Who am I?  I decided not to do a morning tour because I´m fighting off a slight cold and I wanted to sleep a while.  The tour I was considering to see some geysers started at 4am.  I woke up at 5am yesterday to catch the flight to Antofagasta, so I didn´t want to push myself.  So I woke up naturally at 7am, did a little writing to catch up with my blogging and made it to my buffet breakfast at 9am.  I didn´t walk away from the table until 1pm!  

I  met Bernardo, the owner of the kitchen.  We were talking for a while about the US, Chile, SAG - the agricultural control I so love, and living in San Pedro de Atacama.  Bernardo thought I was French because they don´t get a lot of tourists from North America.  Then an older, suave Italian man named Gino joined us for espresso and one of Bernardo´s freshly made caracoles - forgive the spelling, but I´ve gotta give up my perfectionism if I´m gonna keep up with this blog -  which are like a chocolate pin wheel with a flaky croissant like consistency.  Turns out Gino is from Florence and has lived in Chile for 13 years.  He was a chef in Santiago for 10 years, then moved to San Pedro and decided to become a tour guide.  He hooked me up with what he considers a good tour company to go to Uyuni, Bolivia with.  There are so many tour companies that have reputations for not living up to their promises.  At least it´s a reliable recommendation.  Then I met Bernardo´s mother, who lived in NYC for a year in the 70´s when she was just there for a 20 day tour.  

During all of this time, I kept thinking “Shouldn´t I be biking around or something?” But the vibe here is so relaxed, it felt wrong to have an agenda, so I stayed.  The good news is that Gino leads a tour through the salt flats and Bernardo and I are joining him tomorrow.  Apparently there is a section of it so beautiful, that Gino took a couple of professional photographers who threw their cameras to the ground because the cameras wouldn´t be able to capture the beauty.  Then they told Gino to be quiet and let them just take it all in and cry.  It´s a bit of a build up, but I´m looking forward to it.

My bedroom is a shoebox, but the good news is that my body heat makes it nice and toasty.  The bed was nice and firm and I slept on the best pillow so far.  Kind of flat so I can fold it, but still soft.  The hotel is adorable.  Took a cold shower yesterday afternoon.  I desperately wanted to wash my hair.  Did a little laundry too.  Everything dried within minutes.

Hostal Takha Takha

Took a 2 hour plane ride to Antofagasta, and then luckily made it to the bus for San Pedro with 14 minutes to spare - even after spending time in the airport bathroom rinsing my daypack because a small bottle of apple juice spilled all over my books.  I rinsed them all in the bathroom.  Thank God there was a air hand dryer.  Took a shuttle van to town and then five hours and a hot desert bus ride later, I ended up in this  desert town.  I thought we were just stopping for a break. Being an actress, I can only say I feel like I stepped onto a western movie set.  The only difference is that there are no horses and they have trendy shops and restaurants.  Oh, and lots of stray dogs. But it´s all adobe architecture, the air is so dry my curls are gone and you can´t help but walk slowly.

I´m much prettier here.  As I was walking to find my hotel, I met Manuel.  He´s from Santiago and moved here 5 months ago to save money.  He asked if I´d like to meet again.  Sure!  He´s a yoga teacher, massage therapist and musician.  I´m in trouble.  Men are friendly and ask me for a drink after just saying hello.

I had a creamed vegetable soup last night that was delicious.  This young woman owns this restaurant with her husband.  I stayed there and chatted with her for about 2 hours last night.  I´m going over there again now, to try the choclo (corn) and basil soup.  She makes everything on the spot and couldn´t make it yesterday because the shipment of basil will arrive today.  Apparently, like Easter Island, there are only about 5,000 people living here.  One guy from a restaurant I met last night called me by name when he said hello.

Creamed vegetable soup!

I´m off to have my soup and then take my tour of Valle de la Luna at sunset.  Oh, and the stars!! Last night as I walked to the bathroom again I looked up and the stars crowded the sky.  I mean, it was so clear I swear I saw those nebulae in the sky.  I´m not exaggerating.  It looked like a sky from a Stephen Spielberg movie.

Ughhhhhhh! Lost my wallet on the bus.  Just what I needed on my day trip from Santiago to Valparaiso.  

I never buy anything near a bus station because I always think it’s overpriced, and I also don’t want to broadcast the location of my wallet in a place where pick pocketing types hang around.  Thank God this time I decided to buy some fruit a few stores from the bus station before making my way into town.  I went to pay for my banana when I realized my jacket pocket was open and EMPTY.  I told the vendor “no puedo -”  and just started running back to the bus station with a dog yapping at my calves.  I got to bus platform and some people in yellow jackets asked me if  I needed help and I couldn’t even communicate.  “Alguien me robo la, la, mi…”  I couldn’t get the word out for wallet and I wasn’t sure whether it was stolen or I just lost it.  I had it out on the bus while I added up my receipts to keep track of my spending.   The woman next to me had fallen asleep, it couldn’t be her.   I left it on the bus.   I shouldn’t have closed my eyes.  I hate this country.   I spoke to a manager of the bus company.  I was in seat #9.  The wallet is bluish/gray. Luckily it had only a days worth of money in it and my return ticket (shit!!!) so it wasn´t a tragedy.  It just feels crappy.

Then the manager came back and told me they had found it.  It’s coming on the next return bus.  What?!  Yes!  There is a God!!! How could I hate this country?  Twenty minutes later the bus arrives.  No wallet.  It figures.  About 1/2 hour later a bus heading back to Santiago brought my wallet back with ALL of the contents in it.  My Chilean pesos, US dollars, the return ticket and all my receipts.  What a miracle!  This is a great country.

Now the bad news.   I had to cough up $200US before I even set foot out of the airport.  There is a one time reciprocity fee of $131 for American air passengers arriving in Chile.  It´s valid until your passport expires.  Uh huh, that´s generous.

Then I start to go through customs and I see a sign with a big green apple with a red circle and a diagonal line going across it - just like the one in my bag.  So I tell the baggage handlers that I have an apple in my bag.  I search for it and one guy tells the other “she ate it already”and they both chucke.  So I´m digging through my bag for this green apple and pull out a little baggy of my Trader Joe´s nut mix. ”Oh, you have nuts?  Just carry the bag and tell him (the inspector) that´s all you have”.  OK.

I put my bags through the scanner, walk to the other side, the inspector asks me if that´s all I have, and I say ”Yes, and an apple.”  He opens my knapsack and finds my Trader Joe´s turkey and cheese sandwich and salad.  “Oh, yeah!  I completely forgot about that.”  “You said this was all you had.”  Suddenly I´m feeling like a drug smuggler and a stupid one because I say “I didn´t even know dried fruit was prohibited.  In that case, I have a whole bag of them in my backpack too.”

Full disclosure did not help my case.  He gives me a dirty look and tells me to open the bag.  Tomato sauce (ok), pasta (ok,) quinoa (ok), walnuts and dried cranberries (not ok).  Nuts must be roasted and salted.  “Because you lied to me, you must pay a fine.”  Oh my God.  “But it´s not like I´m hiding drugs!” He didn´t care.  I officially hate this country.  I wanted to say “Look, give me my $131US dollars back, I´m going home!!!”  Mother effer!!!  I looked back at the baggage handler and he just shook his head at me in pity.  The lesson learned?  Read the fine print Ruth and eat everything before you get off the plane!!! I brought most of the food for my trip to Easter Island.

The inspector weighed my contraband one item at a time.  Then I had to wait to go into an office with a two way mirror where I would have to make a statement and pay the fine.  Misery loves company so I felt better when I saw that other people were busted for bringing vacuum packed chunks of meat and sausages, a big wheel of cheese and even honey spread.  Somebody spent a small fortune and it was being opened or cut in half and then tossed into a garbage can.  I felt even better when I saw a little white haired lady walk out of the office.  If she was guilty too, I couldn´t be that bad of a felon, right?  I didn´t hear anyone gasping or crying as they left the office, so I figured the fine wouldn´t be a thousand dollars.

So this SAG (Servicio Agricola-Ganadero) official who was kind of cute and nice, typed up my statement and asked me to sign it.  I asked him to correct the line where he said the inspector discovered the large bag of nuts to say that I had CONFESSED to them.  (Did you see Midnight Express?)  He said because there was no mal intent, I would be paying the minimum fine of about $70US.  I paid it and left.  Easter fucking Island better be worth it.

Now that I got that off my chest… The Good News:  I had been up til 3:30 am prepping for this trip for a few nights in a row.  On the flight from LAX to Miami, I was able to secure an empty center row with 3 empty seats!!!!!! Yay!!! Then on the flight from Miami to Santiago, same thing!  Score!  Thank you God.  I was able to sleep fully reclined for about 1/2 of the 14 hour flight time.  I even got a late dinner and breakfast on the international flight.

Flew over the Andes in the morning.   They were covered in slow and clouds.  Amazing.  The weather is nice and spring like.  I´m glad I brought a fleece jacket.

Residencial Londres

My hotel Residencial Londres is lovely, simple and clean.  Reminds me of Europe and so does the neighborhood it´s in.  Near Universidad de Chile.  It´s centrally located and has a metro nearby.

The people in Santiago seem polite, serious and respectful.  Not snooty like in Buenos Aires.  They speak Spanish at a lighting clip, but they drop their S´s and some syllables just like Puerto Ricans do, so we´ll get along fine.  I met some nice ladies last night.  I listened to my nano pod before bed and actually got some comfort from it.  Brushed my teeth with a big bottle of sparkling mineral water.  Read the labels Ruth!

This woman Nitza that I met in the van on the way to my hotel recommended some food I should try while I´m here.  One of the dishes was Lomo a lo Pobre.  It´s a steak with fried eggs and french fries and fried onions.  Yum.

Lomo a lo Pobre

I had some for lunch yesterday at a smokey restaurant near my hotel.   Bar Restaurant de la Unión.  Mostly older men eat and work there.  They wear white jackets and bowties.  They also had 4 framed posters of those pool playing bull dogs.  The meal was a little greasy, but I´d give it another shot somewhere else.

I´ll do a little exploring today, maybe hit a museum as I shop for a short sleeved T-shirt and some non-fruit/cheese and meat items to bring to Easter Island.  They say the food is expensive there, so I´m going to do some cooking.

Hope you´re all well and I´ll be sure to keep my posts shorter, if I can!