santiagoing, going, gone
bolivia was cheap. chile is not. not at all. we got our first glimpse of this reality when we crossed into san pedro de atacama, an expensive, overly touristed and unfriendly little faux village which serves as a jumping off point to various attractions which we had already seen for a tenth of the price from uyuni. it was clear from the beads and dreadlocks that it was a place to be escaped rather than savoured and so we bought our tickets, direct from the bus company no less, to santiago within a short while of arriving. the journey may have been just shy of 24 hours but the atonishing $75 for one bus ticket attacked like a rabbit punch to the wallet.still the bus and the roads were all extremely good and we arrived in santiago on saturday afternoon feeling in good shape. having checked into a homely little hotel which cost no more than the apparent backpackers hostel next door we set about planning our exploration of santiago. our efforts were slightly hampered by the christian hangover which chile´s newfound affluence has yet to be able to fully shake off; sunday remains a sleepy day in the capital, albeit with the glimmer of striplights behind shuttered windows an indication of the true santiago, flickering lights reinforced by the recklessly open behemoth department stores, new altars of gaudy consumerism, which dot the perfect grid of streets.
i had still, despite all evidence to the contrary, been harbouring hopes of a cheap flight to easter island, but at over $1,000 this must sadly remain on my to do list; next trip bora bora, rapa nui and la i think. well maybe not the next one. with the option of heading into the pacific gone there was not much to keep us in santiago. it is a clean, pleasant city, but has lost the romance of its andean setting to thick smog; in the afternoons the tips of a snowcapped range are barely visible between the high rises and telecoms towers, but those brief hints only serve to highlight how absurdly opaque the smog is during the rest of the day, when the background to the city appears to be little more than banal grey emptiness. pausing only for a brief, uneventful wine tour in the massive concha y toro winery, a tour which might have been a bit more memorable (or not, but in a good way) if they had actually doled out some more wine, we set off on the night bus to pucon.
pucon is an odd little place, another indication of how developed chile is, a quasi alpine village full of quaint wood chalets where it´s easier to get a strudel then an empanada. what it does have, other than high prices and elegant eateries, is a location in the shadow of volcan villarica. this really is a picture postcard volcano, a perfectly symmetrical cone standing alone, covered in thick snow and contemptuously spitting out thin plumes of smoke as a reminder that its majesty lies in something far more dread than its sheer size. the hope had been to climb up it, or at least as much as could safely be tackled, but this, sadly, is a summer pursuit; even in these early days of winter high winds and the threat of rain make it unapproachable. a massive shame, but one that negates our final reason for haemorrhaging money in chile, and we should be in argentina tomorrow where i can hopefully happily realign my expenditure bearings.
posted by bicrom @ 9:35 pm
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