A LA PLAYA!!!!!

Viña del Mar
 We arrived in Viña by bus. It's only an hour and a half from Santiago and the drive was gorgeous. We've been dying to get to the beach. As excited as we were, we were not that impressed when we arrived. It's outrageously overpriced, the nightlife is comprable to spring break in the states (we are a tad bit old for that nonsense), and the beaches were not as admirable as we had hoped.

Renaca Beach

 However, Aesha hooped on the beach and attracted quite the coterie of onlookers . I'm deemed her "hoopsistant " and as a team we sure do know how to entice the crowd. Aesha being the star of course!!! We stayed two days and headed to Valparasio....one of the coolest cities I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Ciao for now!!!- The Savvy Nomad