Kris & Chris & The World

Riots, Pickpockets and illegal offers

CHILE | Thursday, 5 April 2007 | Views [263]


	Now thats a scary start isn´t it!!!!!!!! But donçt worry parentals we are fine. Yeserday saw us sleep a little more in the night and then get up to go and once again try and visit the Presidental Palace, we noticed that as we got closer everyone was sneezing and so were we. The closer we got to the palace the worse it got. We arrived at the palace to see it completely blocked off, streets shut and a large amount of police present, so we walked away and passed serveal groups of police wearing full riot gear, batons and sheilds and helmets. A little bit odd. Later at lunch we saw on the news that there had been some students protesting something and some shots had been fired. They had used water hoses (like the fire brigade) to calm the protesters down and sent in the riot police. But it only appeared to be about 5 people casuing trouble, so I would hate to see what they would do if there were more trouble makers. We have concluded that the sneezing must be due to tear gas. So a little bit unnerving, but generally more interesting than anything else. We spent the rest of the day visiting various sites, including the National Fine art gallery where I managed to purchse two tickets in spanish! It is a beautiful building with a huge foyer and a glass roof. We saw some amazing paintings and sculptures both traditional and modern. And a highlight was an installation piece about a pilot...or so we think....couldnt read the words so had to try and figure it out from the images, from the looks the artist was angry about something, but seemed to like Cat Stevens lyrics...the images were worth it alone! Our next tipping experience made a waitress extremely happy and we got a big smile and a ¨mucho gracias¨ which makes me think we didnt need to trip, but it was a tasty meal so we didnt mind. We decided to visit Bella Vista for dinner, the apparently bohemian section of town, after walking in the wrong direction and through some crazy little streets we finally found it. Ended up in a great place full of attractive wealthy young chileans with a waitor called miguel who spoke a little english and was very kind. I had the best pesto ravioli in the world!!! And only about NZ$15. picked a random desert and it was delicious, although i´ve no idea what it was but it did have some chocolate. After dinner at about 10am we walked the rest of the street past a lot of outside bars with students. And Chris decided to give some money to some drunk buskers, one of which repaid him by hugging him and simultaneously trying to steal his wallet. It was actually quite amazing, he has a bag with a folded over velcro-ed cover, but the guy managed to completely open it and didn´t succeed in robbing chris as the bag had a zipper. chris didnt feel a thing and i was watching the whole time. it wasnt until we walked away that we noticed his bag flap was open. and the guy also asked if we would like some cocaine, at which point we quickly walked away. It didnt take long for someone to try and rip us off, but we have survived by having zips - bless the person who invented zips. Our new rule is now, never give anyone money in the street and don´t go to close to strangers. So although these two events may sound a bit dangerous, we never really felt unsafe. And if anything it has made us even more vigilant which is a good thing as we travel further into South America. Today is our last day in Chile, we have really enjoyed Santiago and it has been a good settling in period for us. It is a really amazing place due to its differences, big skyscrapers next to colonial buildings etc. I would reccomend a visit. I think one of the funniest things was that you had to sign in to a park and see a guard before entry is premitted - imagine if you had to sign your name eveytime you wanted to take a walk in the botanical gardens!!!!!! So its off to Peru tomorrow to start our tour - we are looking forward to meeting the other people in the group. And also that means the inca trail in 10 days!!!! and the amazon in 14!!!!!! waa hooooo!!!!!!!! PS melissa i tried to post a present to sam today bit it was going to cost NZ$12 for a dle envelope with not much in it, so he´´ll have to wait till i get to london......you can try and guess what it is but you´ll never get it