Back on the road...

For the second and following year I celebrated a warm and sunny Xmas time; the past year in Sydney, this year in Santiago de Chile, where after almost 10 months I’m finishing another period in my still ongoing travel experience. It has been a while since I wrote my previous story, usually in Dutch, but to make it a bit more comprehensible for all the international friends and families amongst us, I decided to continue writing in English – which I guess should be no problem for all the homies back in “Dutchland”.

Before I carry on, I would like to wish all of you love, peace and happiness in the year of the tiger!! A bit late I know, but that’s nothing new for those who know me better…

Ok, what can I tell about my latest experiences in Santiago. I guess I could say that I have lived 3 different lifes here. The one of partying-backpacker, of devoted student Spanish, and of an 8-months hard working receptionist at Hostal Providencia – that has proudly won the Hostelbookers Award for “Best Staff 2009”!! So if anyone of you is planning a trip to Santiago de Chile, you know where to stay.

A few a you might have thought I had already finished my travels as I haven’t written any stories for quite a while. The reason for postponing my website-stories had to do with the fact that I didn’t want to bore anyone with daily-life stories like: “this week I organized a barbeque, had a few parties, met hundreds of new people, went to the mountains, the beach, the country side, renewed my visa in Argentina, got robbed with all my important belongings etc.” Apart from the last-mentioned happening, these were all very fun for me to do, but perhaps less interesting for you to know. One festivity that is however worth mentioning is the celebration of New Years’ Eve in the vibrant city and Unesco World Heritage site “Valparaiso” (Paradise Valley). The bohemian lifestyle, the hedonistic parties and the colorful and chaotic street life make it the perfect place to party. After a night of great street-dancing, the city was filled with drunken, sleeping, singing and vomiting people, empty bottles and an odor of a too excessive party night. Like the big travel guides recommend, an experience of a New Years’ Eve fiesta in Valpo is one of the must-do’s in South America.

Another very important happening in Santiago was the 2nd round of the presidential elections yesterday. The two candidates Eduardo Frei (former president) and Sebastián Piñera were in a tight race towards becoming the leader of the country for the next 4 years. Piñera won the elections with a 52%. As a foreigner it is very special to experience a political phenomenon like this, as the whole country is in silence, starting the day before (Saturday) at 19:00hrs to stop the vending of alcohol and to close all bars and restaurants. Almost everyone is indoors and the city appears as being deserted. Once the votes had been counted big groups of people (the Piñeristas) went on the streets with flags and happy faces – as they had won the football World Championship. The fact that Piñera will be the next president of Chile, will mean a big change in the countries´ politics as it is the first time in 20 years that Chile will have a right wing government since Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

Enough about politics, all is of course to be found on the web for those who are interested….
In the second week of December, almost high summer in Santiago, I finished my job at the hostel and decided that is was time for old-school backpack style. Although I have already made several attempts to hit the road, Santiago just didn’t let me leave. Today, for example, I tried to buy a bus ticket to Puerto Varas in the south of Chile, where I will go to together with my amigo Felipe . Unfortunately the price was almost 20% of my temporary budget and thus we decided to start tomorrow on a cheaper and more exciting hitch-hike trip of about a 1000kms. If the good flow keeps on going, we expect to arrive after 3 days of sure adventure.

As usual, it’s the journey, not the destination that matters and therefore I have no schedule nor route or anything what so ever for my South-American trip. The only thing I know is that I’m heading back to my Chilean hometown the beginning of March, to meet a few “buenos amigos” which are travelling as well. Speaking about visits, in October I got the delighted visit of one of my good friends Kelly and her boyfriend Feiko. Followed in November by a 2-week visit of my dear father and his girlfriend Yvonne and of course, after more than a year time it was great to see them all again!

All right, it’s time to pack my back… I will let the photos speak for themselves to finish the story.
Hope to hear from you all soon and don’t hesitate to leave a note below! ;-)

Beso,
Lisette

PS. check the video below or the complete version on: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Esuvl1c4g)
(Project of a friend Enrique that studies journalism and had to conduct an interview)