Friday, October 30, 2009

Riff-Raff Follows Me


I departed Raleigh around 5:15 pm and made it to Santiago at 7am on Oct. 29. The flight was smooth and immigration was not bad other that forking over $131.00 for my Visa. The only complaint was the plane, I was on a 767, two seats on each side and 4 in the center aisle. There was no monitor to watch movies in the head rest so I was stuck watching a tube style TV. Not much happened other than eating a sleeping for a couple of hours. The big bonus was Leinenkugels Summer Wheat which helped me get some sleep.

I landed around sunrise this morning and the sky was clear so I could see the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. After landing I got at taxi and went to drop my bags off at the hotel and made my was to the Plaza de Armas which is the center of the city.

My friend Matt and I went to check out his Hostel which was nice and went looking for breakfast. We ended up eating at a sidewalk cafe and watch a protest begin to unfold infront of us. We talked to a couple locals and they explained the college professors we basically on strike because the government promised them additional pay and did not deliver on their promise....go figure.

I ended up breaking the number one rule that I have read in all travel guides, they say to stay away because the protests can turn violent, obvious common sense. Needless to say I will post a couple of pictures standing in the protest. This is a similar experience to Thailand however the Thai people were trying to over throw the government and I did not see one demonstration.

That is the brief synopsis of the day thus far. It is now 1:20pm and we are off to see some other attractions. We have heard that the Argentinaian President is in town today so we might try to check that out and maybe some vinyard tours tomorrow.

Also I appoligize in advance for any grammar errors this computer I am on spell checks in Spanish.

I am off.

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