Santiago, Chile

Does this look like HDB flat or what

Birdeye view of Santiago at San Lucia park

Congested, polluted but yet has it's own charm

Having tradition Chilean lunch with my hospitable host Serena

Serena's and her sheeps in Santiago VFC

Hey look, here's the younger version of Arnold Swatzernager (Bill, USA)

Rendevous with Feargal (Ireland) and Eunice (England) in Santiago

This is my final pit stop, after traveling in South America for 4.5 months, and I need to fly out of Santiago to Costa Rica for 2 weeks and to Guatemala before heading to Europe for another 6 months or so. And it so happen that some of my travelers friends happen to be in town during the same time, thus we arrange to meet up again.

While traveling in the bus to Santiago, I met a Peruvian man Paul who went to be in Singapore for a month and he loves Singapore so much that he is so happy to meet me and make friend with me. After meeting up with Serena (for the first time, we connected - maybe we are Singaporean) there was so much to talk about and catch up with news. Sister Serena had been living in Santiago for about 3 to 4 years and she had been very faithful to the people and ministry here, She was so kind to offer me a bed to sleep in while in Santiago. God bless her soul. Together with Paul we proceed to find a Chinese restaurant to have a good Chinese meal (indeed we had, siyao chicken, ching chai, wan tan soup and friend beef noodles) sumptuous dinner.

Meeting up with Feargal and Eunice over dinner was great. I met Feargal in Ushuaia, Argentina while trekking in the National park, he gave me a shock when he suddenly appeared behind my back. Then I met him again, 1.5 week later, while trekking in Torres del Paine, Chile. What a coincidence. I found him very familiar and thought he look like one of the contacts I had in Dublin, Ireland, during the time I was there for mission. Feargal loves to trek, and his mission to S.A is to trek as many mountains as he could (he carry a checklist of mountains). It so happened that he also came in contact with the same Mario in one of the hostel they stayed in when in Pto Natales. They happened to mentioned my name while talking about trekking in Torres del Paine. What a small world. Thus, my conclusion is travellers circle is small, thus gossip or rumours spread, and people know.

Also I met up with Bill again here, as he was scheduled to fly out of Santiago one day before me. He had been traveling to many places for 2.3 years already and is wanting to complete his 3 years of traveling plans, Wow! What a life. I know him while on the 4 nights Navimeg ferry cruise via the Chilean channel from Pto Natales to Pto Montt. Our first encounter, is that I spilled my tea over his books, Ipod, and precious Spanish learning note pad that he created. What an embarrassment.

Meeting up with May (Japanese girl, she is a kind and wonderful woman) was exciting, so many things and events had happened to her during our short 1.5 weeks of not seeing each other, so much to catch up and talk about. We maybe meeting each other again in Europe sometime.

Its such a blessing to make new friends from all over the world, and having the internet to make our distance seemingly near.

my email: joydive@gmail.com