Santiago de Chile

Read about the way to Santiago de Chile, a daytrip to the mountains, about how a free city tour makes new friends and about beautiful Valparaiso.

 
Way to Chile

Alarm at 4.25 a.m. in Managua. Getting the laundry off the rope. Separating dry stuff from clothes that are still wet. Packing. Organized but still little in a rush. Heading down to the lobby, eight people waiting for the shuttle bus to the airport. Who would have expected? The hotel shuttle is 15 minutes late. Eight people could have slept two hours longer. 😉 After we had arrived at the airport’s luggage drop, I realized that the airplain journey ahead will last for over 24 h. Congratiolations to a cheap journey. Well, the hostel booked for Santiago de Chile for the upcomming night will meet me in the morning for an hour of sleep…. maybe. Haha.

Sitting in the transit zone of San Jose Airport, Costa Rica, I enjoyed one bottle of Imperial beer. Moving further to a coffee place to continue writing on my Microsoft Surface RT.

Remembering from the previous days in Costa Rica, it came back to my mind that people here are very friendly. Smiling, joking, just Pura Vida! The waitresses are asking if they may bring a second beer. Recently, I got used to reach out to them if I liked to order. Good for all of them: 10% service fee generally applies on the invoice. One might deduct it though. Quite a lot guys from the United States hang out at the airport.
 

Well, I am about to explore Chile. Let’s see what it will bring. I want to see Patagonia, kind of the end of the world….
The securities at the airport in Lima took away my loved tiny PERI branded original Swiss knife, which I carried on flights since almost ever. The blade is just 5 cm in lenght. Well, how to explain to the non-English speaking Spanish security guy that the international security standards allow this very kind of small knife on air planes? Have the rules changed?

Producing crazy GoPro videos on the plain. 😉 Fancy shirt… that makes a better impression at the immigration desk.

 

Santiago de Chile

After a long day traveling, I arrived in Santiago de Chile. Checking in at Hostel CasAlrura very close to the city center at 5.30 am. No napping. I walked around in Santiago and on top of Cerro Christobal to Santuario de la Inmaculada Concepción. Great view on the home of more than 6 million people.

The other morning, at the hostel during breakfast I was told, I better book some lodges a National Park Torres del Paine in Patagonia in advance. All camp sites are booked since months. Interesting, I thought, and said, Thank you.

But first, let’s explore more of the city:

A present from the Germans to the people of Santiago de Chile for allowing thousands of Germans to move to Chile for permanent residence:

Well, Bill Clinton once went to Santiago. Securities everywhere. The official crowd was about to get into the meeting building, but Clinton decided spontaniously to get a Coke at this place. Sure, afterwards the owner changed the name of the place: “La Pica de Clinton” – I guess it’s something like: “Recommendation of Clinton”. …the amarican way. Haha.

 

Daytrip into the mountains

A one-day trip to El Yeso Dam. I met Mauricio, Christina and Andrea as well as our tour guide Garry. The pictures say everything. Thanks for the awesome time guys! 🙂

On the way back…

 

Excursus: Regarding this tip the roher day to book lodging for Torres del Paine. I thought I could check this out …Oh no! I’m already too late! No beds available. I did some more research and agreed with myself: Let’s optimize the impossible. 🙂 The only rooms available include a 38 km day walk. – Wild – …So I booked it. Haha.

 
Santiago free tour

Let’s get to know the city of Santiago a little better and do the free city tour. Yeah! I shaked hands with some people who joined the tour and appeared to be sympatric. One guy introduced himself as Alex to me. We started talking during the walk. Alex is from Canada spending some time in Santiago to relax and meet new people. During the conversation some keywords came up: Entrepreneur, investor, business ideas… I asked some deeper questions and the conversation should become deeper…

We share some common interests, like strategic building up computer games during our youth, entrepreneurship, music and having an intellectual conversation. We both enjoy building up new things, like a business. Alex has plenty of business ideas and structures them wisely. Whereas I see my strengths in execution and bringing the idea into reality. He learned little German once. Great match, let’s go for a beer I suggested. 🙂

We were sitting in a nice Irish pub… Alex lived in the woods for one and a half years. Far out, no civilisation. The beer was served: “Prost”, “Cheers”. “I got education as an actor”, Alex said. “The teachers were afraid of me because of my strong and clear mind. I enjoy looking at personalities in terms of their frequency and vibrations and it is easy for me to adapt to different personalities. I can kind of download them.” As of a heritage, money is not a matter for him. He seeks to invest. Further, he is the lead singer of the power metal band Keepers of Lore. They are working on their first Album. Alex said, he would love to perform at Wacken in Germany once. When the pub speakers produced the Scorpions song “Wind of change”, he could not resist to follow the text singing for a moment. Great voice! One could agree that he used to sing in front of a church crowd. Alex asked very interesting questions. One of them was: “What do you dream about?” To my surprise I was pretty much unable to answer it. In recent years, I always had an answer to that very question. I wantet to think about it and promised Alex to provide an answer soon.

For now, I’d like to forward the question to you guys. What do you dream about?

The conversation was marked by philosophy, intelligence and a lot of new thoughts that had never passed my mind before. We talked about business ideas, markets and the purpose of life and death. I asked about his age and he returned, 22. I want to confess, since January 2016, this person marked just the third person really challenging my mind. Yeah, I like that! 🙂 We ended up walking like 24 km that day and talking for more than nine hours. What did I learn? It is all about the balance in life, in everything. Avoid the extreme, it will not lead you to your target. However, defenitely be a risk taker. Actually, we enhanced the model of the archaic cross (See first post). The horizontal not wild and wild remained. We adopted the vertical line to heart at top side and mind at the lower side. The Wisdom should make the cross like 3D by a line raising from the middle of the cross. It’s a pyramid model now. Further, it was brought back to my mind, that human imagination can be very strong. A human being may achieve everything if there is only imagination, which is complemented by the right tools to put it into reality. Tools mostly can be acquired or created by others using their imagination. Imagination should be used and developed, daily, by everyone.

Guess what: Entrepreneurship is like sex and also like sand castle building. Sounds weird? Ask about it in the next conversation you and I may share. 🙂

Thanks Alex for this great day and outstanding conversation!

 

Daytrip to Valparaiso

I took the bus from Santigo to Valparaiso. Crazy, the staff asked me to buckle up. Are we in Sweden? Safety first in South America, who would have thought. 😀

The map I got from the tourist information was one of those to be produced for the bin. Not in proper scale and not all streets were shown, nor their names. Thanks. Well the guy behind the desk was very nice, I have to admit. After taking one of these historical electro buses, I started walking. At the House of Justice I took the wrong way. I realised there were only a few people, but everywhere women with children and cars. I felt ok….

…Then, this street dancer lady started do shout at me, after I had ignored her asking for some money. I understood “Muy mal, muy mal, bad”. She was pointing towards the direction I wanted to continue. I asked “Porque?” She continued with an afraid looking face: “muy mal, muy mal, blablabla” (I did not understand) however she made a gesticulation that looked like getting a knife into the stomach. Ok, I thought, it’s probably better not to go any further. “Muchas gracias, señora!” A coin went in her pocket and I walked back… Where the scenery should become way more beautiful:

This house was built to remind about a ship’s back in the old days. Valparaiso was an important harbour once.

Crazy and to a certain extent very beautiful paintings on many houses. Roll the Pictures:

  

Got a new tool to take care of my nails, since my small Swiss knife was taken. Yeah, just by asking the Spanish speaking people where to get it. The fifth store that I was sent to offered it, finally. Hahaha. Feels good. Back to civilisation in conversation!

In the Hostel in Santiago, my very nice roommate Elisabeth told me, she will fly out tomorrow to Puerto Natales at lunch. I asked her: “At 12.30 h?” She confirmed: “Yes!” I answered, “Cool, me too. Where will you guys stay?” She said, she booked a room for her friend Jan and herself in a place called Yagan. I returned: “That sounds familiar, I got a bed there as well, haha.” These kind of accidents are welcome instead. 🙂

Join next: Beautiful patagonia!

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