Week 12 - Santiago, Valparaiso and Con con Chile.
A day by day account of the first week in our 2022 travels through South America, Mexico, USA and Canada.
Thursday 21st April 2022
After speaking with the boss of the hotel the night before, we knew that this morning was going to be a struggle fitting in all of our teaching this morning. With the time difference with China now being exactly 12 hours, I needed to teach from 7 until 9 and Megan, one hour from 8 until 9. The room we had been given was tiny and led straight out into the foyer of the hotel. It consisted of a bedroom only big enough for a double bed and a small bathroom. With the bathroom being at the back of the room, and me having a louder teaching voice, we agreed that I would have to teach in the bathroom. Megan would teach in the bedroom. Therefore it was a morning of very cosy morning of teaching. You can see below that I had to give myself a green-screen style background in order to disguise where I actually was in order to maintain a level of professionalism. We then had breakfast of a warm cheese sandwich, breakfast bar and yogurt in the hotel
We headed out into San Tiago with two things on our mind. The first was Street food which had held our eye the whole journey from the bus station to the hotel, the night before. The second was to see if there was anything that was 'must-see' in Santigo. There was relatively small hike that would take us up to a park with a panoramic view of the city, so we started walking to the metro station, but as often happens on our days out we got side-tracked. We first returned to street-food vendor that we had passed the night before and got fried rice containing a mixture of chicken and sausage, and ate it watching the city go by. The day then turned into one of them days with no plan, where we take it as it comes yet end up having a great day. Megan had seen that a lot of the shops along the main street sold roller-boots, something that Megan had always wanted to buy and to learn. After sizing up the obvious additional baggage on our trip and the cost, we decided to just go for it, as we have spent 30 pounds on worse things that have had no real longevity. Even if the boots were only with us for a short time, they would still add a lot of happiness. As soon as we bought them, this became very apparent. We wandered up one of the main roads through Santiago, Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, with Megan rolling and me being there as safety support. These were beautifully happy moments for both of us, time disappeared and we were just immersed in enjoyment for a couple of hours. Time went by and our thoughts turned to food again, in a place like Chile, this is very often the case, as everywhere you turn there is so much option of so much amazing food. It is a place that, as well as having its own very strong identity, also boasts such a massive array of foods from all over the world too.
Friday 22nd April 2022
We woke up, checked out of the hotel and made our way to the bus station. We got a coffee and cake while waiting for the bus and then boarded and made our way Valparaiso. It was somewhere that we wanted to see and had a hostel booked there.
drinks in a small tavern
Chinese and Early night
Saturday 23rd April 2022
Walk around the sea front area
food and drinks
Megan practice on roller boots
Night with new friends from the Hostel
Clubbing
Sunday 24th April 2022
Checked out of the Hostel
Wild public minibus ride to Con con
Arrival at our new Workaway
New pets
Llamas and Alpacas
Pizza and Pisco Sour
Monday 25th April 2022
Teaching
Spider
Sanding and plastering house
Beautiful lunch - Zuchinni, potatoes, rice, sauce
Vina del Mar tour in the truck
Tuesday 26th April 2022
Rained off with Chilean coastal rain
Spent the afternoon eating and practicing Spanish
Steak, Chicken, rice, sauce
Evening relaxing
Wednesday 27th April 2022
Painted the outside and the inside of the house that we had plastered
Had Lentil stew type thing for dinner
Took an amazing walk along the coast from Con con to Vina del Mar and back
out walking for a good three hours
Supermarket and home