Montevideo & Santiago

Music: Doi Ban Tay by Buc Tuong

Third and final email..
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ok next is montevideo.. that place is literally a ghost town.. i dont know why the city is known to be 'the most european city in south america'.. but that is what i read on the internet.. maybe its only a ghost town on sunday.. we were there on a sunday.. everything was closed.. nobody was around anywhere.. it was so dodgy even in the day, cant imagine how it is at night. so thank God we decided to go to the market.. and tu pun dia tutup awal.. by 4pm they've started kemas2 dah.. and sundown is at 9pm!! 

oh yeah of course there were ppl at the beach too. on hindsight we shouldnt have gone there probably and spent 2 days in santiago instead coz there are so many things to see and do there.. but still, it was an experience la.. and when we met the turkish guys in rio tu, one of them have actually been to montevideo jugak and he said mmg dia agree tempat tu takde pape and macam ghost town.. so yeah we're not the only one who got tricked!! hahaah. the only good thing about the city is that.. everywhere they accepted US dollars.. or else we wouldve been screwed.. we didnt change any money at the airport when we arrived the night before.. 

oh yeah i also got that metal straw with strainers thingy from montevideo.. thats was a really good purchase.. so now i dont have to tapis my tea... so convenient!! my mother even said, why never buy for me one? hahahahha how would I know u want one right?? everywhere in the city the locals will be holding a thermostat... i assume its hot water la in there.. and then they'll be holding the cup.. called guampo.. with the bamillo.. the straw... as in EVERYBODY... imagine its like everyone walking around with starbucks coffee in their hands.. but replace that with these cups.. and the tea is called yerba mate... we were lepaking at a park just to kill time.. and there was this bench with a makcik there.. then we started cam whoring la.. my friend wanted to 'blend in with the locals' so she went to seat next to the makcik and started posing with the cup and bambillo.. yes she bought the cup to give her father.. and we did so many takes and all... ye laa kata sangap.. sampai makcik ni curious la what the hell are these crazy kids doing right.. then she peeked into my friend's cup and saw that it was empty and then she started laughing at us and all... kitorang pun gelak balik aa.. sporting jugak makcik tu.. hahahhaha..the montevideo airport is small but really upscale and clean and modern. but ive learned now to not judge a city by its airport!! hahaha

santiago was the next destination. sampai malam, next day we kinda woke up late so started the day around 9.30am. it was 2 against 2... dua org nak pi valparaiso.. 2 org nak stay in santiago je.. i dont remember how we decided then. walked to city center and main area plaza de armas (everywhere in chile/peru/bolivia the main square is called plaza de armas). 

didnt know what to do so we took the hop on and off tour.. then we found out there was a half day tour to see the andes mountains.. the range is just 1 hour drive away from santiago.. but the tour has already passed.. so we talked to some guys on the tour bus and they say maybe we can ask another tour agency if they can do a private tour for us. went to check it out and tak dapat. so what we did was we hailed a cab and fixed a price to pay him and he agreed to drive us up...

 omg andes was really awesome.. the view was superbbbb.. i didnt expect to actually visit the andes when i went to santiago.. it was macam adhoc gila la.. and we didnt care paying lots coz macam.. best gila kot!!! although paying for the hop on off bus was a waste la jugak sbb we only rode it once. but whatever la kan. it was really hot but then half way up dah start sejuk sikit.. and betul2 kat peak where the ski resort is.. the city there is called el colorado.. macam kat US je kan...

 it was really curvy roads all the way up.. mmg bahaya jugak la nak naik tu.. the driver couldnt speak english so my friend yg ok sikit spanish dia boleh la jugak cakap2 ngan dia.. the song playing in his cd player macam sedap gak aa.. some spanish acoustic guitar folk chilean thing going on.. so i asked la whose the singer.. so this guy started talking about victor jara.. he was assasinated by augusto pinochet back then.. for singing bad stuff about the goverment and somewhat responsible for spreading political reform ideas to the ppl of chile.. mostly the poor and the miners.. god knows how we managed to figure all this out with limited spanish and lots of sign language.. the cd looped many times and i kept asking him to repeat certain songs, by then i already knew which track number that i liked most..and the music was sooo like in the mood and in sync with our surroundings.. the wild cactus.. the mountains and trees and rivers.. and some cowboys on horses on the road... some trekkers even.. mmg totally set the mood lah!! then my friend and i macam, eh lepas ni we ask him for the cd lah. dia sure bagi punya.. 

so after lepak2 kat andes tu dah camwhore like crazy and what not.. on the way down tu.. right before we reach the city.. suddenly the taxi driver took out the cd.. took a casing from the dashboard.. and gave us the cd.. without us even asking!!! hahahaha.. he mustve been really proud that some asians like this victor jara guy so much. so its pretty much what ive been listening to in the car until now.. if im not listening to bfm that is.. but it doesnt give the same effect as it did in santiago.. of course la kan.. 

santiago is a really modern city.. we can totally live there.. the malls are big.. and we can live in buenos aires too.. montevideo mmg tak nak ahh.. mati sangap kat situ. after andes, we went to san cristobal hill.. where virgin mary patung is.. bought our souvenirs there.. then rushed back to the hostel to get our bags and go the airport for our flight to la paz. there were still many things to see in santiago but we didnt have time. shouldnt have gone to montevideo man!! nasib baik laa tak pi valparaiso.. or else we wouldnt have gone to andes!