Grinder backpacking South America
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Jaime+Quintana
After I checked into the hostel (amazingly they had no problem with my visa saying other like the hotel scam in Calama) I went next door to the cafe that for some reason also sold SIM cards. I paid the 3,000 pesos and the girl set up the card. I waited about ten minutes and we kept restarting the phone but the card wouldn't work. She decided to try a different one and we found the same problem. After fiddling with it for 15 minute it started to work just before I was ready to give up on it and find a different brand. I've never had a SIM card that wouldn't connect to my phone before. I had 2 bananas from the free fruit bowl in the hostel instead of going in search of food. I was pretty tired and decided to take a short nap before I went exploring at night.
When I woke up I asked the front desk worker for some suggestions of local places to go, he told me the name of a place and I headed out. The walk was about 20 minutes to this hippie neighbourhood. The restaurant that he told me to go to didn't interest me much so I kept walking. I'm not sure what neighbourhood I was in but it was green and beautiful.
Full band on the street.
I checked out a few places as I walked but everything was insanely expensive and nothing on the menus caught my attention. I walked back towards the hostel and grabbed a street empanada for only 1,000 pesos and it was huge! They call it a pino empanada, it had minced meat, hard boiled egg and veggies with one kalamata olive with it's pit still in. It was a weird mixture of foods, the olive was the wrong taste for me.
Back at the hostel I ended up searching for popular restaurants on Google and I chose a Indian restaurant about 20 minutes away. I took the slightly longer route to the restaurant to look at some amazing buildings. The buildings were painted with scenes from decades earlier. The paintings had so much detail, It must have taken the artist(s) a really long time to create these amazing pieces of art.
Top two windows are painted on and all 3 balconies.
I got to the restaurant and like a dummy I ordered butter chicken without thinking. Butter chicken isn't a real Indian dish and as someone who spent 5 weeks in India I should know better. The tikka masala the couple beside me had looked a lot tastier. I grabbed a couple things at the market across the street and then headed back to the hostel to grab some sleep.
Funny sign at a restaurant on my walk.
The next morning I woke up and went downstairs to explore the free breakfast. They had this chocolate cereal that tasted like the kosher for Passover chocolate cereal that we used to have every Passover when we were kids. My plan for after breakfast was to drop my laundry off somewhere as I had all but run out of clean clothes and then head to San Cristobal hill. I walked to the laundry place near where I had dinner the previous night and negotiated a pick up time that night as I was going to Valparaiso the next morning. Next door to the laundry place was a half convenience store/half deli. I grabbed a fresh baked bun and some fresh cut salami for lunch and called an Uber to take me to the funicular (cable car) that goes up to San Cristobal.
Street art across from the deli.
I waited in line for almost 30 minutes to buy a ticket (2000 pesos) and get on the funicular.
Funicular
It was insanely hot out so I was very happy when I got to the part of the line that was inside of the building. When I got to the top of the hill/mountain I took a few pictures of the amazing views of Santiago before completely missing the trail to climb the rest of the hill towards the statue.
Not a bad view.
Instead I went so far out of the way that I found the area where cars can drive up and down the hill instead of using the funicular. When I realized that was clearly the wrong way I then took the longest possible method to get to the top of the hill... I'm not good at this navigating thing. I eventually got all the way to the top and took a couple of pictures of the giant Virgin Mary statue.
I mostly sat on the stairs in the shade trying to cool down while I enjoyed the view of the city. San Cristobal hill is the second highest point in Santiago. I was almost out of water and I had seen everything up there so I waited in line for the funicular ride down. There was no shade so everyone was stuck in the blistering sun while we waited. When I got to the bottom I walked back to the hostel and took a nice cold shower.
There are two casinos "in" Santiago... Ok not really, one is 47 minutes south of Santiago and the other one is 55 minutes north of Santiago. There is no public transit that goes to either so I checked the casino websites to see if they had a shuttle. Enjoy Casino north of the city doesn't offer one but Sun Monticello to the south of the the city does for 10,000 pesos each way. The guy at the hostel was willing to book me a spot on the 7 pm shuttle since I don't speak much Spanish. I had a couple hours so I went and picked up my laundry and grabbed some salami and bread for the morning. I also got a chicken and cheese empanada at the same place which was borderline inedible. When I unpacked my laundry at the hostel I found that they had made 3 large holes in the shoulder of one of my t-shirts. That is one of the downsides to paying $6 for your laundry to be done.
I took an Uber to where I thought I was supposed to go but I someone pointed me in the direction where I was supposed to be. I rushed to the correct spot and waited for the shuttle that never showed up. I wasn't sure if I was in the wrong place or I missed the shuttle. I took an Uber back to the hostel and asked the worker to call again. He found out that the shuttle had issues and never showed up but they had no way of contacting me. The worker booked me onto the 9 pm shuttle and this time it did show up. It was just me and one order lady in the van for the 42 minute drive. The lady and the driver talked the whole ride. When we were nearing the end of the drive they tried to talk to me but it didn't work very well.
The entry fee for the casino was 1,000 pesos. I walked around the giant casino looking for a poker room but I didn't find one. I ended up waiting for a seat at the full BJ table where I lost 60k. Nobody at the table seemed to know how to play the game properly, the house edge with the way they were playing was massive. I took the shuttle back to the city around midnight I think. The van was full this time and we were packed in like sardines. The driver tried to put me in the third row but my feet were to big for him to put the middle seat back down, finally having size 16 works in my favour. The ride back was uncomfortable at best so when we got mildly close to the hostel I asked to be let out so I could grab an Uber.
The next morning my plan was to catch a bus to the coastal town of Valparaiso. I put most of my luggage into storage as I would be back at the hostel the next day. I grabbed breakfast at the hostel and then figured out how to get to the bus station. Santiago has a great metro and it goes right to the main bus station. My ride on the metro was hilarious, there were people walking through the subway cars selling water, a guy selling headphones, a guy was doing a full dance routine to music while the metro was moving, a guy with a microphone speaking in Spanish and finally a really good violinist. I've never seen anything like that in other countries. I got to the bus just as it was about leave and grabbed a ticket for 5,000 pesos to Valparaiso.
I went on hostelworld and booked a bed for one night one block from the bus station for convenience. The hostel wasn't the best but it was convenient which was the key. On my way to the hostel I grabbed a ham and cheese empanada from a street vendor which was so good that I went back for another one after I checked into the hostel.
Valparaiso is known for their street art, I looked into taking a tour but they were expensive. I decided I could just take a walking tour on my own. I spent the next 3 hours walking around Valparaiso looking at some amazing art. A couple highlights included a staircase that was turned into a piano, a staircase with two hands of different colour holding hands, and the famous "We are not hippies, we are happies art.
The buildings displayed some absolutely stunning artwork with amazing colour. I am not qualified to talk about art other than to tell you all how amazingly beautiful it was. I grabbed another empanada before going inside to cool down after my hours of walking in the heat. I was in Valparaiso on Valentine's Day and there were people selling roses, balloons and anything else Valentine's Day related all over the city.
More street art from Valparaiso
{img=https://i.imgur.com/58deYv3.jpg]
This one is stunning!
That night I took an Uber to the Enjoy Casino in Vina Del Mar which is a city about 15 minutes from Valparaiso. The name Vina Del Mar translates to vineyard of the sea. There was no entry to enter the casino. Once again I wasn't able to find poker as they only have it when they are running a tournament series. I exchanged USD to pesos at the cage since I was running low. I played BJ and found something that I don't think I have encountered before, plaques instead of chips. I felt like I was James Bond betting large plaques, it felt liking I was betting a lot more than I was. I've come across larger than normal higher denomination round chips before but never plaques. After I was done I found about 20 vultureable machines in the casino. I walked out of the casino up 117,000 pesos.
I took an Uber back to the hostel where I chatted a bit with the family that owns and lives in the hostel. They were very kind, only the husband spoke English. I asked where I could find some food that late at night and they directed me to a restaurant just down the street. I ordered some basic Asian style noodles with beef and veggies that were beyond excellent. The sauce was sweet with a strong spice that played well off of the sweetness.
Maybe it was the fact that I had been craving Asian food since I got to South America or maybe it was just that good. When I got back to the hostel the owner asked what I had in Spanish and made a racist Asian eyes motion to figure out if I had ordered an Asian dish, I cringed but confirmed her suspicions.
I didn't have any trouble sleeping after spending so much time in the sun but that was one of the worst beds that I have ever slept in. I could feel the wooden posts underneath the mattress. I woke up around 10:30 and I went to the market down the street where I read on google I could get some amazing seafood. The market was the biggest I have ever seen, it spanned multiple blocks and a massive warehouse.
They were selling all kinds of vegetables, fruits and seafood. The second floor of the warehouse had a few restaurants. I walked around looking at menus until I found one that had what I was looking for. I ordered the special seafood bowl that the waitress suggested. I tried not to salivate from the smells while I waited for my food. They did not disappoint! She brought me a massive bowl filled with fish, shrimp, many different types of mussels, clams, 1 piece of calamari (weird that there was only one 1 piece) and an inedible mystery seafood.
I asked multiple workers what the mystery seafood was and eventually I was able to google what they were saying in Spanish to identify it as Piure.
It is described online as a mass of organs inside of a rock, no idea why but it is a Chilean delicacy. The broth was very tasty but I'm not sure if I was supposed to eat it or not. I'd say between the mussels in shells and the ones without I had around 200 mussels in the bowl.
The graveyard
I took the bus back to Santiago and caught the metro back to the hostel... almost. I missed my stop while watching Netflix so I walked the one stop back to the hostel. I didn't feel like sight seeing anymore so I debated what I should do when something stupid came into my mind. I decided to try and figure out if I could get to the casino that is north of the city and doesn't offer a shuttle. I looked online and found out buses go to a town called Los Andes which is about a 20 minute drive from the casino. Before leaving I had to load some more data onto my phone so I stopped at the convenience store. He went through the loading process and I saw him press add data on my phone. He then charged me 2,000 and the machine printed a receipt but I had no more data. I asked him what I had just paid for but the language barrier made the situation impossible. Eventually after 15 minutes I was too frustrated to deal with him so I went to the store 20 feet away and she also charged me 2,000 pesos but I actually got data this time. They both did the exact same thing so I'm not sure what the kid at the first store charged me for but I also don't think he was scamming me. The receipt he gave me had the SIM card company's name on it. I have probably written this before but someone told me years ago that 10% of all money and time on trips is wasted.
After loading my data I took the metro to the north bus station and found a bus leaving in 7 minutes and one in 45 minutes. I waited in line for a few minutes but it wasn't moving so I decided to go straight to the bus and see if I could buy a ticket from the driver. I figured the worst case scenario I would have to come back and wait in line for the next bus. I was able to buy a ticket from the driver and off we went. The bus to Los Andes was 90 minutes. About 10 minutes before we got to the bus station people started randomly getting off so I got off since it was less of a distance for an Uber. Yes amazingly this tiny town had Uber. The Uber to the casino was only 5,000 pesos, I'm not sure why the driver would want a trip that takes him away from any other trips.
The entry fee for the casino was 3,300 pesos. The entry fees to get into the Chilean casinos is so odd to me, do locals pay the entry fee every visit or is there an option for a yearly membership? The casino had poker but the table was full so I put my name on the list. I spent a couple of hours vulturing a few machines, playing a little BJ (won 27,000) to get my chip and mostly just walking around. After 2 hours no seat had opened up so I gave up as the final bus back to Santiago was at 9:30. I left the casino and saw no taxis outside, so I went to the desk and asked if they could call me one. They said that they weren't allowed to but offered me their phone and the number for a taxi. I explained that I don't speak Spanish and asked if they could do it. Eventually after talking to her manager they called me a taxi. The taxi ended up being a guy in his own car but he was nice. There was no meter in the car so I was basically at his mercy price wise since I had no other way to get to the Los Andes bus station. He seemed confused and kept asking in broken English which bus station which is weird because a town that size probably only has one bus station. He got me to the station and charged me a very reasonable 8,000 pesos.
I went inside to buy a ticket and hopefully find some food cause I hadn't eaten since the seafood in Valparaiso. I got my ticket and then found the snack shop. The lady didn't speak any English so in Spanish I asked her how much the lays chips were. She didn't seem to understand me even though I had used the Spanish words for "how much" many times. I showed her money and said how much again and she said something that didn't sound like numbers to me. I asked to see her calculator to show her how to show me the price but she refused lol. I then decided to just hold my hand of coins out to her and ask her to take some, she seemed unsure but eventually took 800 pesos and gave me my chips. I walked away chuckling, she didn't seem to want to deal with me. I doubt that they get a lot of white people in this little town. The drive back to Santiago was mostly uneventful until we got into the city. There was a massive traffic jam, we got caught on a side street behind about 15 buses. After not moving for 10 minutes I gave up and called an Uber to take me the rest of the way to the hostel. Back at the hostel I still hadn't had dinner so I went across the street to a restaurant that sold hot dogs with various toppings. He loaded it up with tomatoes, guacamole, ketchup and chilli sauce for only 1,500 pesos.
The next day I had a late flight to back to Lima around 10 pm. I checked out and stored my luggage at the hostel. There was a Pokemon Go event that afternoon so I walked around the park for about 90 minutes before I couldn't deal with the heat anymore. I was amazed at the turn out of people playing. There were thousands of locals playing or selling Pokemon related products. The park alone had over 100 tables with people selling drinks, snacks, Pokemon hats, magnets and many more Pokemon related things. There were some people making fresh churros so I bought a bag, they weren't good at all and got tossed in the trash. On my way back to the hostel when I was done I bought some chocolate strawberries on a stick. They were ok but I think the strawberries had been outside for too long.
Right near the hostel there was store front that sold fries with whatever you wanted on them. I got mine with bacon, chorizo and a cheese sauce that I think was gouda, they charged per topping. The hostel worker said that they just opened and they are busy every day. When I went the line was about 10 people deep.
I stayed inside until I had to head to the airport for my flight. On my way to the metro I grabbed food at the fries place again because they were so good. The transit in Santiago works great, I took the metro to the bus shuttle which takes you right to the airport for almost no money. My flight to Lima took just over 4 hours which sucked because for some reason I had it in my head that the flight was only two hours. I took an Uber to the same hostel that I stayed in last time and this time I managed to not lose my iPhone in the Uber. I checked in around 2:30 am so I planned on sleeping in the next day.
I only saw a very small part of Chile on this trip due to time restrictions but I saw enough to see that it is a beautiful country. My favourite part of the trip to Chile was my day wandering around Valparaiso. The street art is absolutely amazing! Also the food in Valparaiso was excellent from the seafood to the empanadas to the Asian noodles.
Quote: DocThere may be a minor glitch in your post from late last night about Santiago. In the string of "more street art" photos, one image seems to be repeated (before and after the words "This one is stunning!"). Does this show up the way you intended, or is there perhaps an incorrect link with a different photo supposed to show up in one of those places? Or maybe the image was so stunning you just had to repeat it!
I can’t edit the post anymore so I’ve asked Babs to fix it for me, thanks for pointing this out.
I have no idea why, but after browsing a few of the pictures a nursery rhyme just popped into my head. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.Quote: PokerGrinderThe next morning I started my short journey from Calama to Santiago which is the capital of Chile. I woke up early and grabbed a cab to the airport at 7:30 for my 8:50 am flight. There was no breakfast at the hotel so I grabbed food at the airport. I ended up with a mystery hot pocket that ended up just being cheese and a hot dog in pastry, I'd say as far as airport food goes it was par for the course. The flight was direct to Santiago and took 2 hours. An Uber to the hostel was about 20,000 pesos so I took the shuttle bus that goes to central Santiago for 3,500 pesos. There were hundreds of people waiting for the Centropuerto buses but a new bus showed up every few minutes so the line moved quickly. From Centro I was able to hail a cab to take me to the hostel. I found out later that I could have just taken the subway but I didn't know how that worked or which station that I would need to go to without Internet.
After I checked into the hostel (amazingly they had no problem with my visa saying other like the hotel scam in Calama) I went next door to the cafe that for some reason also sold SIM cards. I paid the 3,000 pesos and the girl set up the card. I waited about ten minutes and we kept restarting the phone but the card wouldn't work. She decided to try a different one and we found the same problem. After fiddling with it for 15 minute it started to work just before I was ready to give up on it and find a different brand. I've never had a SIM card that wouldn't connect to my phone before. I had 2 bananas from the free fruit bowl in the hostel instead of going in search of food. I was pretty tired and decided to take a short nap before I went exploring at night.
When I woke up I asked the front desk worker for some suggestions of local places to go, he told me the name of a place and I headed out. The walk was about 20 minutes to this hippie neighbourhood. The restaurant that he told me to go to didn't interest me much so I kept walking. I'm not sure what neighbourhood I was in but it was green and beautiful.
Full band on the street.
I checked out a few places as I walked but everything was insanely expensive and nothing on the menus caught my attention. I walked back towards the hostel and grabbed a street empanada for only 1,000 pesos and it was huge! They call it a pino empanada, it had minced meat, hard boiled egg and veggies with one kalamata olive with it's pit still in. It was a weird mixture of foods, the olive was the wrong taste for me.
Back at the hostel I ended up searching for popular restaurants on Google and I chose a Indian restaurant about 20 minutes away. I took the slightly longer route to the restaurant to look at some amazing buildings. The buildings were painted with scenes from decades earlier. The paintings had so much detail, It must have taken the artist(s) a really long time to create these amazing pieces of art.
Top two windows are painted on and all 3 balconies.
I got to the restaurant and like a dummy I ordered butter chicken without thinking. Butter chicken isn't a real Indian dish and as someone who spent 5 weeks in India I should know better. The tikka masala the couple beside me had looked a lot tastier. I grabbed a couple things at the market across the street and then headed back to the hostel to grab some sleep.
Funny sign at a restaurant on my walk.
The next morning I woke up and went downstairs to explore the free breakfast. They had this chocolate cereal that tasted like the kosher for Passover chocolate cereal that we used to have every Passover when we were kids. My plan for after breakfast was to drop my laundry off somewhere as I had all but run out of clean clothes and then head to San Cristobal hill. I walked to the laundry place near where I had dinner the previous night and negotiated a pick up time that night as I was going to Valparaiso the next morning. Next door to the laundry place was a half convenience store/half deli. I grabbed a fresh baked bun and some fresh cut salami for lunch and called an Uber to take me to the funicular (cable car) that goes up to San Cristobal.
Street art across from the deli.
I waited in line for almost 30 minutes to buy a ticket (2000 pesos) and get on the funicular.
Funicular
It was insanely hot out so I was very happy when I got to the part of the line that was inside of the building. When I got to the top of the hill/mountain I took a few pictures of the amazing views of Santiago before completely missing the trail to climb the rest of the hill towards the statue.
Not a bad view.
Instead I went so far out of the way that I found the area where cars can drive up and down the hill instead of using the funicular. When I realized that was clearly the wrong way I then took the longest possible method to get to the top of the hill... I'm not good at this navigating thing. I eventually got all the way to the top and took a couple of pictures of the giant Virgin Mary statue.
I mostly sat on the stairs in the shade trying to cool down while I enjoyed the view of the city. San Cristobal hill is the second highest point in Santiago. I was almost out of water and I had seen everything up there so I waited in line for the funicular ride down. There was no shade so everyone was stuck in the blistering sun while we waited. When I got to the bottom I walked back to the hostel and took a nice cold shower.
There are two casinos "in" Santiago... Ok not really, one is 47 minutes south of Santiago and the other one is 55 minutes north of Santiago. There is no public transit that goes to either so I checked the casino websites to see if they had a shuttle. Enjoy Casino north of the city doesn't offer one but Sun Monticello to the south of the the city does for 10,000 pesos each way. The guy at the hostel was willing to book me a spot on the 7 pm shuttle since I don't speak much Spanish. I had a couple hours so I went and picked up my laundry and grabbed some salami and bread for the morning. I also got a chicken and cheese empanada at the same place which was borderline inedible. When I unpacked my laundry at the hostel I found that they had made 3 large holes in the shoulder of one of my t-shirts. That is one of the downsides to paying $6 for your laundry to be done.
I took an Uber to where I thought I was supposed to go but I someone pointed me in the direction where I was supposed to be. I rushed to the correct spot and waited for the shuttle that never showed up. I wasn't sure if I was in the wrong place or I missed the shuttle. I took an Uber back to the hostel and asked the worker to call again. He found out that the shuttle had issues and never showed up but they had no way of contacting me. The worker booked me onto the 9 pm shuttle and this time it did show up. It was just me and one order lady in the van for the 42 minute drive. The lady and the driver talked the whole ride. When we were nearing the end of the drive they tried to talk to me but it didn't work very well.
The entry fee for the casino was 1,000 pesos. I walked around the giant casino looking for a poker room but I didn't find one. I ended up waiting for a seat at the full BJ table where I lost 60k. Nobody at the table seemed to know how to play the game properly, the house edge with the way they were playing was massive. I took the shuttle back to the city around midnight I think. The van was full this time and we were packed in like sardines. The driver tried to put me in the third row but my feet were to big for him to put the middle seat back down, finally having size 16 works in my favour. The ride back was uncomfortable at best so when we got mildly close to the hostel I asked to be let out so I could grab an Uber.
The next morning my plan was to catch a bus to the coastal town of Valparaiso. I put most of my luggage into storage as I would be back at the hostel the next day. I grabbed breakfast at the hostel and then figured out how to get to the bus station. Santiago has a great metro and it goes right to the main bus station. My ride on the metro was hilarious, there were people walking through the subway cars selling water, a guy selling headphones, a guy was doing a full dance routine to music while the metro was moving, a guy with a microphone speaking in Spanish and finally a really good violinist. I've never seen anything like that in other countries. I got to the bus just as it was about leave and grabbed a ticket for 5,000 pesos to Valparaiso.
I went on hostelworld and booked a bed for one night one block from the bus station for convenience. The hostel wasn't the best but it was convenient which was the key. On my way to the hostel I grabbed a ham and cheese empanada from a street vendor which was so good that I went back for another one after I checked into the hostel.
Valparaiso is known for their street art, I looked into taking a tour but they were expensive. I decided I could just take a walking tour on my own. I spent the next 3 hours walking around Valparaiso looking at some amazing art. A couple highlights included a staircase that was turned into a piano, a staircase with two hands of different colour holding hands, and the famous "We are not hippies, we are happies art.
The buildings displayed some absolutely stunning artwork with amazing colour. I am not qualified to talk about art other than to tell you all how amazingly beautiful it was. I grabbed another empanada before going inside to cool down after my hours of walking in the heat. I was in Valparaiso on Valentine's Day and there were people selling roses, balloons and anything else Valentine's Day related all over the city.
More street art from Valparaiso
{img=https://i.imgur.com/58deYv3.jpg]
This one is stunning!
That night I took an Uber to the Enjoy Casino in Vina Del Mar which is a city about 15 minutes from Valparaiso. The name Vina Del Mar translates to vineyard of the sea. There was no entry to enter the casino. Once again I wasn't able to find poker as they only have it when they are running a tournament series. I exchanged USD to pesos at the cage since I was running low. I played BJ and found something that I don't think I have encountered before, plaques instead of chips. I felt like I was James Bond betting large plaques, it felt liking I was betting a lot more than I was. I've come across larger than normal higher denomination round chips before but never plaques. After I was done I found about 20 vultureable machines in the casino. I walked out of the casino up 117,000 pesos.
I took an Uber back to the hostel where I chatted a bit with the family that owns and lives in the hostel. They were very kind, only the husband spoke English. I asked where I could find some food that late at night and they directed me to a restaurant just down the street. I ordered some basic Asian style noodles with beef and veggies that were beyond excellent. The sauce was sweet with a strong spice that played well off of the sweetness.
Maybe it was the fact that I had been craving Asian food since I got to South America or maybe it was just that good. When I got back to the hostel the owner asked what I had in Spanish and made a racist Asian eyes motion to figure out if I had ordered an Asian dish, I cringed but confirmed her suspicions.
I didn't have any trouble sleeping after spending so much time in the sun but that was one of the worst beds that I have ever slept in. I could feel the wooden posts underneath the mattress. I woke up around 10:30 and I went to the market down the street where I read on google I could get some amazing seafood. The market was the biggest I have ever seen, it spanned multiple blocks and a massive warehouse.
They were selling all kinds of vegetables, fruits and seafood. The second floor of the warehouse had a few restaurants. I walked around looking at menus until I found one that had what I was looking for. I ordered the special seafood bowl that the waitress suggested. I tried not to salivate from the smells while I waited for my food. They did not disappoint! She brought me a massive bowl filled with fish, shrimp, many different types of mussels, clams, 1 piece of calamari (weird that there was only one 1 piece) and an inedible mystery seafood.
I asked multiple workers what the mystery seafood was and eventually I was able to google what they were saying in Spanish to identify it as Piure.
It is described online as a mass of organs inside of a rock, no idea why but it is a Chilean delicacy. The broth was very tasty but I'm not sure if I was supposed to eat it or not. I'd say between the mussels in shells and the ones without I had around 200 mussels in the bowl.
The graveyard
I took the bus back to Santiago and caught the metro back to the hostel... almost. I missed my stop while watching Netflix so I walked the one stop back to the hostel. I didn't feel like sight seeing anymore so I debated what I should do when something stupid came into my mind. I decided to try and figure out if I could get to the casino that is north of the city and doesn't offer a shuttle. I looked online and found out buses go to a town called Los Andes which is about a 20 minute drive from the casino. Before leaving I had to load some more data onto my phone so I stopped at the convenience store. He went through the loading process and I saw him press add data on my phone. He then charged me 2,000 and the machine printed a receipt but I had no more data. I asked him what I had just paid for but the language barrier made the situation impossible. Eventually after 15 minutes I was too frustrated to deal with him so I went to the store 20 feet away and she also charged me 2,000 pesos but I actually got data this time. They both did the exact same thing so I'm not sure what the kid at the first store charged me for but I also don't think he was scamming me. The receipt he gave me had the SIM card company's name on it. I have probably written this before but someone told me years ago that 10% of all money and time on trips is wasted.
After loading my data I took the metro to the north bus station and found a bus leaving in 7 minutes and one in 45 minutes. I waited in line for a few minutes but it wasn't moving so I decided to go straight to the bus and see if I could buy a ticket from the driver. I figured the worst case scenario I would have to come back and wait in line for the next bus. I was able to buy a ticket from the driver and off we went. The bus to Los Andes was 90 minutes. About 10 minutes before we got to the bus station people started randomly getting off so I got off since it was less of a distance for an Uber. Yes amazingly this tiny town had Uber. The Uber to the casino was only 5,000 pesos, I'm not sure why the driver would want a trip that takes him away from any other trips.
The entry fee for the casino was 3,300 pesos. The entry fees to get into the Chilean casinos is so odd to me, do locals pay the entry fee every visit or is there an option for a yearly membership? The casino had poker but the table was full so I put my name on the list. I spent a couple of hours vulturing a few machines, playing a little BJ (won 27,000) to get my chip and mostly just walking around. After 2 hours no seat had opened up so I gave up as the final bus back to Santiago was at 9:30. I left the casino and saw no taxis outside, so I went to the desk and asked if they could call me one. They said that they weren't allowed to but offered me their phone and the number for a taxi. I explained that I don't speak Spanish and asked if they could do it. Eventually after talking to her manager they called me a taxi. The taxi ended up being a guy in his own car but he was nice. There was no meter in the car so I was basically at his mercy price wise since I had no other way to get to the Los Andes bus station. He seemed confused and kept asking in broken English which bus station which is weird because a town that size probably only has one bus station. He got me to the station and charged me a very reasonable 8,000 pesos.
I went inside to buy a ticket and hopefully find some food cause I hadn't eaten since the seafood in Valparaiso. I got my ticket and then found the snack shop. The lady didn't speak any English so in Spanish I asked her how much the lays chips were. She didn't seem to understand me even though I had used the Spanish words for "how much" many times. I showed her money and said how much again and she said something that didn't sound like numbers to me. I asked to see her calculator to show her how to show me the price but she refused lol. I then decided to just hold my hand of coins out to her and ask her to take some, she seemed unsure but eventually took 800 pesos and gave me my chips. I walked away chuckling, she didn't seem to want to deal with me. I doubt that they get a lot of white people in this little town. The drive back to Santiago was mostly uneventful until we got into the city. There was a massive traffic jam, we got caught on a side street behind about 15 buses. After not moving for 10 minutes I gave up and called an Uber to take me the rest of the way to the hostel. Back at the hostel I still hadn't had dinner so I went across the street to a restaurant that sold hot dogs with various toppings. He loaded it up with tomatoes, guacamole, ketchup and chilli sauce for only 1,500 pesos.
The next day I had a late flight to back to Lima around 10 pm. I checked out and stored my luggage at the hostel. There was a Pokemon Go event that afternoon so I walked around the park for about 90 minutes before I couldn't deal with the heat anymore. I was amazed at the turn out of people playing. There were thousands of locals playing or selling Pokemon related products. The park alone had over 100 tables with people selling drinks, snacks, Pokemon hats, magnets and many more Pokemon related things. There were some people making fresh churros so I bought a bag, they weren't good at all and got tossed in the trash. On my way back to the hostel when I was done I bought some chocolate strawberries on a stick. They were ok but I think the strawberries had been outside for too long.
Right near the hostel there was store front that sold fries with whatever you wanted on them. I got mine with bacon, chorizo and a cheese sauce that I think was gouda, they charged per topping. The hostel worker said that they just opened and they are busy every day. When I went the line was about 10 people deep.
I stayed inside until I had to head to the airport for my flight. On my way to the metro I grabbed food at the fries place again because they were so good. The transit in Santiago works great, I took the metro to the bus shuttle which takes you right to the airport for almost no money. My flight to Lima took just over 4 hours which sucked because for some reason I had it in my head that the flight was only two hours. I took an Uber to the same hostel that I stayed in last time and this time I managed to not lose my iPhone in the Uber. I checked in around 2:30 am so I planned on sleeping in the next day.
I only saw a very small part of Chile on this trip due to time restrictions but I saw enough to see that it is a beautiful country. My favourite part of the trip to Chile was my day wandering around Valparaiso. The street art is absolutely amazing! Also the food in Valparaiso was excellent from the seafood to the empanadas to the Asian noodles.
Guyana's official language is English. IIRC it is the only country in South America with English as the official language.Quote: GWAEPg there is another country in south America that speaks another. We went there on our cruise and their national laguage is English. I cant remember which place it was though
Quote: LoquaciousMoFWGuyana's official language is English. IIRC it is the only country in South America with English as the official language.
Interesting, I had no idea.
Quote: LoquaciousMoFWGuyana's official language is English. IIRC it is the only country in South America with English as the official language.
Maybe we were in central america. I will look it up shortly.
Quote: PokerGrinderI can’t edit the post anymore so I’ve asked Babs to fix it for me, thanks for pointing this out.
Quote: beachbumbabsFixed. Thanks, Doc.
Thanks to both of you for the fix. I don't think I have really figured out what is shown in the mural of that newest photo, but I have to agree that it is "stunning." Very impressive artwork.
Quote: DocThanks to both of you for the fix. I don't think I have really figured out what is shown in the mural of that newest photo, but I have to agree that it is "stunning." Very impressive artwork.
Here is a write up about the mural if you're interested
http://www.artring.it/winter-solstice-by-un-kolor-distinto-in-valparaiso-chile/
Butter chicken is my favorite Indian food and now you tell me it is not traditional Indian. Tika Masala is fine, but I really like butter chicken and I don't eat much ethnic food at all.
After lunch the last little bit of the data on my Peruvian SIM card died and I was now stranded at Al Toke Pez not knowing exactly how to get back to the hostel. I couldn't take a taxi because they wouldn't know the name of the hostel in English. I knew the general direction of the hostel so I walked that way while constantly checking my phone for any unlocked wifi. I eventually found some random wifi connection that I was able to connect to long enough to Google map myself back to the hostel.
Back at the hostel I spent a couple of hours in the pool. The first time we stayed at this hostel their pool was closed for maintenance which is pretty annoying when you book a specific hostel because they have a pool. (Only two hostels in Lima have pools) It was quite refreshing to go swimming when it’s blistering hot outside. There was a red headed girl lying by the pool who had obviously forgotten to wear sunscreen because she had the worst burns I’ve ever seen in my life. Most of her body was red, it looked extremely painful.
After I got out of the pool and showered I found a grocery store nearby where I wanted to grab a bottle of pisco to take back for my friend. He has a full bar in his basement so whenever I go to foreign countries he asks me to bring him back something local for his bar. I spent a good 30 minutes picking out a bottle because the guy working in the liquor section didn’t speak any English and the wifi wasn’t working well. We had a few laughs as we tried to figure out what each other were saying but eventually he led me to the best bottle of pisco for the price. I walked around eating samples from all the sections of the grocery store and because I’m a slob I ended up with red sauce down the front of my shirt. I got some dim sum from the back of the store with my last few remaining soles and then grabbed a bag of yam chips and the pisco and headed back to the hostel. The dim sum was a lot better than I was expecting from a grocery store. The yam chips however weren’t good at all. I had gotten a taste for them in Cusco and then Bolivia but these didn’t taste anywhere near as good as the ones the locals made themselves.
I spent a couple hours hanging out with a Venezuelan girl who worked at the hostel that I had met earlier in the month. She had left Venezuela a couple months earlier because of the issues in her country and was adjusting to life in Peru. Later that night I had a late dinner at Pardo’s chicken where we had eaten the first night in Lima. The chicken and yam fries are good but I went there more out of convenience and knowing that they accept credit card. I didn’t sleep great either night back in Lima because the rooms are so hot. I was in a 4 bed dorm instead of the 12 bed this time but it wasn’t any better. They don’t have air conditioning just a fan that doesn’t help too much.
I woke up the next morning at 10:30 for my afternoon flight to Bogotá, Colombia to catch my early morning flight the next day to Aruba. I had breakfast at the hostel and then packed and checked out. I went back to Wong’s grocery store to get more dim sum. They wouldn’t take credit card (I was out of cash) at the counter but I eventually figured out that I could pay at the normal checkout and then take the receipt back to the dim sum counter. The dim sum guy wrote me up a bill and then I tried to pay for that and a PowerAde but the cashier seemed thoroughly confused what to do. He called someone over and they spent 10 minutes trying to figure it out. Eventually he made me pay for the dim sum and PowerAde separately but I got my dim sum!
I took an Uber to the airport just before 2. I spent a hour in line to check my bag, they were apparently having computer problems but by the time I got to the front of the line everything was working ok. One thing that I found odd was that after security all the restaurants and shops display their prices in USD instead of the local soles. The plane to Bogotá took just over 3 hours. They flew us on a massive plane for such a short journey, there were 9 seats across per row. I usually only take planes that size on long flights.
My flight arrived in Bogotá at 10 pm and my flight to Aruba wasn’t until 6 am the next morning. My plan was to try and get Avianca to transfer my checked bag so that I didn’t have to go through security and pay the $80 Canadian to enter the country. I waited in line at the Avianca desk and explained my situation. Eventually a manager got involved and told me to pay the fee because “he guaranteed that I would get it refunded”. I took his guarantee and passed through security. After grabbing my bag I went to Avianca to collect my guaranteed refund and had issues, 75 minutes of issues. I told them the guy’s name and that he guaranteed me a refund, to which I kept getting told that isn’t a possibility. I eventually got sent to the airline manager on duty who didn’t speak English but luckily a nice woman working did so she acted as the go between for me. The manager got on the phone to confirm my story and seemed irritated that my story was true. The woman took me to the immigration collections office to see if they would refund the money and got a quick no. Eventually she took me back to the Avianca main office to fill out a report and she signed it after detailing their efforts to help me. I didn’t mind wasting the time as I had nothing better to do. Fast forward 6 weeks later and after a few emails I was given a credit to use on an Avianca flight for the amount I paid. There was no way I was getting cash back, at least I tried. If anyone is flying Avianca let me know, I have a credit that I probably won’t use lol. After filing the report I took an Uber to a hostel 5 minutes away to catch 4 hours of sleep before my morning flight to Aruba.
In the morning I grabbed an Uber back to the airport to check in for my flight. The lady at the check in desk asked me if I had confirmation of my yellow fever shot which I didn’t have because I didn’t get the shot. She went over to a group of employees to talk while I wondered if I was screwed. I had checked the requirements to go Aruba and I hadn’t seen anything about needing a yellow fever shot. Luckily she came back a few minutes later and said that I could go. I’m not sure why she asked if it isn’t needed.
I got to Aruba, collected my bag and grabbed a taxi to the hotel I was staying at. Taxis have a fixed price depending on where you are coming from and where you are going on the island. The taxi prices are VERY high so I avoided them like the plague during my time on the island. It was $31 USD to go a whole 7.8 km to my hotel. It’s not just taxi prices that are high, restaurants and hotels are also expensive. I booked a hotel away from the main tourist area because to stay at the casino hotel resorts were about $200 Canadian minimum per night, the place I booked was $62 a night. I later found out that the place I booked was mostly used for students who come over from the Netherlands for internships. It wasn’t fancy but it had a mini kitchen and the hotel had a nice pool. The hotel manager was nice enough to let me check in 5 hours early which was great because I proceeded to sleep for the next 5 hours.
When I woke up I found a grocery store about 10 minutes away to do some shopping for the next 5 days. Like I said restaurants are expensive so I planned on making my own food a lot. I grabbed stuff to make sandwiches and salads and then some cereal for breakfast. I was quite surprised that the grocery stores weren’t expensive since everything in Aruba is imported. In Aruba you can use USD in most places or the local currency the florin which is pegged to USD at 1=1.80 florin. The .50 florin coin is a square which I found really cool. I spent the rest of the night hanging out around the pool. My plan was to start exploring the island the next morning.
I slept until 11 the next morning and took a swim when I woke up. The water was very cold but it was refreshing. I found 3 lizards hanging around the pool, one was large and didn’t seem to be scared by people, and the other 2 were quite tiny and would run if I got too close. One of the smaller lizards had this great turquoise colour to him.
After swimming I showered and had a bite to eat. I found out that the hotel had a free shuttle that runs 3 times a day to Eagle beach but that day I wanted to start at the southernmost casino in Renaissance Beach so I walked there. The walk took about a hour, I took my headphones and I watched Netflix on my phone while I walked to pass the time. There wasn’t much to see on the walk there, it was a lot of residential areas. There is going to be a lot of talk of casinos now so I won’t feel bad if you skim it or skip it altogether.
My first casino stop was at Seaport Casino. Seaport and Crystal Casino across the street are both owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians that owns casinos in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Nevada. Seaport is right beside the docks for people’s personal boats. I signed up for a club card and got $10 in free play and a mini fan that I didn’t take. I played $5 BJ and won $50 before heading out. I walked across the street to the nicer of the two casinos. The table limits were a bit higher so I played $10 BJ and won $30. This was the point of my trip where I started noticing that people from Boston are the main tourists in Aruba. I originally thought that it would be the whole east coast of the states but I found that 75% of the tourists I met were from Boston. I’m assuming this is because JetBlue runs direct flights to Aruba from Boston.
After leaving Crystal Casino I walked 4 km to Alhambra Casino. This is the point in the day where my feet started to get a bit sore but I had a long way to go still. At Alhambra I got $14FP and $10MP for getting a club card between that and winning $10 playing $3 BJ I left with an extra American $20 bill in my pocket. There was an angry man losing his shirt along with about $500 who kept getting mad at the old guys at the table and calling them donkeys for playing wrong. It got annoying so I told him that they were playing proper basic strategy. He didn’t like that I said that so he just grumbled to himself until he lost everything in his wallet. The casino also gave me a half price coupon for their little sandwich shop. I had a shrimp po boy that fell apart with every bite I took.
After dinner I walked almost 2 km to Glitz Casino, actually I walked to The Trop but I found this casino almost next door that I hadn’t found any mention of online. I lost $50 playing $5 BJ; I lost pretty much every hand I played. I usually keep a $1 chip but the 1’s were so worn out that you couldn’t even see the casino name on them. In situations like this I just keep a $5 chip like a high roller! I made the walk across the parking lot to The Trop where I made a very quick $15 withdrawal from the $5 BJ table. I didn’t stay long because I was getting tired and I still had a 45-60 minute walk back to the hotel.
Google maps wanted me to take this long detour around the parking lots to the street that I had no interest in. I crossed over all the parking lots and then found out why Google maps told me to go around; there was a 4 foot cement wall with a 12 foot drop down to the sidewalk on the other side. I’m stubborn so I jumped the wall and then managed to drop down to the ground without killing myself. By the time I got back to the hotel I had walked 16km for the day. I made a massive salad (too big) in my room and watched Netflix until 2 am. The joys of island life, I don’t have to worry about getting up early.
I woke up around 12:30 the next morning, made myself some food and sat by the pool. At 4 I took the free shuttle that the hotel offers to Eagle Beach, the driver was surprised when I gave him a tip. I made a quick stop at Glitz Casino (right at Eagle Beach) again because if you come back within 3 days of signing up for a club card they give you $10 cash. I grabbed the free money before walking 25 minutes to Orchid Casino in the Riu hotel. The table limits were really high ($15 minimum) so I only played 5 hands walking away with a $15 win plus the $10 I got for signing up for another club card. Sometimes I wonder how many club cards I’ve signed up for over the years, must be over 500. My next stop was next door at the Riu hotel... that is not a typo. The Cool Casino is also in the Riu hotel, there are two Riu hotels within a few minutes’ walk of each other. Originally there was The Westin and Aruba Grand Beach hotels until Riu bought Grand Beach in 2006 and The Westin in 2013. They remodelled and renamed both hotels Riu, seems strange to me. I wasn’t able to get a club card because they wanted both a passport and a license and my passport was in the hotel room safe. I played a couple hands of BJ and won $30. Both Riu casinos were quite small, they were both almost empty when I visited.
Just down the street was the Hilton Casino. When I walked in there was a bingo session going on and they had people everywhere! They had set people up on the poker tables, closed table games; little drink tables and even some people playing on top of slot machines. They really need a bingo hall because this was the worst bingo set up I’ve ever seen. It was quite amusing to see though. They really went all out when they named the casino in the Hilton as they named it The Casino. Between my FP and a couple hands of BJ I left The Casino up $30. Sadly they were dealing 6-5 BJ instead of 3-2 BJ at the first 3 casinos I visited that day.
My next stop was The Liv Casino at the Barcelo hotel. The tables were in the midst of being opened when I arrived so I wasted some time playing video poker with my free play before winning a whole dollar in my short stay at their BJ game. This was the smallest casino in Aruba with 3 table games and only about 100 slot machines.
On the way to my next casino stop I found a little souvenir store selling Red Sox shirts. Xander Bogaerts is the only baseball player from Aruba in the Major leagues so most of the island roots for the Red Sox. I was able to get a Xander player shirt and 2 World Series championship shirts (one for my dad) for $45 USD. The World Series shirts from MLB.com run about $35 each.
My next stop at the Hyatt was jam packed with people. This end of the casino “strip” was much busier than the other side. I managed to get in and out of the Hyatt pretty quickly up $26, almost paid for the shirts. I stopped at restaurant just outside of the casino and had lobster bisque and calamari that were both done very well with fresh local seafood. The only downsides are the island prices, $23 for soup and an app.
After dinner I stopped at the Holiday Inn which has the Excelsior Casino. I played $3 BJ and won $17. I wasn’t able to get a club card because apparently there is nobody working at the players club at 9 pm on a Thursday. Who would think to have that open when the casino is ¾ full?
My next two stops were definitely the fanciest/busiest casinos on the island. First was Stellaris at the Marriott hotel. They don’t give anything for signing up for a club card but they were also the only casino I found on the island that had vulturable slot machines (until the couple I found at Ritz). I won $187 over about 30 minutes of checking different machines for plays. As I mentioned these casinos were fancy and busy so the table minimums were high and the tables were full. For this reason I played craps for about 6 rolls finishing down $16. My last stop for the night was at the Ritz Carlton Casino. I lost $56 between vulturing and $5 Let It Ride. I have only played Let It Ride a few times in my life but it was the only game in the casino with a limit lower than $25. It was quite late at this point in the night so I checked to see how much a cab would be back to the hotel and I was surprised when it was only $13. For that price I happily skipped the long walk back to my hotel.
I woke up the next morning and my plan was to take the 11:30 shuttle to Oranjestad but I got the time wrong. The 11 am shuttle was long gone by the time I got there. Instead I went to the grocery store and grabbed some more food. I had lunch and hung out at the hotel until the 4:00 shuttle. My plan was to go to a locals place called Zeerovers that I was suggested by a friend. The taxi was $30 each way so instead I decided to take a bus from where the shuttle dropped me off. At the bus station a local was nice enough to direct me to the correct bus to go to Savaneta where Zeerovers is. I waited about 20 minutes for the bus and the ride took roughly 35 minutes. The bus driver was nice enough to let me off as close to the restaurant as possible. I walked ten minutes from the street to the water where the restaurant was.
I got there around 6 and I was 3rd in line to order my food. You order your food, they weigh it out in front of you and after you’ve paid they send your food to the kitchen to be cooked. I got the mahi mahi, about 20 large shrimp, corn bread and fries all for only $24. They give you a number and drop off your food when it is done. The mahi mahi was easily the best thing, the flavour was so amazing. The shrimp and fries were good too, the corn bread not so much. The corn bread looked like a pancake and didn’t taste like any corn bread I’ve had before. I sat on the dock eating and watching the beautiful sunset. As I was leaving the line was over 20 people deep waiting to order, I guess I went at the right time.
The kitchen
Pretty nice view during dinner!
I walked back to the street I was dropped on and found the closest bus stop. I had no data, its dark out and I’m not sure if or when a bus is coming so I figured this could be a while. The first two buses didn’t stop for me even though I waved them down. After 20 minutes a white van full of people stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. They said it was $2; I didn’t have a better option so I got into the strange van, safe right? Turns out they just drive up and down the island picking up and dropping off. I got off at the last stop at Renaissance Beach and thanked the driver. I walked over to Crystal Casino to get a cab to the Hilton to play poker. There was only one cab so I shared it with 3 other people that wanted to go to the same place, $15 cab turned into a $5 cab.
I played poker for 5 hours and won $1028 USD. The game was really good with two players throwing money around as if they had to get rid of it. One of the players would call $100 preflop with any two cards. Of the money I won $175 of it was from a high hand bonus. Every half hour they give away $25 for the best hand (minimum full house with 3 aces); if nobody qualifies the money gets added to the next bonus. The bonus didn’t go for 3 hours so it was at $175 when I made quad 6’s. The game was very friendly with lots of conversation. Half the players were tourists and half locals. I’m not sure where these locals get all their money as the average monthly income in Aruba is just over $900 USD.
When the poker room closed I asked the hotel to call me a cab, they called two companies but 30 minutes later nobody showed up. I walked down to the street to find a cab, I found one but he wouldn’t take me because I assume I wasn’t going far enough. He told me it was because he was already hired by someone but why would he ask me where I wanted to go then? 15 minutes later I was able to flag down a really nice guy who took me to the hotel. I made a sandwich and went to bed as it was 4 am.
I had booked a tour for my last day in Aruba. I booked on the getyourguide app but when I called to tell them which hotel I needed to be picked up at the woman was confused how I booked a tour that wasn’t running the next day. She refunded my money and booked me into a different (almost the same but cheaper) tour.
At 1:20 a bus picked me up at the hotel, we picked up 12 more people from other hotels on the way to the tour office. At the tour office they charged me $87 (cash) instead of the $92 I was quoted, no complaints from me. The tour was absolutely amazing! The group had 11 people in two off-roading jeeps. I was in a Jeep with a family of four from the east coast. They were very nice and vacation in Aruba most years. Our driver was insane! He drove like a maniac both on the roads and when we were off-roading. His partner (the other driver) had trouble keeping up. He was purposely bouncing us all over in the back of the Jeep which I have to admit made the tour more fun.
Our first stop was at the Indian caves. The guide/driver explained about the area a little before giving us time to explore. The rock formations were neat but I thought when the tour said Indian caves that we would be going into some caves, we didn’t. In reality the only cave on the site was a small one with jail bars on it so nobody can get in. There was Indian art on the walls of the cave that was 1000’s of years old.
Duck!
No really, DUCK!!!
Indian cave drawings
Our last stop of the tour was at the natural pool where if the waves aren’t dangerous we would get to swim. The waves were too dangerous that day so our next stop after the Indian caves was to a spot on the beach. We had about 20 minutes in the amazingly blue water. The waves were ENORMOUS! The 18 year old kid in my Jeep and I went out really far into the water where we took an absolute beating from the waves. A couple of the waves were so large that they pulled me down to the sea floor. One wave pulled me down and as I swam back to the surface I got hit with a second huge wave which knocked me right back down. I was gasping for breath when I finally got to the surface and the kid was just laughing at me. He said it was pretty funny when I almost got to the surface and he saw me get smacked by the second wave. That was such a fun experience, I’ve never swam in waves that big or that strong.
I was pretty wiped from the waves.
We dried off and got back into the Jeep where our driver took us off-roading on the biggest rocks, I honestly was surprised that the Jeep could take a beating like that. My car would have been totalled in 10 seconds doing what he was. The Jeep behind us was taking the easier paths while we drove over boulders.
Our crazy driver
Uphill! These pictures don’t show the what we were really driving on because this was the only time that I could really get a decent picture where I wasn’t trying to stay in the jeep.
We didn’t go to the spot where the natural bridge used to stand before it collapsed in 2005. Instead they took us to a smaller natural bridge that is made out of coral limestone that the waves have naturally broken down into a bridge. After the bridge we headed to the natural pool.
I got a tad burnt
We got to the natural pool where we could take pictures right beside it but we couldn’t swim. The week before a guide died saving two tourists that were swimming in the natural pool. The natural pool is volcanic rock that has been naturally formed into a giant oval bowl. Normally you can swim in it as the rock walls protect you from the waves but like I said the waves were way too strong to go swimming. We took a bunch of pictures before heading back to our hotels. On the drive back our driver purposely drove on the side of hills so that the Jeep felt like it might tip or drove off the path to make it bouncier.
Natural pool
A couple pictures of the area near the natural pool.
The natural pool is right behind me
Back at the hotel I showered but no matter what I did I kept finding sand everywhere. My ears had so much sand in them. My hair and beard were nasty from the salt water.
When I was playing poker the previous night someone recommended that I have dinner at Red Fish. I called a taxi (waited a hour) and headed to the restaurant. I had the shrimp and Wahoo platter that came with corn meal fried sticks, fried plantains, fries and rice with jasmine. The Wahoo fish was excellent, the shrimp were much better at Zeerovers and other then the tasty corn meal sticks the sides were whatever. It was a decent meal but I wouldn’t suggest it as it wasn’t cheap. The Wahoo would be worth a visit though.
After dinner I took a cab to the poker room to play a few hours before a morning flight the next day. I lost $230 during a short session. Luckily I had less trouble than the night before getting a cab back to the hotel because I had to pack up all my stuff. I gave my leftover groceries to the Dutch girls who were living at the hotel during their internship.
In the morning there was another person that needed to go to the airport so I was able to split the expensive $36 airport ride. My flight was delayed for almost 2 hours so I got to spend some time in the fascinating Aruba airport. Ok I lied it’s not interesting at all.
A couple interesting facts, well they are interesting to me. There are 87 nationalities living in Aruba. The entire island of Aruba is only 23 miles by 8 miles. All the locals speak 4 languages as taught to them in school. The four languages are English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento. Tourism accounts for 90% of all income for the island which is why everything seems to run around the tourists. Also they have cool license plates! They all say “One happy island” on various colour plates.
Everyone was doing it and I didn’t want to feel left out.
I had about a day and a half in Bogotá Colombia again before my flight home to Winnipeg. I didn’t have much I wanted to do other than visit the last few casinos that I didn’t go to the first time around 6 weeks earlier. I got an Uber from the airport to my hostel in the fancy neighbourhood of Bogotá. When I got there a little weekend market was set up on the street that led to my hostel.
I dropped my bags and went in search of somewhere to add data to my SIM card from the last time in Colombia. I found a place but I forgot the paper with my phone number in my backpack so I walked 10 minutes in the rain for nothing. Someone had told me (possibly my Uber driver from the airport) that I had to try the Colombian dish Ajiaco. How lucky am I that the restaurant right next to my hostel sold it? Actually not lucky at all because it’s sold at most local restaurants and I somehow missed it throughout Colombia. Ajiaco is a thick broth with chicken, potatoes and veggies in it. They gave me rice that I added in. It was tasty but nothing to write home about, oh wait that’s literally what I’m doing. I was so full from the Ajiaco; I could have gone for a much smaller portion.
I grabbed the phone number for my SIM card and went back to the phone place. Although the only Spanish I knew to help load the card was “mas datos” eventually she loaded the card for me. Loading SIM cards in Spanish speaking countries was one of the toughest things to do with the language barrier because they always had questions for me that I didn’t understand. I was almost out of pesos so with my Google maps now usable I walked to the bank machine... that didn’t exist. I asked a couple people in front of a auto shop but of course they spoke Spanish and I barely did. They sent me in the direction of the bank machine but I couldn’t find. The guys standing outside the auto shop were yelling across multiple streets and pointing me where to go, it was all very comical but I found the machine.
I took an Uber (it was still raining or I’m lazy who knows) to Hollywood Casino where I won 70,000 pesos playing 5,000 minimum BJ. They didn’t have any machines to vulture so I ordered an Uber to my next stop, the Rio which sadly uses the same chips as the Rio casino in Medellin and Cartagena but I knew that already. I decided it was close enough that it was worth it to check; yes I know this collecting thing has gotten way out of hand. Next up was Millionaires Casino which looked like they catered to... millionaires. The casino was smaller but beautiful and the dealers wore suits while they dealt, very fancy! The table limits were quite high but they did have a BJ table with a 5,000 minimum that seemed out of place. I lost 90,000 during my stop at this casino. This was my favourite chip that I collected in Colombia.
My next stop was at the Unicentro Mall (where I got chocolate ice cream even though the mall was closed, I have no idea why the ice cream store was open) where they have the Crown Casino. Good news and bad news, the tables had no chips in them and the tables were closed but they had a bunch of games for me to vulture which I won 195,000 off of. This was the second Crown in Bogotá that I failed to get a chip from, the first one that I visited with Kyle at the beginning of our trip was permanently closed. My third and final attempt for a Crown chip was at Crown Palatino where they had tables and they were open! I played for a while because they opened the BJ table special for me and I was winning so why not. I was up almost 250,000 and left when I was up only 120,000. The dealer was very nice and we chatted a little with the limited Spanish that I know. She seemed genuinely upset when I started losing my winnings. I grabbed my last Uber of the night to get back to the hostel. In total I spent 37,300 ($16 CAD) on five Uber rides, not too shabby.
Every restaurant in the neighbourhood of the hostel was closed and I hadn’t had dinner so I downloaded Uber eats and ordered some food that never came. They spent 90 minutes trying to find a driver to bring me my food and eventually they cancelled my order. I was stuck with chips and PowerAde from the hostel vending machine.
The next day I slept until noon and then found a fancy restaurant online that looked really good. I had a ton of pesos after winning the previous day at the casinos, so I figured since I was going to get screwed on the exchange back home that I might as well spend them. I took an Uber to the restaurant but balked at going in because everyone that went in was wearing a suit and I was VERY underdressed. I walked around for a bit and ended up at restaurant that looked nice but the food was pretty terrible. I had a salad with seafood and curry sauce on it that was weird but ok. I also got what I thought were ribs but these weren’t ribs that I had ever seen before and they sure didn’t look like the picture on the menu. I picked at them a bit and then paid the bill. If the food in Colombia wasn’t so cheap I probably would have cared more but it’s hard to complain about a $5 plate of crappy ribs.
I went back to the hostel and the girl was really nice and gave me a bed to use until my flight for half the price of the daily rate. I was very happy to grab 3.5 hours of sleep before my night flight back home. Uber eats had given me a 9,500 peso voucher for the order not being delivered the previous night, I used it to order some very mediocre sushi. Who would have thought sushi wouldn’t be good in Colombia...
Nothing much to say about the flight home. My Uber driver to the airport was very chatty; she had lived in Los Angeles for 15 years and was excited to speak English with someone. The flight to Toronto was just over 6 hours and I had a 4.5 hour layover in Toronto before my flight back to Winnipeg. I used that layover to Uber to the nearby Woodbine Casino that had added table games since my last visit to Toronto. I know, I know, I have an obsession. I grabbed a chip and headed back to the airport. It was nice to be back in Winnipeg minus the bone chilling temperatures. My mom picked me up and even took me to save on foods to get some wings. I grabbed a much needed nap after eating the wings.
I have no idea what my total expenses for the trip were but I know this trip was more expensive than when I’ve gone to Asia in the past. I enjoyed the trip a lot but I found myself in the months after I got home missing Asia after not going this year. Asia is just so, I guess comfortable is a good word. As far as the gambling I was lucky and ended up winning $265 USD after all the gambling plus I came home with $55 USD worth of souvenir chips.
South America was cool. For a place that I had never really thought of visiting I had a great time. I honestly don’t know if I would have ever visited some of these countries if Kyle hadn’t suggested we go visit Ollie in Medellin. I think Colombia was my favourite of all the countries followed closely by Chile. I’d like to see more of Chile someday, maybe if I end up going to Argentina, Brazil etc...
(It only took me 10 months to finish writing this trip report, oops)
One final picture for this trip report. I have mentioned before that I keep a banknote from every country that I visit and this is my collection so far. I don’t have one from Israel as I hadn’t started collecting them yet and I forgot when I went to Macau.
You should try smuggling back some of those lizards next time, they are probably worth something here in the states. Just hide them under your shirt, I doubt anyone would notice. If you get caught just explain to them you thought you might get hungry on the flight home.
Quote: PokerGrinder.... I found 3 lizards hanging around the pool, one was large and didn’t seem to be scared by people, and the other 2 were quite tiny and would run if I got too close. One of the smaller lizards had this great turquoise colour to him.
...
The big one with the broad black bands on its tail is a green iguana.
The little ones are whiptail lizards, also known as Cododo. The brightly colored one is a male, and the brown ones are females.
Here's some info on whiptail's from the internet:
Quote: Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire by Gerard van Buurt
Whiptail lizards stop now and then and wave a front limb in the air. This behavior takes place when they are confronted with a possible adversary such as a human being. This behavior is probably comparable to head-bobbing in iguanid lizards such as iguanas and anoles. It may signify something like "don't waste your time trying to catch me, I have already spotted you". If one is too near the head-bobbing will not occur, in order not to draw undue attention. If one is quite far there is no need for a warning, since there is no threat. The signaling behavior has other roles as well, such as in sexual behavior, when confronting opponents etc.
Re: yellow fever. You likely don’t need this coming from Canada or the US into Aruba. It’s only when coming from countries tagged as having a certain risk of yellow fever that it’s required. It might be that the airline did you a solid letting you fly to Aruba from Colombia without it. Perhaps they justified it by thinking you weren’t native and hadn’t been in country very long.
Quote: mcallister3200You’re awesome PG, thanks for the trip report. I’d like to spend a month in Colombia and Peru some year soon, and the helpful info about every visitor in Aruba being from Boston ensures it’s somewhere I never want to visit. It’s not Boston itself, I just find the northeast accent to be probably the most annoying intolerable sound I’ve experienced in my life.
Both countries are well worth you visiting. I enjoyed Colombia more than Peru but Peru was still awesome.
Quote: mcallister3200You’re awesome PG, thanks for the trip report. I’d like to spend a month in Colombia and Peru some year soon, and the helpful info about every visitor in Aruba being from Boston ensures it’s somewhere I never want to visit. It’s not Boston itself, I just find the northeast accent to be probably the most annoying intolerable sound I’ve experienced in my life.
People from Boston do suck though.
Quote: RigondeauxPeople from Boston do suck though.
Why all the hate for Bostonians lol?
Quote: PokerGrinderWhy all the hate for Bostonians lol?
Hehe... let's see....
The Celtics
The Patriots
Aaron Hernandez
Tom Brady - Face has a few pages of material on this..
The Red Sox
Harvard
Ben Affleck and that dude who was in "Rounders"
The Strangler
Whitey Bulger
The Pops
The Cape.. Maybe more the fact that the people there always have their pinky up when sipping from a cup.
Stupid Logan Airport
The fact that when the traffic light turns green, you have to wait for the first car in the opposing lane to "Bang A Left", or risk a collision.
Some days, The Bruins, (but you must respect Bobby Orr's accomplishments)
There are only two definitely positive things that came out of Boston:
The band Boston and their first two albums.
The PBS show "Zoom"
Quote: AyecarumbaHehe... let's see....
The Celtics
The Patriots
Aaron Hernandez
Tom Brady - Face has a few pages of material on this..
The Red Sox
Harvard
Ben Affleck and that dude who was in "Rounders"
The Strangler
Whitey Bulger
The Pops
The Cape.. Maybe more the fact that the people there always have their pinky up when sipping from a cup.
Stupid Logan Airport
The fact that when the traffic light turns green, you have to wait for the first car in the opposing lane to "Bang A Left", or risk a collision.
Some days, The Bruins, (but you must respect Bobby Orr's accomplishments)
There are only two definitely positive things that came out of Boston:
The band Boston and their first two albums.
The PBS show "Zoom"
You forgot about the impossibility of finding a quality slice of pizza.
The primary industry is smuggling, the secondary industry is banking, the third industry is tourism. A Micky Finn for your girl will cost you twenty-five dollars.Quote: SOOPOOI generally have not been high on going to Aruba..... but I think you have changed my mind!
The sports fans are the nut low, as pointed out. I guess you can make a case for Philly fans, but it's close.
The most Boston thing ever was the marathon bombing. Like 5 people died. They've been milking it for years. I especially hate that the stupid "boston strong" slogan was applied to Vegas. What strong? Someone you have no connection to died and you watched the news. How does that make you strong? People who constantly thump their chest are weak, if anything.
There was kind of a pushback in Vegas with a "love my city" slogan, which makes a lot more sese. You can feel for the victims, and come together as a community. Watching the story on the news in no way makes you a tough guy. But the tiny penis set carried the day. Still bugs me.
The whole package just reminds me of an obnoxious 10 year old boy. Constantly trying to prove how macho and tough he is. Takes sports super seriously. Etc.
Obsessed with their big brother, New York. Can't get over it and just be themselves. I think that's why they loved the marathon bombing so much. They had some perverse jealously over 9/11.
As far as the Boston Strong thing it was meant as the city unified together. They are strong as long as they remain whole.
Boston is Napoleon City. Their really into this stuff like, The New England Patriots Entertainment Corp won a football contest, somehow this is an accomplishment on my part. Other people got blown up, somehow this makes me a big tough guy. Just by living in the same city.
I went to Fenway and they were doing anti-yankee chants. They were playing Tampa. I mean, it's not like I'm the first person to observe that Boston has a complex about being second to NY.
I really enjoy visiting Boston, but you asked why people find them annoying. That's why.
One of the last Eagles game I was at, they would not let up on these Browns fans seated in our section. They grabbed a guy’s Cleveland hat and passed it down the row and everyone (not me) wiped their butt with it. Talk about a Brown hat.
Security came down pretty quickly and took them to different seats.
Quote: gamerfreakI am a Philly fan and I’ve been to a lot of Philly sports games. Everyone in Philadelphia is exceptionally nice if you are a Philly fan, but I wouldn’t feel safe going to a game cheering for the opposing team.
One of the last Eagles game I was at, they would not let up on these Browns fans seated in our section. They grabbed a guy’s Cleveland hat and passed it down the row and everyone (not me) wiped their butt with it. Talk about a Brown hat.
Security came down pretty quickly and took them to different seats.
Eagles fans booed Santa Claus. I'm pretty sure that makes them worse than Pats fans... hehe... but not by much.
OTOH, I was doing several weather projects with MIT/Lincoln Labs and so was up there for an aggregate couple months 2002-2004. Those people are amazing: smart, gracious, generous, really warm and interesting. Even the engineers were sociable! (Lol)
It was my favorite set of projects just because of the level of the teams, and I loved travelling up there (though not driving in Boston itself- what a nightmare).
Quote: PokerGrinderI’m blocking all you Boston haters!
You're ok. You have Canada Nice more than compensating for Boston Boorish. And Sox fans are more reverential purists than jerks.
But Patriot fans? Ugh.
