Chile - Day Four:

I slept well.


This day served many purposes. One was to find out where I was going after this day. My choices were Pucon, Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas, or La Serena. La Serena is up north, with the others south and only Pucon is not next to another town I´m heading to down there. The other purpose was to walk around Barrio Brasil, which, according to a couple of the travel guides, is supposedly the "hood" of Santiago, but since this is where my hostel is, I know better that it isn't.
My travels south (or north, if that may be) are dependent on where I can crash for a night. If I can stay with Boris in Puerto Varas then maybe I´ll go there on an overnight bus tonight. If not, maybe I´ll stay with Daniel in Puerto Montt, but his roommates are not happy with him having couchsurfers. I haven´t heard from Boris in days, and staying with Daniel isn´t looking good.
But until then, I´ll check out Barrio Brasil. Don´t worry though, despite its "hood" description, the reputation is rather tame. Besides, I like it here more than anywhere else in Santiago. Have I found my place to live? We shall see.


And we saw, and what we saw was good, and what was good was quiet and peaceful, and lazy, and easy, and a relief. I´m not sure how good of a neighborhood it is, but it seemed fine to me. Yes, it is run down, but it is so peaceful here. I just can´t see it being different than any normal run down neighborhood in Boston. I´d walk down most of those no problem (well, OK, not all of them no problem, but you know what I´m saying - once you get used to a place you learn that the ugly parts aren´t as bad as they seem when you first see them). There´s nothing more to say than I liked it.
BTW - I´m getting better at Spanish. Some conversations are better than others, but there is a noted, albeit slow, progress. Maybe I just have more confidence. Here´s hoping it continues.
I walked through a quiet park called Quinta Normal that reminded me of a palm-tree filled Boston Garden (not the Common, but the more heavily shaded Garden). It was quiet, green, probably not safe at night (maybe not during the day!), and enjoyable. I then ate at a restaurant that could have been a maritime museum. And then I went and price-shopped, in Spanish, the prices for bus trips to Pucon. I´m leaving at 10:30pm tonight and arrive there at 8am the next day. Wooooo!!!!



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