Rancagua, Wednesday

Wed 1434 Back at hotel briefly. The fucking cunts have come in and "tidied" the stuff I left on one of the beds, including helpfully throwing away a couple of bottles with some water in. Why can't they just fucking leave stuff alone?

1510 Just went out and tried withdrawing at Scotiabank (on Starling debit card) next to hotel - was going to try a few banks to find lowest fee. Didn't say anything about fee so I withdrew money without expecting to, but apparently there is no fee. This is good but also a shame - I wd 130k and if I'd known I could get no-fee cash at their machines I would have withdrawn much less, since there'd be no harm in taking a small chunk whenever I needed. Have come back to hotel (annoying as have to be buzzed in and out at garden gate each time) to stash the bulk of the cash, and also to stash my Clarity card - I now need/want to be spending cash all the time since 130k was a rough guess and may be a touch more than I need, and since it was fee-free spending that is as cheap as spending on Clarity, and I don't want to be stuck with much cash when I leave country, and not carrying Clarity around reduces chances of losing it/having to stolen.

1606 At Cafe Literario Al Lado Del Museo. "Whiter Shade Of Pale" playing. Was going to get an empanad but they're 2200 and more to the point they're all really freaking weird sounding and I'm not paying 2200 for something which is probably chock full of mayonnaise and avocado, so just getting a pricey-ish americano at 1500. Quite a nice little pedestrian street. Over-pushy initial waiter established I speak English, then the second over-pushy waiter who hovered as I was studying the menu couldn't understand me order a sugar-free coke in English or Spanish, so I flicked back to ordering coffee. I guess 1500 isn't insane (tho still a bit London price) when I paid 1300 yday, tho I will have to tip on top of that 1500.

Lips seem to be peeling; I don't remember biting at them. Maybe I'm a bit dehydrated, they don't feel great, maybe they're a bit sunburned.

Not a fucking clue what language I am supposed to be talking to the fucking staff any more.

This place has a boutiquey feel which my wallet doesn't like, but it's pleasant enough putting that aside.

1637 Yay, Dropbox threw me out of the text editor and created a conflicted copy of the file and now I can't access either. I suspect ropy mobile internet is partly responsible but there's no fucking excuse for it to create conflicts when I'm the only one editing on a single device.

Phone batt only 37% - I guess creating conflicted copies and failing to access mobile data burns a lot of battery. Coffee slipped down v easily, no connosieur but it wasn't bad. May get a second, given I'm gonna feel awkward tipping 10% exactly on 1500. Will go home via supermarket and get some cold water/soft drinks - drinking way more soft drink than is prob good for me, but whatever.

Place is in Paseo Estado.

After leaving hotel walked round slightly seedy but cheap restaurants markety area and past train station, then took a quick look at Plaza Simon Bolivar (pleasant enough but nothing special; v residential) and wandered by chance up this pedestrianised street and thought this might be a nice place to sit. Which it is, though I'm just not that relaxed what with the language issues and Dropbox/mobile interne pissing me off and the slightly overpriced coffee and the lowish phone battery.

1708 Well that was a bit awkward. Two Chileans at next table were chatting with waiter and they invited me over and we were speaking a bit in English. They offered to take me off on a city tour but I had to decline, they were politely forceful about it - they were on holiday, nothing to do, not an imposition - so I had to say I didn't feel comfortable going off with two guys I had just met. They didn't act offended and I think it's OK but I really don't know if I did the right thing. Maybe I should have gone, maybe it would have been a cool experience and we'd have had a few beers or something but I don't know, I just didn't jump that way this time I guess. Going to end up second-guessing myself on this no doubt. Fact they seemed to be friendly with waiter would probably argue for them being genuine but he could be in on any scam (mugging, demanding money for the tour, whatever). Feh. It's done now.

Got a second coffee.

1732 Finished coffee. Still feel mildly jittery. "Good Travel" right next door has a blackboard out advertising an all-in trip to see solar eclipse in La Serena 29th June for CLP329000. Doubt I'll be coming back in June for that but just learning about this eclipse is oddly tempting somehow.

Will get bill when waiter appears, wonder if he's pissed off with me for dissing his friends or foiling their nefarious plans. I had seen him/them sort of nodding their heads to indicate me just before they spoke to me, this could of course have been super innocent but it felt a bit rude (not really malicious), like I was being pointed out as some kind of exhibit, and I'm perhaps inclined to retrospectively assign some sinister implications to this. Whatever.

2333 Went home via supermarket, treated myself to 138g of "Chubi" chocolate since I never got that empanada, also splurged on a couple of disposable razors. Got bottle of water and bottle of Sprite zero; again I still have the sweetener taste from the SZ in my mouth now despite finishing it hours ago and drinking lots of water.

Some arseholery from Brazil accommodation and the hotel wifi here being super unreliable again caused irritation, to say the least, but I'm sorting it (though it isn't sorted yet). Have also booked an apartment in Santiago for 11 nights from Sat onwards; it's a hair under £26 a night which is tolerable, looks a good location, nice views from balcony. I'm sure I can enjoy myself in Santiago no problem. This is airbnb; I had a quick look on booking.com but don't *think* there was anything decent on there. The apartment I stayed in a couple of weeks ago didn't come up on the listings so didn't have to wonder about staying there again - it was nice but being on (UK numbering) first floor was a bit crappy, what with no view from balcony and noise from swimming pool plus feeling I had to keep blinds down all the time to stop people seeing in from the swimming pool etc. Location of this flat is perhaps slightly better, though IMO location of last one was fine - and I suspect Cony will say this one is in a bad area too. :-)

Will go to station and book a ticket to Santiago tomorrow. Not sure what else will do but I can always just wander or have coffee (somewhere different from today) or go to the museum near today's coffee place.

This morning - left hotel about 11 which was bit disappointing but not too bad by my standards. Walked down to bridge at south end of Avenida Cachapoal and despite a certain trepidation (path was very narrow and in parts no barrier between me and the trucks thundering just past my ear) I crossed to the south side of the bridge. Well, damn near, I may not have actually got right off the bridge at the south end. The feeling I could get pancaked by a truck, a lingering (though that far unactualised) fear of an incident with a loose dog and the fact that the hills over there just looked kind of barren and vaguely deserty and a thought that if I did steel myself to push on and make it to the top of one I'd just be feeling super fucking vulnerable and alone and wouldn't be getting any amazing views all combined to make me turn round and head back into town. I got over an hour's walk out of it and it was sort of cool to be walking across the bridge and seeing the view from it etc so don't really regret doing it or not going further.

I think walking through the Rotherhithe tunnel was a bit scarier than that bridge, but OTOH I'd had a few beers when I did the Rotherhithe tunnel and although the pavement in there is very narrow indeed, I suspect half the trucks going over the bridge today wouldn't fit in the RT so they had an extra level of imposingness. (Though to be fair I don't think most of the trucks today were full on articulated jobs, just pretty chunky rigid all-in-one jobs. But my memory could well be dodgy on this level of detail.)

After than went and had pollo mongoliano at Jin Xing on Millán, which wasn't overpriced and pretty decent (though I'd have liked more rice), followed by a coffee there before returning to hotel as already rambled about.

Also did some overdue airbnb reviews for last few places stayed (yes, still need to write about fuckup) and had a shower (which was lukewarm at best, at 9pm-ish - first place in Chile IIRC which hasn't had really hot water all the time).

Oh, also noticed this morning the waterproof lining in one of my shoes has worn through in two places. I didn't expect them to last forever and they were cheap and (after sticking the insoles in with double-sided tape not long into the Guatemala trip) have been pretty comfortable etc, but it's a shame they've only lasted four months or so. Well, obviously, I can and am still wearing them, but they're no longer as suitable were I to actually go hiking somewhere the waterproofness would have been useful/important.

0101 Bed.