Rachel and I arrived in Santiago, Chile at 6:40 AM. Normally, this would be ideal, as it means we would get a full day for activities! However, since we came from Vancouver/LA, it was technically still 2:40AM for us. Hello jetlag!!
We had pre-booked an Airbnb for the first night, but were unable to check-in until 3pm… which meant we had 7 hours to kill!
In hindsight, the highlight of our day was undoubtedly lounging by our airbnbs rooftop pool! It consisted of 1 long pool, and 2 tinier pools, perfect for laps or just cooling off. It also boasted an amazing view of Santiago’s concrete jungle! We were lucky it was hot enough that a dip in the pool was refreshing, and we were also able to watch a beautiful sunset! Something we didn’t expect, because we were told Chile would be cooler in April.
In retrospect, despite having these pictures to represent our day, our morning/afternoon was far from glamorous.
We arrived at the Airbnb at 9:30am, and decided we should make the effort to go explore for a few hours. We walked around, being our usual indecisive selves, trying to decide what to eat. Since it was our first day, we were wavering between a cheap or wholesome breakfast? We finally chose to get ourselves an empanada at a small shop, eating it on a park bench – our first of many!
We then started wandering around aimlessly, and decided we needed plan of action, so we ventured to the metro station to take us to explore an outdoor mall (clearly we were tired! we don’t even like shopping) Unfortunately for us, the train was sweltering hot, our backpacks were extremely heavy because we hadn’t properly unpacked, and the jet lag was starting to hit hard. When we arrived at the mall, virtually nothing was open and there were barely any stores. Extremely disappointed at the wasted effort, we sat on a bench outside of McDonalds to sulk and get free wifi.
Nearly 15 minutes later, we decided to just return back to our hostel; tired, grumpy and defeated, as it felt like a fail in our exploration (Rachel and I are top tourists!). Back at the Airbnb, we had shaved our wait time down to 4 hours – HA! Feeing exhausted, we couldn’t be assed with what people thought of us, and we passed out on the lobby couch. We were both out cold when the airbnb host woke us to say the room was ready 1 hour early! We were still half asleep when she showed us our room. The day felt very unsuccessful, until we saw our marvellous pool!
In short, travel is not always glamorous. In this case, we started with what felt to us, to be a very ragged morning, but it defiantly took a sharp turn for the better! The rough before the buff made finding this hidden gem all worth it!
Airbnb details: $27 per person for 1 night
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