One of the cute things about Santiago is that there is a store for everything. Need a plastic bag? Go to the plastic bag store. Need a little wheel for a rolling chair? Go to the little wheel store. Need a printer cartridge? Go to the printer cartridge store.
This will also drive you crazy. I had this great idea to mail my Dad a bottle of wine from Chile for his birthday, which was yesterday. I bought a bottle of a sort and brand that is unique to Chile. My friend told me that the post office has service to pack and box things, but after waiting in line there for an hour yesterday, I learned they were out of all boxes.
So, today Amy offered to help. The people at a different post office told her that they also did not have packing supplies, but they referred her to the Styrofoam store. Seriously, the Styrofoam store. There, she found Styrofoam packing supplies of every shape and size, including one for the bottle of wine. But boxes-- of course not!--this is the Styrofoam store, of course. So, she got referred to the box store, which indeed had boxes, but alas, no tape. For that, you would need to go to…you guessed it…the tape store.
