First Impressions

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

  

Yesterday I slept until 10am.  After the poor night of sleep on the plane and napping on the couch at the hotel, it felt wonderful to be in a bed.  I tried to check out at 11, but it turned out I was in the same room last night (they had told me differently).  By the time I got out of the hotel at noon I only had a couple hours to explore before coming back for the group tour.  I stopped into the Church and Convent of San Francisco, which was built between the years of 1596-1618 and is the oldest church in Santiago, having survived many earthquakes.  My other visit was to the Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco, opened in 1696, housing a collection of Cusquenan paintings of the life of San Francisco along with colonial locksmith objects, gold work and religious objects. 

My stomach was calling me by the time I finished the museum, so I found a nice café where I ordered an empanada con queso and a strawberry fruit drink for take away and found a sunny bench on the pedestrian street Estado to enjoy my lunch.  Returning to the hotel, I met my roommate, Sameena, Ted, Steven and our guide Ally for a walk around Santiago.  Robyn and Terry joined us just before we left Avenue O’Higgins.  Ally walked us to Palacia de la Moneda, Plaza de la Constitucion, Plaza de Armas and finally to the central market, providing details about the history of Santiago/Chile along the way.  From there I took a quick glance around the market before heading to the supermarket to pick up some snacks and stopping along Estado for ice cream before going back to the room. 

Sameena and I hung out chatting until the group meeting at 6pm.  I took a while going through all the paperwork and hearing about the next few weeks, but the meeting eventually concluded and we went out for a group dinner at a steak restaurant nearby.  I ordered a 250g piece of meat that came out extremely undercooked, still red and glazy on the inside.  Once I cut it up and sent it back to be cooked it was very tasty.  Enjoyed a local cerveza (beer) as well.  A successful welcome dinner (surprisingly no pictures), but in a group of 17 (including our guide and drive), you end up mostly talking to the people sitting nearby.  Compared to my other group tours of 13 and eight, 17 seems huge and we’ll be as large as 24 by Christmas (three people join us in Bariloche and four more in El Calafate. 

Here’s the rundown:

• Ally, our tour guide from Brisbane, Australia
• Andy, our driver from Swindon, UK
• Four solo female travelers – me, Sameena (34, London), Kate (30, London) and Sarah (43, Norwich, UK)
• Five solo male travelers – Steven (London), Brad (Australia), Raymond (Canada), Nick (60, Sydney), Ted (64, Wiltshire, UK)
• Three couples, all over 50 – Terry and Robyn (Australia), Keith and Monica (Melbourne), Richard and Louise (Brisbane, parents of Ally)

Once again, I’m the token American in a large group of Aussies and Brits and one Canadian.  For the most part everyone seems really lovely.  I can’t find anyone like Ros on this trip.  No one smokes, except for Andy.  I have a feeling this is going to be a great group.  And in terms of rooming, the girls will get to rotate so that we all get to know each other.  Looking forward to the next three weeks to Ushuaia.