12 December 2010

The land finishes its transformation from desert to semidesert to wine country in a barely perceptible fashion on the drive to Santiago. You can see Santiago as you crest the last hill before the land becomes flat and green. I did not stop in Santiago. I did stop at a McDonald’s outside of Santiago in Buin. I wanted to try the Chicken Mac, a big mac with chicken instead of hamburger, which I had seen advertised on several billboards but they didn’t have it. I considered leaving but stayed for the wi-fi and a McPollo Italiano. It was all greasy and nasty regular McDonald’s fare. While waiting for my food the Mad Hatter walked in. Tim Burton’s vision. We both chuckled at each other. I didn’t realize till later I still had on the rainbow hat I bought in Cusco. I thought I was wearing my black fedora.

While typing out a message with one hand and eating with the the other a little girl appeared out of nowhere and began caressing my beard and leaning over my computer. I looked around at her mother who made a face and shrugged like what are you can you do, then the girl ran off to the McPlayground. Two minutes later she was back.  This time her father retrieved her.  The lady that shrugged at me wasn’t her mother. I watched the Mad Hatter drive off in a tiny green car. Alice had been waiting in the passenger seat the whole time.

Santiago is like Los Angeles in that it is surrounded by large snow capped mountains. Actually it’s not surrounded. The wall of the Andes simply sits to the east like a sentinel. The drive through Chilean wine country is beautiful. Stony Andes on one side and rolling hills on the other. The sky was light blue and clear with clouds only on the horizon towards the Andes.

Overturned semi

I was going 70 mph when I had to pull over for a cop standing in the middle of the four lane highway waving me down. Just a routine paperwork check. Very stupid and dangerous the way cops stand in the middle of highways and wave cars over. It’s dangerous for the police who are standing on a busy highway and could be hit by a fast moving car and its dangerous for the drivers who have to suddenly stop and could cause a pile up. I left a long skid mark on the road.

I picked up an old man needing a ride to Los Angeles. He showed me the butterflies in his sack. He crafts butterflies attached to poles you place in your yard and the wind blows and moves the wing. I thought he was going to give me one as payment for the ride but he did not. 

I made it all the way to Temuco but the hotel I found in the guide was full. The owner marked some spots on the guidebook map. I found a room in back of a nice house which had plenty of beds for travelers. It was only 10,000 pesos.

There are a lot of toll roads in the southern part of Chile which probably explains why there is an immaculate four lane highway. There’s a lot of construction going on but I was able to go far and fast.

Walking through Temuco to find an ATM and restaurants is to see bleak despair in the graffitied and barred buildings. It’s like a war zone here. It’s like every building is a prison. It’s also very cold. I thought it was summer in the southern hemisphere. The town seems very unfriendly. The two hour time change is still disorienting. This is the lightest I’ve ever seen it at ten at night. I saw a sign telling me that famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda spent some of his youth here and would show his poems to the headmistress of one of the local schools.

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