Chile
Chile 2008
Last modified on 2009-04-26 00:14:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Below you will find stories from my adventures in Chile. A trip taken in february of ’08, a trip I will remember and a country I have fallen in love with. Chile…I shall return, and I would like to meet your sister too – Argentina. To read the misadventure in chronological order – please click on the “Chile” tab above.
Before I Leave
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Ready now to embark on my journey, I have yet to find a place to stay in Valdivia, a small community in the South of Chile where I plan to stay for the majority of the trip. I will be in Santiago very soon, and am very excited to walk the streets and explore the culture.
I arrive, I pay, I sleep long time
Last modified on 2009-04-24 21:11:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
The next day I decided to ignore my alarm and awoke at 1230, just in time for the most important meal of the day, almuerzo. I sped my way down a large footmall where thousands of Chilenos crisscrossed and countercrossed their way around me. This is the New York/Paris of South America…really, cobblestone streets, cafes everywhere, and ancient colonial architecture scattered throughout. On my way to find lunch I was offered a prostitute, given a glimpse of a {Cafe con piernas} – a cafe with legs literally, and noticed a large green grassy hill park filled with enormous trees and passionate lovers. In fact lovers of all sorts scattered their amor in a somewhat peculiar yet organized fashion amongst the benches, lawns and discreet corners. Lovers of all ages and of all sexual preferences seemed to be attracted to this hill. So, I thought I would give it a shot, not with the lovers, but with the hill. What made this hill so magical and endearing? I climbed, twisted, tangled and tried my way to the top where an incredible view of the city lay before me. Wow, Santiago is immense, enormous, gigantisimo! I am glad I found my little section of comfort. Oh yeah -also on my itinerary today, I was the subject of fun for a local street performing joker, I met an interesting older fellow that worked for the paper who takes 3D photos of things and looks at them for fun in his spare time, I felt like the equivalent of a two year old speaking spanish AND I made it back to the hotel safely to tell you this story. Thanks for reading…
Two Teachings of Chile..or three
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
1. No matter what, you cant put a value on talking to a person face to face, it is truly priceless. It is hard enough speaking english to a native english speaker and having them understand exactly what you mean, but a foreign language, over the phone, while trying to explain that you signed up your cell phone for the PLAN RAIMUNDO, but you cant make any calls unless you press zero three times, a plus sign, then go to a secret menu?
2. The hardest thing to do in Chile, I have noticed very early on, is not speaking their local version of spanish…or simply trying to make a local call…or blending in when you are a redhead amongst a sea of brunettes……its flagging down your waiter to pay the bill at a restaurant. Heres some great advice NEVER ask for an extra minute to look at the menu for your server will avoid eye-contact with you until you wither away from dehydration.
Best Airline Sandwich Award…Sky Airlines Chile
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Si señor. If you would like the best airline sandwich you have ever had in your life- fly down to chile, then reserve a domestic flight on Sky Airlines wait 30 minutes after takeoff, and there it will appear in front of you – a triple decker chicken sandwich with avocado, bacon, hardboiled egg and tomato, end of story. –American Airlines could learn a lesson from this – a discount airline that serves great food, a little candy while waiting to board, and two drink servings, and a tea serving all within the 1 hour and 15 minute flight.
Yesterday I had the fortunate experience of flying down to Valdivia (1 hour 15 minutes) versus by bus (11 hours) and only paying about 50% more than the bus fare. Typically I would not do something like this, but only a few days earlier I had traveled for 20 + hours to get to chile and so sitting on a bus for another 11 without any sleep did not seem too appealing.
I also had an unfortunate experience…my arrival in Valdivia. Picture this, I had been researching this town and looking at pictures for months before my trip. I was very, very excited to get here, but upon arrival into the town I started to notice some discrepencies between the photos I had seen and reality. Apparently there is a trick used in photography, or video that depends on the angle you shoot your subject. Say for instance, just for an example, hypothetically speaking, there is graffitti and trash everywhere you look. Now, you don´t necessarily want that to be portrayed in your photo so you would then proceed to choose an angle that would not show the trash. But then, as you look for more places to take pictures you notice that most of the area has trash and graffitti, so you then decide to only go to certain areas of town that are more pleasant and photograph them over and over from different angles. – This is basically what happened. Valdivia is not the place I had hoped it to be. However it is a nice little town next to two rivers, but it´s noisy, busy, a bit dirty, and very touristy. Not to sound too petty about these things, but I have done a bit of traveling in the third world and have experienced much worse- the problem is that I was expecting sooooo much more. This combined with the fact that it is the high season for chilean tourism, so all of the nicer spots are booked to the max for the next month. So…I am left with the cheaper ($32 a night) dorm style hostel with shared bathroom.
This is the other thing I have noticed. Chile seems to be a country of modern conveniences, but with third world appearance and at a considerably expensive price.
My plan for now is to stay here for two weeks until the “Noche Valdiviana” – a gigantic festival, the biggest of the year, held in the center of town and out on the rivers. Then I will find myself a glacier. Good news will be on the way, it can only get better from here.
Where wine is cheaper than water
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I noticed an incredible thing yesterday in a Chilean supermarket, a bottle of wine is cheaper than a bottle of water. Chile has at least four main wine producing valleys creating a great variety. I bought a bottle for about $2.50 and it actually was quite good. It made me wonder why domestic wine in the US still sells for much more comparatively. I decided that if I had come to the point of starvation and dehydration whilst in Chile, all I had to do was go to the corner, beg for a few pesos (actually thousands) then venture on over to the local market and get a bottle of wine. Possibly the most economical way to travel here!
After I posted the blog yesterday I took a bus out to Niebla. This is a small and fairly beautiful town out on a point where the river meets the sea. There´s a huge fortress out there from colonial times, and big beach – which I have not seen yet. My luck turned for the better out in Niebla…I found a cabaña. A cabaña if I haven´t mentioned before is like a small cabin with bathroom, a counter , sink, refrigerador, stove and bed. The reason I keep looking for these is that you can cook yourself breakfast and avoid the $10 or so at a restaurant for mediochre eggs with one small slice of toast and water. Also – there is more room in a cabaña so you dont feel as claustrophobic. I rented one at Cabañas del Rey, which is about a few hundred yards from the beach access. There is a much better feeling out there than Valdivia. It´s quiet, clean and the people I met seem friendly.
On a final note: you know that feeling you get when you are at a restaurant and you think you know what you ordered, but then out comes a plate of raw oysters and mussels doused in vinegar and lemon juice, and the waiter stands a few tables away trying to act occupied, but he keeps looking over to see if you have taken a bite?
The Real Valdivia
Last modified on 2009-04-24 22:27:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Niebla…Where I ended up moving to.
Last modified on 2009-04-24 22:30:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
The Cabaña and a little story for you
Last modified on 2009-04-24 22:43:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Answer: Nescafe – Instant coffee dominator of the world.
I was in fact looking for real coffee, as Nescafe has the tendancy to create caffeine addicts with just two cups. After pausing and staring at the Nescafe aisle for at least ten minutes, I spotted them, the imposters as they are known here, or the real coffee beans as we commonly refer to them as in the US. They were crammed into the corner, all six bags of them, partly hidden behind Nescafe advertisements and posters.
If you have ever lived in Boulder in the Summer, you will have most definitely heard the loud wailing sirens once a week in the summer. They are used as a tornado warning system, but usually only as a test. Well, having this knowledge, my first night in the cabaña in Niebla at about 12 at night a very similar and provocative warning siren went off. The kind you might hear if say…possibly…a sunami were comming? Being no more than 200 yards directly from the coast, this invoked a little bit of curiosity in me. Specifically the fact that it was pitch dark, there wasn´t anybody around to ask what the hell was happening and the sounds of approaching police sirens slowly added to the wailing. Looking out my window I didn´t notice anybody rushing out their doors and into the hills, or bundling up kids and screaming for Dios (god) to save them. So…I sat there and accepted my fate, which turned out to be sleep, because it was late. I later learned that the siren goes off everday at 12 in the afternoon as a test, and any other time it will go off because there is a fire somewhere, hence the approaching sirens.
Video of Beach at Playa Grande, Niebla
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Video of me above Viewpoint
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
The Cold Shoulder
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
One peculiar trait I have noticed whilst down here traveling in Chile is the way in which people will acknowledge me on the street. Or rather not acknowledge me at all. When in Ecuador I experienced people with curious eyes that would stare for a while and then look away, satisfied that they had positively identified a red-headed alien albino. In Venezuela, the people would stare, stare some more, keep on looking and absolutely focus on your soul until you were cursed unto the depths of hell where all satan worshiping devils should reside. Here in Chile it is the opposite problem. People will not even take the chance to glance in your direction. If you pass someone on the sidewalk they will stare straight ahead as if you couldn´t possibly exist and they should not bother to waist their energy in focusing their eyes. Now this is not too different then what one may experience in the U.S. these days, where walking in your own neighborhood and passing a stranger- not even a hello will be traded. But usually if you make eye contact with the person for long enough (in the U.S.), they will acknowledge you or smile back in some form or another. Down here this is not so. Couples will not look at you, guys alone will not give a look, and girls will not even fancy a glance. This got me to thinking about possible explanations for this unusual trait. Is it that I am very pale skinned with red hair and freckles? Probably not as the skin color here varies from a solid tan to even whiter than myself – and even redheads all the same. Then could it be my smell or appearance? Not that I can think of as I shower every day, plus I am clean shaven with clean clothes – not even those strange traveler khakis and shirts, as I brought a bunch of normal clothes. So then I thought that maybe, just possibly everyone can easily identify me as an american, and Chileans might not be too fond of us because of, among many other things, our participation in the military coup of 1973 in which President Allende was thrown from office and Pinochet ( the Military commander) took his place. What happened next became just another one of the disasters our country has created by inciting military revolts in foreign countries. About 30,000 people were jailed without trial, most tortured. ´Death Squads´were sent to each city in Chile by helicopter and arriving late at night they would break into Leftist supporters homes and kill them on the spot or take them for a ride over the ocean – from which they would never return. Here´s a link to our connection to the coup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._intervention_in_Chile
And here´s a link to the disaster that it created:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochet
Anyways the point being that the Americans screwed up, I am an American, and so forever I will be looked upon with slightly less comforting eyes in foreign lands.
Other than that I have booked the rest of my trip and in a week and a half I leave for the southernmost area in South America, Punta Arenas. – I splurged and signed up for a trip that goes into a national park to see glaciers, Guanacos (a form of wild llamas) caves, big mountains, a boat trip through fjords with more glaciers, penguin colony visiting, whale watching, and even a stop on a small farm for lunch with a huaso – or local cowboy. Now knowing my history with ´what you see isn´t necessarily what you get´ I am a little concerned, but nonetheless excited to see the mystical land of the south!
A beast that inhabits the seas of valdivia
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:23:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Something is growing on me…
Last modified on 2009-04-24 22:44:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I´m actually 100 miles south of the volcano
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:22:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7167639.stm
The book´s cover hides the story within
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:22:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I think I just made that quote up or maybe I had, at some point in time, subconsciously committed it to memory. What I mean is that the more I see and experience here in Valdivia and Niebla, the more charming and incredible this place seems to become. When I first entered Valdivia I was driven through the outskirts of town and saw a dirtier and more rural/run down part of town. A section that had bars over the windows and graffiti. However I realized that if you picked me up and dropped me into certain parts of Los Angeles, I may also feel as if I had descended into a third world oblivion (far worse than what I have seen here). The same could be experienced in San Diego, New York, San Francisco, or Denver. The point being that everywhere has bad parts and good parts and after exploring Valdivia a bit further I have come to know the better parts of the city. As I have said previously I think my main problem was comming down here with so many expectations. Don´t do as I have, but travel to a place more in wonder of what you will find and accept it for what it is to you and the people who live there. Valdivia and Niebla are basically pretty safe places. You can walk the streets at night and not have to look over your shoulder. There aren´t groups of people hanging out on corners or in yards eyeing every move that you make. It is unlike other third worlds I have traveled to – mainly just Ecuador and Venezuela where you might not want to walk down certain streets even in the day, or where you have to keep a constant watch on your backpack. Chile is like the third world that has developed into a first world without the time for renovation of its appearance.
Last night I came out of my shell and went out in Niebla to find where the constant blare of music was coming from. Since I have not traveled alone before I have found it harder to get out of my comfort zone. But last night I discovered two things, the first being a mere 600 yards from my cabaña. Another festival square that contained more artesans, food stands and a huge lit and amped stage where live performances have been going on, apparently, for the last 52 days without interruption. Its like a miniature Woodstock right here in my backyard! Local and regional musicians travel from all over the country to play at the shows here in town. Mainly classical guitarists and a mix of Mapuche fluitists and some pretty incredible singers. They all involve the crowd and get people to sing parts of the songs and participate in competitions on stage. It was a blast! The only thing missing of course was Kirsten. As I had predicted everyone in the audience was a couple except for about three people (I know because at one point the announcer asked those that were single to raise their hands). Last night I also discovered that, as my father had suggested, the Chilean people are just more shy than in other countries. I found that if I offered an hola or buenas to people passing by – instead of just an awkward smile- they would respond back the same and smile too. Apparently they seem delighted that some strange alien would offer to greet them in their language instead of acting mute.
This can also be a problem here in communicating with the locals. I have found that if you go out of your way to talk to someone that, in fact they are delighted to speak to you, and in such case will talk with an extreme rapidity that you will be lucky if you can pick out even two discernable words. Usually I will then respond with a ´¿como?´ or what? And I have found that the older women are more responsive to this question than are the men. Men will just repeat what they said at sometimes an even more incredible speed than before, as I assume a blank expression on my face. Women however, seem to realize that I may not fully understand what is being said and so will offer the delivery of words in a much slower way. At this point I realize that it´s not so much the speed that is impairing my ability to understand, but it´s the language itself. Chileans do not speak spanish. They speak Chilean. Which is of course a derrivitive of spanish but intertwined with a vast amount of cultural expressions, pronunciations, and abbreviations. Good lord, I thought eventually I would be able to perfect my spanish, but down here it represents a whole new set of challenges. (My appologies for all of the misspelled words, as constantly taking in the spanish language seems to be altering my sense of spell.)
Chilean Culture
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:22:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Here is a little insight on Chilean culture. If you are waiting in line at a store to buy something and you stand more than 3 millimeters behind the person next in line…you are bound to get cut in front of. I found this to be a very peculiar aspect of Chilean culture. It would be fairly obvious that I was standing in line with some goods ready to be bought and yet, without hesitation, someone would butt right in front of me as if there wasn´t any concern at all for them. At first I was a little bit confused and did not say anything, and then I realized that this is in fact an “everyone for themselves” culture (sort of). I was talking to the landlord of my cabaña, and he mentioned that chile is in fact a fast paced society where people are intent on getting ahead. He also told me that, like many other Latin American countries, Chileans will take you for every dollar that you are worth. At any opportunity they will nickel and dime you if you let them. In fact, they don´t separate the tourists from the locals, anyone they can shave an extra peso off of, they will. A good example of this happened to me yesterday whilst paying for my time at an internet cafe. The charge was 800 pesos (about $1.75), I paid with a 5,000 pesos bill and got back 1,000 pesos short of what I was owed. It was my poor practice of trust that really screwed me, for I did not bother to check the amount until later on. Of course it could have been an honest mistake, but either way I will now be more careful with my pesos and choose a different cafe.
An interesting detail about pricing down here: if you want a smaller house in a nicer neighborhood and good quality construction …$40,000 to buy. A two acre plot of land on the cliffs overlooking a nice beach (in a well traveled area where pricing is inflated)…$200,000. If you want to rent a pretty nice and small house in a nice neighborhood…$400 or less per month. Whereas a poorly cooked plate of scrambled eggs with a cup of the steaming instant coffee Nescafe…$8.00
Validation in Valdivia
Last modified on 2009-03-15 21:22:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
On wednesday I decided to take a tour. For those of you who are wondering what I am doing in between tours and meals…not very much at all. And it´s kind of nice! I wake up late, go to the beach for an hour, go home and rest, hike out to the internet cafe, check out the lookout point on top of a huge cliff, hike down to the “costumbrista” or food stands near the water for a snack, hike back up to the cabaña, decide if I should take a trip into Valdivia for some food or to walk by the river, then go back to Niebla for dinner and maybe a beer at the concert at night. So…after about two weeks of this I am about ready to get on to something a bit more exciting. I took a river boat tour upstream for three hours to see a wildlife sanctuary. It was without a doubt, beautiful, but without any wildlife, except a cow or two (but I am pretty sure most have been domesticated). I did meet two very wonderful and interesting characters from Europe, in the words of the British “Truly Lovely”. And we had a great time exchanging information. For example, did you know that there is the equivalent of the “Euro Railpass” for the US? Basically you can ride a train around the ENTIRE U.S., sleep on it at night as a hotel, or catch it to the next city whenever you want. I also learned that my thoughts on Chile are also shared by other people. Such as how this country is not a very warm and welcoming place to strangers, and that you pay a lot and don´t get too much. They had traveled through Argentina for the previous month and said that, compared to Chile, Argentina is in fact more developed, very cheap, and the people are all very accepting and talkative and want to know all about you and your trip. This made me realize that I may be traveling in the wrong countryafter all – for I believe it is the people you encounter on your travels that can really make a trip that much more fun.
Tomorrow night is La Noche Valdiviana, where over 10,000 boats are supposed to float by on the river with fireworks and music and all around celebration. This is the reason why I stayed here for two weeks, Please don´t let me down Valdivia.