Santiago... where the old world meets the new world

HOUSING:
The last couple of days we have been having a reality check. We visited some houses... and let's just say they were not what we were hoping for. They were old, run down, smelly and the Santiago predominant idea of a garden is some paved outdoor space to put a table and chairs and park your car(s/lorry/tank)... We have other plans in mind for a GARDEN: pots, compost, raised bed to grow veg, wormery etc... perhaps even a dog or 2!

So far we have seen 5 houses. All of them pretty crap so we are a bit disappointed and are now opening up to the idea of apartments. This disappointment is not due to lack of research (try portalinmobiliario.com and you will see some beautiful pictures... it is just that the houses are so far removed from those pics that we have almost ended up visiting the same house twice because we did not recognise it after the visit in the photos...)
There are also some strange things for our European eyes... like the "habitacion de servicios" or literally room for the servants. This is basically a tiny damp little shed located in the "garden" with one tiny bed and crappy toilet where an old lady (she could be young or male I guess but we have so far only seen old ladies here) that cleans the whole house, looks after the children and pets and cooks for everyone gets to sleep (all on her own of course and with no central heating)... though she is normally allowed a TV or radio with all these very educational programs that we have mentioned before.

FOOD:
Most people seem to be under the illusion that going to the supermarket gives us the freedom to buy WHATEVER we want.

Period.

In reality, I think that this is as far removed from the truth as the photos from the houses that portal inmobiliario shows. We go to the supermarket to buy what is in the supermarket and NOTHING else. If the supermarket does not sell what you want you do not have the freedom to buy it. More so, because of the pressure that the supermarket exerts on everyone else that could be supplying what you did want, they are less likely to try and supply it.

The only reason why this is perpetuated is that most of us do not know anything other than what is in the supermarket so we cannot ask for it. We do not know what we want, we only know what we can get. This has become very apparent for us because we come from a self made vegan haven (Bristol in the UK) and we have ended up in Santiago (let's just say not yet a self made vegan haven :op)

We have outside our Santiago home probably the best shopping complex in Santiago (I might reconsider this in a few months time but at the moment it'd seem that way).

They all think it is amazing.

We do not... Our chilean friend was amused when I told him we thought this shopping mall was sh*t.

It is so large and extravagant that they even have a LUSH (£9 per soap bar... ouch!) yet we cannot buy some liquid form soy milk (not to mention oat milk, soy yogurt, almond butter, plain tofu, unsalted pistachios, organic cocoa, apple puree, biodegradable washing powder etc. i.e. STAPLES).

On the bright side, we found a fruit market near work and also possibly an organic veg box scheme.

POETRY and PHILOSOPHY:
So here is a short collection of thoughts on Santiago:

The gardens are paved
the mountains are bare
the streets have broken dogs,
bent limbs and open wounds
a jungle of asphalt with high apartment blocks

£50 per meal or £3 for a good deal
get a new nose or do endless little jobs
cars, smoke and smog everywhere
yet we buy chemicals to disinfect the air
we want free education but we are a TV nation

They can be applied to pretty much all cities in the world so let's not really get melodramatic.

When someone wants an adventure, they must realise that it comes at a price and a significant part of that price is COMFORT. Adventure and comfort are not friends.

• If you go camping, you go to the adventure.
• If you go wild camping you get even more adventure (but less comfort).
• If you want comfort, you go to a 5* hotel, there you know everything will be perfect so no surprises and no adventure.
• If you are some kind of "I want it all" person, you go caravaning but that usually results in no comfort and no adventure ;o) 

Comfort is not always a physical state (i.e. the bed is comfy/I am not too hot/cold sort of comfort). Sometimes it refers to a more general "comfort zone" (i.e. where do I go if I need to buy a water filter? where do I get my staples? why do they want us to buy stuff from Nestle and Unilever when we know they are destroying our planet?)

So this is what we are experiencing: we are LOVING the adventure but getting used to our new level of comfort and trying to consolidate the reality with our ideals and our expectations.