Santiago, Chile

I was able to get some sleep after laying down across the aisle but no more than four hours. Still, that's decent for bus sleep. I awoke because the bus kept stopping on the side of the road for seemingly no reason. The bus attendant came by with our "breakfast" which consisted of a single cookie and a small Tupperware of water which I was quite unimpressed with. We spent the entire afternoon on the bus and didn't arrive until around 5:00pm. Luckily, the bus station was also the metro station, so we could easily and cheaply figure out how to get to our hostel. I had already pre-booked the hostel so there was no worrying about it, which is what I prefer after a sleepless night which makes us more prone to getting stressed out. We got off at the "Santa Lucia" station, which was only a few stops from the bus terminal. Our hostel called "Green House" was an unmarked three story building that could easily have been mistaken for a private residence. The old man who let us in was very sweet and helpful and it was obvious that this would be a quiet place to stay. We had our own two person room and were the only people staying on the floor. It was an old building and we had a skeleton key to our room which I found charming. I also like it when they give you your own key to the front door so you are not always waiting for someone to come let you in at night.

After we got situated in the room and took a shower, we decided to go off in search if some dinner. As we walked, we passed Cerro Santa Lucia, a dormant volcano in our neighborhood which had a great little park on the top of it. We decided we would return the next day to investigate.

 

We continued walking until we found an area of town with a ton of bars and restaurants. This was definitely a younger area, which you can usually tell by the abundance of bars and well dressed gay men. I had been craving sushi, so we sat outside at a little sushi place (despite the cold) so that we could people watch at the little cafes all around. There was a jazz band making their way around to the different cafes and we listened to their jazz renditions of popular American 80's songs. The sushi wasn't great...it was more rice than anything and they didn't even have wasabi or ginger. Alyssa was less than thrilled and I felt bad for suggesting it.

To make up for the meal, we went and had gelato. I decided to try some flavors a I hadn't had before...not a great idea. I got cinnamon and lecuma. I had no clue what lecuma was (I guess it's some local fruit) but it is NOT good. I usually like cinnamon, but they had added clove and some other flavors that made it taste like you were eating a spice cabinet. I threw half of it away which was probably for the best anyways. Alyssa got normal flavors and loved hers, lol.

 

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