Santiago is filled with people, overcrowded trains at peak hours and a big smog issue. Our first impressions when we arrived at night was the size of the place, it’s pretty huge! With over 10 million people it has houses over one third of the entire population of Chile! We felt the size when we had to take the bus, metro, taxi combination the first day we got here. That trip took us about 1.5 hours to cross the capital to Trinidad where Nelson (our Zeitgeist Movement contact) lives with his family and girlfriend Valeria.
Our first days in Trinidad were very relaxing and on the first morning we helped Nelson and Valeria replenish the soil in the vegetable patch and plant some new seedlings while Nelson was making a door for his new hen cage. The following days we chilled out and had a few evenings of drinks and fun. Nelson’s place was a really nice place to stay. He and Valeria made our stay with them as comfortable as possible. It started to feel like home for us, which was nice after nearly a month of constantly moving around Cuba.
On another day Nelson needed help with the stage he was building in his back yard. I must say, it’s no usual back yard, it’s huge! About the size of a football pitch I would say. The stage his is building is for the Zeitgeist Media Festival 2013 that will take place in the following summer. The stage would be made out of junk that was laying around in the back yard, surrounded and held in by pallets. You could call it an Eco-stage as materials no longer needed were being put to use. The tractor you see in the picture was used to move the rubbish and earth into place. Unfortunately we didn’t have the keys to drive it :( although the picture that shows otherwise, is cool!
Most evenings when the sun disappeared and the temperature fell rapidly down to about 12 deg, we sat around the bar and shared some good Chilean beer (Escudo was the weapon of choice) and as a special for one evening some native Cuban rum and cigars :) this led to various discussions about our trip so far and lots of talk about The Zeitgeist Movement worldwide and in Latin America. It was interesting to hear of similar problems that the chapter in Frankfurt also shared at some point, but also other events that didn’t occur or that seemed only to relate to the local culture.
When it came to eating in Santiago it’s best to cook at home if you want to eat cheap and healthy. It’s worth noting that the cheapest and best food can be found at the local markets that are open every Wednesday and Saturday. Here you can find lots of goods ranging from vegetables, meat, fish, domestics and other general household items. The supermarkets seem to be heavily overpriced. If on the road and you need a quick bite, it’s quite hard to find anything without sugar pumped in one way or another. The tasty Completo is a good example of a snack that you will find everywhere, but here one will also find that the bread is sweetened The only fast-food we found that was pretty healthy in Santiago was sushi, however this was quite expensive for the average quick snack.
After a week in Santiago with temperatures rising slowly by the day, Nelson thought it was time to clean the pool after a winter of collecting all sorts of vegetation, animals and bacteria. I wondered why the pool was left full for the winter and there is a very good reason behind it. It protects the pool from cracking and fracturing in the event of an earthquake. This seemed to be common knowledge for Chileans who live in earthquake prone areas. So without further a due we drained the pool and removed the crap with the help of the ladies and Nelson’s son, Nelson. When that was complete, we engaged the women into cleaning mode :) while the chaps tapped into a beer and smoke while taking the picture above. Not quite true as after the short break we took to the pool and started scrubbing! Hard work as it took a while in the blazing sun to get it looking like new, but it was worth it.
Later that day we went to Parque Metropolitano de Santiago where the famous virgin of San Cristobal stands. We walked up the hill just before sunset and from there we saw some really nice views over Santiago. Our vision was somewhat impaired by the thick layer of smog that encompasses the huge valley where Santiago is situated. Its a known fact in Santiago that the city is surrounded by tall mountains that don’t allow the smog to escape easily. The best day to visit would be a sunny day after rain or a storm. Right in front of the statue was an incredible open air church with the best views I ever seen from any church I’ve been too.
After trekking back down the hill we met up with Valeria where we enjoyed and nice couple of liters of the local beer Escudo. Its very common in South America to drink from liter bottles. I must say that I completely agree! Liter bottles are much more cost efficient, stay colder longer due to less surface area per volume of beer and they use less resources than smaller bottles. I’m all for it. We should introduce these in Europe for sure. It make take some investment to change the production lines, however we will all reap the benefits once introduced into the market. Becks recently introduced the 500 cc into Germany and right now it seems to be a popular choice.
When we got back to the casa Nelson fired up the grill for some amazing steak with salad and some tasty Chilean wine. An active day it was, compared to our lazy previous ones.
Next week we are heading to the nearby, bohemian, west coast town of Valparaiso where we will be probing the Pacific waters for the first time in our lives, spotting some local wildlife, eating Completos and checking out the famous local art.
