Bike Riding @Santiago

Yesterday, Danny Scott (Inez’ husband) asked me if I was interested to ride a bike around the town. I said, sure, I’d love to. I also wanted to go to Cerro San Cristobal where the giant Blessed Virgin Mary statue is located. So I asked him if we could ride the bike all the way there. He said, of course we could, but Mbak Inez also warned me it would not be an easy ride as it’s going uphill. I said, no hay problema…I’m sure I can do it (too confident, hahaha)
 
Anyway, we left the apartment at about 10:15 AM this morning and started riding around the town. It was cool and easy at the beginning. The weather was really good with nice breeze and all… I felt so excited and loved it! But then, there came the challenge. Right after we passed the entrance gate to the Cerro San Cristobal, we had to ride the bike up hill. I was OK for the first few minutes, but then I started puffing and panting, my heart was pounding, I thought I was gonna die!! Hahahaha. We first stopped at the Jardin Japones (Japanese Garden). I went to see the garden and I could hardly walk down the stairs there!!

Then we continued riding. Danny had to wait for me in nearly every corner because I would just stop and couldn’t bother pedalling my bike. A few times he stretched his right arm to push me while pedalling the bike up to the hill so at least I could keep going. We had a few more stops (I mean I had to stop), at one stop I was sitting by the side of the road, feeling exhausted and almost gave up, and there was a little girl passing me pedalling her bike with nearly no effort. Ugh, that little girl made me embarrassed of myself. In another stop half way to the top my left foot got cramping. I guess that was because I didn’t exercise much in the last couple months…Danny said I didn’t have enough salt in my body…I don’t know.

Not far away from the top, we bought this traditional drink called MOTE Con HUESILLOS at one little cafe. The sign in front of the cafe had this “Ummm Rico!!! Heladito Mote Con Huesillos. Bebida tradicional!” The drink was so refreshing. It has stuff similar to barley in it plus a whole peach or apricot. ,
 
After all the hard work, we did make it to the top. We parked our bikes and walked all the way to where the Mary statue is. The statue is quite impressive. It is 22 meter in height and face to the city of Santiago. We took some photos there and enjoyed the great view to the city. There were some souvenir shops there where I bought a few souvenirs to take home. After that, we were riding back all down. It was all good because I didn’t have to pedal at all! All I needed to do was playing with the brake, hahaha!
 
Danny then took me to Bellavista, another tourist place with some cool shops and restaurants. I bought a few souvenirs there also. There are some jewellery shops too there… Man, there are lots of nice pieces of jewellery girls would die for! Some pieces of jewellery there are really unique, not only they are pretty but they also have got the character. It was nice to walk along there and check the stuff . We then had a traditional Chile dish called ‘Pastel de Choclo’ for lunch. It’s a Chilean beef casserole with corn. My stomach was full when we were riding our bikes back home. In one steep part where I had to ride up hill, I couldn’t do it anymore. I was practically walking my bike, not riding it, hahaha.

Arrived home at about 4:30 PM, all we did was relaxing. I didn’t feel like going out anymore, I had enough exercise today, just waited for Mbak Inez to get back home from work.
 
Anyway…I had another good day today. My plan for tomorrow is going downtown to a place called St. Lucia, another famous place to visit, with Grace Chapman. Should be good!

Me gusta mucho Santiago! So much to see and to do, it’s unreal

Bienvenido a Santiago :)

Hangatnya sinar mentari musim panas terasa nyaman di kulit ketika saya dan suami keluar dari international airport di Santiago, Chile, hari Jumat 18 February kemarin. A long flight dari Adelaide-Sydney-Auckland-Santiago dengan total sekitar 16 jam membuat badan terasa agak penat. Tapi saya tetap feeling excited sudah sampai di Santiago. Finally!!

Sopir taxi yang sama sekali gak bisa bicara Bahasa Inggris membawa kami ke hotel. Ugh, mendadak saya merasa asing dan sangat menyesal gak praktek Spanish saya dulu sebelum ke Santiago. All I remembered in the taxi yesterday was only ‘Hola’, ‘Como estas’, ‘Si’, and ‘No’. Very embarassing! Airport Santiago terletak agak di luar kota. Beberapa kilometer dari airport suasananya agak mirip pinggiran Jakarta dengan apartemen yang kelihatan agak kumuh, lengkap dengan atap seng yang banyak yang sudah berkarat… Lalu lintas gak begitu parah (dan di Santiago setir di kiri). Sepanjang perjalanan saya berusaha mengingat sebanyak mungkin kosakata Spanish yang pernah saya pelajari. Nil. Otak saya belum konek tampaknya. Jadi susah untuk sekedar menanggapi percakapan basa-basi dari si supir taxi. Dengan susah payah saya akhirnya bisa mengatakan, “No hablar Ingles?” yang dijawab si supir taxi “No. Poquito.” Haha.

Sopir taxi membawa kami ke Plaza El Bosque hotel yang terletak di area cukup elit Las Condes di Santiago. Selesai urusan check in (and thanks God, front desk-nya bisa bahasa Inggris :p), kami langsung tidur pulas. Bayar hutang di pesawat gak bisa tidur enak. Bangun jam 10 malam, tidur lagi. Bangun lagi tengah malam cuman buat mandi. Mencoba tidur lagi gak bisa. Jetlag ceritanya.

Pagi tadi kami berjalan-jalan. Berbekal map dari front desk, saya dan suami mulai menyusuri jalan sekitar area hotel. Nyaman rasanya berjalan-jalan pagi…matahari tidak begitu menyengat, hembusan angin terasa menyejukkan kulit, dan karena weekend lalu lintas juga gak padat. Di beberapa tempat ada taman dengan pepohonan yang rindang. Dan hampir di semua area yang kami lalui disediakan bangku untuk duduk. Tampaknya orang-orang Santiago senang sit back and relax . Saya salut dengan kebersihan dan tata kota di area yang kami lalui. Andai kota-kota di Indonesia bisa sebersih ini…

Siangan dikit, saya dan suami ketemuan dengan Mbak Inez. Dia dan suaminya sekarang berdomisili di Santiago. Cihuyy…asyiknya ketemu teman lama . Kami pergi ke Alto Las Condes Mall untuk grocery shopping. Saya juga membeli local simcard untuk saya gunakan selama di Santiago. Abis, pake nomor simpati mahal bok…sekali sms habis Rp 7.500,-!!

Acara kami hari ini ditutup dengan having late lunches and a few drinks dengan Mbak Inez, Danny (Inez’ husband) dan Sandy di salah satu restoran di area Isadora. It’s always nice to catch up with old friends . Besok  rencananya mau jalan-jalan ke outskirt area, termasuk ke Vina Del Mar yang tersohor itu.

I can’t wait!