Santiago Travelogue

Random thoughts, untweeted, of the trip thus far.

The flight on Air Canada down from Toronto was not bad.  At 10 hours, it’s enough time to watch a movie, get a decent sleep, then watch another movie. Unfortunately, none of the movies appealed, nor most of the TV re-runs.  I ended up watching a trio of (new series) “Hawaii Five-0” eps (and enjoying it more than I remembered).

One disadvantage of being on a flight to Chile on an Air Canada plane — all PA announcements are done in English.  Then in French. Then in Spanish.  This can interrupt your TV/movie watching something awful.

Alas, I had someone in the middle seat beside me, so my sleep was a bit constrained. I was in-and-out for about six hours, which isn’t too bad, but not great.  My pre-sleep prep was hampered by not being able to turn on my seat light, which, on the 777 we were on, shone horizontally across my neighbors’ heads/faces.   Impolite, and it made rooting around in my brief case a bit difficult

Northern Chile is one of the driest, most deserty places in the world. I can now attest to this, having flown over it.  It makes southern Utah look like the Amazon.  It would be perfect for a fake Mars landing.

Eventually you come across river valleys with irrigation.  As you fly lower — and as you drive into Santiago from the airport — you realize that the area is a mix of Californias — a bit of Ventura County agriculture, a bit of Palm Springs palm trees, a bit of Bakersfield butting up against sere hills, a bit of 395-style high desert with high peaks in the background, a bit of pretty-much-anywhere dotted with eucalyptus trees.

Santiago itself is a mixed bag (from a quick drive by car).  There are not-quite-shanty-towns along the way, lots of corrugated steel roofs and additions that laugh at the idea of “building codes.”

A lot of vacant billboards, too.

It was rather comforting — since I was in one of the last rows out, plus the delay for getting the local visa, etc. — to see the driver still waiting for me.

Less comforting is being around a lot of people who simply don’t speak my language (or, much more properly, whose language I do not speak).  I have a little guide book, but it is frustrating.  It provides the sparest of glimpses into the mind of a Spanish-speaker coming to the US — yes, there’s incentive to learn the tongue, but hanging out with people who know and speak your own language is a remarkably comforting and communal thing to do.

The more central city — the Las Condes business area — is certainly more upscale, though stuff here is, if not new and shiny, worn and frayed and crumbling.  The populace is half-Mediterranean, half-general European. Lots of international names on the hotels, banks, stores, and fast food.

I barely had time to check in and take a quick shower and get be-suited before we had to leave the hotel to go to the office (I’m here with a group of six others).  The afternoon went pretty quickly for the most part, and, clearly, the hotel has a very strong WiFi.

Went out to dinner at the recommended Coco Loco, not far from the hotel. Food was very good (exquisite Chilean sea bass in a garlic sauce, great shrimp in a garlic-chili mix), service was fair, prices seemed a bit pricey.

After dinner, turned on the TV.

• CNN (with the tilde over the NN), the Latin American CNN outlet, is interesting, but frustrating to watch sans subtitles.
• “Wheel of Fortune” — the Spanish version.  Watched as the crowd chanted “Wheel of Fortune!” as the wheel spun. Turned off when I realized the phrase was (duh) in Spanish, too.
• “Nightmare Before Christmas,” dubbed in Spanish. “Este es Halloween, este es Halloween …”
• “Tom and Jerry” cartoons translate perfectly.
• “South Park” … South Park?!
• Ah, “House” is in English, subbed Spanish.  Great.

And that’s about it for the nonce.  More as it seems interesting to relate.