Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Things I learned in Chile:- Modern freeway systems, plumbed hot water (even in the kitchen sink!!), safe fruits and vegetables, drinkable water, and solid plumbing systems that can handle toilet paper do exist in South America.
- You can buy pet food even in the little corner markets. (This is the first place we've been where people can actually afford to have and take care of pets.)
- Just because people have pets doesn't mean there's a shortage of street dogs (or their excrement).
- People with physical injuries and disabilities have access to modern medical equipment in Chile. I was somehow shocked every time I saw someone walking with Canadian crutches, and I never saw a legless or otherwise crippled beggar dragging themselves along the ground with skin protectors made of old tire rubber.
- It´s really difficult for us to understand Chilean Spanish! (They speak quickly, swallow their s´s and put t´s where there shouldn't be any, and have plenty unique words....)
- You get receipts (facturas) for everything you buy - a pack of gum, an empanada, a cup of tea....
- Tips are again expected in restaurants.
- Our French friends don't believe in tipping as a percentage of the bill.
- There area clean and abundand public bathrooms, but you have to pay for them all....
- In the public bathrooms you´ll find TP and toilet seats (!!), but remember to look for the paper OUTSIDE of the stalls.
- Buses are of good quality again, and with several varieties of service - bus cama actually means something again, as does the familiar semi cama and the luxury cama suite. We only took semi cama buses because of the expense, but even these were MUCH better than most of their Peruvian equivalents.
- Laundry is REALLY expensive here (and we thought it was bad in Costa Rica!). Recall our hotel in San Pedro de Atacama that charged guests $10 per load to USE the machine & hang up your own cloths - we never found laundry for less than $8 per load for a wash and dry in the whole country. (Is this because only tourists need to take their laundry out?)
- When you send your things out to get laundered, they don't all always come back. (I lost my favorite of my warm shirts - and although the shop gave me another shirt to replace it, I was quite disappointed!)
- Even if you separate your laundry, the place might mix it all together to wash - I discovered this the hard way when I put my NEW blue shirt (the one I'd been given to replace my lost one earlier) and the place put it right in with the whites I'd separated. (I did make them take the whites and bleach them for us, but it was quite a fight!).
- It´s really hard to travel in a country with a strong economy when you have no money coming in.
Ellie
Ellie and Kepfram, 6:40 AM
