Part One: Transit in Santiago, Chile

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Day Three

Found out from Lan Chile today that there was no guarantee that they could deliver my bags to my residence in Santiago before I departed for Bolivia. We agreed that the only solution was to fly them to La Paz where I would pick them up on arrival Sunday lunchtime. That agreed, I accompanied some of my course coordinators here in Chile to the downtown markets for a quick tour to accustom myself with local products.

On the way, we stopped at Govinda’s snack bar for a delicious lunch of empanadas – flaky vegetable turnovers and a delicious but unidentified Mexican dessert of cakes floating in orange syrup.

The weather had been inclement since I arrived. The sky was grey and it was 2 degrees Celcius. Evil black storm clouds were gathering. Somebody in the car muttered "no-one visits Santiago de Chile in July". Gulp! We quickly finished up our mini market tour as gusts of biting wind threw rubbish into swirling mini-tornadoes in the carpark. Back in my room, after an hour of travel-induced exhaustion, I awoke to hear heavy rain and tumultuous winds, and the ominous sounds of cascading water. I opened my eyes to see dirty torrents running down the walls from a giant rupture across the ceiling. A tormenta had struck and the room was flooding!

I leapt to my feet and found the floor inches deep in swirling brown water, my scant possessions floating towards the door. My friends downstairs were quickly alerted, and we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to stave the floodwaters, mopping and repairing, and generally minimizing any more damage. I commenced drying my only set of clothes for tomorrow’s onward flight to Bolivia. What a start to my tour! I had only just survived my 'trial by water'. What else had Mother Nature in store for me?

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