Santiago, Chile

Monday November 8.

Today was a kick back day. The city of Santiago is huge and there isn´t too much here that interests me. Plus it is still really cool and rainy. This city is very modern and quite different from the other cities I have been to. It even has a subway, plus high rises, malls and all the trappings. So, I spent some time emailing and blogging, while waiting for the rain to stop.

When it finally stopped I headed out to find a travel agent that the lady in the hostel recommended. There I tried to book a bus for Mendoza and a hotel, but she doesn´t book buses. So, I booked a nice hotel. It took a long time, not sure why. She warned me about the subway, so I decided to walk the seven subway stops to the bus terminal. I bought a ticket for Mendoza for Saturday 13th. Then I walked back to the hostel and then to the centro district again to look around. This is quite a nice area with lots of shops and pedestrian roads. I found a store called Ripley´s (believe it or not!) that was like Futureshop. They had exactly the same laptop that I have. So, I told them my problem. Two really helpful guys tried to fix it, by reloading software but it said ¨the hard drive doesn´t exist¨! So, I think it´s screwed.

Walked back as it was getting dark and stopped at a grocery store. I bought a few things and some fruit for dinner and breakfast before heading to Easter Island. Interesting to see what is available in a local grocery store. Again I´m reminded of how lucky we are in Canada with the quality and variety of available food stuffs.