The night was long and arduous… seems I had a good sip of local water, somehow, and my system was definitely not immune from my visit from a year ago. By morning, I still felt tired but somewhat better.
The day would be a day of discovery through walking. The plan was to find a few recurring areas from the various agencies, and a promising site—http://www.portalinmobiliario.com—I’d managed to get from some Australians intercepted on the street, and walk around looking for signs or simply asking the front desk if they had rentals available.
Walk I did, with Plaza de Armas as a rallying point, I walked east to Lastaria (metro Bella Artes), a very urban area nicely located and filled with activity. I think it pretty much around Mosqueto and Santo Domingo, where there’s a nice park before turning into asphalt desert and the rio Mapocho.
Then north, across the Mapocho, to barrio Patronato: not a place I’d like to have to go late at night. It was dry, downtrodden, and looked like the kind of place that would be completely dead by nightfall.
One thing that kept coming up were the small hords of dirty, and smelly—but not just regular I-haven’t-washed-in-weeks smelly, more like dipped-in-vinegar smelly—youths panhandling pretty much everywhere. I’d seen, and been perplexed by, the same last time around and they seemed more numerous than ever.
Well, I finally got an explanation: no they aren’t some weird subspecies that crop up in South American cities. Well, in a way they are, as I’ve never seen anything like it up north… in any case, they are the hapless victims of university initiations forced into smelly servitude as a right of passage.
Circled around a few times, not much luck seeing any kinds of posted signs. A few of the buildings I enquired with actually had temp rentals, including some really nice ones near Santo Domingo and Mac Iver, but none of them were ever available–blast you, U2 concert! Many would be free soon, but only on the 27th, after the show.
At the Moneda St*rbucks, got some refreshment and connectivity. Managed to talk with a few advertisers from Portal Inmobiliario, by phone, which was pretty difficult but worked out rather well. One woman had an interesting place, just south of where I was a little passed Alameda (the common name for O’Higgins). She told me to call back tomorrow, as it was occupied until then.
I walked down to check out the area. Seems like south of O’Higgins is almost always the wrong side of the tracks. Just in front of La Moneda, there’s a nice public space, with vendors and fountains, but things degrade quickly.
I enquired about apartments with two people who were exiting a building. They started providing suggestions but were interrupted by a woman in a nearby kiosko. She said she knew of someone who was renting and had a place available. She called to confirm, and gave me a number to call in 45 minutes. She wasn’t too clear on where it was, other than a little bit further south, but seemed nice and I pocketed the number for Daniella, the owner.
Daniella said the people were vacating and that I should call back around five. Ambling back up north, I encountered a few friendly doorman, who usually had nothing for me but could point me to some add posted near the elevator, with a number for an agency or an owner renting to tourists. Most were dead ends or way out of my price range. Back at Plaza de Armas, the screeching preachers and sunshine were starting to get to me.
I managed to get disoriented somewhere southwest of the centre, and walked for a long time trying to stay in the shadows and drinking agua sin gas like mad. Finally found my way back to the pedestrian Ahumada, and got in touch with Daniella. “Oh my, you’re far. Call me when you’re at O’Higgins”.
Walked there and called. “Ok, walk directly south, 3 blocks to San Antonio”. So, I took a right and walked a block in order to approach our rendez-vous from the west—with the sun at my back—and have a bit of a preview rather than being an easy target. Then I walked down the three blocks. Hm, not the right street… kept going a bit, one, two… ok, I made another call. Told Daniella where I was: “Stay there, I’ll come and get you”, “Uh, no way, I’ll come to you” was my answer. “Yes, ok, continue just a little more”.
Walked down two more big blocks and got a call: “Where are you?” This was getting pretty damn fishy, and the fact that I stood out like a giant sore thumb in this neighbourhood didn’t help. Couldn’t imagine coming down here late at night and all this seemed like a trap. “I’m at Eyzaguirre now”. “Oh, well I can’t see you, I am near the big dog”. No idea what she was talking about, as I was a block west.
So she was at some different cross-street than expected. That was enough for me, I called it off and started walking back immediately. “Puuuucha”, she exclaimed. I told her it had been a much longer walk than expected and that I wouldn’t be happy, that I could get the something next to the metro for the same price. Really, the whole thing seemed too fishy. She seemed disappointed but understanding. Might not have been a trap, sure smelled like one though, and all I can really count on here is my guts, so that was that.
Made it back to Nuble, barely. Felt like I was going to fall on my face at any moment… might have been the exercise from the day before, the stomach troubles from the night, sunstroke from the rays tapping all day—probably a combination of all three—but I was feverish, and could hardly move. Went to bed at nine, with every muscle in my body aching.
