I am sitting in a musty little room in our hotel. We were dropped here after a wild ride from the airport through some very depressing suburbs. Many of the building appeared fortified and several of the factories had what seemed to be guard towers on the top of their walls. The city seems much poorer than Santiago, it is very polluted and many of the taxi-bus vehicles are falling apart. The horn works in all of them though.
Our hotel is on a quiet (that is a relative term) back street but has a big iron grill door at the front which is opened by reception. Again it is a first impression, but it doesn’t seem to be a safe or inviting town. Sue says she doesn’t think I am a good traveller and I think she may be right. We were meant to meet our tour guide today for a pre tour meeting but we are the only two on the tour at this stage. We have been given instructions on how to get to the Amazon Jungle and after we are finished there, we will meet our tour guide in Cusco, (4 days into the tour). We must leave soon and go see the changing of the guards at 1200 at the end of the street.

The changing of the guards was a classic exhibition of pomp and ceremony. The military band stood just inside the iron barred fence, facing the palace and played various tunes, one of which was probably the National anthem and one which started the same way of the Rocky theme. The guards marched in a way where one knee was lifted high while the next step saw the leg kicked above the head. At one point they played “el condor pasa” and condors were released from the tower and circled the palace. Very impressive. I am wishing now that I had read a little more on the history and politics of the country before visiting.Everywhere you walk in town there are police, however it doesn’t make me feel safe, it makes it feel like a police state.
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We about to fly off to Lima, having spent only eight hours at the hotel. The hotel which was supposed to be 10 minutes from the airport was 30 minutes away. In our shared taxi at peak hour after dropping off four other passengers, we were there in 90 minutes. The airport is new and undergoing further repairs.
On arrival in Chile we had to pay a reciprocity tax of $US56. I think this means that Australia charges Chileans a silly amount of money to enter Australia and so they are returning the favour. The tax applies to Australia, Canada, USA and Mexico.
The road from the airport was modern, but it went through some very dilapidated suburbs. The river running near the city has paved sides like a stormwater channel and the land on either side looks like rubbish infill with much of the rubbish falling into the river. The air appeared heavily polluted and there was a large rubbish fire burning just outside of the city.
Since the taxi to and from the airport was payable in US dollars and the hotel was prepaid, we didn’t need to change any money into Chilean Pesos. On the way back we don’t leave the airport but will still need Pesos for Easter Island.
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