Its a hard knock life!
Travel Location: Santiago,Chile
So its my last day in Santiago, and then we head off to Quito, Ecuador. Santiago has definitely been and interesting experience, the poverty still makes me uncomfortable but I guess staying in this area has given me a more authentic experience… I even had my first bout of food posioning from the local food! How much more authentic can you get than a meal haunting you for 24 hours?!
One of Nicole´s aunties was telling me that in Santiago you are either rich or poor, there is no middle class really. Its amazing how different the rich and poor suburbs are even though they are only a few kilometres away from each other. The other day we went to a huge shopping centre in the rich area, and even the people looked physically different!!
Last night I saw some old guy dancing in the middle of the road to make a few dollars…
I do have to say though that the Chileans have come up with some interesting ways of making money. I have seen people walking down streets with makeshift BBQs in trolleys, boxes of icecream in trolleys, complete with cones. Market stalls that sell individual pills… its like the drug lucky draw! At traffic lights people walk around selling drinks and chocolates.. sometimes pre-opened for convenience. Ive seen a guys standing at the front of the lights in front of all the stopped cars juggling before the lights change… sydney window washers need to pick up their act. Window washing has nothing on juggling acts!! Last night i saw some old guy dancing in the middle of the road to earn a few dollars. I think he was relying on the sympathy of people drivin by because his dance moves looked like someone having a seizure whilst trying to tie themselves in a knot.
But the best one was last night when we were tryng to find a parking spot. Guys would stand at the entrance to streets and esentially set up their own valet parking on public streets. He waved us through after letting us know that there was free parking spaces. On our way back to the car, he escorted us to our car and put the mirrors back in place, and did the old waving of the hands to help us get out of the car park. From what i could gather they just stake out a street and make a few dollars totally informally, on public streets!? So strange.
You also see people waving in cars to parking spaces just randomly on the street to make money. It would be like if you were in Sydney just doing anormal park on any street and some random just came up and started “helping” you park by waving their hands around a bit, then you having to tip them.
Very strange, but a novel way to make a few dollars to keep afloat.
Next post willbe from Quito, Ecuador, which is apparently even poorer than Santigo. I wonder if the Ecuadorians will have even better ways of making money?!
Until then,
adios! hasta pronto!
xxx
L
