Two weeks in Santiago and your life is void of S

Holy crap! I’ve been in Santiago for almost two weeks. I’ve been wondering why it’s feeling so homey. I think half-of-a-month can do that to you.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Santiago is pretty safe. (But that isn’t a guarantee I’ll be immune to getting robbed at some point…) Luckily, in South America’s safest city, getting robbed isn’t usually a gun pointed to your head, but is some grungy teen stealing your purse (man bag?), pick pocketing you on the Subway or just taking 10 mil from you ~$20 US) and being content with that.

I’ll be upset, but I’d be alive. We’ll see. Missing all these UFC pay-per-views is definitely not going to help with my submission defense.

2. Santiago is bigger than I thought it’d be. To put it in perspective, after visiting New York for a week, I feel like I had visited just about everywhere. Here, after two weeks I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface.
3. The food here is getting better (or I’m getting better at finding it.) Two nights ago as I walked home from Bella Vista I eyeballed every single vendor frying, cooking and searing away at Chilean late-night cuisine. They likely deserve their own posts, but here’s the most popular and tasty in Santiago:

Sopapia For 100 pesos ( $0.19 US) you get a freshly fried piece of bread a little bigger than the top half of a Whopper, but warm, crispy, doughy and covered in salsa, sweet mustard, sweet and spicy ketchup or mayo.

An empanada, atleast in queso form is the best way to get cheese in Santiago. Cheese is expensive and is difficult to find with much selection in Chile, but in the form of a spring-roll sized 150 peso ($0.28 US) empanada to a 500 peso($0.94 US) Taco Bell Gordita sized empanada, you get something like a hot-pocket and a gordita rolled into one.

Mote con huesillo gives you a meal, in drink form. This might be the weirdest on the list. The drink’s base is about a 1/3 cup of wheat, thats a little bit tougher and thicker then oatmeal, covered in a juice made of peaches and cinnamon, then a slice or two of dried peach is added in. You both drink it off the side of the cup, and eat the wheat and peaches with a spoon. Served ice-cold and delicious.  More here.

4. When you arrive at SCL, be prepared to eliminate S. Unlike Uruguay, Argentina and every other Spanish-speaking country, Chile speaks in a Spanish slang all its own. Spanish is spoken as fast as any latin american country, but additionally the letter s is cut off the end of many words, and taken out of the middle of some.

Basic Spanish 101: Gracias, uno, dos, tres, adios

Basic Chilean Spanish 101: Gracia, uno, do, tre, adio

-af