Bucket List – Go to Fantasilandia

I have a bucket list that I want to try and achieve by the end of my exchange, which you can see here. One of the places I wanted to visit on the list is Fantasilandia, which is an amusement park in Santiago. Honestly, I didn’t think that I would be able to complete this goal, because I wasn’t able to go before COVID-19 took over, and I wasn’t sure if it would open up before I had to go home. But, since restrictions have been lifting recently, Fantasilandia has just recently opened up, and by a stroke of luck, I was able to go.

It was a birthday gift for my host brother, Pancho, who turned 16 a few days earlier. No one else in the family wanted to go, so Pancho and I spent the day together there.

Of course, we are still in a global pandemic, and so the experience of going to an amusement park currently is very different from what it would normally otherwise be. There was a limit of how many people could enter the park, so there were fewer people than there would be normally – or so Pancho told me, the lines to the rides apparently missed that memo (I joke). Everyone needed to wear a mask at all times, except when eating or drinking. Alcohol gel was applied before you entered the lines of any ride, then it was applied again before you got on the rides, and the seats of the rides were disinfected between each ride, all in order to try to reduce the chance of germs spreading, and any possibility that COVID-19 could be spread. There was also 1.5m physical distancing enforced in all parts of the park, especially within the lines for the rides. Overall, I felt very safe and I think that all of the right safety precautions were taken throughout the day.

My favourite rides of the day would have to be El Raptor, which was a really intense rollercoaster, El Boomerang, which was another rollercoaster, except once it completed its first way around the track, it reversed and did it all again backwards, like a boomerang, and El Spider, which is like the Ranger (I think its called) at luna park, except you are also spinning while going around and upside down. I am not great at explaining what they are all like, but they were all very fun. I didn’t get any photos of the rides, only videos, which I can’t post on this blog because it only allows photos, but I will probably post on my Facebook.

I would like to give out special mentions to this ride (which I do not know the name of either):

In which you rotate around not only in the seat you are in but also while rotating with the like arms of the ride. Honestly, I’m so sorry, I don’t know how to describe it, it was just really fun. There was also a ride like the Hairraiser at Luna Park, where you go all of way to the top and then drop really fast, and also a little rollercoaster which wasn’t that intense but really nice to go on, which I got photos of.

We had lunch in the park, and I had un completo italiano, which is a type of Chilean hot dog that has avocado, tomato and mayonnaise. I didn’t realise it would be so big, and it ended up being about as long as my forearm, I almost couldn’t finish it. It was reallyyyyyy yummy though.

We ended up staying in the park for the entire time it was open, which was about 7 hours, and so at the end of a big day of going on rides and walking around a lot, both Pancho and I were beyond buggered (Pancho especially after spending all day being annoyed by me), and so he slept in the car ride back home, where I got this amazing photo:

And so, I leave you to rest, just like Pancho, and I’ll end this blog post here.