Currency, Bread, Comas and Transport

One peculiar thing for the British mind here is the currency. The first thing to learn, or remember, is that the Chilean currency is the ‘Chilean Peso’ which is preceded by the ‘$’ sign, not to be confused with the Dollar and its abbreviation is ‘CLP’—wheras the Dollar is USD and the Sterling Pound is GBP. So, in order not to bring about confusion, I will be using the abbreviations instead.

There are many sites on the Internet find out the conversion rate, to here is  one  of them: http://www.xe.com/ucc/.  If  you  select  the  GBP  and  CLP,  1  GBP  is

Una marraqueta
(bread)

approximately 758 CLP. This odd figure offers little help for comfortable mathematical thinking, which is to say that it is difficult to relate one of Her Majesty’s Pounds into the Chilean Peso. So, what I normally do, is relate the price of bread in the UK to the price of bread in the country I am in...oops, that does not work either because in Chile bread is bought separately (consider the cob/bread cake/bun/bap or whatever colloquialism you might use) and you pay per gram from the bakers. Of course, you can still buy ‘normal’ loafs of bread.

In the UK, the GBP is more normally known as the ‘quid’, here the peso also has different names, but this is more in reference for the amount you are referring to. So,  in  the  UK you have the

Una luca

quid and if you have 1000 quid (or ‘squids’ in some areas) you have ‘a k’ or ‘a tonne’. In Chile if you have 1,000 CLP (£1.32) you have ‘1 luka’ and if you have 1,000,000 CLP (£1320.71) you have ‘1 palo’—the interesting part is that the division of value of the currency is similar to that of the UK. One point of observation, numbers, in Chile, and possibly in the Spanish speaking world, are separated with a coma or decimal point, so the number 342981 in Chile (or a Spanish speaking country) would be 342.981 or 342,981—personally, I would stick with the comas.

TRANSPORT

Like all cities in the world, Santiago has a number of methods of transport to cater for the different regions it has. On the map, the capital appears to be like a normal average city, however, it is disproportionately big and it is very difficult to get from one end of the city to the other in less than one hour. Additionally, there are the surrounding suburban areas like Maipú, Calera de Tango or Talagante. There are two major systems to consider, there is the 'infamous' city transport system and the standard system. Like in London you need the Oyster card to get around, the same applies to Santiago, this one is called Bip.

The Metro (or tube)

There are regular buses to and from the city, so all the suburbs are communicated well. Some areas have a Metro (tube) connection, which simplifies transportation. In the city there are the city buses and also the tube. Finally, you have ‘colectivos’, these are like car-buses (in Cuba they are called 'maquina' or 'almendrón) that are mainly found and used as a means of public transport between and within the different suburban towns.

Transantiago bus (la micro)

So here is how it works: from town to town, the colectivos is a good way to travel, these work in the same way as a bus but in a car (so you have to share the colectivo with other people). From town to the city you would take the bus which takes you to Estación Central, where you will find a tube station and other interesting stuff. Once in the city, you would use the Transantiago buses (these are the accordion-like two in one bus) or the Metro to get around using the Bip card.

The Bip system you pay once in one direction that will last 90 minutes, that is if you take the Tube to get somewhere, then change lines and then take a bus and then change buses (all towards the final destination) and this is done within the allocated 90 minutes, then there is only one charge which is lessthan one pound, it is about 640 CLP.

The bip card

The moment you change directions, then a new charge takes place. In theory, you should be able to go from one end of the city to the other whilst being charged only once. So, if you take the Metro and get off at the next station, that is also one charge, but if you return, you have to pay another charge.

Note: people appear to always complain about the transportation system, like all places, it is not perfect and there is room for improvement, but so far, I have not had any problems with it and I am relatively happy with it. For me it is fast and efficient, even though it does not have air conditioning, it is just a case of learning the routes, the stops and the numbers, etc.

Food

After a 26 year absence from my birth country--and not returning at any point in that period of time--there are bound to be some immense differences that inevitably will create some emotional response, the main one is food (typical man, thinking with his stomach).

Ok, so all the meat eaters will be happy because the meat hear is absolutely top quality, specially if you know what you are looking for. I had the interesting pleasure to go with my guide (who shall remain anonymous throughout the blog and it means that I may have more than one guide too) shopping for some meat. At this particular Asda/Tesco style Chilean supermarket (I genuinely cannot remember the name, but when I do learn the name, I will consider whether to advertise it here) there was one counter divided in three: poultry, pork and beef. So my guide took the first number for the first counter, 20 minutes she ordered a phenomenal amount of meat to last three months. She dictated to the butcher which cut she wanted, how to cut it, which parts of the fat she wanted (and was prepared to pay) and which bits were not acceptable... The ordeal lasted at least, on the positive side, around 30 minutes. Then she went to the second counter and...you get the idea, within two hours we were back in the car with the meat.

As for vegetarians, it is equally exciting. If you are a vegetarian that relies on Quorn, then you will be struggling a bit to find some at a reasonable price. However, consider the meaning of the word 'vegetarian', it comes from the word vegetables, implying that 'vegetarians' eat vegetables, if this is true, you will be very happy. As for me, this has been absolute bliss!!!! The vegetables actually have flavour, it is not the equivalent taste of over boiling the cauliflower and adding some cheap diluted cheese sauce to make an extravagant meal utilising the said... No sir! Let me use the humble popular vegetable known as the tomato, even though it is a fruit. In a local superstore you may buy 6 tomatoes for 99 pence. These are nice in colour, tidy in appearance, reasonably sized for efficient consumption and storage, nice packaging, ergonomically design to store in the fridge or the egg shelf (if-you-must), and so on... Tasty!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

This is not tasty at all.

The tomatoes here are the size of my fist (my fist is slightly oval that fits in the diameter of a C.D.), bright clean pillar-box red, extremely juicy and full of flavour. Would you ever consider eating a tomato sandwich? Not really since something else is needed, like cheese, onion, a steak or all three. Well...here you can enjoy a tomato sandwich with just salt and olive oil, and this is only one vegetable I am talking about. There are other vegetables, pulses, fruits, other products like bread and pastry, etc. This is further elevated by the cost, a box of tomatoes (the box measuring approximately 2' x 1.5' x 1.5') was being sold at a little over than £3. Gastronomically speaking, it is heaven.

Personally, I was thinking about buying that box, some olive oil and salt, and going on a 'tomato' diet, with bread of course.

Preparing

Frantically preparing for my departure to Chile. I still need a few small things to do like cancel my cell phone contract, collect my flight ticket, book a second piece of luggage, pack and throw away everything that I don't REALLY need. It is actually quite liberating to get rid of junk in your life.

My partners in crime

These are my CELTA colleagues on the last day of the course.

All the beautiful people in my course.

Some of us still working up to the eleventh hour.











But we still managed to pose for the camera.