Sunday 29 May 2011

Incase of emergency use the key.

We're always keen to get out and about with the girls.  So when we received an email from our friend from the school telling us about a show at the Jardín Botánico in Viña we jumped on bus 203.  







I’ve given up trying to work out how much a bus ticket costs.  As soon as your foot leaves the road it is acceptable for the bus driver to start driving.  Unlike the buses in Australia, these buses can drive with the doors open. The noise of the road makes it impossible to know what their saying.  There is some weird price system on the window but I’m yet to correlate it to the money the driver takes.
I haven’t paid the same amount twice.  Even for a return journey in the same day there always seems to be some difference.  I give what I think the fare is then I hold out some coins and let them take the correct amount.





When we return to Australia we might open a realistic Spanish school.  Instead of sitting in a class room learning Transportation Phrases, we will put students in a flight simulator with a vacuum cleaner blowing in their face and have them hold on with one hand inches from an open door while sorting through a mountain of coins and uttering, “Two tickets for the Botanical Gardens please.”


The upside is that the bus stops right in front of the gardens and today was free entry.  We meandered about through the cactus garden, had a picnic in the rose garden and found a tranquil place to watch some water birds diving for food.  Whilst wondering through the greenery we came across a fire extinguisher in a cage.  It must have been a dangerous one as it was locked up tight.


We found the children’s theatre show and were thankful that we had insisted the kids wear their new puffer jackets.  Which strangely enough were missing whenever we took a photo of the girls.  Our next business is thermal lined jeans.  Practical and stylish.


2 comments:

  1. Okay, I snickered mightily on the bus simulator. It's the thing my mother can't stop talking about after coming to Chile! In Santiago since the TranSantiago it's a bit better, but not much. But your buses in Viña beat us every time. Pretty stuff. I'll be back!

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  2. Very very funny! I am on my way to Valpo for 6 months;) would love to talk via email. 24pfilm at gmail

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