Fantasilandia

When I'm not off traveling, my weekends tend to be pretty monotonous.  Friday is market day, Saturday is cleaning day, and Sunday is class preparation day.  I'm not much of a night owl, and that's when most of the weekend socialization occurs here in Santiago, so I don't go out very often.  This Saturday, however, turned out a bit differently.  It started out as normal--I slept in, enjoyed my coffee while reading the news, and still wasn't dressed by 11:30 a.m.  It was a good day, so far.  I finally got up the motivation to start washing the dishes that I'd let pile up during the week when I noticed a strange sound.  I'd lost my phone on the way to Mendoza and had just started using a new one.  I still wasn't quite used to the sound, and ignored it at first.  But the new phone has a handy "reminder" system, so it kept vibrating every 5 minutes or so until I finally realized what it was and went to check on it.  Turned out to be a message from my friend, Heather.  I hadn't seen her since before the semester started back in August!

"Hey, what are you doing?" read the message, "do you want to come out?  Like, now?  We're meeting at Fantasilandia at noon."  Of course, by the time I'd realized it was my phone making the alert noises, it was already about 5 minutes to noon!  There was no way I would be able to get dressed and all the way over to the theme park by then!  But I didn't have any other plans for the weekend, so I texted her back and told her I'd meet the group there as soon as I got ready.  I decided the dishes could wait another day, and quickly hopped into the shower.  I got ready in record time, and and was out the door in less than half an hour.  The park is actually located fairly close to my house, but because of the metro routes, it takes a while to get there.  By the time I got to the park, got a ticket, and found my friends, it was around 1:30.

www.fantasilandia.cl

It was a group of about 12 people, only half of whom I already knew.  The rest were friends of Heathers' roommates.  It was quite an international group--we had people from the U.S., Chile, Peru, and India!  When I arrived, we went through the standard introductions, and then got down to business--deciding which ride to go on next.  The rest of the group had already been at the park about an hour, but it was so packed that they'd only managed to get on one ride!  They'd stood in line nearly 45 minutes to get to the most popular roller coaster, the Raptor.  I got a quick look at it, and decided that I didn't feel too bad about them doing it without me.

It was starting to get warm out, so before choosing our next ride we decided to take a quick drink break.  It was still fairly early for lunch, so the line at the snack stand wasn't very long.  Five of us got in line to get drinks, behind two other park-goers.  The people in front of us ordered food, so they had to wait for it to be cooked.  We figured it wouldn't affect us and continued through to order our drinks.  We forgot that we were in Chile.  The cashier took our money and gave us a receipt, telling us we'd have to wait at the other end until they called us to tell us our order was ready.

The gringos waiting for their drinks...

We were ok with that; there were a couple other people also waiting just for drinks, and all the workers were busy working on various tasks.  We waited about ten minutes, and still got nothing.  Now, the cashier wasn't doing anything because there was no one else waiting in line to pay.  There were also two new workers who'd shown up but didn't seem to be doing anything.  We went to the cashier and asked her if she could grab our drinks, since she wasn't helping anyone else at the moment.  She told us we had to wait, that everything had to be done in the right order.  Then, she continued to sit and twiddle her thumbs.  We waited another ten minutes, and still nothing.  We asked another person, who completely ignored us.  Finally, the people in line ahead of us (who had ordered enough food to feed a small army) received their food.  After a total wait time of nearly 25 minutes, we finally received our overpriced fountain sodas.  By then, it was the most delicious soda that any of us had ever tasted!

Once we quenched our thirst, we began to explore our options for the next ride.  Everyone agreed upon La Pirata, a viking ship that swings back and forth.  Unfortunately, I am not the best at chugging, so I still hadn't finished my drink.  Another friend, Kimberley, also needed some more time to finish her drink, so we appointed ourselves official photographers and sat the ride out.  We did manage get some great pictures, though!  After the ride was over, everyone (well, almost everyone) decided they were up for some more adrenaline.  That meant it was time for the Boomerang!  Kimberley and I did our best to escape, but when you've got a dozen people surrounding you, there really isn't much room to run.

www.fantasilandia.cl

We were forced to get in line and wait for what looked like the most terrifying ride known to man.  And the worst part was that the line was very long, meaning that we got to sit through the horrified screams of all our predecessors.  After enduring the blood-curdling cries of about 10 groups of people, it was our turn.  I tried one last desperate attempt to get away, but two of the guys in our group grabbed me and dragged me into my seat.  At least they were kind enough to make sure I was strapped in securely! The ride lasted just under 2 minutes (yes, I timed it), and I have to say that those were the most terrifying 120 seconds of my life.  The ride is called "Boomerang" for good reason--you are first pulled backwards up a steep incline, where you sit for a few seconds.  Then, all of a sudden, you are flung forward into a spiral that promptly turns into a loop.  After you survive the loop, you are rushed up another steep incline where you are allowed a short break to catch your breath.  Then, just when you think the worst is over, you are dropped back down the incline in the opposite direction and have to endure the whole track again, in reverse!  My eyes were closed the entire time, and my hands hurt for an hour afterwards from holding on to the handrails so hard.  It took just about as long for me to stop shaking; but I survived!

The rest of the group still didn't feel as if they'd gotten their fill of adrenaline yet, so they got in line for the Extreme Fall (have you noticed that all the rides have names in English?  That's what they're really called; I'm not translating!).  Kimberley and I had had just about enough adrenaline to last us the rest of our lives, so we once again sat this one out.  We still had fun, though!  We found a nice giraffe topiary and had a very deep conversation with it while we waited for our friends.  We discovered that most giraffes are democrats, for obvious reasons.  We even snapped a picture with him.  Kimberley apparently has quite a bit of experience with giraffe topiaries, so she wasn't as impressed as I was.  I guess I need to get out more!  Apparently, free-falling from 115 feet builds a quite an appetite, because as soon as everyone got off the ride, lunch was the only thing on their mind.  We went to a different snack stand this time, hoping for better service.  Once again, we had a momentarily memory lapse about the fact that we were in Chile.  And by now it was lunch time, so the line was pretty long, too.  I wasn't hungry yet (I'd had a late breakfast), so I was given the all-important task of saving the table.  It took about 45 minutes for everyone to get their food (not too bad, given the circumstances).  We got caught up while everyone ate.  We talked about our future plans--it looks like most everyone is planning to go home (or at least somewhere else) after our contract is up.  We also got to know the new people in the group, which was quite interesting.  It was fun to compare cultures (and discover that amusement parks are overpriced with much too long of lines in just about every country).

Lunch took about two hours, and by the time we were finished, I was starting to feel about ready to go home (besides, I had a Skype date with Scott that I didn't want to miss) .  I agreed to go on a couple more rides before heading out.  We got in line for a water ride, the Rapid River.  Just in time, too, because it started to rain while we were in line!  Everyone else  must've had the same idea, because it was probably the longest line we'd been in all day.  It took about an hour to get to the front of the line.  The line wound back and forth, and in front of us on the other side of the rope was a man with his young son.  When he saw me, he pointed right at my face and started saying, in English, "blue eyes!"  I kind of gave him a smile and tried to go back to talking to my friends, but he kept talking.  I finally said, "yes, thank you," just to get him off my back.  But then he had to point out to me that his son had green eyes (obviously making us soulmates), and try to get my life story.  Luckily, the line started to move so I didn't have to talk long.  Until we ran into each other again as the line snaked back onto itself once again.  I had to endure five awkward Spanglish conversations with them before the line straightened out and we finally got rid of them. Or so I thought.  When we got on the ride, he was waiting in the spectator area.  He shouted to get me to look at him, and snapped my picture!  I guess I should feel flattered?

I think the ride was fun, but I was a bit flustered by my new friend.  After being around the water so long, I had to take a bathroom break.  I set out to find one while the rest of the group got in line at bumper cars.  The line at the bathroom was just as long as for the rides, so by the time I got back to the group, they were next in line for the cars.  So, once I again, I became official photographer.  It was actually really fun to watch everyone fight it out in the bumper car arena!  My camera wasn't too happy about the low light and quick movements, but I got a couple decent shots.  And a whole bunch of really funny ones!  After the bumper cars, I had to head out, but everyone else decided to stay another hour until the park closed at 8:00.  We said our good-byes and went in our separate directions. It was nice to get out and do something a little different, and to meet some new, fun people while doing it!