Returning to South America

Friday morning, I arrived in Santiago, Chile to visit and travel with Elizabeth, my Mizzou classmate and roommate from Argentina. After 10 hours on a plane from Dallas, I arrived to the Santiago airport and made it through the 3-step customs. I forgot how much more intense international travel is, whether it be waiting in each of these lines or filling out forms with your passport number and information.

On the way off of the plane, I stopped a man who appeared to speak English to ask what baggage claim terminal our luggage would be at. Although he didn’t know the answer to the question, we bonded over being English-speakers traveling South America. His name was Jon, from Canada, and he quit a job at an ad agency where he was unhappy and came to visit his girlfriend for the month. We chatted, waited for each other through customs and decided to share a taxi to downtown Santiago to save money. We’ve been emailing trip tips to each other ever since - who said you couldn’t make friends at the airport!

The taxi pulled into Elizabeth’s apartment and I was in awe as I stepped out. Her building is right next to Universidad de San Sebastian, and right in the heart of Bellavista, a nicer area of Santiago. She left the key with the doorman and I found my way up, unpacked and headed out to explore. Patio Bellavista, a plaza of bars, restaurants and heladerias (ice cream shops) is right across the street, so naturally I started off by ordering some dulce de leche gelato and walking around. I ate some street choripan (like a hot dog with sausage) for lunch and sat over by the college.

My first instinct was to compare everything I saw in Chile to Argentina. They have Movistar, Claro and Despegar ads, so does Argentina! The apartment looks just like the buildings in Recoleta, Buenos Aires! This street reminds me of 9 de julio! It’s crazy how people revert back to what they’re familiar with. Elizabeth’s comparison so far is that Buenos Aires is like the United States, and Chile is like Canada. There, thriving and pretty cool -- but not as large. I’ve been considering it as Buenos Aires = New York, and Santiago as Chicago. We’ll see how things compare as the week goes on.

To finish off the afternoon while Elizabeth was at work, I decided not to be shy and walked about two miles to the main area of downtown Santiago, Plaza de Las Armas. There, I saw the Catedral, visited the Museo Historico Nacional in its cabildo, and climbed Cerro Santa Lucia, a large hill with parks overseeing the entire city. Pictures to come!

That evening, we met Elizabeth’s friend Alicia and hopped on a 10:30 pm bus to Mendoza, Argentina for the weekend so the girls could renew their tourist visas (which expire after 90 days). Plus, my Argentina visa is valid until 2021, so why not?! So far, it’s been an exciting few days in South America with more adventure on its way!