Santiago, Thursday

Fri 0139 Got home maybe 10 mins ago. Nice chat with Cony - we met 8:20, walked over to Bellavista which took a while but couldn't believe it was 1am-ish already when she left. Random notes for recalling memories sake:

- apparently even if I don't open my mouth I'm unlikely to pass for Chilean, I'm still too white. I probably can pass for local in Buenos Aires though. At least I'm not blond, I might then appear like a rich German-roots Chilean and be a more tempting target for crime. ;-)

- Santa Lucía is a bit dangerous after say 1am; she's probably right but I still feel she may be over-egging the pudding there. I did walk home and apart from a drunk guy asking me for money after hoping to strike up a rapport by naming an Arsenal player I had no trouble. (She didn't like Puente Cal y Canto either. Not that I've been here that much but I haven't yet stayed anywhere she's not said was iffy. I got a feeling SL ranks above PCC though.)

- She was nice enough to say my Spanish was much better than last time we met (prob 2014). I don't know if it deteriorated over 2 litres of Heinkenen, I didn't ask.

- Even though she spoke to waiter at the bar we ended up at on Pio Nono instead of me, he told us the only litres they had were Heineken (a pricey beer here). I later noticed people at next table with litres of Cristal. This partly tied in with the "I can't pass for Chilean" thing and she thought the waiter had deliberately lied about this because I was a probably-rich foreigner.

- We had an IMO non-racist discussion about race towards the end of the night which makes me edgy in today's sensitive climate, but that notwithstanding I think that elevates her to "trustworthy friend" status (if she wasn't already there) and/or "not a complete social media twat" status.

I got up late as usual and went over to Cerro Santa Lucia (v nearby) about 3. Pretty nice, you have to sign in before you enter the park but not sure that's new. Tiny area right at highest part pretty busy but still OK. Spent a meditative hour staring out at view (pretty much same one I have photo of in flat, tho IIRC photo is from tiny area at highest part) and generally not a bad day. Didn't feel overly at risk, quite a lot of people about. Jardin Darwin had a couple of couples sucking each others faces off but not really threatening.

Had lomo a lo pobre at restaurant on San Francisco afterwards; bit disappointing TBH but OK, they had no sugar-free soft drinks so had water which may have been from tap (maybe filtered); I drank it, and Cony says water here is safe but tastes a bit of chlorine, but fingers crossed don't get ill from this. Noticed today and yday water fountains with presumably same water and ppl using them so probably local water is OK, for all that I don't intend to drink it if I can help it.

Was slightly tempted to go for solo beer when we left the bar at 1 (someone was picking her up; she offered me a lift but I declined) and of course lots of places open but resisted; reluctant to go somewhere slightly drunk, v slightly edgy re 1am safety thing and will prob be out Fri (either solo or just may be some meetup.com thing) and prob meeting Cony again Sat.

Plan for tomorrow is to not get up too late and (after quick sanity check I can book accom on web) go over to bus terminal to buy tkt for Concepcion. Cony says it's not very nice there (I think meaning "not v attractive" not "not v pleasant", but wouldn't swear to this) but maybe I'll like it for its urban charms or be able to get cheap conversation practice. See how it goes. If I really don't like it I may go against my original inclinations and trog down to Patagonia and see if I can do the W hike in Torres Del Paine, what with having my "hiking" gear (ie waterproof jacket and leggings) with me, and being less scared of that whole "trekking" scene than I was, after my Guatemalan experiences.

Oh yeah, perhaps the most interesting thing she told me:

- I haven't really been experiencing "raw" Chilean Spanish. Although probably only professional "language" people like her can speak proper RAE Spanish (even other professional Chileans won't be able to), most can/will slow down and avoid extending ("nadien" instead of "nadie" )/chopping words ("lejo" instead of "lejos") as they would normally. Yeah there might be some local words in there from people who can't speak RAE but they're still giving me a simplified version of their natural speech. She gave me some examples of "raw" speech which made little sense; she may well have been exaggerating/picking the most extreme examples, but still. (OTOH I didn't find the between-themselves chat of people at the language exchange totally incomprehensible, though it *was* hard and by no means completely comprehensible.)

- News broadcasters will do RAE-ish Spanish but if/when I feel ready to try to understand the real deal, Chilean films, soap operas etc will use the "raw" accent.

0219 Quick poke on airbnb and booking.com re Concepcion. WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY INCAPABLE OR (THE REALITY) UNWILLING TO SHOW THE ACTUAL PRICE PER NIGHT? booking.com shows a price for the whole stay in bold big letters then adds a hooking great taxes and fees item below it. Well, fair enough. I care deeply how the amount I have to pay is divided; if there's 20% more in taxes and fees those aren't really of interest, I only care about the pre-tax amount. Not. And airbnb shows a price per night excluding various fees immediately above the presumably approximately correct total price which does include fees, so WHY THE FUCK NOT SHOW THE ACTUAL PRICE PER NIGHT?

airbnb also seems rife with "complete houses" where you're evidently - from the description and price - sharing with other people. No objections to sharing - it is airbnb - but this makes a mockery of filtering on "entire apartment" .

Superficially it appears an actual self-contained apartment in Concepcion is going to cost as much if not more as this pretty decent and pretty damn centrally located apartment in Santiago, which bites. I may well consider somewhere shared (perhaps booking for less than a week while I see what happens), but this doesn't feel great.

Anyway, I should go to bed. I'm not extending in Santiago right now even if Concepcion is overpriced, it just means I may come back here sooner than I otherwise would. Maybe things will seem clearer in morning. "Big" issue is kind of whether I get a during-day bus or (probably iffy given I prob can't leave my bag in flat during day after checking out; a downside compared to any other kind of accommodation) mill around Santiago during Sunday and get a bus overnight Sunday night. If it really is 7h then if I'm getting (say) a midday bus by the time I get there it's slightly late - though to be fair probably still nowhere near getting dark, at this time of year, and that's the key factor. Don't like getting into unknown places after dark while lugging my bag (aka "everything I own within 6000 miles") with me.

Meh. Bed.