It doesn't matter

If you're different and out of place, it doesn't matter

If you're different 

The flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago was randomly on Air Canada. I had a slight panic attack when I realised this wondering if I had inadvertently booked a flight via Ottawa or something stupid. It turned out however that they operated this direct shuttle service to connect with a Santiago to Toronto flight. I boarded and found my seat. I was sat next to a nun which was a little unsettling especially when she crossed herself as we started to taxi. I hoped that she didn’t know something from the guy upstairs that I didn’t know. At one point during the flight she sneezed. I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to say “Bless you” to a nun so I kept quiet.

As I got off the plane I realised that this was the first time I had arrived at a place without having checked the local exchange rate or the best way to get from the airport. I had meant to do it before I left but the late finish of Sunday Funday with my new BA friends meant it had slipped my mind. I saw a currency exchange kiosk and it had a board displaying the exchange rate for US dollars, Argentinian pesos and Brazilian reais. A bit of mental arithmetic and I had a rough idea of the exchange rate for pounds sterling. You got a lot of Chilean pesos to the pound. It felt strange asking the cash machine for 75,000 pesos but at least I knew roughly how much I was withdrawing.

Cerro Santa Lucia

I got hassled by lots of taxi drivers after leaving the airport but I turned them all down. Having a bit of basic Spanish helped. I found a quiet spot and managed to quickly check online to find out the safest way to get to the centre from the airport and how much it should cost so that I knew if I was being overcharged. I headed back over to the official desk and sorted out my taxi. After hitting downtown Santiago at rush hour I finally arrived at the apartments and checked in. It took a while for the guy behind the desk to locate my booking but I eventually got the keys and made my way up. The place was lovely. It had its own kitchen and lounge downstairs and a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. I had opted for the apartment rather than a hotel as I was in need of some space to chill, cook and catch up on some of my writing. There was a big supermarket next door to the apartment block so I headed there to stock up on some food for the week. I cooked myself some dinner and had an early night.

Out of place

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The first couple of days in Santiago were nice and relaxed. I made myself do a blog post each morning over breakfast before heading out to explore. I did my usual orientation walk round on the first morning. Santiago is massive but I had managed to get an apartment that was close to the centre. I had a walk round and found the tourist information place. I had checked out online where it was and drawn myself a rough map of how to get there as well as taking a photo of the internet page on my camera in case I needed to recheck the route. I got myself a map and a couple of leaflets chatting to the woman behind the desk in Spanish. I was definitely getting better. I went back to my walk and made my way to Cerro Santa Lucia.

Cerro Santa Lucia is basically a large rock close to the centre of the city that has been turned into a national park. I had to sign in at the gates to the park. As I was signing in two teenagers arrived. The guard turned them away because they weren’t with an adult. I liked the park already! The views from the top were great and worth the climb up some rather lethal looking stone steps. The Andes were covered with a thin veil of fog but could still be made out. It looked like the city ran right up to the mountains. It was a great spot to relax. After spending time walking round Cerro I went and saw the main sights in the centre – the Plaza de Armas, the cathedral and the old court building, which now housed the Museum of National History. The entrance fee was about 75 pence so I figured I might as well go in.  The descriptions were all in Spanish and I persevered for a while before giving up and going for a drink.

It doesn’t matter

Santiago Cathedral

I found a quiet spot and had a drink while I got my journal out and did a bit of writing before heading back to the apartment to type it up. On the way back to the apartment I found myself walking down a road that had a few strip clubs on it. Outside the clubs they had guys trying to get customers to go in. As I walked by one of them I was asked if I wanted to go in to see the ladies dancing. In my best Spanish accent I told the man who had asked me “No me gustan las mujeres”. Blunt, but effective.

After I got back to the apartment I spent time doing some admin, booking some of my travel for Mexico and sorting out some things for my return to the west coast of the States in just over a months time. Things were slowly falling in to place for the west coast and I was looking forward to it even more having found out that two of my really good friends, Sarah and Sara (they aren't lesbians),  were planning a trip and would be there at the same time as me. I was hoping that I would get to spend some time with them either in San Diego or Los Angeles (or both). It would be Sarah's birthday while she was over there too, another reason to celebrate. I also did some online research to try and find out a little bit about the gay scene in Santiago as I was determined to hit the bars one night and make up for the aborted attempt in Rio.

Museum of National History

I chatted for a while with Mother who had just got back from a holiday to Cyprus. She told me all about her trip and it was nice to speak to her having not done so for a while. We chatted about the upcoming trip to Mexico (my sister and Mother were flying out to join me for a week). I also chatted to my dear friend Gail (the friend who had helped me out with cash in Atlanta). She wanted to chat to me as she wanted to know when I was back in London so she could try and arrange the christening of her second lovely little boy. She wanted me to be godfather (fairy godmother) and I told her I would be delighted and honoured to be his godfather, already being godfather to her first son. The lengths some people will go to just to get into the 80 Gays blog...

“If you're different and out of place, it doesn't matter” 
Lyrics from Everybody Fits from the musical Altar Boyz