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Day 13: 22 June 2002 - "That mountain was looking at me funny. Could your dog eat that mountain?"

Pato was thirsty and grumpy because they didn't give us anything to drink in the bus, whereas going to Copiapó we had been given pop with dinner and tea with breakfast. Booo. I myself was having problems with ear pressure, which I figured had something to do with the bus. I hoped it would go away...

When we arrived at the bus station in Santiago, we went to the public restroom. Tía Amada paid the attendant and he gave us three tokens. We had to put the tokens into turnstiles to get into the restroom. This wasn't at all strange to me, but I realized as I was doing it that although I've done it every time I've been to France, I've never had to pay to use an American restroom. I think sometimes I take things like that for granted and forget to mention things that are different from the US but not completely new to me.

We put our bags into storage at the bus station and took the metro to La Moneda, the presidential office. It's like the Chilean version of the White House, but the president doesn't live there. We talked to a guard at what we later discovered was the back door. He was interested to learn that I was an American and was excited to try out his English on me. It was quite good but he told us he'd only been studying for about a year. He got practical experience talking to tourists from all over the world and watching CNN and BBC. It was cool. He told us that if we waited half an hour, we would be able to see the ceremony of the changing of the guard at 10am. So we stuck around and watched the guards as they came from somewhere across the street, some on horseback, some playing instruments, and everyone marching.

They came around to the front of the building where the ceremony continued with music and pageantry for about a half an hour. Stray dogs walked by and drank out of the fountain and some strange guy behind us kept shouting out remarks through the whole thing.

When it was over, the collection of tourists and visitors (much smaller than the group at the changing of the guard in London - more like 20 or 30 people) stood outside. We weren't allowed to enter the building at first, because the guards were waiting for someone to enter or exit. Finally a car pulled up and a bunch of people got out. Among them was the president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, who walked right by us. Since he was showing up at work at 10:30, we naturally assumed that he had been out late the night before, dancing to Axé Bahía music. Naturally. Unfortunately, this put that stupid "onda onda onda" song in our heads not only for that entire day, but for several days afterwards. Curses.

Once he had gone in, the carabineros let us into La Moneda. The part that is open to the public is a series of very pretty courtyards with fountains, cannons, and orange trees. We threw 10 peso coins into the fountain (my wish to become instantly fluent in Chilensis has not, so far, come true) and tía Amada made some phone calls, trying to get ahold of some people she knew who worked in La Moneda. Unfortunately, we'd all forgotten that it was Saturday so there weren't too many staff members there.

We left La Moneda and decided that rather than going to the zoo, we would go to Rancagua to pick up the car, then come back to go to the zoo. So we went back to the bus station and took a regular bus to Rancagua.

When we arrived in Rancagua, tío Teddy and tía Soledad picked us up at the bus station and we walked over to the mechanic's. For some reason, the car wasn't finished yet, but we were told that it would be done in an hour. We went to Teddy and Soledad's house and took a nap. Two hours later, we woke up to find that the car would not be finished any time soon and we were going to have to take a bus to La Serena that evening.

We had empanadas for lunch or tea or whatever that meal was, for the first time since I'd arrived in Chile. One of my missions was to see the Pacific Ocean and the other was to eat a Chilean empanada (a meat pie similar to a pastie, with beef, hard boiled egg, raisins, and onions) in Chile. My best friend from high school's mom, who is Chilean, made them for us and I was excited to eat one again because I love them so much. I think somehow I had imagined Chileans eating empanadas all day long, like it was one of the major food groups, so I was rather surprised that I didn't get one until the 13th day of the trip. Anyway, the empanadas were lovely and delicious and we also had roasted chicken and french fries, all of which belong to the major srah food groups.

Now we had to get to La Serena and to do so, we had to take a bus from Santiago. To get from Rancagua to Santiago, rather than take a bus again, we took the Metro Train, a train owned by the subway company which serves commuters. Pato pointed out that I had now traveled on just about every form of transportation that Chile had to offer - plane, bus, train, car, taxi, collectivo, subway, etc.

As we drove by, I saw a car stopped at the railroad crossing where a back window was rolled down and the guy in the back seat was reaching out and petting a stray dog who was sticking his head in. Meanwhile, one of our fellow passengers, a school-aged kid, was being teased by his friends because he had to pee. They kept making whooshing noises and talking about water until he couldn't stand it anymore. He ran off the train into the bushes and we all wondered if he'd make it back on before the train had to leave. When he came back on, everyone in our car of the train was watching for him and laughing.

The last note I have written for this day seems to say "nouthivus org". So make of that what you will. Hmmm. Hope it wasn't important.

srah - Saturday, 22 June 2002 - 9:45 PM
Tags: chile, travel

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