So I am embarrassed to say that I spent about 36 hours in Santiago, an amazing city with several visit worthy surrounding towns, and the only thing I saw was my hotel and shopping malls. When we arrived on the first afternoon after our 28-hour bus ride we showered and headed right to the LATAM office to see about purchasing our onward tickets. The LATAM office was inside a shopping mall and by the time we were finished it was late so we grabbed food at the mall food court. Our excellent agent worked some magic and we were able to get a ticket for a few days later from Santiago to Easter Island, a day layover in Tahiti, and then on to Australia with an hour layover in Auckland, New Zealand for $1,400 each.
After a very peaceful night sleep at our hostel the next day we headed south, having lunch at the shopping mall located at the bus station. Because we enjoyed the hotel so much we booked a room for the night before we flew out. After our side trip south we again returned to the city late, had dinner locally and headed straight for our room as we had to get up early for our flight the next day.
I was sitting on my bed happily typing away when I noticed a bug crawling on my pillow (thankfully I was not leaning on it or touching it). I had Jon kill it and then I immediately goggled the bug which looked like a picture of a bed bug. Freaking out I made sure all of our stuff was packed and inside the black duffle bag placed in the middle of the room. Changing rooms was not an option as they were sold out for the night and it was already 11 pm. I thoroughly inspected the three other beds with no signs of an infestation (using google as my reference as to what to look for). I got out my sleep sheet and got rid of all pillows and Jon and I crammed onto a twin bed half slept having nightmares of bugs crawling all over me.
Unfortunately, that was not going to be our only issue that night. The bar, which was hopping, was right under our room and the music was blasting until late in the evening. Our sense of serenity when it finally stopped did not last for long. Shortly after a drunken patron started loudly banging of the door for the room next to ours yelling obscenities for the people in the room to let him in. He was in fact so loud the attendant downstairs heard him and came up to quickly resolve the issue. I guess the guy was so drunk he had the wrong room and the frightened inhabitants did not want to open the door. We felt lucky to make it almost four months before I encountered any true backpacker hostel stories.
So that is why you are seeing no pictures in this post. I literally saw nothing in Santiago or surrounding area. It will have to be for a future trip.
Where we stayed, Casa Roja, a large old converted colonial with a lot of the original details remaining in a central location with very helpful staff. We had a private room with a shared bathroom for $36 a night and a quad for $45 (only room they had left). A delicious hearty breakfast was included with the room. The hostel had a bar on site, pool table, and an outside oasis with a pool, hot tub, batting cage and rock climbing wall.
Our first room.
Journey with Christina 