I'll be back!

Hello from Santiago,

Tomorrow I'm leaving this wonderful country and I just really wished I could stay longer, even though I can't wait to see my family again either! These past couple of weeks have been like a dream for me, I've always wanted to visit South America, especially Chile and Argentina and being able to explore a country the way that I did is just unbelievable. I can't stop thinking how extremely lucky I am to have met this amazing Chilean family whose hospitality seems to be neverending. I have found a whole new family here who treated me as their own daughter and they couldn't have shown me their country in a better way. I "tasted" the real Chilean life, saw their culture and got to know their habits (the good and bad ones).. I have seen so many different places, different landscapes, different people. I can't say in words how thankful I am that all this has happened, it has been such an amazing experience. I fell in love with this country even more and somewhere in my heart it just says that this is really eternal love. Even though the differences between my country and Chile are big, you can also find a lot of similarities. I think one of the biggest differences is the way people treat each other here, they are so much closer to each other, so warm, so friendly and so hospitable. In Holland everything just happens in a hurry, people keep distance between each other and they would never ever invite a girl they hardly know to stay in their house, in a country far away. People trust each other more here, they give you a chance, but if you don't act well, they will judge you. However, in Holland it takes a lot longer before they give you a chance to meet the real "them". Another big difference is of course wealth. You can't find those extremely poor people in Holland. In Chile the distance between the rich and the poor is huge and you notice it. I hope the Chilean government will help the poor. Oh and that brings me to another difference: Chile actually has a female president, which I think, is amazing for a country in South America! But of course, it's not just about being male or female, the president should also take the right decisions, but I am not the right person to form an opinion about that, yet. I can't wait to start my study at university, where I will learn a lot more about this amazing continent. :D

Let me just tell you a bit more about my trip to the north, because I still have a lot to tell! I guess I will write the last part when I'm back in Holland ( :( ). On Saturday the 12th of July we arrived in Iquique at around 2.30 PM, after another 5 hours driving through the hot desert (30 C ). Winterholidays had started and there were lots of people driving to the coast (Olguita's and Maca's holidays started a week earlier). One time, we had to stop the car, because Leo drove too fast and the police had seen that. Fortunately he hadn't driven that fast, so after a nice chat with the friendly police officers and after showing his military ID, Leo was back in the car and we continued our way, without having paid anything (phew!). Iquique is a special city, between the desert and the ocean. I didn't like it that much. It was not really beautiful, only the road next to the sea. Near the ocean, there were lots of big appartment buildings and the rest was very poor. There were lots of palm trees and it made me think of a famous beach in Spain, which is a bad thing (for me). The hotel we stayed in.. well, it was beautiful! We all loved it, it was really big and it even had a swimming pool (outside, which was too cold to swim in, since it was only 18 C). It was a military hotel, so we weren't surprised when we saw a big group of soldiers there. They were Germans (I seem to run into German people everywhere!) and they were staying here to do a training course in the desert. The lunch in the hotel was just delicious! I just love the Chilean bread by the way. You always get bread in restaurants and I just love that, haha. Another thing for which Iquique is known, apart from the beach, is the huge shopping mall called Zofri (zona franca), where you can get lots and lots of things for a cheaper price than anywhere else in the country. As the girls just LOVE shopping, they spent 5 hours in the mall that Saturday! I was a bit ill and stayed in the hotel, where I tried to sleep a bit. Felt a lot better on Sunday, fortunately.

It was impossible to wake the girls up on Sunday morning. They slept and slept and slept. Faride told me that if I wanted something for breakfast, I'd better not wait for them, but go down and search Leo (he's always up early). It was 10.15 AM and breakfast would end at 10.30, so since I was really hungry, I hurried down to be able to eat something. I found Leo and we both had breakfast together. After that, a friend of Leo's, who he hadn't seen for a long time (like 8 years) came to us with his family to talk a bit. He told Leo that he first thought Leo was in the hotel with another girlfriend (me!) instead of with his wife! haha :D we laughed a lot. In the afternoon we went for a walk on the beach, which was really nice. There are a lot of people who sell things on the street. There also was a little "zoo" with alligators and turtles. We wondered whether the alligators were real or that they just put plastic ones in there during winter, because they didn't move at all, haha. It was really cloudy, but fortunately it didn't rain. Actually, it hasn't rained at all during my whole stay here in Chile, only today a few raindrops fell down on the streets of Santiago. There were lots and lots of tourists in Iquique, mostly from Chile itself, with big video cameras trying to catch every move their family members made. We also watched a couple of cool guys trying to surf. After lunch, Faride and Maca went to the Zofri again, but Leo, Olguita and I drove a bit through the surroundings. The place was everything but beautiful.

On Monday we wanted to leave early, because the car had to be at the Citroen Dealer in Antofagasta in the afternoon. We all woke up early (it was a miracle!), but then, after we had had breakfast, we had to wait another hour (everybody was angry at Leo, because "we could have slept another hour!"), since it turned out there was something wrong with one of the tires of the car. The place where they repaired it, looked just like the place in Dirty Dancing 2, where the girl comes to ask Javier to dance with her at the contest. It was exactly the same, plus there also was a Javier guy, not much older than me, working there.. instead of having the opportunity to study. The way to Antofagasta was beautiful. There were really high cliffs, but the views were magnificent. We passed by a high cliff, where a lot of people were standing, looking into the depth. There also was an ambulance and we saw two people hugging each other and crying. It was so sad. A car had fallen off the cliff, which was around 150 meters high. You can't understand how horrible those relatives must feel... so sad.

We arrived in Antofagasta at around 3 PM and we had some time to explore the city, while the car was being checked. It was really beautiful, with a nice Plaza, great architecture (impressive cathedral!) and a nice atmosphere, although you had to be careful that your big didn't get stolen. Faride told me that the centre of Antofagasta was a lot like Santiago. I have hardly seen anything of Santiago (how ironic, since I have lived there for more than 2 weeks), so I believed her, haha. I loved Antofagasta, it was so nice. We stayed in some very nice cabins close to the sea. The next morning, Tuesday, Leo came into our cabin with the video camera to wake up the girls, who were still sleeping like sleeping beauties. Leo had actually had that camera for a long time already, but he hadn't been able to put it on, so he thought there was something wrong with the battery. He'd buy a new battery in Iquique, but there he suddenly found the "on" button and, magically, the camera started working! From then on, he used it every time, haha. Before leaving to our next stop, Chañaral, we went to the famous rock formation of Antofagasta, La Portada. That's a huge rock in the sea, which looks like a gate. It was beautiful and of course, very touristic too. After that, we had to drive another 5 or 6 hours to Chañaral. There was nothing to be seen and we were starving, so after a couple of hours, we turned to the right to drive to the one and only city in that place, called Tal Tal. It was quite hard to find a restaurant that was actually opened at that time (5 PM), so, in the end, we just went to the supermarket to buy some food!! In the evening we arrived in Chañaral, which isn't really special. It's just the perfect place to stay when you are going to visit the National Park Pan de Azucar (sugar bread), which we did the next day. But I'm going to tell you everything about that when I'm back in Holland, you'll just have to wait a little longer. :)

It's been so special, this whole month, I will cherish all these beautiful memories forever. When taking the airplane to Holland tomorrow, I won't leave Chile forever, I will be back. That's for sure. I'll be back. :)

Take care everybody and once again, thank you for taking the time to read all this and to look at my pics :D I'm really glad you all like it so much, it's good to know. :D

Lots of love from Santiago, Chile

Anouk xxx