Santiago de Chile

Got on a bus at 11.15 this morning (Wedensday) to hit the road for Santiago, which is approximately 1,5 hrs from Valpo.
It was nice: I reched the bus terminal at 11.05 and got a ticket for the next bus at 11.15 h ... just picked the right company (there are always many at the terminals. Pullman was the bus. I sat next to a nice young student from Valpo who went to Santiago for getting soome books for her studies.

Luckily I found the hostel Landay Barcelo, as I took the metro from the terminal and got off close to the bigger street I had in mind ... a nice security guy at the terminal told me where to get off the metro. Unfortunately I forgot to write down name and street of the hostel, because I booked it 2 nights earlier quite late and booked another one for the next stop yesterday night. This one I wrote down, but forgot the one for Santiago ... I luckily marked it on the map of my Lonely Planet. But, somehow, the big streets here doesn't seem to have street signs, so I had to guess which streets they are ... I went too far, but just a block, I knew it, thanks to my senses ;-)
The hostel was not easy to find though, because they don't have their name written anywhere outside. There was just a little hostelling international (or so) sign outside. Luckily enough the guy at the shop close to it knew it. It is not easy to find a hostel in a city of 6 million when the only thing you have, is a self-written x on the map ... name - forgotten, street - forgotten.
But, clap on my shoulder, I made it.
Here I am.
Torräh!

So I walked around a bit, went to Parque O'Higgens. Was ok.

On Thursday, my last day in Santiago, I took a "Free Walking Tour" in the city centre. Free means you (can) pay a tip between 7 and 12/13€. But it was great. The guy was very enthusiastic and knowledgable.
After the 4 hour-tour I went up the San Cristobal hill to enjoy the view over Santiago ... I admit, I didn't "go" up, I took the lift, but I walked down!! Fantastic views upo there!

At 21.14 h I took the bus, an I have to say that is very hard to get information from the bus company's service, in this case CondorBus. I asked 2 different agents at what time the bus would be in Puerto Varas. But as soon as I said ...Varas, they said: "not possible" ... "No, at what time ..." --- "It's full" -- "Yeah, great, I HAVE a ticket, at what time will it be ..." -- "Do you have a ticket?" --- "Yes. At what time.." .. "Can I see the ticket" ... "Ahem, I just want to know at what time we will be in Puerto Varas!" ... "Which bus?" (to explain, I was there with all my backbags on ... and he already said it was full) ... "Ahem, the next one (getting quite angry already). At what time will it be in Puerto Varas?" .... "It leaves at 21.14h over there." --- "Aaaaaaaaaaah, A-T W-H-A-T T-I-M-E will it BE in PUERTO VARAAAAAS?" ... OK I may not use all the right words but "what time" and "in Puerto Varas" should give the hint that I am NOT talking about "what time, leave, Santiago" esp. when I already mentioned the departure time to HIM twice!

Great thing was then that on the bus ticket it said "incl. breakfast" ... regarding the price I paid and the length of the bus ride there should actually be dinner as well, even though it starts late. I was on buses that serve dinner after 23 h. So, JUST breakfast it was. But the best thing was what the breakfast actually looked like. A single cookie and a tetra-pack of pineapple juice. They would even serve THAT as breakfast in jail!
Anyway, I reached PV at around 12 PM which was quite late due to the fact that we had to wait for 1-1,5 hrs on our way because of a severe accident South of Santiago.

I walked straight to my hostel.