Long way to go

After a very long 24 hour bus ride, I arrived in Santiago yesterday afternoon smelling worse than I think I ever have. It felt great to check into my hostel, in the Bellavista neighborhood (very nice, lots of good restaurants and cute shops) and take a much-needed shower. All my showers in the Atacama desert were a thin trickle of cold water, so a real shower was quite luxurious.

After that I met some of the people staying in my room, and ended up going out to dinner with them. At the beginning of this trip I was much more shy, but I have gotten good at finding people that seem cool and asking them if they want to get dinner, check out a museum, go shopping, etc. It helps that when I first started travelling, there were multiple times when cool girls asked me if I wanted to do things with them. Come to think of it, I have met a lot of really amazing people, mostly women, while travelling.

I've also gotten over a lot of my tourist hangups. For example, I used to hate looking at maps in public, or taking silly touristy pictures, but now I have no shame when it comes to those things. Makes life a lot easier, and sometimes more fun.

Today I went to the Museum of Pre-Colombian Art, in the city center. The collection isn't huge but it's really nice, I'm glad I checked it out. I also saw some really beautiful gardens on one of the hills; from the top of it I could see a lot of the city, though it was rather smoggy, since Santiago is in a basin between mountains of the Andes.

After I got back from lunch in the main plaza with a couple people, there was some drama at the otherwise tranquil hostel: two people, including a girl in my room, had money and other things (iPods, cameras) stolen. I felt really bad for them, and I'm going to make some pisco sours with the girl in my room in a few minutes to cheer her up. It just sucks, though so far my hostel experiences have been much better than I expected.

None of my things were taken, as all of my important stuff was locked up in a locker, but it's been a good reminder to be careful. After a couple months travelling you start to get a little careless, but now I am back on my guard. I guess I am always very aware of where my bag is and who is around it, though now even more so. I just hate to get paranoid. Thusfar the only money I have lost was a hundred dollars when a money changing place short-changed me, and a few dollars here and there on the long way around town in a taxi. I guess I expected some bad things to happen while I was travelling, and I know I am not home yet, but (knock on wood) so far so good.