Day 194: The Beat Kids

Santiago, Chile

Sooooooo, I managed to get hold of an ISIC card. An hour of tinkering on the computer, a visit to an agency, $18.5 later, I had the card in my hands Remember how I said it wasn’t worth the hassle to get the card? Well, it kinda did. I was trying to book a 4 days / 3 nights boat ride through the Patagonia in South of Chile. The cheapest bunk bed in a 46 people room would have cost me $420. With the card, I got 15% of that price. Ha!

Santiago has free walking tour just like in my major cities in Europe. I joined the afternoon tour and found out a bunch of cool places around town. Most interesting was the neighbourhood of Lastarria. It’s literally just this one street where all the bohemian hung out. Loads of trendy cafes and small designer shops around. Lastarria also borders the university neighbourhood where cheap food can be found. Our guide told us about a couple of Chilean specialties like Chorillana and Terremoto.

Chorillana is this plate of heart attack which consists of a layer of fried potato, topped with a layer of meat, topped with a layer of sausages,  topped with a layer onion, topped with a layer of egg.

Terromoto, literally translates as earthquake, is basically what it is. Wine + bitter drink + a scoop of pineapple ice cream. It goes down easy but once you get up from your seat, you’ll think that there’s a quake. The guide told us that this drink was invented as a reply to Peruvian’s Pisco Sour. For a long time, the Peruvians and Chileans were fighting over the ownership of Pisco Sour. In the end, Chileans gave up the Pisco Sour and came up with Terromoto.

By the way, check out the kids I hung out with for 15 mins: