So after crazy Bolivia was over with it’s time for a switch up, time to go upmarket and visit one of the richest countries in South America, Chile. It was just one of them places I simply just had to make it my sole purpose to get to. Yes, they are known for their wine here but there is so much more to this beautiful country then the wine, believe me!

I arrive in fairly late at around midnight after a delayed flight leaving La Paz and my flight taking off in Lima without me, powerless beyond my control due to a delayed first flight! I managed to explain the situation to the chicas working for LAN Airways and luckily I am put on the next flight, without any extra costs☺️. What was also lucky was the next flight was only an hour’s wait so not long to go at all now. My only worries were I would be arriving late and that my bag would hopefully arrive when I’m off the plane in Chile and had not gone walkies and fortunately for me, it didn’t!

Rocking up at 01:30am in morning at any hostel is never a good idea as some are actually either closed, don’t answer their door or will simply not be happy to see you but for me that wasn’t the case. I am greeted by a surfer type guy at the entrance door who I found out is originally from Spain but had lived previously in the UK and spoke perfecto Ingles! He even had a bit of an English accent too. I am checked in within minutes and the hostel was so relaxed about it that they said pay them when I want at some point in my stay. Throughout my whole trip so far I don’t think I have ever been made to feel so welcomed then I had here, plus it was a nice flipping hostel too! Cheers to Hostelworld on this one!

Time for a kip me thinks after a seven hour flight. It’s as cold as Bolivia here at night so I’m guessing the tan development will have to prolong even a bit more longer. I’m seriously going to be as white as ever before I get to Colombia at this rate and that was not part of the plan!

I only have a short stay in ‘Bella Vista’ Santiago unfortunately as I have ‘Buenos Aires’ in Argentina to quickly squeeze in after this due to me getting my future planning in order for a nice two to three weeks in Colombia. These are the sacrifices I am having to start making towards the closing stages of this trip but yeah no way was I going to miss out on seeing Chile or Argentina either way.

So my first day consisted of getting out into the warm sunshine during the day and go see the town of Bella Vista and the beautiful ‘Plaza De Armas’. Wifi on the streets here also as well! Bueno! Roads are very flat here and after having hill after hill everywhere else I had been to this was a nice surprise meaning I could do plenty of walking around without getting too short for breath! Obviously if you set off to ‘Cerro Providencia’ or ‘Patagonia’ it’s going be just a tad more hilly but my time here is limited so need to get in what I can. No time for hiking this end sadly!

Being as it’s such a hot day I am lagging a little on the energy front so I was in need of a caffeine fix. I came across a rather interesting coffee shop full of old boys and guys in suits where the girls that work there are wearing very short skirts, cleavages are on show and curves in all the right places, if you know what I mean ;). No brainer as to why all these guys are having their coffee here then! I thought to myself if you can’t beat them then you might as well join them and I go in there myself to test it out. I didn’t know where to look without looking pervy but I am the type who always has to leave their coffee to cool down a little bit so I had to look elsewhere in the meantime! Let’s just say it was a pricier coffee then normal but well worth the extra Peso ha! England should take note of this set up me thinks!

There were a few coffee shops here with the same idea and raunchier then others but I didn’t have the time to sit and drink coffee all day so after caffeine is in my system I am recharged and it’s a good time to go get in some more photos, try some of the local food which was funnily enough ‘Chilli Dogs’! Not an actual dog by the way! Very much same setup as UK Subway diners but warning to other travellers, Chile is incredibly Spanish and like no other South American country I had visited yet and it seemed only way of any form of communication was to do body language if your like me and do not speak la lingo! It was hard to get across what it actually was that I wanted to order but after eventual hand gestures and very broken bad Espano by myself we got there in the end! Spanglish work’s everytime! I had finally got my very first Chilli Dog. Delicius! It got the thumbs up and ok hand gesture from me back to the staff that worked there and they gave me a friendly warm smile☺️. It was obvious I was enjoying the food here!

That day I decided to treat myself to buying the local based football side ‘Universidad de Chile’ jersey as I was desperate to catch my first South American football game. I know nothing about the Chilean league but knew that there was a game going to be on the next day and a local derby infact up against rivals Santiago Wanderers! No way was I going to pass up on that opportunity! I am going to that game! Universidad are Alexis Sanchez’s former club before Barca and also where Chilean football icon Marcelo Salas was discovered, remember him?!

Throughout my first proper day here and not knowing much about my safety or how safe it is for tourists I only had two rare encounters with one youth eyeing up my phone I was holding by my pocket. If I had to describe him he reminded me of the typical chav we have back in the UK but obviously with a nice tan. The look I gave back to him made him realise if he dare try it on he would be in for a tough time with me believe me. The other was a crazy old man who was begging people for money like it was his divine right to have money given to him!? Told him where to go in English and that I didn’t have a clue what he was saying to which he took offence and started cursing me in his native language, pointing gun hand movements at me!? Put it this way, had he actually had a gun he would of caught my attention a bit more but I made it clear to him to go hassle somebody else, he didn’t like that bit.

Temperature at night here is a lot like need I remind you Peru and Bolivia as it really does like to drop as soon as it gets dark so sleeping in my room and being next to the window was meaning sleeping with clothes on at night! Thinking hat always on.

Next day is match day! I overhear at breakfast a German couple from the hostel were going to the game also! Nice! I used this as a good opportunity to go talk to them and introduce myself to see if they had actually purchased tickets in advance or were buying at the stadium itself and lastly most importantly if I could tag along with!? They were only too happy to make convo and talk through where they were planning to sit in the stadium. Much to my disappointment though they were wanting to sit with the neutrals and not the locals! I was happy to hang with them for a bit but only up until the entrance of the stadium.

I wanted to sit with the Universidad Ultras to get the true experience! So off we went in a taxi to the stadium (Estadio Nacional). Once we got there I bought some food outside the stadium which I thought looked like it was pork kebab in a roll (being typical English lad that I am) but to my absolute horror it was actually some weird seafood squid dish instead! ERGH! I was stuck with it for ages as there were no bins outside the stadium. I tried offering it to locals, even the police horses much to the policeman’s disapproval! Just wanted it gone as it was starting to leak and I quite clearly didn’t like seafood! I managed to get rid of it in end by giving it back to the people I bought it from who then gave me a look of clear disgust! Sorry!

The German couple did me a great deed with some locals they spotted at the ticket office which just so happened to be a lovely Chilean family who were cueing up to get tickets for themselves. They made conversation and translated in Spanish my situation as obviously they didn’t speak a word of English but managed to understand that I needed a ticket and wanted to sit with the locals! So my new found German friends then went off to the neutral end and left me with this unknown random family! They went their way and I went mine. I really wish I had grabbed their Facebook’s on that day to say a proper Thank You to them for helping make all this happen so smoothly.

So little did I realise that getting actually into the stadium itself was a very long winded process. To actually buy tickets here it isn’t as simple as just rocking up and purchasing them there and then at the ticket office. You need proof of I.D. (used my passport) and confirmation of a ticket purchase online! Oh no, don’t say I won’t be allowed in now! The family actually saw how much this meant to me, did the unthinkable and went online there and then on their phones and purchased a ticket for me in exchange for cash in hand… I had to trust them and not see this as some kinda scam. It wasn’t that much anyway so hardly them making a profit from taking that amount from me anyways. So I finally have my ticket now! Let’s get in ASAP as kick off is scheduled in fifteen mins!

The stadium is huge. As big as an airport to get round. The family went off and think they were trying to say they would meet us in the stadium!? So I went to where I was meant be sitting and it was a fair old walk around the outside of the stadium to where I was meant to be based. The family itself actually ended up driving past me to park up round near the front entrance and tooted. Then offered me to jump in their car! I literally had no idea where I was going so thought nothing of it! They seemed happy to have me aboard particularly their young son who was surely no older then about seven years old. I don’t think he had ever met a gringo before and seemed besotted with me!

We get to the gate after parking up and the older son offered me a beer to neck down and some weed as we weren’t allowed to in with obvious illegal items so that meant being crafty with La Policia! Time to get this party started! I politely decline the offer of the local marijuana but destroy that beer as it’s Gone in 60 Seconds! I was very grateful and Muchas Gracias to them all! It was then time for the rigid body search by local police and stewards in case anybody was bringing in god knows what into the stadium. There were also metal detectors, so this lot aren’t the type you want to take your chances on clearly! Once we finally got in your allowed to sit anywhere in the stand you want. You can stand or sit, whichever you prefer. Nothing like the set up in England! It’s loud, it’s noisy, it’s passionate! Fireworks going off, the fans are in full voice and they all eat, breath and sleep football. It’s a religion here! £10 tickets as well to, whatever that were in Pesos! All I can smell is the distinctive scent of marijuana and fireworks smoke, this is nothing like any other football match I have ever been to before. This is what it’s all about Ladies and Gents, Welcome to Chile!

I walk off and find somewhere to sit and say Gracias to the family for making all this happen. I wanted to get right in up amongst it. Die hard Universidad fans. I stood out a mile as the only white westerner there but in the clubs colours I was accepted as one of them! You can see in the video somebody behind me got a tad excited and knocked my phone! Luckily not out of hands!

The game itself was end to end stuff but it seemed as if the referee was favoring the opposition more then the home side. Fast paced, some great movement from both sides and in fairness Santiago took a deserved lead but it was a debatable penalty they got to score their first Gooooooooolllllllll! Even being a goal behind the Universidad fans are still in full voice. In England you would probably get some nasty things said to the opposing team and fans when going behind. Here it was like Santiago hadn’t even scored although at half time the referee certainly got a bit of a hostile reception as he went down the tunnel haha!

If I’m being honest where I was standing I was right in the middle of everything but I was dying to get some photos and videos so I had to play it safe and for the second half I moved upwards towards the top tier where it seemed a little less quiet and more so I didn’t feel like I wouldn’t get my phone taken out of my hand either! It did feel like I was being eyed up for after the game for what I had on me. Needed to be vigilant here and do this carefully so I sat somewhere where I was away from it all but could keep my phone out of sight a bit more.

The second half was frantic and Universidad almost came close to equalising but it ended up being just 1-0 to Santiago at the final whistle. The support here was something like I had never seen before. As I said earlier English fans can get on their own sides back quite a bit particularly when things aren’t going the way they feel they should be. You get a very negative feeling in England when you’ve lost but one thing is for sure here, you could not tell that Universidad had actually lost! Fans were that loyal the whole way through and in fairness they deserved to get something from this game but sadly it just wasn’t to be. A few seats were thrown onto the pitch at the end so there was a little frustration aimed at the ref mainly! My wait to see a home side win though will have to wait until Brazil when watching São Paulo, Corinthians or Fluminense. Yes I will film it there as well to!

After a long day I get a taxi back and try an amazing steak sandwich in one of the lively restaurants along Bella Vista for dinner along with some Cristal local beer. Chile isn’t as cheap as other Latin American countries so be prepared to pay a little more then usual. It’s not a dreadful amount I assure you. Inside the restaurant was live music and a replica World Cup trophy a lot like the one I have back home many know about so think this calls for yet another photo!

The next day I use to sort out last min plans for my stay in Argentina Buenos Aires. My original plan was to bus it for a day as flights were ridiculously expensive last minute. Understandably so I guess! A flight in would save me a lot of time though so surely I can find something… Then after a long hard search on Google I stumble across a site where I find a direct single flight for 80,000 Chilean pesos (£94)! Score! So happy right now! Everything is starting to fall into place. Let’s get this booked along with a hostel and we are all set to go. I can relax now knowing this is all sorted an I still have one more glorious day left in Santiago to get more photos!

I spend the rest of my last day popping out again in the opposite direction this time to where my hostel was based and I even came across a park with wifi and somebody watching TV on a sofa, using the park electric supply lol! Got some great photos that day and it was finally time to head back and pack my bag for another early departure the next morning.

Chile I absolutely loved and will come back again for sure one day. Still loads to see and do here but my time is up. Beautiful country! Next stop the airport and heading to where those noisy neighbours live. Don’t cry for me….ARGENTINA! ARGENTINA! ARGENTINA!!!