We picked up the subway near our apartment at the Santa Lucia station (during rush hour) and figured out how to buy two tickets. They were around $1USD each.
When Phillipe said the street was known as New York, I thought that was a nickname. Nope, the street the stock exchange is on is called New York Street!
We walked through a schlocky market that seemed neverending and saw there were two staircases leading to two bus stations. Um.. ? We chose one and luckily were able to determine we were right. 50/50 there. At the top of the stairs were several rows of small kiosks (probably over 70) with different company busses going all over the place. Um...? (recurring theme here.) We wandered and found an information booth. We of course had no idea what she said, but heard numbers and then realized each kiosk had numbers and we to that one. Voila! We got two tickets and walked towards the busses, finding the number. The bus said Milipellas, which is the large town closes to Pomaire. "Pomaire?" Si sinora, so we went on the bus. We had read there was a direct at 9:30, but apparently not.
We drove for around an hour in the bus, which looked like a very old tour bus you'd find in the US (not a city bus.) The speed was posted digitally which was interesting. The bus stopped at many places and didn't announce where it was, so we had no idea where to get off. We finally asked, "Pomaire?" and he said 'no, no.." then shot off in rapid fire spanish that neither of us understood. Of course, we understood, "no", however, that didn't help us much.
We stopped at a very small bus terminal and everyone got out. The bus driver waved us out, and started talking. Too fast, no clue. He again waived us on, and this wonderful man walked us five minutes down the road to a bus stop, where a bus with a sign "Pomaire" at the front immediately came into view. Thank you, thank you!!
He told the bus driver something and waived us in. We laughed thinking that he said, "Please help these poor idiot tourists!" The bus was a very old, rickety, noisy and smelly thing, but took us to Pomaire.
Our first view of Pomaire looked to me like a very poor Mexican town. Many of the shops and restaurants were closed up but some were open. We went into the first, trying to shake off our trip and laughing. Two women were inside. One spoke a tiny bit of English and was so kind to write down the bus we needed to catch, where to get off in Milipellas so we could show the driver and he would show us where to get off, and where to get the Santiago bus and what bus to take. wow. we bought a couple of things to thank her. She also warned us to pay the bus in small bills or "our money would walk away." and we wouldn't get chance. thank you!!!
This made me giggle on the bus. German sticker, Chilean flag and buggs bunny.
Smurf house
Our two buddies waiting while we shopped. The puppy on the right was playing with us and super cute.
Pomaire is an artisan community known for pottery and especially their small clay pigs:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomaire. There is a tradition of giving Chanchitos, little pig statuettes to friends and family for good luck. I'm a magnet collector and love getting magnets reflecting and area, so I got one. Had I read they were for good luck before leaving, I would have gotten more! These are available in Santiago as well.
The lady suggested the restaurant next door for lunch and we thanked her and walked a bit. Two cute dogs greeted us when we walked into town. One was a black and white puppy who clearly wanted to play and was dancing around us. We found him again and he escorted us through, stopping a few times to try to score snacks. The dogs in Santiago avoided people mostly but these were super friendly and clearly more hungry.
We continued walking, and walking the length of the town took less than 15 minutes, even with a couple of stops. We went back to the restaurant for lunch, and got empanadas and pastel de choclo, a famous local dish that Phillipe recommended. He said it was corn, meat and onions, so we were expecting almost like a pot pie with cornbread or cornmeal. This was mashed sweet corn, with some chopped beef, onions, chicken wings and an egg white. Interesting. The corn wasn't bad but it was large and more than we could eat.
We stopped in one more pottery shop and he had beautiful things. Most of the pottery is rust-colored or dark brown. The painted colors really are silly, with bright yellow, bright red and thinks like Bart Simpson's head or the minions. This was rust but had a glass-like paint on it. He had some pitchers and small glasses that were stunning and I was tempted, but we got some small bowls that will hopefully survive the trip and will be easier to carry.
We went to the bus stop and saw a couple go by then crossed the street to jump on one as we were not sure if all the buses looped around. The town basically had two main roads that run parallel and some small side streets. There were many large buildings with many artisan stalls, many of which were still closed when we left.
The return was a dream relative to our trip in! Just as the woman in the store said, everything went smoothly and before long we were zipping back to Terminal Borja. We headed to the Correo Central (post office) to get a post card for my nephew and stamps. I saw people grabbing a ticket so i did, and we had to wait ten minutes until my number was called. That was new for me!
It started to drizzle but the museum was five minutes away. I'm glad we were able to go to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino http://www.precolombino.cl/. It was small but really beautiful and had a lot of gorgeous tapestries and pottery pieces from south and Central America. I love this stuff so it was a beautiful place.
We walked back to Plaza de Armas, a minute away, to a restaurant that had chicha on a sign in the window. Phillipe told us about chicha here, and that it's seasonal. It's a fermented apple drink, unlike chicha in Peru which is fermented corn. It was interesting and tasted almost like mulled spiced apple juice. No fizz, and didn't take like it was alcoholic though I felt it a little when we left. We got a small plate of papas bravas (fries) and there were a long time waiting for our check. Even after we flagged someone down to find our waiter to bring it, it was 15 minutes. Maybe 30 in total. The service in Chile is very poor overall. I read about it and have found it, except for the Sur Patagonia restaurant.
Chicha
We wandered back to our place, stopping at a pastry place to try another local pastry, leche asada. The other one we had is alfajor in this list. And mote con huesillo is everywhere. I believe it's a peach in peach juice and the bottom is some grain, but it looks absolutely vile, and as Kim said, 'mystery funk.' No interest, even if it is all over the place. Blech. There is a lot of caramel here, from what we see.
http://www.cascada.travel/News/Top-10-Chilean-Desserts-and-Sweets
Most people wear dark clothes in this city, so my lime green winter parka really stands out. :) At least I'm not the american with white tennis shoes!
We have a flight tomorrow and are getting picked up at 7 am. woohoo!! Will be an early night tonight as we pack, snack and finish downloading pictures from the day.
Good night!! :) I'm SO so so excited about the next leg of our trip.. Wheeeeee!
s
PS I forgot to post that I got a State Department security alert today. 9/11/15 marks the anniversary of the 1973 military coup and demonstrations and marches are expected in the downtown area. This may be why there is an increased police presence right now. Thankfully we will be in our next place at this time as we fly out tomorrow. :)
pps the restaurant in Pomaire is La Fuente de mi Tierra. And they are on Facebook!
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