On Wednesday, we arrived in Valparaíso, a very cool city on the coast that we rather wish we could stay in. First, it was all business -- Operation: Luggage Retrieval.
You might remember that most of what we own was still in Santiago as of Wednesday. We could have taken the bus to Santiago, metro-bus-walked to the suburbs, expensive taxied it back to the bus station with all those suitcases, and then taken another bus to who knows where. Or, we could rent a car. So we rented a car, drove to Santiago, gathered our things, and were back in sunny Valpo by lunchtime.
We´re relieved. Finally, officially, we are done with those people who turned our lives upside down from the day we got here.
It was snowing in Santiago. This is a very rare event, and we drove through it. Luckily, it was not rush hour.
We got back to our hostal to see on the news that ít was snowing in Santiago, and also that there was a big protest going on in Santiago -- and right here in Valparaíso, as well -- about higher education in Chile. This was not the first of them, as it´s been going on pretty much since we arrived in the country, but this was a big one. As we walked home, the cops were shooting water cannons and, as we discovered later, rubber bullets and tear gas. It had been hours since the tear gas, but as we walked down the street our throats and eyes were burning. Even this morning, people were still walking around with their mouths and noses covered.
And with that, we bought bus tickets to Argentina. We´ll be in Mendoza by tomorrow night, and then it´s off to the gigantic city of Buenos Aires. How´s that for a change of plan?
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