Santiago de Chile

I arrived in Chile on Friday afternoon after taking the most amazing bus ride of my life.... from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. Now if you know anything about South American geography, you might realize that the Andes Mountains strech along this boarder.... so, as you can imagine my bus ride was right through, around and over the Andes Mountain range. I am not really one to be impressed by sceneary but I can honestly say it was SPECTACULAR. So, after sitting in the bus for hours on end snapping pics and marvelling over the beauty, we arrived at a boarder check point for Argentina and Chile in a large metal barn like thing. The bus pulled in, we were hurried into lines... stamped out of Argentina in one line and into Chile in another. Then they took all of out luggage off the bus and put it on tables.... the metal detector was ´broken´.... so we were just told to unzip our bags and Chilean boarder agents went down the line and glanced at each bag and then said ok.... yep.... no taking things out of the bags, cavity searches.... nothing. I guess we were lucky!
I arrived into Santiago around 5pm. I had to go to the bathroom VERY VERY bad... but did not go on the bus.... because they tend to be soooo dirty.... I say the bathroom.... attempted to enter but there was a large gate and lady behind glass that charges $ to enter.... I of course had NO Chilean pesos only Argentine ones. I ran... or walked rather quickly to the quickest ATM... where I withdrew far too many pesos... as 1 US Dollar = 550 Chilean pesos... and math is not my strongest subject... so, I took out way too much and ran back to the bathroom. Attempt #2 to enter the bathroom failes as I only seemed the have 10 thousand pesos bills and she ´did´not´ have change. So, I went over to a Exchange booth... waited in line.... and asked for smaller bills. Got the bills and went over to the bathroom lady behind the class who proceded to hand me a whole bunch of change and a special bathroom token which... i had no idea... so, i put the change in my wallet and tried to enter thru the turnstyle.... nope... it wouldn´t move. I looked at her and she is like... you need a token... at this point I was almost going to cry or become an insane foreigner and jump the turnstyle and start screaming bloody murder. While mumbling bad bad words in Spanish under my breath... I clamly (yeah right!) took out my wallet again and started digging thru. the change to ideantify the ´special token´which would ensure Chile would not be the first country in Latin America I wet my pants in.... I found it and entered... the delapitated bathroom with no paper.... at that point.... CHILE was my least favorite country.
After the bathroom extravaganza and buying my ticket back to Argentina to make me feel better I exited the bus station and entered the cleanist metro/subway system I have ever seen.... it was very, very clean.... well lit.... many police and cleaning people standing around maintaining its security and cleanliness.
I got to my hostel very easily. I spent Saturday sight seeing in Santiago.... went and saw a Virgen Mary on top or a hill and went to one of Pablo Nuerda´s houses. Went and saw a few other famous things... and hung out at the hostel.