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The Long Termer

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Day 176

It seems every hostel has one and they always seem to be the same. The long-term resident. He’s been here for a week or so sometimes more than a month. Makes friends with everyone or at least talks to everyone, and usually helps himself to someone elses food in the common fridge. Of course it was an “accident”. Brian is his name and he comes from Florida. We met him at breakfast today, nice enough guy although quite odd. From the way he talked it seemed he’s been here quite a while. He’s your typical long-termer. Its not quite clear why he travels or where he goes. Brian for example is on a 9 month trip, but with his Santiago transit pass and extensive knowledge of the hostel it seems he’s been here for quite sometime. Which is a bit puzzling, Santiago isn’t exactly the most interesting city on earth.

Jordana and I finished our typical South American hostel breakfast of bread and coffee and then headed out to see more of the city. Santiago looked like a different place today. With the holiday over shops were open and the streets bustled with families walking the pedestrian streets. We walked through the plaza de armas to the Museo Santiago. The museum was a history of the Santiago region through to the conquest. Well done but a fairly small museum.

Just behind the plaza was the mercado central or central market. We entered the market by walking through rows of fresh fish stalls. Sea bass, clams, lobster and king crab. It was a seafood lovers paradise. Just beyond stalls are several restaurants selling the fresh catches. We sat down at “Donde Augusto”, and order some beer and ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish that’s been marinated in lemon juice, it goes great with beer. For mains we had Corvina (sea bass). The food was great and the atmosphere fantastic.

After lunch we continued our walking tour of Santiago. My first impressions of the city have been mixed. The centre looks a bit rundown with modern office buildings mixed in. Graffiti is everywhere here and it seems litter is a big problem. Add to that a surprising number of stray dogs and the city is far from a urban dream. They do however have a modern, efficient, 5 line metro system that covers a large part of the city. Toronto can only dream of a system like this.

We followed the river to Bellavista, a bohemian neighbourhood that was cleaner and more interesting than the centre of town. We had coffee at a trendy little cafe and people watched. Heading back over the river we found a beautiful park where hundreds of kids were skateboarding in a large skate park. It was a great scene with the snow covered peaks of the Andes looking down on the city.

We finished our day with a couple of tasty beers and fabulous fresh octopus on a patio. It was a perfect end to a full day of exploring. There’s nothing very exciting about Santiago and not much to see. The main attraction is the beautiful mountains surrounding the city, they seem unreal at times. Back at the hostel we of course ran into Brian again. This time he’d found some new arrivals to have a beer with and make them some food. Although we think he used someone elses food. In the morning were off to Valparaiso, just in time before we to become more than temporary residents of the Green House.

Posted in Chile | No Comments »

North Into the Highlands

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Day 44
We were up and out of our guesthouse by 7am on our way to find a bus north to the highland city of Quetzeltenango. Getting around guatemala may not be luxurious but its very easy. On our way to the station a bus was driving down the street with the drivers helper hanging out the door yelling “Chimaltenango!” at us. We had to catch a bus to Chimaltenago, a transit town on the Interamerican highway where we could then find onward transport north. We boarded the old school bus and it was an easy 1 hour trip to the bustling town of Chimaltenango. We weren’t sure where to get off so we just waited until they told us to get off since it was the final stop. I approached a man as soon as we exited the bus and broke into my finest Espanol, “Autobus por Xela?” (Quetzaltenango is known as Xela for short, pronounced Shay-la) He broke into Spanish and I was lost, but I did understand the long sweeping and pointing of his hand and something about 8. We assumed he meant 8 blocks and we should have gotten off earlier. So we walked with our packs through the very narrow and extremely un-pedistrian friendly streets of Chimaltenango. On the way we were rewarded by finding a fabulous bakery where we bought some sweets for the ride and a gatorade next door.

Finally we found the highway, we had passes by it on the bus on our way into town. We joined several others gathered on the dusty, garbage strewn roadside as we waited for a bus with Xela across the front. No more than 20 seconds later we were offered a ride in a microbus, a Toyota Hiace minivan. These things are supposedly slowing replacing chicken buses on some routes, you see tons of them around the country. The guy said he was going directly to Xela. I doubted that but the price was the same as a bus and he also said he was ready to leave right now. That I really doubted. Sure enough 5 minutes later we were off with 5 other passengers, one man had two large bins of flowers. I assume he paid extra for those seats and this is what helped us leave so quickly. The drive was direct, we stopped to let people off and pick up new passengers but we only followed the Interamerican highway so it was a quick trip. Turns out our Edgar, our driver spent some time working in the states and spoke fluent English.

Like I previously mentioned I have can’t speak spanish, well I can order beer and ask for a double room but that’s about it. So when I can converse with someone in English about life in Guatemala then I jump at the chance. I mean we didn’t exactly have an in depth conversation but we talked futbol (soccer), work and about the U.S.A. Edgar lives in Almalonga, just outside of Xela. He wakes at 2am everyday, yep 2am. Then he makes the 4 hour drive south picking up people along the way. People travel very early here to get to markets held around the country, its a huge part of the local economy and way of life. He then waits in Chimaltenango till around 8am to make the drive back, a tough life. As with most people in the highlands Edgars first language is not spanish but the mayan language of Quiche. Its remarkable that they have hung on to the language to date, through the conquest and 36 years of civil war they still cling firmly to their traditions.

We arrived later afternoon in Xela and found a great room at the Black Cat Hostel. The city looked clean, orderly and had much less tourists than Antigua. It felt more like a real city. I looked forward to our time here as we plan on spending a full week, our first Christmas away from Canada.

Posted in Guatemala | No Comments »