It's chilly in Chile

Let's see how many ways I can use these homophones...I will quit it soon enough. But, I think we thought that the weather would be hot in sunny South America, but in the shade it is freezing and in the morning and in the south of Chile too...again it reminds us of how we packed like dickheads and that we have to suffer because of this. We have both brought multiple cardigans and I can layer those pajama pants with dresses and it looks great so we will be just fine. The first few days in Chile were spent in Santiago, the captital and it is a large city with so many people...for example 17,000,000 people live in the whole of Chile and 11,000,000 of them live in Santiago so that will give you an idea of how crowded it is. It is quite a concrete jungle with what looks like tennament buildings littering most streets. It is also surrounded by what we think are gorgeous mountain ranges, but due to the blanket of smog that covers this city at all times it is difficult to see them. Try to see if you can find the snow covered mountains in the picture posted with this blog.
Since we are poor to a new extreme, our budget is so tight that it may strangle us before we get back to London. Alex has taken the lead in arranging our daily activities and has ensured me that they are all free...but I kind of guessed this after our first day of fun in Santiago. I must admit, she has a daunting task and did a wonderful job, but I did have to bust her balls...she took me to a Hat and Pancho Museum for crying outloud. It was described as having "an impressive hat and pancho collection," but 13 panchos and 31 hats does not an impressvive collection make. Additionally, all the descriptions were in Spanish so I could not even read about the damn hats and panchos, but there was a picture of the Pope (one of them) wearing one...strange.
She also has taken the lead in booking our hostels online, as booking them online is cheaper than just rocking up on the day...of course we learned this at someone else's misfortune of discovering it is cheaper only after she left and passed us along the information so that was nice. However, with the money saved comes the risk of the picture online not matching the actual hostel (I know we all have experienced this before). Somehow, it is always worse in some of these countries than it has been in London or America, but this is all part of the experience, right?!? Luckily, the two we stayed in in Santiago were both cheap and pretty alright. I mean, there was free WiFi and free breakfast, which for us means free breakfast, lunch and snacks, as we steal most of the fruit and breads and make sure we eat about 3 bowls of cereal each...it is tough, but we get through. The first one also had a maid service where they came and made up our beds...never have we experienced this before in a dorm-like hostel. The second one was way more laied back and that was a bit annoying when trying to sleep with everyone drinking and partying until late, but when we had to wait the entire next day until 11:00pm to cathc a bus, they let us stay in the hostel and shower and make food and store our luggage well after check out time...it's the little perks, you know.
After we walked for 4 hours to the Hat and Pancho Museum, did I forget to mention that it was 10 miles away from everything, we took another 2 hour walk, though more of a hike, up a mountain/hill to see the Virgin Mary statue that watches over the whole city. It is seriously massive and people usually jog or bike up to the top, while some drive their cars. Once you get to the top, everyone either gets an ice cream or a local drink called a mote con huesillos, which is basically a peach/apricot flavoured sweet tea with load of what tastes like corn, but is the texture of barely at the bottom and a pruney, wrinkly saturated apricot hidden beneath for your delight. Honestly, it created diabetes in my system, but overall it was quite interesting and refreshing some strange way, while also filling me up for less than $1.
There are a lot of things to explore when heading up the Virgin Mountain, as Alex and I have called it. On your way up there are two man-made swimming pools and loads of picnic areas, as well as resturants. You can also take a gondola to the top and walk down so there are also various stopping points along the gondola path. Once on the top, there are exceptional views of the city and a hint of mountain range if you squint past the smog. There is also a lovely little church and dozens of disabled children and adults laid out beneath the Virgin's feet for prayer and belssings.
Walking back down, we heard a brass band playing in a park on a bandstand and decided to stop...off I went to take some pictures leaving Alex alone for 5 minutes and there was an incident. I returned and she had a funny look on her face and some red marks all up and down her arms. She told me that the old man sitting next to her had seen a bee flying around her person and just decided to smack her repeatedly with a rolled up newspaper, in a frantic attempt to kill the bee...at least this is what we can surmise. He may have just been mental...needless to say, we immeidately moved to a different bench and I kept my eye on that man the entire time. Poor Alex...always making friends.
All in all, our time in Santiago has been alright...we got off to a chilly start with the whole nut thing, we have experienced some chilly weather, but Chile overall is growing on us...