Chile!!! Well it has certainly been an experience, that's for sure…..After pre booking the best seats on the bus for the journey into Chile, so we could watch the scenery from the front window, on the top deck, we discovered in the heat of the afternoon sun, that this was not maybe the best option after all. It turned into a greenhouse and we were slowly cooking more and more throughout the day! However we did see some nice views of the Andes, and took some good pictures. All was going to plan, even the 2 hours spent at the border crossing, until the bus broke down! This was only the start of what was yet to come!
In all fairness, another bus was there in 5 minutes as there had been a problem with the bus for a while and the driver had obviously called ahead and arranged to transfer us. We all moved onto the other bus and carried on for the next few hours into Santiago, we then hit the rush hour traffic, and a few more hours later we reached our destination. It was a free for all to get our bags, and we were glad to be on our way. We searched for a company there to book our tickets to San Pedro de Atacama, our next destination, and finally found one with 2 seats left for tuesday, perfect, we booked it up and went in search of a taxi to find our hostel. This was not an easy task and turned into a bit of a mission. We met an american guy and he could speak spanish, very handy, so we agreed to share the cab ride. We chatted a bit on the way and he is an artist in New York and makes sculptures which are currently on display. He got out at his stop and obviously had not explained to the driver properly what we wanted as he thought we were all getting out together, which was not the case!!! The price then doubled and we could do nothing as he did not have the meter working!! Yeh right!!! We found out later it should have been less than 2000 not the 4000 we paid! We would have been better off alone, last time we do a favour for anyone! What a selfish prick he turned out to be!! I guess that is New Yorkers for you!
We carried on to our hostel. Eventually we arrived at the road, but could not find it at first. Then the driver pointed to a hotel and told us that was it. It had a different name but was the right address. Alarm bells were ringing, but we got our stuff and made our way inside. It was a bit nicer than we were used to, and the staff came over to help us. We enquired about our booking to be told they knew nothing about it, and that this happened a lot with the hostel bookers website, that they were still on there under the old name from 2 years ago. The hotel was fully booked and they had no rooms! We had paid a deposit and confirmed our booking online and it was already 10pm. We were tired and hungry by now and just wanted to rest. We ordered some food and the manager said she would try and find us a place nearby. She went off to make some calls while we ate dinner, and managed to find us a room just up the road, but it was $50 per night!!! Well, we had no choice it was 11pm now already. They did not take visa so we had to go to the atm and get cash yet which the manager helped us to do, by coming with us and then she took the deposit off the total price. I am still going to try and get that back from hostelbookers too for the inconvenience!
By now it was almost midnight!! We got our bags and walked down to the other hotel and went straight to our room. Hotel La Louvre was quite old fashioned in the decor, but we had a private room ensuite with breakfast and because the Lollapalooza festival was on this weekend everywhere was booked up so we were just lucky to find this. We settled in for the night and tried to get some sleep. A while later I was awakened to the sound of water running! I thought Nicola was in the shower, which was weird as it was the middle of the night!!! It was too dark to make her out in her bed so I opened the bathroom door as the water was getting louder to be greeted by the sight of a leak coming through the wall and flooding the bathroom floor!!! I moved my stuff away from the door and ran out to find someone to sort it out. I saw the cleaners in reception and told them to come quickly and follow me as no one speaks english here. They came and saw the issue and plugged the hole with something. Phew!! The water stopped. One of the girls was in there mopping up when all of a sudden there was a loud noise as the water pressure was building up, and then the whole ceiling caved in on top of her!!! There was white plaster all over her and she screamed and ran out!!! Water was pouring now, and I was trying to get Nicola to wake up properly as she was still half asleep, and get out of bed. We grabbed all our stuff and changed to another room. Once the door had closed behind us we just both burst out laughing hysterically at the whole situation….even at 2am, we still saw the funny side!!!
The next morning we were awakened by a knock at the door, to be served breakfast in bed!!! Wow, we thought they were giving us the special treatment because of all the drama from last night. We relaxed enjoying the luxury before heading out to find Camilla, my friend I met in El Chalten, to organise our weekend. She was just up the road in a nearby hostel, so we met up and she gave us the money to get her ticket for the festival, as it was $100, but we still wanted to go as I have never been to a festival before. It had a good line up with the Foo Fighters headlining. Nicola and I headed to the park to buy the tickets, and get some lunch in town, before heading back to get ready for a night on the town! We were supposed to be meeting up with Camilla and my friend Lucy I met in Buenos Aires. We have all kept in touch on Facebook and are pretty much doing the same route. Before we left I checked my email, Camilla bailed out and said she would meet us later, so we went to meet Lucy at 8pm as planned at her hotel. We arrived there to find out she was not there!! It was hard to know where she was, as the reception did not really speak english and could not explain other than she was out. There was nothing we could do, thought it a bit strange and hoped she was ok, and Nicola and I went off to find some dinner. After dinner and a few glasses of wine later we tried a few bars out and met some guys we hung out with so Nicola could improve her spanish, then about 1am we left, both a bit worse for wear!! It was only just starting to get going as we left. Everyone goes out so late here, we peaked too soon!! Never mind we had the festival the next day and wanted to be on form for that anyway!
The next morning we got ourselves ready for the big day out! Camilla and Terry, her friend she had met travelling, met us at our hostel at 1.30pm and we headed to O'Higgins Park where the festival was set up. We had heard there was no alcohol served inside!!! WHAT!!!! What sort of festival was this going to be? So we had a couple of vodka red bulls before we left our room and grabbed a few beers at a restaurant nearby along with some lunch. About 3.30pm we made our way in through the gates to see band of horses and meet up with Mathias, my german friend I met in El Calafate. We found each other and all hung out for a while watching the goings on. It was a scorcher today and the sun was beating down, and no beer was on sale to the disappointment of many!! After Band of Horses, we wondered around and sat on the grass for a bit until Joan Jett and the Blackhearts came on. Then Tinie Temper came on in the arena. Nicola and I were jumping around everywhere…so crazy!!! Then we went back outside as MGMT was about to start, so we met back up with the others, grabbed some food, and watched them for a bit while we waited for the Foo Fighters to play the Grande Finale!!
As we waited Nicola was feeling unwell due to the pain in her arse, caused by a swelling which was maybe a bite that had got infected, and had gradually been getting worse over the last 3 days. It was so bad now she could not even sit down properly. I said we needed to go to a doctor tonight and she agreed. We had to get out of the crowd as she thought she was going to faint. We fought our way through and sat down in a less crowded area. About half an hour later we needed to go. Nicola was in so much pain, there was no point in staying and we needed to get back to the hostel, get a bank card and find a doctor.
We asked at the reception when we got back and they pointed us in the direction for the hospital a few blocks away. We walked there only to find it was really an accident and emergency, for urgent cases, not swollen bums. The nurse said they would see us though if we were patient and waited about 40 minutes. We thanked her but felt really bad as time went on and really sick people were coming and going. There was also a homeless man there who kept approaching us and talking to us in Spanish, whilst offering us his food and coca cola. We politely declined whilst the whole waiting room looked on!! After 2 hours of waiting, as it was now 1.30am and we were falling asleep, we decided we were not really in the right place and left to go back to the hostel and try again tomorrow.
I was still tired when I woke the next morning at about 9am. We had our breakfast in bed which was omelette today with coffee and orange juice. Felt very spoiled! We then got ready to get Nicola to the doctor as she is still in a lot of pain. She went downstairs and asked reception about where we should go to find a doctor and the lady running the place very kindly offered to take us herself! Despite everything they have been very good to us here and we have been a bit spoilt! We climbed into her van and about 15 minutes later we were there at a private clinic. She parked up and came in with us to help us to get seen and sorted out. When it was obvious it was still going to be a long wait she headed off back to work. We had been told this was going to set Nicola back about $200 US. 2 hours later still waiting to see a doctor, I notice a wet patch on Nicola's skirt and tell her. It seems whatever it is has burst and leaked and maybe is on the mend. We decide to go for lunch as we still have 8 people ahead of us, it is now 3pm and we are getting hungry! We debate over lunch what to do as Nicola is having second thoughts about waiting and the money and hassle to claim on the insurance is an inconvenience, she thinks it might get better now it has burst, but it is still really painful and sore and anti biotics are definitely going to be required! We decide to stay and head back. Better safe then sorry! We wait another 20 minutes and we are finally in!!! A few different people file in and out asking questions and looking at the sore, we look up bum in the spanish book, along with other words to try and explain the problem, although the doctors seem to speak better english then we speak spanish! It was quite embarrassing for Nicola but we could not stop laughing and the doctor was trying to keep a serious face to remain professional, although I am sure when he left the room he had a chuckle to himself and his colleagues, because about 3 different people came in and we had to go through the whole process about 3 times!!! Then a doctor comes and gives the final diagnosis. It is an abcess and needs to be drained as it is very infected and full of puss. Nice!!! He is going to give a local anaesthetic and make a small incision, drain it, clean it and prescribe anti biotic and pain killers which I think will be required for sure!!
By 5.45 we are all in the operating theatre, to my surprise I am allowed to stay and watch and offer Nicola my support, as I think she is a bit worried and needs a distraction from it all, which I am happy to provide in the form of endless butt jokes about the situation we now find ourselves in! The doctor, who is quite cute, and kisses us on the cheek in greeting, as is the custom here, makes us feel very relaxed and assured all will be well. He scrubs and gowns up and prepares Nicola for the incision. He tells us what he is doing the whole time and asks questions to make us feel distracted from what is going on so we don't feel concerned at all. He then is ready and asks if I would like to come over and see the incision he is about to make. Where would you be allowed to do that? Hell yeh! I go over and he sticks the scalpel in and it is pretty deep and there is so much puss coming out mixed with blood but I just remember saying oh my God! Oh my God every time he made another cut and more came out…no wonder she was in so much pain!!! It was probably the size of a golf ball inside!! By now I was just staring transfixed on Nicola's butt, and eventually he said I could sit down now, before I passed out and he had two patients to deal with! I came around then and assured Nicola it all looked good and the worst was over, as she probably wondered what the hell was going on. Really he told us he needed to put a drain in and leave it to keep the wound open so anything new could come out, which would mean staying a few more days, but we have our bus booked and in the end we agree to see a doctor when we get to the next destination and have it re examined aware of the risk of not having a drain fitted. He said he thought it would be ok if Nicola took all the anti biotic, but he had to make us aware this was not the best way. Nicola decided she wanted to carry on with the trip and not stay a few more days, so he bandaged her up and she was presented with a bill for about $100 US and another $100 for the prescriptions!!! Fingers crossed now and we hope for the best! We got all the appropriate forms for the insurance company, said our goodbyes and left as it was now about 7pm! We needed to get dinner and pack ready to leave in the morning.
We were up by 9am the next morning and enjoyed our last breakfast in bed for a long time before making our way to the bus station for the 20 hour trip to San Pedro de Atacama! Santiago has been a bad omen for us and although it is funny in hind sight, nothing really went right for us there and we are looking forward to a fresh start somewhere new :)
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