My Landlord

When my wife and I arrived in Santiago, Chile we hit the ground running.  Literally running—well, walking quickly—down the streets on a Saturday toting everything we owned around with us as we looked for a hostel with openings.  That Saturday we were smelly and tired from a twenty four hour bus ride and sick to death of travelling after three months of homelessness.  We’d gone from Korea to Vietnam, from Vietnam to Britain, from Britain to Argentina, from Argentina to Peru, from Peru to Bolivia, and finally after a few more stops we were in our new home, Santiago, Chile.  We didn’t really have the time or money to move slowly and get used to the city, so after a good sleep we started apartment hunting the following day.

After exploring a number of neighborhoods, we found the place where we wanted to live.  It was an apartment in Bellas Artes, above a convenience store, and with enormous windows.  The bedroom juts out in a circular fashion giving it the appearance of a commercial property or, if you prefer, like the bridge of a starship.  When we called the number on the sign we had little hope of getting in touch with the landlord.  It was, after all, a Sunday and in Santiago everything seems to close on a Sunday.  According to Jose Miguel, our new landlord, “tiene suelta, muchas sueltas” meaning extremely lucky, to get a hold of him.  Apparently, he lives very far away but as he was visiting his girlfriend only a few blocks away, he was thrilled to show us the place.

He took our great timing as a sign from God.  In fact he went so far as to say that, “God has put you in my path.  You are my responsibility.”  It’s probably just coincidence but I had recently watched a horrible Heath Ledger film, The Four Feathers, while staying at a hotel.  In the film, a Muslim finds Heath after a long trek in the desert… Heath is near death.  Throughout the film the man helps Heath through thick and thin, even putting his life in great danger.  Why?  “God has put you in my path.   You are my responsibility,” he says this line a few times throughout the film.

Jose, our new protector and guardian, not only showed us the apartment but went on to explain many strange facts about Santiago: dangerous places, its orientation in regards to the mountains and the sea, the founders of the city, kids’ fashion these days, and food we should try.  Where this was quite nice, neither my wife nor I really asked or wanted this information.  He talked to us in a mixture of Spanish and English for about four hours.  I’m pretty sure he just wanted to practice his English.  “Oh, wine!” he said at one point with a mixture of delight and surprise when he saw an empty bottle in the corridor.

The next day we had decided to take the apartment.  We thought everything would be fairly simple; give the man some money, sign some papers—this was not the case.  After a long greeting (a few hours), he told us that it was too late to go to a notary but that he had a friend who would keep his office open for us.  He drove us to the other side of town (I’m not even sure it was still Santiago) and his good friend, the notary, was there to greet us.  They had already closed for the day and the whole team was on their way out, but as a special favor to our landlord, they stayed open.

The process took hours.  We were both interviewed regarding our occupation and place of origin and then the man drew up an eight page contract.  He went through every sentence with Jose trying to explain it to us in English.  I didn’t care.  I just wanted to leave.  We’d been with the man for six hours already, it was dark and I was hungry.  My Spanish isn’t that great and I was becoming exhausted.  “This line mean you pay me every month,” he said…I’M PRETTY AWARE OF THAT FACT, THANK YOU.

I don’t mean to be rude.   He is a sweet man that did, and continues to, go out of his way to help us.  That night he even took us to a huge department store where we could buy a duvet and some champagne to celebrate our new place.  He even bought us a bag of sweet caramel candy.  He invited us to go over to his place for wine and food sometime.  Why all the hospitality?  I guess because just like the Muslim man in The Four Feathers, he believed that God had put us in his way.  Given my belief system, I can’t really say I feel the same way.  I do, however, find myself constantly wondering if he saw the same film on HBO as I did.