A bitter sweet day in Santiago

I woke up early, had my breakfast and walked to the Swedish Embassy. This day too, the streets were empty. Everything was closed. There was no public transport. The restaurants too were closed. I was wondering if pope's visit would spoil all my plans for the day.
Luckily, the Swedish Embassy was open. I got my new passport and the courier with the credit cards. After that, I took a taxi to the police station about 15 kms away where I would get a copy of my police report. The place was was closed and one of the person there told me that it would remain closed for another day due to the pope's visit. Dejected, I decided to check at the immigration office if they were open to get a copy of the immigration papers that I had lost in the theft. I would need this to travel out of Chile. There were 3 offices marked on my map. The nearest ome was 3 kms away. I decided to walk there. The streets we're totally empty. People were staying at home fearing rioting and arson due to the pope's visit. I reached the place marked on the map only to find it closed. The next immigration office was shown less than a km away. Having nothing else to do, I decided to check it as well.
I reached there around 11:40 am. It seemed closed but the gate for the vehicles was open so I went in. There was no one around. I started looking into the various windows to see if I could find my way in. That's when one of the windows opened and a person asked what I was looking for? I explained that I had lost my immigration slip in a theft and I wanted a copy. He told me to come in and have a place. The entrance was from a side door well hidden from the main entrance. Here, after sitting for a while I was put through to an immigration officer who spoke English. After listening patiently to my issue he told me that since I was a foreigner I needed to go to ome of their special branch in the downtown that handles external cases and that I needed to hurry since it was a half day working only. I got a the address from them, thanked them, rushed out and called a taxi. The taxi took me to the office in the downtown just as tge tome showed 12:15 pm. Luckily, the office was still open. Here too, the gentleman who I talked to, knew English so I was able to explain the issue. He said that I could get the copy in that branch but that I would need to come the next day since they were closing now. I told them that I was leaving the next day early in the morning. He asked if I was leaving the country and I lied that I was leaving for Argentina the next morning. Then he asked one of his subordinates to look up my record based on my old passport number. He got the verification in a few minutes after which he took an immigration slip and filled it with my details and the new passport number and then signed and stamped it and gave it to me. That was it!! He didn't ask for any money, no favors or anything, just gave the slip to me and said that show this with the police report slip and I should be fine. I thanked him and walked out happy. At least some things were working out.
It was 12:30 pm by now and I was hungry. I stopped by a local restaurant and had my lunch. After that, I walked about 2 kms to the central plaza. The whole place was fortified since the pope was coming there. There were police everywhere and people had gathered around the barriers to see the pope. There were vendors selling flags, caps, tshirts, buntings and every paraphernalia one could think of with pictures of the pope. There we people waving flags and singing. I walked back to my hostel about 4 kms away. Everything was closed in this area as well. I went out just to have dinner and then slept early.Read more