#2 The Novice Travellers

Getting out of Auckland proved more difficult than entering Santiago. 

When purchasing our tickets we were warned we would need to prove to customs officials an intention to depart their country, which can be difficult without a ticket out. More New Zealanders must be illegally emigrating to Latin America than I´m aware of. Purchasing a one-way ticket is simply not done, and a return ticket seemed wasteful and unconvincing given we will be travelling North. Hence we settled on an exchangeable ticket out of L.A in 6 months time.

All this escaped us at the Auckland check-in counter. To the question 'When are you returning from South America' Reece answered, 'never' at the same time as I replied '6 months'. You could see the alarm bells ringing in the attendant´s eyes. The goodbyes were cut short as 'ticket issues' were resolved.

On the plane we got our stories straight (Reece says nothing) but Santiago welcomed us with open arms (or at least the language barrier cut short any real interrogation).

A bus ride to the central city was followed by a rest in a small park where I thought we might lose our Lonely Planet guide to a local homeless man who approached us. However, he proved harmless helpfully pointing us in the direction of the metro station in gesticulating Spanish.

Walking out of the metro, our first footsteps in a downtown South American city centre, sirens were within earshot and we noticed police in riot gear and armed vehicles blocking the main road. Visible from where we were standing was a small fire, and a gathering of people throwing rocks. We weren´t so much fearful of the prospect of a riot in the city, but astounded that our first experience of South America was a protest. It seemed to cliched to be true. Our more pressing concern was photographing the riot vehicles that drove past us. We were unsuccesful which was probably a good thing. Judging from the graffiti that abounds the city (no imperialista) and banks with broken windows our 'hostelier' got it wrong in suggesting Colombus' invasion was the reason for the rioting.



EcoHostel - the first place we stayed. We have come to
realise that it is common for hostels to be virtually
unmarked - we walked past this one twice before locating it.

 



The view from the top of a small hill we walked in the middle
of the city - the Andes are just visible through the smog in the
background.

Descending - OSH hasn't quite found its way
to Santiago!