A sick, J sick, 2 tired.

Tuesday : We´ve decided to do lots of touristy things like museums etc. Basically anything we can find on our tourist map. We head to the metro station and buy tickets before realising that we only need to go one stop down. Oops! We get up into the open in order to see Parliament House, but whilst trying to find the way in we notice that below Parliament house is the Chilean Women´s Contemporary Art Museum. Well with that many adjectives how could we resist?! We headed on in, paying half price as students and then half again because Tuesday´s are discounted. We get in and notice that there are so many schoolchildren around that it´s a bit scary. Scary because the night before, Otavio had warned us that children were some of the most dangerous people around because not only were they more difficult to find, but the police are unable to prosecute them.

Anyway we have a look around, a bit confused, but finally end up getting to see two exhibits: The Arab influence in South America, and another very feminist set of sculptures and photography.

The Arab exhibition was great, it was all photography but also had various subtitles within which clarified the scope of the photos. If I could have taken photos of those photos believe me, they would be here. There ranged from simple shots of women´s faces to complex mosaic-like photos of arabic buildings, set up like a kaleidoscope. Jason loooooved those ones.

Unfortunately I was feeling a bit woozy and looking at those photos made me very dizzy. I also found that as the day went on it was getting more and more difficult to read. This is one of the first signs I get when migraines are coming, so I thought it best to sit down. Jason thought I was just being lazy so kept egging me on and I followed. After getting out from the museum, I bought a Coke, thinking that caffeine would help (my medication is full of the stuff). But I think the heat was what kept me feeling really off.

Nevertheless we continued to look around, checking out the front of Parliament, which was very heavily guarded. We also noticed that all the windows had really thick strong bars on them. During the day, we also saw a strong military presence throughout Santiago in general.

Next up we visited the Museum of Pre-colombian art, where we saw the permanent exhibits (lots of centuries-old bottles, or bongs as Jason saw them, drums, statues of gods, etc.). We checked out the new exhibit as well, which was that of indigenous head-dresses and hats. It was amazing the difference between different regions within South America, and the variety of head-dresses. I´ll see if I can add some pictures of the types of hats we saw later.

One of the things which irritated us the most was the fact that students holding an ISIC card get in for free, but as normal students we had to pay full price.. 2000 pesos each (AU$5), so AU$10 in total which, believe it or not, is a lot off our budget to visit a museum. Even though I was really sick (I was trying to throw up in the bathroom because I thought I´d feel better but I couldn´t) I did appreciate the art and the pieces really were stunning.

After going through a park and seeing lots more very beautiful buildings (and political messages taped up everywhere), we decided to come back to the hotel as my sickness wasn´t letting up. On the way back we bought Jason a chain to attach his wallet to his pants, and I´ve lately decided to buy another for myself as it makes it feel much more safe.

At the hotel, we called Otavio to let him know not to turn up, and we found out the next day that he was in fact completely exhausted himself that afternoon so it turned out to be best for everyone.

Jason and I went to sleep at about 4 and didn´t wake up until 10, when we went out to find some food and realised a Colo Colo football match was on so all the restaurant bars were open but basically no fast food places. We´ve also discovered that here in South America you order at the counter, pay at a seperate cashier´s box, and then return to the counter to show your receipt! Weird! After grabbing some greasy and gross Pizza and Chips, we headed back for an uncomfortable night of trying to get to sleep.

Wednesday : Well as if having me sick the day before wasn´t bad enough, Jason was feeling ill, as he´s slowly been getting a mild head cold, with sniffles and a rough throat. I offerred for us to just walk slowly to Cerro Santa Lucia, a small(ish) hill with statues and a great view of the city.

We began to walk and got there in almost no time, there were (and are) lots of guys in Santiago who tryto show you their poetry, luckily Otavio warned us about them (apparently they never shut up) so we didn´t let them recruit us. At Cerro Santa Lucía, Jason wanted to go the bathroom but the cheap side within him stopped him as he would have had to pay AU40c to use them. hehe.

At the foot of the hill is an indigenous art "museum" which is really just a place where they sell indigenous art and musical instruments. We went in there on Thursday. A bit past the "museum" is a big area of small fountains and overhanging trees. It was really beautiful. There also happen to be security guards, who get you to sign in as visitors to the hill. Like most Chileans, they speak Spanish so quickly it´s near impossible for me to understand them even when I know the words they´re saying. Furthermore, even if I say clearly (or with a purposefully bad accent) to speak more slowly, the difference in speed is negligible.

Anyway up the next set of stairs and there is this huge beautiful waterfall-like fountain where we took about 6 photos because we were so impressed. By this stage Jason was feeling much better, especially once we had the realisation that due to the amount of space on my camera´s memory card we could take thousands of photos more. After that we´d take photos of just about everything.When we got up to the next level (after walking along a road which curves around the hill), we had a great view of the city. For AU25c, we had a look through a telescope and it was then that I noticed how "haywire" the city´s telegraph cables were. They´re all just randomly crisscrossing each other! We tried to take a photo through the telescope but that didnt work all that well. After about 3 more photos of the area, including a huge rock with a lead statue of a native american on it, our batteries went flat. Unfortunately that had been the day I´d chosen to take a different bag than usual, so we had no more batteries. We decided that there was little reason to trek up if we had no record of it and could come back any time, so after grabbing some groceries (where a shop attendent referred to turkey sausages as "vegetariano") we headed back to the hotel for a quick unpacking and break.

With the heat being as strong as it was, Jason and I decided to go to the swimming pool, as we knew there was one at Cerro San Cristobal, the place where the giant Virgin Mary is. But since we weren´t thinking of actually going up Cerro San Cristobal, Jason refused to bring the camera, as he didn´t want it to get stolen at the pool. I insisted, saying that it was best to take it because you never know what you might see.

Nevertheless he won out and we left without a camera. The walk ended up being longer than we expected and by the time we got to the foot of Cerro San Cristobal we were already tired and boiling hot, so trying to find the pool was number one priority. Unfortunately, it turned out the pool was half way up the "hill" (I´d classify it as a mountain personally). So we paid our $2 to get us half way up, but upon arriving at the pool, we discovered it was a crazy AU$12.50 each to enter. We thought about it long and hard, as we could see that it was pristine and absolutely beautiful, just waiting for us to relieve our throbbing headaches from the heat and exhaustion of Santiago. But we couldn´t do it. We only had about $30 on us so we´d be left with almost nothing after entering, and it would be such a huge slice of our budget that we just couldn´t bring ourselves to do it.

Instead, we settled for a can of Fanta at the cafeteria nearby. When we asked at the cashier how to get back down she said you can either walk or catch the cable car, which cost almost AU$2 each to ride. Rather than pay the $4, Jason decided it would be a good idea to instead walk up to the teleferico, which takes everyone back down to the bottom of the hill. So we start to walk up the road (after a brief run through the sprinkler system). Soon we realise that the teleferico really isn´t as close as we first thought. We trudge, trudge, trudge. We trudge, push, trudge. After about 40 or 50 minutes of walking, we reach the top, having done a whopping 4km of walking uphill (possibly more than 4km) in 30 degree heat.

Unbelievably, even though I had a headache and I felt like I had a bit of heat stroke - I didn´t get a migraine! Incredible. Speechless.

I should mention in a brief whinge paragraph that the views during this walk were fantastic and we saw how the city is completely surrounded by huge mountains, several of which were still snowcapped. But, thanks to Jason, we had no camera with which to take the photos and show you here. Which is really a shame: ISN´T ITJASON?!

Anyway, we caught the teleferico (a small train-like thing similar to the one which used to be in the Blue Mountains) down to the bottom, along with countless numbers of families and children. Needless to say we weren´t in the mood to do the walk back, so one $5 taxi ride later and we were back at the hotel, with me having the hottest possible shower (which, if you remember, is very F´ing cold). Otavio came to meet us but unfortunately all we ended up doing was getting him to help us negotiate kitchen space with the maid who ran it, she being quite similar to Jason´s mum and, funnily enough, having the same name.

Half an hour and some bad pasta later, Jason and I go back to our room and fall asleep at about 6:30. We don´t wake up until 7 the next morning.

Thursday (yesterday) :  Being exhausted from the day before, yesterday began in a pretty low-key way. Basically all we did before Otavio came was go and do the laundry and grab some more groceries for the road.

I should mention here that Jason is getting very frustrated with South American food as it isn´t nearly meeting his expectations. As a vegetarian, Jason almost lives off beans, and when we all think of South American food, beans are one of the first things on our lists. But here in Chile, we can either find dry beans (which take far too long to cook for us young backpackers) or baked beans WITH MEAT. Unlike in Australia, where beans in cans take up rows of shelves, here we saw two different kinds of beans in cans, both of which were from the same brand, and both of which had some kind of meat in them.

That afternoon, I cooked up some hamburgers from some mince I bought, but it turns out I´d bought too much as I couldn´t even come close to finishing them both.

When Otavio finally arrived, we decided to conquer Cerro Santa Lucía again, only this time aimed with a loaded camera. We took countless photos which I´m sure will all eventually find their way up here. After Cerro Santa Lucía, Otavio took us to Plaza de Armas, the main tourist trap of Santiago. Sometimes there´s a market there but that day it was filled with rows of painters, all with displays of their paintings and offering paintings of those who entered. Surrounding the Plaza is the main post office and other really old buildings. There was also a large band playing, which Jason took a short video of.

Nevertheless Jason was still feeling really gross from the day before and his cold-like sickness, and so Otavio, Jason and myself decided to go see a Jazz club. Unfortunately, after the 20 minutes or so it took us to walk there, we realised it was far too early to see any music, so instead sat down and ate mini-pizzas along with a pitcher of beer and the Chilean national drink: "pisco sour" (which Jason hates but I got used to after a bit).

Although most of the conversation was half-drunken clarifications of translations between English and Spanish, there was one classic which I simply must relay to you. In Spanish, the word for governor is Gobernador. So when Otavio tried to directly translate it into English, he came up with "governator", a fond term many of us love to use when talking about Arnold "the governator" Schwarzenneger. (Yes I know I probably spelled that incorrectly).

After a metro ride back to the hotel, Jason and I dropped off very quickly. But I only ended up sleeping about 6 hours, waking up at 4:30 in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep.

Today, we´ve had to pack up our stuff (awkwardly). We went to see the changing of the guard this morning, a big pompous affair whereby lots of soldiers go to the palace and token women order them to do stuff. Needless to say we took heaps of photos and videos of the event. Once I leave this internet café we´ll be checking out of the hotel and catching a taxi to the Bus station, where we´ll be taking a coach to Valparaíso, the next stop on our "adventures".

But until then, let´s hope I can make it through the day as, yet again, I´m feeling queazy! (When will it end?!)