So I had previously decided that I was able to collect the van that my parents had organised the day prior to their arrival.\u00a0 No problem there you might think….well that\u00b4s what I thought.\u00a0 I went to bed nice and early the previous night only to wake up at around eleven o\u00b4clock – pesky late jet-lag!\u00a0 Checkout was officially eleven at my Residencial so I did what any decent person would, snuck around getting ready and managed to dodge the owner and get out the front door whilst she was cleaning!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0The next ordeal was finding the train station.\u00a0 My amazing lack of Spanish extended to station so I tried saying Station with various endings like, o, er, ez, etc.\u00a0 Well obviously I didn\u00b4t say etc as an ending, that was meant in its normal term.\u00a0 I also tried to tell the taxi driver I was going to Talca.\u00a0 This made him first look confused, then excited as he thought he was getting the fare from heaven.\u00a0 When I protested as I saw his eyes light up he gave up and I waited for a second taxi.\u00a0 With the assistance of actions and comedy chugging noises with Talca uttered imbetween, I managed to convince the second taxi driver of my correct location.\u00a0 Having arrived at the station it was marginally easier to but a ticket and get on the right train.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once on the train I was surprised how comfortable and clean it was.\u00a0 Not that I was necessarily expecting some kind of hole on wheels but it was very reasonable, six or eight quid for a three hour journey.\u00a0 The only problem was that I was still very tired and, somewhat unsurprisingly given my previous form, I had someone behind me who thought that my chair was a strangely shaped football.\u00a0 This time the kicker took child form and, along with kicking the sh\u00b7t out of my back every three seconds, also seemed to like squealing in a high pitched voice while yanking the blind up and down so that it crashed against my arm.\u00a0 I spent the majority of the journey drifting towards sleep prior to being rudely awakened by the aforementioned behvaiour and then considering whether it was a criminal offence to strangle a small child in Chile.\u00a0 At one point an old man, who had been looking at the small child, got up from his seat and began to wander over.\u00a0 You can imagine my delight as I thought that the little brat was finally going to get the telling off that its mother seemed so reticent to give it.\u00a0 My glee quickly faded as it soon became apparent that the old man was spawned from the same strange non-Earthly being sect as the small child and had actually come over to make stupid noises and condone the child\u00b4s ridiculous behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually the torment ended and I arrived in Talca.\u00a0 When I got off the train I went and had a cigarette and looked for the piece of paper which had the details of the rental company on it.\u00a0 I had just about enough time to get the taxi to the place prior to it closing at five at this stage.\u00a0 Well that was if I knew where the place was but, having been distracted by the moronic, mutant midget, I had somehow managed to misplace the said bit of paper on the train.\u00a0 And, yes, I am blaming the small child for this one!\u00a0 So, having no clue as to where I was going, I decided to try and find an internet cafe to get the details from an email from my parents.\u00a0 When I asked people they gave me directions faster than you can say, well directions horrendously quickly in Spanish, and I wondered around, hot, heavily loaded and getting more and more concerned that I wouldn\u00b4t be able to collect the van and that my parents would be stranded at the airport.\u00a0 Eventually I found an internet place and printed the details.\u00a0 When I went to pay it turned out that the owner was discussing his life history and the Philosophy and times of Wittgenstein with a comrade, or something equally lenghty and tedious, and I tried to make, “hurry up, can\u00b4t you see I\u00b4m in a hurry”, type noises.\u00a0 Eventually he did but I then managed to throw all my money on the floor.\u00a0 When I say all my money, I mean all my coins which amounted to about 0.0000000003 pence, or something, and everyone decided it was the most important thing in the World that I didn\u00b4t leave the shop without every miniscule amount.\u00a0 Eventually I managed to escape, loaded down with shrapnel, and got in a taxi.\u00a0 Unfortunately the torture wasn\u00b4t over as it transcribed that my printed out address only contained a name and a postcode.\u00a0 The taxi driver then beckoned a friend over so that they could um and argh about it for a good ten minutes before\u00a0deciding that it might be a good idea to call the phone number to actually get the address.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, having suffered back injuries, and several heart attacks, I arrived at the place where “Trekker Chile” was located.\u00a0 It was officially after the time that they were supposed to close but they seemed far less bothered than I was.\u00a0 Having located a guy staying in the neighbouring hostel to act as a translator, the guy went through the van details and inventory with me.\u00a0 It was a 4 x 4 Toyota Hilux with a very funky sleeping cabin attachment thing at the back.\u00a0 The vehicle was equipped with absolutely everything you needed to eat and sleep etc plus all the necessary equipment for an emergency.\u00a0 Having showed me every minute detail, almost down to the spark plugs, I signed the paperwork, got in the van and drove off.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hire company was in the back and beyond down a gravel track so I wasn\u00b4t overly concerned that the van felt lumpy.\u00a0 Then, when I got onto the motorway, it didn\u00b4t improve.\u00a0 I told myself that I was being stupid for some time prior to stopping for food at a service station.\u00a0 I got the amazingly vegetarian, hot dog option.\u00a0 Although at least it was Chilean as it was smothered in Palta (Avocado).\u00a0 Wow, did you see that?\u00a0 A whole Chilean word, that\u00b4s your lot though you understand.\u00a0 Just don\u00b4t go expecting any more.\u00a0 Anyway, so my belly\u00b4s full and I head off again.\u00a0 The lumpiness didn\u00b4t subside and I decided that I really needed to get it checked out.\u00a0 So I turned around and headed back.\u00a0 I thought that I may struggle to relocate the place and I was right.\u00a0 After getting lost and being given directions prior to getting lost again, I stopped at another service station to ask another person.\u00a0 Fortunately Chileans are a friendly lot and this bloke really sweetly offered to show me the way, which was by no means a short drive, and practically dropped me off outside the company doors.\u00a0 Once back at the place I pulled over and the van did what I can only describe as a huge wee, i.e. it emptied its guts of water out of its side.\u00a0 I wandered around the premises and found a hostel at the rear.\u00a0 Fortunately this was where the translator guy was staying and, after a few phone calls, the mechanic arrived.\u00a0 He took a look at the water and said that it was the overflow prior to checking the van over.\u00a0 He then took me on a test drive where the van appeared to wobble less.\u00a0 We conceded that it may have been knocked into 4 x 4 or something.\u00a0 Well I convinced myself that something like this had happened and I think they thought I was a silly female driver!\u00a0 After the kerfuffle (anyone know how to spell that one?\u00a0 Nope me neither) I set off again.\u00a0 As soon as I got to the motorway it felt all wobbly again but I decided it wasn\u00b4t life threatening and carried on.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I arrived in Santiago late at around elevenish I think.\u00a0 I thought it would be a good idea to locate the airport so that I could get there easily to pick my parents up the following morning.\u00a0 I think I drove round the airport ring road thing about five times but I got there eventually.\u00a0 Unfortunately, as I didn\u00b4t want to pay for any of the airport parking, I managed to drive round two of the restricted zones at the airport.\u00a0 Fortunately I was able to do my, “I\u00b4m sorry I can\u00b4t help it I\u00b4m a stupid English girl”, look at the bemused guards so that they didn\u00b4t call for back up or shoot me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Having located the airport secure areas I headed back out of the airport, had to pay a toll for the privilige and spent the night in the van at a service station car park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So I had previously decided that I was able to collect the van that my parents had organised the day prior to their arrival.\u00a0 No problem there you might think….well that\u00b4s what I thought.\u00a0 I went to bed nice and early the previous night only to wake up at around eleven o\u00b4clock – pesky late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}