Aelfgifu Travels

Hi Aelf Crew,

Welcome to the second post in my Chile series. 

Although I wasn’t in the country for long, I did experience enough to pick up plenty of insights to share a story along with a few tips and lessons learned.

Whilst in Santiago, a large protest took place to mark the 5-year anniversary of the social unrest in 2019, widely regarded as the most violent unrest since the country regained democracy in 1990. The original protests were fuelled by frustration over social inequality in the country, including the high cost of living, low pensions and calls for constitutional reform. When I went in October 2024, thousands gathered in the Plaza Baquedano and were met with a heavy police presence, who used tear gas and water cannons.

During the day I spoke to other travellers at my hostel who were hesitant to venture out partly because of how great the location of the hostel was to the main plaza that we were located just minutes away from the protest site and partly because we could literally hear the water cannons from the hostel.

By evening once the protests had already concluded, I went out but the tear gas lingered so thick in the air that I was sneezing uncontrollably along the specific main road and was unable to keep my eyes open – it was clearly used extensively.

Tips to Learn from Aelfgifu:

• I have mentioned many times on my blog before about basic research that I recommend doing before travelling, including reading weather forecasts, checking the seasons, researching bank holidays and I can comfortably add now that it is wise to be aware of political contexts – for example if you’re heading somewhere with a recent history of unrest!
  • These are not so easy to research as there often isn’t information shared online to dissuade police intervention however, if I had known there were protests exactly 5 years to the day in Santiago, perhaps I would have been less shocked at the crowds forming early that morning!

Have you ever accidentally gotten involved in a protest abroad? Let me know below!

From the barricades,

Aelfgifu