Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

January 13, 2008

“It’s amazing how just going to the grocery store is a mission for you.”

That’s what my boss said when I wrote her to tell her about my supermarket adventures. And it’s true. A lot of things when you live abroad, that would normally be quick errands, turn into “missions.”

This week I decided I needed to be more independent, so I would go to the grocery store by myself, meaning drive myself. I’ve driven in Santiago before, but always late at night when there is absolutely nobody on the roads. Never having lived in a truly large city before, I’m not used to a lot of traffic, let alone having to dodge double long buses, pedestrians, stray dogs, and horses.

I was beyond nervous before even leaving my building’s underground parking lot. As I went to turn out, I couldn’t see cars coming from my left because of a giant Coca-Cola semi-truck unloading at the Mexican restaurant next door. So I nudged the nose of the car out slowly, little by lit

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Angry horns blared, and that was the minute my attitude changed. I needed to eb aggressive. When in Chile, do as the Chileans do. So I just pulled out assuming that any cars would slam on their breaks or swerve and let me in. So I made it safely out onto a main street but I didn’t know where I needed to turn in order to get to the grocery store. I despise driving if I don’t know where I’m going! I felt really paranoid that I was going to miss the street, so I turned when I saw a sign that started with the same letter as the street I was looking for. From far away it looked like where I needed to go! Well, that was a huge mistake. I had ended up turning onto a one way dead end street. To get off it I had to go onto another one way street…and so on and so forth, until I ended up a good couple of kilometers in the wrong direction from where I needed to be headed.

Finally I found the street that I should’ve turned onto in the first place, but the only way to get to it was to put myself in a public transportation only lane.

Chile has streets, divided by these big bumper things that you can’t cross, which separate bus/taxi lanes from the regular car lanes. I was in a bus lane, looking desperately for a way out. I knew the bus lane meant certain death for my tiny little red compact car when up against a massive fume spewing Transantiago machine. The problem with the bus lanes is that the buses regularly change lanes without looking-they’re so huge they expect you to watch out for them. But when you’re in the special bus lane, you have no way to swerve and avoid them because of the barriers the city put up blocking the bus lane from the regular lanes.

The worst happened. A bus tried to change lanes without seeing me. I laid on the horn, closed my eyes, and prayed for the bus. He missed! Then at the next stoplight the driver thoroughly cursed me out. It’s ok, I deserved it. I was infringing on his buses only territory.

I found a way out of the bus lane and eventually made it to the grocery store. All good right? WRONG! You’re forgetting…I still had to get home.

So on the way back I turned out of the supermarket going the exact same way I came in, to get back to the main street I ha

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A car cajoling straight at me had to slam on it’s breaks. What’s going on? I looked around confused, only to see a man who was watering his garden, drop his hose and run out onto the street and start making motions like a traffic control director at an airport. Oooooh, he wanted me to turn around. One way street. Woops!

With my life and my groceries intact I turned around and headed in the right direction on the one way street. Only problem is that it was the wrong direction from where I needed to be going and it wasn’t a main street either. It was just a little side street, that led to another one way side street and another. I ended up taking a completely roundabout way home, taking the main street in all of Santiago, which runs from one end of the city all the way to the other, the dreaded Alameda. At any given time on that street there are anywhere from 4-6 lanes of traffic in each direction, including crazy bus lanes. S. had specifically given me directions to avoid that street because he feared for my life if I made the attempt to drive it. But, I had no choice. After the roundabout one way streets led me back through, it was the one familiar route I knew would take me home.

Let’s just say that my trip down Alameda involved the following scenarios:

1. Getting stuck in a left hand only turn lane, then narrowly avoiding getting rear ended trying to get out of it.
2. An idiot pedestrian who ran out in front of oncoming traffic making me have to slam on my brakes to avoid running him over(actually reminding me of the time I was with my family driving us to my apartment in Santiago, when a homeless guy was standing in one of the lanes in a one way high way in a TUNNEL. There are no ledges to stand on to get out of the way. I swerved around him but I’m pretty sure somebody eventually had to have run him over. There was just no way around it).
3. A truck who pulled a Chilean (cars here do this ALL the time) and just stopped in the middle of the road to start loading and unloading workers, regardless of the fact that they’re on the busiest street in all of Chile and there are hundreds of cars behind him trying to get by. So therefore, I pulled, well, another Chilean, and just created a new lane where there wasn’t one. Chileans also do that all the time. The white dividing lines on the road aren’t necessarily strict lane markers, they’re more like general suggested guidelines. If you can squish your car in between cars that are already within the lines of other lanes, well, then you just created yourself a new lane and there’s nothing wrong with that! How many cars can squeeze into one lane in Santiago? The answer to that question is always-the more the merrier!

But, I made it back and I’m alive. Next week I’m driving to a get together that’s pretty far from where I live. So this story about my driving adventures will be continued I’m sure…

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18 Comments

Okay, tell the truth now. Did you at any time have your eyes closed while you were driving?! (The Bag Lady does this when she has to drive across bridges, because she is afraid of heights, and water, and always assumes the bridge is going to collapse…she also holds her breath. Like..why? She doesn’t know, but she can’t help it.)
Good for you for driving safely to and from the grocery store!

Comment by the Bag Lady — January 13, 2008 @ 4:28 pm

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I suffer from gephyrophobia (fear of brdiges) and have to concentrate not to hold my breath when crossing. I’m not afraid of the water but I’m afraid of heights and also afraid of an accident on a bridge where it doesn’t look like there is anywhere to go except over the side.

When we were visiting K. in Chile, we rented 2 cars and I was forced to drive on that crazy Alameda street too. I was petrified. Then when we were on our way to go horse back riding there was this sort of old saying wooding bridge that we had to cross. On the way there we got out of the van we were in and walked across and then the van came across. But for some reason the driving thought it was O.K. on the way back to drive the van with all of us in it. I was afraid enough walking across it but I was scared to death being in that van crossing it. I just kept imagining the worse.

Comment by Mamacita Americana — January 13, 2008 @ 4:43 pm

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Oops. Guess I didn’t proof read very well. That was supposed to say “swaying” not “saying” and “driver” not “driving”.

Comment by Ritamae — January 13, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

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LOL! Oh man! It sounds like the Chilean driving culture isn’t that far from the New Jersey one!

Comment by mexpat — January 13, 2008 @ 5:29 pm

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I can’t wait to hear how your friends feel about your driving when you go back to the Midwest…

Jayna

Comment by Anonymous — January 13, 2008 @ 9:18 pm

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Ritamae – the Bag Lady understands totally – even the spelling errors! The memory of the bridge-crossing was enough to make you forget your grammar…:)
The Bag Lady now can put the proper name to this particular phobia of hers – gephyrophobia. She didn’t know what it was called, just that it made her seriously want to vomit. She has to cross a bridge to get to town from where she lives, which is part of the reason she does a really big shopping trip once every two weeks….and spends a lot of time coming up with excuses as to why she can’t possibly go to town today…or tomorrow…oh, can’t it wait until next week? Or even the week after…?
Oh, and do you do the “whole body shiver” once you get safely across and can breath again?

Comment by the Bag Lady — January 13, 2008 @ 9:30 pm

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LOL at your “missions”.

And…thanks for your excitement about my wedding!! I can’t believe how quickly it is creeping up…

And unfortunately I was unable to find any LMY episodes online ANYWHERE… it’s SO good though, I hope you get to watch it somehow!!

Comment by Sarita — January 14, 2008 @ 1:40 am

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WOW! I read this post sitting on the edge of my seat (will she get home safe? Will the car still be intact? Will she avoid running over someone?)… not because I might think you drive badly but because I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.

I love driving in Mexico, anywhere, everywhere anytime…… EXCEPT in Mexico City, there I put my foot down (and I’m not talking about the gas peddle either); people in el Distrito Federal are completely and utterly NUTS. They zigzag past you, cut in front of you, brake without giving warning, switch lanes with the wrong signal on, honk at you for no reason and just like in Chile, the buses load and unload passangers anywhere in the middle of the street (a true classic!)…. it’s so horrible I prefer taking a bus when I have to do ANYTHING in Mexico City.

Hats off to you girl. If you made it on the Alameda avenue, chances are you’ll probably make it on Reforma avenue in Mexico City too!!! That’s what I call brave! LOL

Fned.

Comment by Fned — January 14, 2008 @ 9:08 am

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This sounds all so familiar to me! I too have been caught going down a one way street. But how the hell would I fricken know it was only a one way? I wouldn’t!!!! You’re driving along la la la and all of a sudden it turns into a one way. There are no signs or any indiction that it’s one way. And people aren’t helpful about it either. They decide that its best to try and hit you and flash their lights and honk at you as they drive straight FOR YOU. Yeah never mind getting out of the way or slowing down and rolling down your window to help a sistah out. Nope.

All of the rest of the stuff holds true for Cancun as well.

Holy. SAFE DRIVING!!!!

Comment by Mexico Way — January 14, 2008 @ 9:21 am

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Wow, were you hearing the Indiana Jones theme music in your head? Your experience makes me want to keep my international driverÂ´s license right where it is: tucked away in my pijama drawer. My major problem with Stgo traffic has been that some roads in this city seem to have been specifically designed to kill cyclists.

Comment by Leigh — January 14, 2008 @ 1:01 pm

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My parents never took me out to teach me to drive, so my first experience driving was in driver’s ed. You may not think that’s a bad thing, but I was living in SC where everyone drives (or used to anyway) at 14 or 15. They take driver’s ed for the insurance discount. I was 16, going on 17 and I’d never driven before.

Needless to say the driving instructor screamed at me the entire time. I was terrified of driving for a couple of years. Once on the interstate a truck got mad at me because I got over to let a car in merging in a construction area. He had little choice but run into a wall, get over and hit me, or stop. And if he stopped I’m sure he would have never been able to merge into rush hour traffic.

So I was nice and got over into the next lane. But the truck who came bearing down on me was pissed off that he had to slow down, even though I got back into the slow lane as soon as I’d passed the merging car. He pulled in front of me and slammed on his breaks. I was going 60 (speed limit was 55) and I was terrified I was going to spin out of control as I slammed on my breaks. So terrified I passed out for about 15 seconds (well, my vision went black because I was certain I was going to die).

I avoided running into him and after that I decided that I couldn’t be terrified of driving. The thought of passing out terrified me more. No way was I going to risk that.

And since then I’ve been a much, much better driver.

It sounds like you’re on your way to the same. You just have to be confident in yourself and learn the area a little better. You were very brave considering. I don’t know if I’d feel confident driving in a foreign country.

Comment by ordinary girl — January 14, 2008 @ 3:27 pm

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Lmao The Bag Lady rules. Speaking in 3rd person might one day be fashionable xD

Comment by Anonymous — January 14, 2008 @ 4:40 pm

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what an adventure, brave girl! (stress for you, yet entertaining for us!)

Comment by feistyMNgirl — January 14, 2008 @ 6:36 pm

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I don’t have to cross any bridges on a daily basis but I’m wondering if I were in The Bag Lady’s shoes if my gephyrophobia would be a blessing to my budget.

Comment by Mamacita americana — January 14, 2008 @ 8:34 pm

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That was quite an adventure. I’m also terrified of driving in large cities. I worry about all the bad things that might happen—pretty much the ones that actually happened to you!

Glad you lived to blog about it!

Comment by MommyDonna — January 15, 2008 @ 11:38 am

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You are one brave woman! I tell you, I’ve been known to map out directions in my head before I get in the car so I don’t have to make any left turns unless I use a traffic light…I swear, my heart was in my mouth the whole time I read that post! You must have felt so accomplished…and the good thing about losing your way, is sometimes you find something even better…and you can always backtrack!! I think it was a good first trip out…

Comment by Chickenbells — January 15, 2008 @ 3:45 pm

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So crazy!! We had a similar experiences in a rental car in Italy. I let Mike drive and hid my eyes the entire time. you are so brave!

Comment by Cara — January 15, 2008 @ 8:01 pm

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Wow, I hate driving in the city. It is sad when I consider Jacksonville, Fl a big city. But I still hate driving anywhere new a bunch of cars, and more than 4 lanes!

Comment by TD — January 15, 2008 @ 8:25 pm

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