Nov. 25: "Looks a lot like Idaho."

Robert Taylor traveled through South America from Nov. 24- Dec. 29. While there, he kept a journal. Each blog entry is an entry from that journal, posted daily (excluding weekends and a few other days), as it was written while he traveled.

I arrived in Chile today. My trip down included a free, and unplanned, trip to Miami. I didn't get to stay there long as I literally walked off one plane and onto another. We landed in the dark, so the entire city was lit up with lights. The city seemed to stretch out forever.

The flight from Miami to Santiago wasn't too bad. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me so I took over both chairs and spread out. I was able to get some sleep, though not the greatest. I dreamed about "Twilight"* some and whenever I woke up, I would freak out and make sure I hadn't lost my glasses.

*I was reading the third book at this point, I finished the series on my trip. Thanks Vicki!

When I landed, I couldn't find Tara and after a while, a taxi driver gave me a ride to an Internet cafe. I could totally see Jacquelyn (one of my sisters) freaking out about getting in a car with a stranger in a third-world country. I was able to talk to her over facebook because a guy had let her use his iPhone. I was glad to return to the airport without being robbed or kidnapped.

At the bus stop, I had to pay to use the bathroom, a first for me.* We walked to her apartment and on the way, I already started going through my bag in my head thinking of what I am going to take out for the trip. After meeting her host family, we joined her class for lunch on a pier. After we ate, we walked down the pier. There was this thing floating in the ocean with a sea lion laying on top of it. He had a buddy join him who spent the next few minutes trying unsuccessfully to figure out how to also get on the thing. It was cute, he kept poking his head out looking around like, "Hey, how'd you do that? How did you get up there?"

*Paying to use the bathroom was a common thing in South America. So much so, that whenever I got to pee for free, such as at the hostel or some restaurants, I felt like I was getting a good deal.

At the end of the night, Tara and I took a bus on the store and got on the wrong bus and had to walk back to where we started. I didn't mind at all. Not only because I didn't have anywhere else to be, but the worse thing about getting on the wrong bus in Chile was having to walk around with Tara.

Then I came back to the hostel I'm staying in, since Tara's host mom supposedly won't let me stay at her place. We stopped here on the way to the store and got me a room here. I left my bag in my room, but it was gone when I got back. I went to the main door and the lady had it who owns the place. She was keeping it until I paid for the room, which Tara said I wouldn't have to do until I checked out so I was going to wait until tomorrow to get pesos. Using my little Spanish and their no English, I was able to offer her a US $20 until I can switch it for pesos tomorrow.

I'm really appreciative of Tara's ability to speak Spanish. It makes life a little, OK a lot, easier because she can speak Spanish. It's really cool to watch her talk to the bus driver, store people, her host family and others in Spanish. She's promised to teach me and I've learned a few things today. I'll have the chance to practice tomorrow. Tara's last day of class is tomorrow, so I'm hanging out solo during the day.

At first, I wasn't so happy with the idea, then I realized I was just being grumpy and cranky from not sleeping well the last few nights and spending about eight hours by myself in the city is going to be OK. I've been in other cities by myself, it's going to be fun, but I'm going to avoid the bus by myself, if Tara can't figure it out at this point, I'm not going to try and it's not like I'll just be able to ask the driver any questions about where we're going. Trevor wrote down some phases in Spanish and English for me so I just have to point to what I want to ask. I'm going to dig it out tonight.*

*I didn't.

Just before we landed today, the guy behind me opened his window and with the mountains and farmland in view, my first thought was, "It looks just like Idaho."