Looking back over the blog entries, I see that most of the info I have given about Santiago has just been incidental to whatever story I was telling about myself at the time. Since I promised this would be a real travelogue (travelblog?), here’s some info to give you an idea about what it’s like day to day in Santiago.
Chile is a very civilized country. Except for rent, which is phenomenally cheap, the cost of living is about the same as in the United States. Food is slightly cheaper, and electronics are slightly more expensive. Oh, and books are outrageously expensive! No one seems to have an explanation for why the Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring, which costs 22.50 USD, costs 38,000 CLP ($73) in Santiago! The two shelves of books my roommate has must have cost a fortune.
They have Coke and Pepsi in Santiago, but also local flavors of pop. These are called hilariously in my opinion: Kem, Bilz and Pap. All three of them taste terrible. There is a sign on a bus stop down the street for something called Kem X-treme, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else, so it must not be doing so well. The corporate spokesthings for Bilz and Pap are red and yellow…..aliens? teletubbies? It’s hard to tell, but they sure seem to be enjoying themselves. Yes, like most Latin American countries, Coke is much sweeter and less bubbly here.
Santiaguinos dress very conservatively. Men over 40 are usually wearing at least a knit sweater with a tie, and usually a business suit. Women also wear business suits during the day. Remember it’s been winter here, but I haven’t seen many girls in skimpy outfits at bars and dance clubs. Apparently all the skimpy outfits are inside establishments called Cafe’ con Piernas, (Coffee with Legs) which are coffee bars, but with mirrorred walls and scantily-clad waitresses for men to ogle, which they come all the way from other countries to do.
Chile is still a very Catholic country, and does not have any kind of divorce law. I wish I had the words to ask if this results in a lot of marriages that persist in name only, and how socially accepted this is.
Santiago is very polluted, and at one time was the most polluted city in the world. Regulations have helped ease the conditions somewhat, but it can be very cloudy in some areas, and apparently there are some days when it is not recommended to go outside. Apparently the micros are big part of the problem, and they are slowly being replaced with more modern buses, but any pollution that is created doesn’t blow away because of the proximity of the Andes just to the east. This keeps a lot of the pollution from dispersing, so that it stays close to the city for quite a long time. Since the weather has gotten warmer, it seems that the cloudiness has gotten a lot better. I use the Cerro San Cristobal, visible from my window to judge the pollution that day. Sometimes I can see it it completely, but sometimes it’s almost totally obscured. Gross.
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