Stepping into Santiago’s centro de la ciudad with Andrew Ford

“Santiago Centro?” I ask the bus driver of a green bus with “Aeropuerto” emblazoned on the side.
If I knew how to properly ask “Does this bus go downtown,” I would, but since my Spanish is non-existent, I pray a destination and an eyebrow raise will work.
“Si,” he says. “Something, something I don’t understand.”
At this point I’ve got to take a chance. He said he goes to downtown Santiago, but with terms. Is the bus going to Argentina first? Or stopping by at a Spanish truck driving conference?
It’s a good looking bus. Anywhere short of Ecuador is progress.
“Cuanto cuesta?”

ANDREW FORD/THE ARBITER - A Subway car sprints away from the Universidad de Chile Metro stop in Santiago, Chile Thursday morning. More than 2.5 million Chileans use the subway each day.

He mumbles a Spanish number then points to a small black and white sign to his left.
There’s two prices and he points to the more expensive one. I wonder if this is the price for travelers who don’t understand Spanish.
I hand him 1,750 Chilean pesos (about $3) and head to the back of the bus.
If you have 1,750 of anything you feel like a king. Easy come, easy go though.
I don’t know the economic history of Chile, but I know central banks rarely intend for their currency to ever require thousands to buy a cheeseburger or a bus ticket. If they do, you can almost be guaranteed at some point their currency was subject to hyper inflation.
The bus pulls out of the airport and merges onto the freeway.
The bus ride reminds me of riding in one of those double-seated go-karts with an older brother. Fast, jerky and completely out of your own control.
I’m excited to be in Chile, but unsure and a little scared (don’t tell my mom).
Eventually, the bus comes to a halt inside the skinny streets of…somewhere.
I gesture and say “metro” and he points down a skinny corridor behind the bus. His Spanish, notoriously fast-paced in Chile and even more so in Santiago, is difficult to even guess at, but I think I hear tres or cuatro, so I assume the Metro is just a few blocks away.
I find a Metro stop, you can tell because universally they look like stairs to nowhere, and again use my gesturing to buy a ticket. I don’t know how much it costs to ride the metro in pesos, but I know in dollars it’s less than a buck. I hand a young Chilean women, maybe 25, a bill worth 1,000 pesos.

“Entiende ingles?” I ask her.

She smiles wide and grits her teeth. “A leetle…” she says.
I ask her how much it costs. She doesn’t understand.
I try to tell her in English, slowly, that I need one ticket for the Metro.
She doesn’t understand, but I can’t blame her. It’s her country, not mine.
We fumble around conversing, her trying to understand what I’m saying and what type of ticket or metro card I want and me just trying to go somewhere. Anywhere.
Never one to plan too far ahead, I don’t exactly have a place to go, yet. I wanted to have an apartment lease to sign or a room with eager room mates waiting to greet me, but at this point, somewhere around 9 a.m. Santiago time, the only thing I have is a long list of emails full of sloppy English and dozens of others in Spanish I don’t understand.
She hands me two small green tickets and some change. Adios.

Andrew Ford is a 22-year-old mass communication and journalism major from Eagle traveling through South America. You can follow him on twitter @barefootford or you can visit his Web site, BarefootFord.com.

ANDREW FORD/THE ARBITER - Subway users at the Universidad de Chile Metro stop enter through the toll gates Saturday afternoon. The cost fluctuates through out the day, but is about 400 Chilean Pesos, about 75 U.S. Cents.

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Posted by Andrew Ford on Feb 1 2010. Filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.