The last week
in Santiago has
helped us reassess our view of the city.
We have managed to organise our Emergency Passports, our Brazilian
Tourist VISA’s and get copies of our Travel Vaccinations faxed through the
Aussie Embassy so that we can show them when we leave on Monday. But, as with any city in the world, it’s not
about the location but more the people you share it with. Fortunately for us we have managed to meet
some world class people staying at the hostel here in Santiago, culminating with a big dinner at “Los
Vacas Gorda” or as we know it “The Fat Cow” Restaurant. What an amazing meal, the best one I’ve
enjoyed so far on our trip!! At our
hostel we met 3 Americans –
Rob, Eric and Ian, an English couple – Jo and Ben, and, unfortunately for her,
a French girl – Melanie who had her Passport stolen in a similar manner 2 days
after us.
Minus the
English couple we all ventured out, a little cautious as Junior had been given
a tip on this restaurant from a friend and we weren’t entirely sure of where it
was. To Junior’s credit he managed to
get us there without any hassle. Well
the service was first class and the food even better. By the end of the night (around 1am) they gave us a complimentary
liquor followed by a gentle nudge out the door.
We’d love to share some photos with you, but as mentioned in our last
post we no longer have a connection from the camera to the computer, these will
have to wait. We were so impressed that
we promised each other another meal there before we leave for Rio
on Monday morning.
Junior is
hopeful of catching up with Rob & Eric when he visits New York in late September to buy a new
bike.
Along with
Ben and Jo we took a cable car up to the statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking
the smoggy city of Santiago. Turning into a nice sunny day we then jumped
on some dodgy chair lifts which gave us great views overlooking all of Santiago. The following day we took the advice of the
American guys and others who have ventured before and took the bus to Valpairiso,
a small town on the outskirts of Santiago,
renowned for its colourful architecture and quaint shopping experiences. What a city of pastels, a smorgasbord of
colours set into the hills at the oceans edge.
We spent the day walking around and soaking in the city. We also found a leather shop recommended by
the American guys but with our difficulty in conveying exactly what we would
like, we decided against buying anything.
The
following night we returned to the Fat Cow with Rena, Brent and a few other
local friends of theirs. Well when I say
local, I mean people who live in Chile at the moment as our table was a
veritable mixed salad of nationalities; American, Chilean, Peruvian, Bolivian,
Australian, German, Japanese and a Texan (we all know they think they’re their
own country)! Once again dinner was
awesome, despite Junior swallowing his whole without chewing we were again able
to enjoy a wonderful meal and some nice Chilean Red Wine. Chilean wine is definitely a good drop at a
good price, comparative in flavour to some of the wine regions in the great
state of South Australia.
The
following day we got up for our usual free breakfast at the hostel before
getting ourselves ready for our first South American futbol experience. Angela (the German girl we met at dinner the
night before) met us at the hostel and we were on our way to the stadium to try
and buy tickets. The metro ride there
was something to behold, we were told to get on the first car to avoid the
supporters and luckily we did as we could hear them singing on the train as it
arrived to pick us up and as we stepped on the cars started moving up and down
as all the supporters on the car behind were jumping up and down. They continued this the entire ride (about 6
stops) singing and chanting to everyone they came across. At first we were both a little concerned
about our safety but continued on to the stadium to buy tickets. This is a harder task than it sounds as the riot
police met us at one of the external gates and told us that tickets were only
sold at the ground until 12pm. It was now 1.30 and the game started at
3.30. So we left via the metro for the
nearest mall to buy them from a department store, of course the closest mall
did not have this particular department store so we had to get back on the
metro again to go to the next mall. We
finally found the place and were able to get tickets, but they would not be in
the same area as other people we were supposed to be meeting at the game. O well we now had to get back on the subway
and get moving as it was almost 3. We
got back to the gate we were refused entry at before only to find that the
seats we had were almost on the other side of the ground, more walking and we
eventually got through the security screening to find some seats in a
reasonably quiet section of the crowd.
As we
walked into the stadium (just a few minutes before kick off) the noise
literally brought goose bumps to both of us.
We were seated in Universidad Catolica’s section of the crowd who were definitely
smaller in number than their counterpart supporters for Universidad de Chile,
but this did not dampen their spirits nor their enthusiasm to make noise. Despite the names this is not a college game,
these are merely the names of the teams, like Manchester
vs. Liverpool, this is the national
competition game and we found out two of the better teams in the league, so we
were in for a treat. Catolica had a
group of drummers who kept their supporters active the entire game. They were going before we got there and
continued without interruption for the entire 90 minute game.
Junior
picked that number 11 for U de Chile was a gun player up forward (of course)
and shortly into the second half he came through with the goods with a rebound
goal that put his supporters into frenzy.
The noise which had been constant was now almost deafening, despite
being down 1 – 0 the Catolica supporters continued in song trying to rally
their team. Less than 5 minutes later
their faith was rewarded with an equalising goal. More fireworks, flares, singing and the
circus continued. Another 10 minutes
went bye before Garry Medal (real Chilean name) sent the Catolica supporters
over the top with a great volley goal to give them the lead and eventually the
win.
We tried to
leave a few minutes before time to avoid congestion on the subway and to escape
with our lives. Unbeknown to us we were
in the section of the crowd that was being locked in the Stadium. That’s right the iron doors were padlocked
shut and the riot police would have none of our pleas to escape. We were told we would have to wait
approximately 20 to 30 minutes after the final siren before we would be let out
as the U de Chile supporters were being let out first. Apparently they separate the supporters to
avoid conflict, etc. etc. Each team also
arrives via different metro lines and stations to help ease any tension. We then walked a small marathon trying to
find the metro station to get us home, after about 45 minutes of walking we finally
found it and a group of U de Chile supporters outside waiting to be let
in?? Yep, they had locked down the
subway at both stations closest to the ground so that people wouldn’t cause
trouble on their way home from the futbol.
In my opinion they probably caused more trouble than they saved as the
juveniles at the station with us were doing everything they could to cause
mischief while they waited to be let into the station. After another 30 minute wait we were finally
back on the metro and on our way home to eat. It was definitely a marathon of a day! We picked up our favourite dish from the
Chinese store around the corner and called it a night as we prepared ourselves
for the very early shuttle to the airport the next day…fingers crossed.
