Friday, March 27, 2009

Cuzco, 45 hours on a bus, Santiago, Radiohead!!!

Cuzco finished up quite nicely. Never ended up doing Machu Picchu because I want to do the full 4 day trip when I do it. Even so, I got to climb ruins in a nearby city called Pisac...unbelievable. I also made some good friends while I was there who really made my experience in Cuzco a lot of fun. Even though I didn't end up in the 'Party Hostel' (Loki) I still got to do a lot of fun stuff, and still broke in to Loki several times to play pool and such. Went dancing, ate very well, wandered the streets, climbed up the city and got into a monument for free because I walked in the back way, all sorts of good stuff. I look forward to going back, hopefully very soon.

Next...the bus ride. Sunday I hopped on a bus from Cuzco to Tacna (the border with Chile) and that was about 15 hours, not too bad, but the people on the bus were obnoxious. It's just the luck of the draw. Some busrides go great, others seem to be weeks long. That and I almost got shipped to the wrong city - at one of our stops, I got out to look for food...I turn around, and the bus is leaving...so I run back, bang on the door, get back in, and something feels weird...I GOT ON THE WRONG BUS! So I yell at the driver to open the door, and he ignores me...he's getting ready to pull out of the lot...it takes 3 yells for him to pay me attention. Finally...he let me off. It wasn't that embarrassing cuz I was in such a panic. I was careful to note my bus number from then on, and I can never rest at our rest stops...I'm rather in knots.

The border crossing was a lot smoother than from Ecuador to Peru. Got on a colectivo, that took us through all the customs offices for both countries and then to the first big bus station in Chile (Arica). When I got to the bus station, there was a bus leaving for Santiago in 10 minutes. Worked out perfect. Got my ticket, paid my tax (not the $131, just like $2 - thankfully), and then jumped on a bus for 30 hours. It flew by, honestly. It was a very smooth ride, lots of good movies and plenty of space to myself. My iPod even died and I was still fine without music (by the way - Chile has a different electrical current - thanks for the converter Lizzy!).

I got to Santiago and got checked into the hostel just fine. They have a subway system here that is super easy to use, so I've done a little exploring on that, and just walking and wandering. The hostel's cool enough but it's been a little slower getting to know people. That's fine. I've got time now to decide if I'm going to stay in Santiago for a bit or keep moving.

And last night at last was Radiohead. It was so good. People were going mental as it was the first show Radiohead's ever done in Chile. The weather was perfect, the opener Kraftwerk was crazy good, and Radiohead put on yet another amazing show. At one point Thom got pissed like 4 songs in and walked off the stage - something about the monitors not working on stage. It was a little scary, you could tell the band was a little taken aback, kind of wondering what to do. They waited, and people started chanting "Olé, olé olé olé, Thom Yorke, Thom Yorke!" It was classic! He came back out, and eventually the stage levels got ironed out. The only song they did that I hadn't heard before live was "True Love Waits". Thom did it like an intro for "Everything In Its Right Place".

So now, got time to figure out what to do next. I've heard the beaches are quite nice here, but I still want to head south to Tierra del Fuego, and preferably not on a tour. I've also solicited some info on TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) to see about doing an online certification to be able to teach and support myself on the road...would be stellar. If any of you have any info on that, any inside info, I'd love to know.

That's it for now. Oh one more thing...I'm trying to post videos right now to my YouTube account, and they're ridiculously slow, but I've got a couple. Feel free to check them out. A couple stupid ones, a couple with footage from meetings, and if it'll ever hurry up, some footage from the show last night. The link is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/yoink116

Off I go...they're doing BBQ tonight at the hostel and I was supposed to sign up an hour ago. Oops. Laters.

1 comment:

  1. "Olé, olé olé olé, Thom Yorke, Thom Yorke!"
    hahaha that's fantastic.

    i'm glad the converter was helpful. i happen to know an abnormally large number of teachers, so i'll get back to you on the teaching stuff. all i know is about esol in the states, but surely someone i know knows more about the intl. stuff.

    love you!

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