It's never ideal to hear on the news of rioting in the city you're about to travel to, but I just assumed that I wouldn't be anywhere near the University and wouldn't see any clue of the violence supposedly taking place on the streets of Santiago... On the short walk from the bus station to my hostal, this assumption was proved rather misplaced.
The clean up operation from the previous day was still taking place, with fires being extinguished and debris removed from the roads, all under a hazy smog of tear gas that left everyone on the streets jogging and covering their faces to try and escape the burning effects.
Having experience the effects of the tear gas, I didn't go out looking for the protests, but stumbled across them a few blocks from the hostal. The atmosphere was a strange mix of tension from the Police, decked out in full riot gear with horses and riot vans on stand-by, and an almost festival atmosphere from the crowd of mainly young people making their way along the main road past the University area.
From what I saw, todays protest looked to be more peaceful than yesterdays, but there were later reports on local TV of a few clashes. Fingers crossed the roads aren't all closed tomorrow morning, as I need to catch a bus to the airport for my flight to Bogota.
I've also got around to uploading a few highlights from my travels since the end of the BUKE expedition to Venezuela, they can be found here, and my 365 project is up to date again.
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