Incredible that I visited this very town that the video is showing footage of. So beautiful. The global fishing industry needs regulation, but regions where it is harvested on a mass scale such as Chile as hit the hardest by the ever-increasing demand and the lack of supply. This effects the pescaderos artesenales, or independent fisherman who depend on this for a living. Obviously the excessive use of hormones and the effects of bacteria are incredibly detrimental to the industry as well, not to mention the Chilean economy as a whole. This all can be tied into environmental impact, but the situation has economic and social impacts too.
Mark Scheffler March 4, 2009
Showing posts with label patagonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patagonia. Show all posts
Monday, March 23, 2009
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Patagonia and Despedida
I know I know, it's been now multiple weeks since my last entry, but with good reason. I was down south at the Strait of Magellan and its surrounding areas for the last two weeks, followed by my two final days and Chile, and then a hop over to Buenos Aires to meet my family. I have had such a great, relaxing time recently and things have just been getting better now that my family and I have reunited.
So my journey began way back on Saturday December 6th. That day I had had to say goodbye to my host mother Lucrecia since she was traveling to Switzerland to visit her daughter and new born grandson for 3 months. That was very sad to have to say goodbye so early, but I have her email address of course as well as her Skype account so we can easily keep in touch. Anyways, my program buddy Finn and I had bought our tickets the month or so before to Punta Arenas, which is the largest city in the southern tip of Chile that you can fly to essentially and access the surrounding areas. Before we got on the plane, Finn's host family had organized an asado (giant tasty BBQ) to fill us up nicely before heading into the wilderness. We left from the lunch directly to airport, where I had to say my goodbyes to another program buddy, Dan, since he was going to be out of town (Santiago) when I got back because his family was coming down to visit and tour Chile for the holidays. I will see him back in the states for sure since he is from San Francisco.
That afternoon, we got on a 3 hour plane ride to Punta Arenas, where we stayed the night in a hostel with the plan of touring the town and picking up supplies over the course of two days before taking a bus to the city of Puerto Natales, the 'base-camp' town to the National Park of Torres del Paine. Strangely, we were able to pick-up our food for camping, last minute supplies, and tour the entire city in less than one day, so we decided to change our bus tickets to that afternoon rather than stay another night in Punta Arenas and leave the next morning. In terms of exploring the town, we visited a museum on the history of the region that was conveniently located across the street from where we were staying, walked through town and visited the central Plaza with a giant statue of Ferdinand Magellan, and visited the Strait of Magellan.
After a 3 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales, we took refuge in one of the three hostels all under the same name of "Erratic Rock." This hostel is a well run ship, with a great system and awesome owners. They are two friends from Oregon who decided to move to Puetro Natales and open their own hostel after visiting the national park, and now they are part of a co'op under the same name which has 3 hostels in Puerto Natales and one in Punta Arenas, all with the same system and feel. One in particular in Puerto Natales is a multi-function hostel, rental equipment provider, and information source for any questions about the park and the surrounding area. Each day at 3 p.m. they have an info-session for all backpackers. So we stopped by the hostel to talk to the owners about our plan to do the "W" trail in the park and how to arrange for bus to take us to the park. The next morning we left at 7 a.m.
Each leg of our journey is marked in a different color, with START and END labeled.
The bus ride to the National Park of Torres del Paine is about 2 and half hours with multiple stops depending on where you want to be dropped off. Normally foreigners have to pay $30 to enter the park, but since my buddy and I had Chilean identity cards, we only had to pay 8 dollars. Too bad the $22 dollars we saved went directly to buying tickets to ride a boat across Lake Pehoe(yellow line). The boat dropped us off at the base of the left side of the "W" trail and upon arrival we embarked on our hike up to "Glacier Grey." (light blue line)
The entire trail is 70 km, so our hikes from campsite to campsite were anywhere between 12-22 km. The initial hikes up to Glacier Gray was rough since we had all of our food, meaning backpacks were their heaviest, and our hiking legs we not yet up to speed. We decided to walk about an hour past the "Refugio Grey," which is a pay-campsite with a view of the glacier from a distance, to go to a free CONAF campsite (Chilean National Forestry Association), "Las Guardas" which had a view overlooking the glacier from above.
After a night at "Las Guardas," we packed up our gear and headed to the middle section of the "W," to a campsite called "Italiano" (green line). Along the way we managed to run into a couple of friends from our Education Aboard Program since the trails are essentially fixed meaning your bound to run into people. At times, it becomes a big of a nuisance because there are so many people visiting the park (200,000 a year) with the park only open less than 6 months, so we saw a lot of people: many Germans, Brits, Americans, Israelis, French, and few Chileans. Once we arrived at camp Italiano, we setup our tent in the crowded campsite, only afterward discovering that there was a much better location right next to the river that flows by and with no views of other campers. So we moved our gear to this prime location and realized there was no rush to leave the next day, so we hung around for 3 days. You can drink water straight out of the rivers since it's all glacier melt, some of the best water in the world. It was definitely the best campsite we stayed at (below).
The next day we took a day hike up to a lookout of "Los Cuernos" mountains about 2 hours up "Valle Frances," which represents the middle part of the "W" (pink line) After lunch at the lookout with many of campers, we decided to follow a not-so-often-walked trail up to higher elevation for a better view of the valley and to get away from the other campers. We walked through snow which was fun and the view was spectacular.
The rest of the time at Camp Italiano, Finn and I just hung out, read, and explored the nearby parts. Now 1t day 6 into our trip, we hiked out to the right side of the "W" to see the famous Torres del Paine that the park is named after (dark blue line). They are three rock towers that have glaciers melting just below them, forming dozens of waterfalls that in turn form a aquamarine lake that feeds into a river down the valley. It was essentially observing the entire water cycle in one view.
We had camped less than 45 minutes below the Torres at another free campsite(Campamiento Torres), spent 2 nights there, and on the third day left down the right side of the "W" to leave the park (orange line). The "W" takes most people only 3-4 days to complete, but we decided to take our time since we had enough to food to stay longer and we wanted to enjoy our time in the park. The experience was incredible, breathtaking, probably some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. We would have stayed longer had we brought more food, but there was just not enough space. So we left to park back to Puerto Natales.
We headed back to Erratic Rock to talk with the Oregon owners about another place nearby that we could camp since we had about 4 days until our flight back to Santiago from Punta Arenas. They recommended a Lake called Laguna Sofia, which is essentially a lake with the land surrounding it divided in half since it is owned by Cow ranchers. However, we were told it would not be a problem camping on private property and we would not see anybody while we were there, which seemed very appealing. So we got on the same bus that took us to the National Park, but told the driver to drop us off at an entrance to a private road about a half hour into the drive, where we would walk 7 km to the base of the lake, and then about another 5 km to the other side of the lake to camp.
During our walk, a 80's Mercedes drives up behind us and offers us a ride to the Lake. It turns out to be one of the two owners of the land, an Italian immigrant, who had no problem with us camping there and was very friendly. After being dropped off at the base of the lake, we walked to the other side and found a small bay with a bit of grass perfect for camping. We would stay there for two nights and leave on the third day.
The water of the lake was not too cold, so I decided to go for a swim.
On the walk back, we did not have any run-ins with any cars, so we had to walk to the entire trail back to the highway, where they we hitch-hiked with a truck driver back to Puerto Natales. We spent the afternoon to take a shower and have lunch in Puerto Natales, and then took an early evening bus to Punta Arenas. Once we got to Punta Arenas, we took refuge in the Erratic Rock for two days and planned to visit one of the Penguin Colonies and pickup souvenirs before leaving back to Santiago.
Seno Otway (Otway Sound), is a Penguin Colony of supposedly 8,000 Magellan Penguins, but it seemed like there were a bit less than that. Antarctic researchers who were on our small tour hypothesized that the tourist aspect of the colony might have scared away part of the population, but it was not clear since penguins always come back to the same place every year to breed before returning to the ocean once again. There were still plenty of penguins to see.
We also saw a couple Ñandús, which are the Chilean version of an ostrich. Weird creatures. They are endangered since they have been hunted for their feathers and their tasty meat.
We spent the night there, and had a flight the next morning around noon on the 19th. The entire 13 day experience in Patagonia, Chile was most certainly the most scenic trip I have ever taken. It is a unique part of the world with difficult weather (luckily there was hardly any rain during our entire trip), stunning views of nature and wildlife. Visiting the Strait of Magellan is probably to closest I'll get to Antarctica, and I hope one day I can come back and check out the Argentinian side of Patagonia as well.
It would be two quick days in Santiago to pack, pickup gifts, say goodbye to my friends, teachers, co-workers, and host dad, before I got on a plane for Buenos Aires. 6 months flew bye so fast, and if it were not for the fact that I have the graduate after this coming, I could have easily extended my stay another six months. I could also easily come back down to Latin America to work one day, but we'll have to wait and see. It was so tough saying goodbye to my host parents, they because part of my family and I became part of their's. We will keep in touch digitally, but I hope to one day see them again, either in the United States, Chile, or Europe where their daughters live.
So that ends my trip to Chile. I couldn't have expected a better experience, with all that learned in terms of the Spanish language(even though Chilean Spanish is full of so much slang and their owns words it is sometimes hard to talk with other Spanish speakers, but at the very least it is very easy for me to listen and understand others because Chilean talk to fast), all the history of Chile and Latin America that have given me a fuller perspective of the region and my own family history, the experience of being so culturally immersed in a new country while going to school working a job. There are so many similarities Chile has with California, but obviously very different in many ways as well. It is going to be a bit crazy coming back and adjusting to life in the United States, especially since I only have 3 months left of school before I hit to the real world. Pretty crazy. One thing I know for certain, I will definitely be coming back one day.
PS: I will continue this blog until I leave South America on the 4th of January. After that, I think I will create a new blog on my life going forward. It will have a new address and I will post a link here when I create site. But until then, I will have one or two most entries here on this blog. Cheers.
"El niño que no juega no es niño, pero el hombre que no juega perdió para siempre al niño que vivía en él y que le hará mucha falta."
English: “A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly.”
-Pablo Neruda
Chi-Chi-Chi...Le-Le-Le...Viva Chile.
So my journey began way back on Saturday December 6th. That day I had had to say goodbye to my host mother Lucrecia since she was traveling to Switzerland to visit her daughter and new born grandson for 3 months. That was very sad to have to say goodbye so early, but I have her email address of course as well as her Skype account so we can easily keep in touch. Anyways, my program buddy Finn and I had bought our tickets the month or so before to Punta Arenas, which is the largest city in the southern tip of Chile that you can fly to essentially and access the surrounding areas. Before we got on the plane, Finn's host family had organized an asado (giant tasty BBQ) to fill us up nicely before heading into the wilderness. We left from the lunch directly to airport, where I had to say my goodbyes to another program buddy, Dan, since he was going to be out of town (Santiago) when I got back because his family was coming down to visit and tour Chile for the holidays. I will see him back in the states for sure since he is from San Francisco.
That afternoon, we got on a 3 hour plane ride to Punta Arenas, where we stayed the night in a hostel with the plan of touring the town and picking up supplies over the course of two days before taking a bus to the city of Puerto Natales, the 'base-camp' town to the National Park of Torres del Paine. Strangely, we were able to pick-up our food for camping, last minute supplies, and tour the entire city in less than one day, so we decided to change our bus tickets to that afternoon rather than stay another night in Punta Arenas and leave the next morning. In terms of exploring the town, we visited a museum on the history of the region that was conveniently located across the street from where we were staying, walked through town and visited the central Plaza with a giant statue of Ferdinand Magellan, and visited the Strait of Magellan.
After a 3 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales, we took refuge in one of the three hostels all under the same name of "Erratic Rock." This hostel is a well run ship, with a great system and awesome owners. They are two friends from Oregon who decided to move to Puetro Natales and open their own hostel after visiting the national park, and now they are part of a co'op under the same name which has 3 hostels in Puerto Natales and one in Punta Arenas, all with the same system and feel. One in particular in Puerto Natales is a multi-function hostel, rental equipment provider, and information source for any questions about the park and the surrounding area. Each day at 3 p.m. they have an info-session for all backpackers. So we stopped by the hostel to talk to the owners about our plan to do the "W" trail in the park and how to arrange for bus to take us to the park. The next morning we left at 7 a.m.
Each leg of our journey is marked in a different color, with START and END labeled.
The bus ride to the National Park of Torres del Paine is about 2 and half hours with multiple stops depending on where you want to be dropped off. Normally foreigners have to pay $30 to enter the park, but since my buddy and I had Chilean identity cards, we only had to pay 8 dollars. Too bad the $22 dollars we saved went directly to buying tickets to ride a boat across Lake Pehoe(yellow line). The boat dropped us off at the base of the left side of the "W" trail and upon arrival we embarked on our hike up to "Glacier Grey." (light blue line)
The entire trail is 70 km, so our hikes from campsite to campsite were anywhere between 12-22 km. The initial hikes up to Glacier Gray was rough since we had all of our food, meaning backpacks were their heaviest, and our hiking legs we not yet up to speed. We decided to walk about an hour past the "Refugio Grey," which is a pay-campsite with a view of the glacier from a distance, to go to a free CONAF campsite (Chilean National Forestry Association), "Las Guardas" which had a view overlooking the glacier from above.
After a night at "Las Guardas," we packed up our gear and headed to the middle section of the "W," to a campsite called "Italiano" (green line). Along the way we managed to run into a couple of friends from our Education Aboard Program since the trails are essentially fixed meaning your bound to run into people. At times, it becomes a big of a nuisance because there are so many people visiting the park (200,000 a year) with the park only open less than 6 months, so we saw a lot of people: many Germans, Brits, Americans, Israelis, French, and few Chileans. Once we arrived at camp Italiano, we setup our tent in the crowded campsite, only afterward discovering that there was a much better location right next to the river that flows by and with no views of other campers. So we moved our gear to this prime location and realized there was no rush to leave the next day, so we hung around for 3 days. You can drink water straight out of the rivers since it's all glacier melt, some of the best water in the world. It was definitely the best campsite we stayed at (below).
The next day we took a day hike up to a lookout of "Los Cuernos" mountains about 2 hours up "Valle Frances," which represents the middle part of the "W" (pink line) After lunch at the lookout with many of campers, we decided to follow a not-so-often-walked trail up to higher elevation for a better view of the valley and to get away from the other campers. We walked through snow which was fun and the view was spectacular.
The rest of the time at Camp Italiano, Finn and I just hung out, read, and explored the nearby parts. Now 1t day 6 into our trip, we hiked out to the right side of the "W" to see the famous Torres del Paine that the park is named after (dark blue line). They are three rock towers that have glaciers melting just below them, forming dozens of waterfalls that in turn form a aquamarine lake that feeds into a river down the valley. It was essentially observing the entire water cycle in one view.
We had camped less than 45 minutes below the Torres at another free campsite(Campamiento Torres), spent 2 nights there, and on the third day left down the right side of the "W" to leave the park (orange line). The "W" takes most people only 3-4 days to complete, but we decided to take our time since we had enough to food to stay longer and we wanted to enjoy our time in the park. The experience was incredible, breathtaking, probably some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. We would have stayed longer had we brought more food, but there was just not enough space. So we left to park back to Puerto Natales.
We headed back to Erratic Rock to talk with the Oregon owners about another place nearby that we could camp since we had about 4 days until our flight back to Santiago from Punta Arenas. They recommended a Lake called Laguna Sofia, which is essentially a lake with the land surrounding it divided in half since it is owned by Cow ranchers. However, we were told it would not be a problem camping on private property and we would not see anybody while we were there, which seemed very appealing. So we got on the same bus that took us to the National Park, but told the driver to drop us off at an entrance to a private road about a half hour into the drive, where we would walk 7 km to the base of the lake, and then about another 5 km to the other side of the lake to camp.
During our walk, a 80's Mercedes drives up behind us and offers us a ride to the Lake. It turns out to be one of the two owners of the land, an Italian immigrant, who had no problem with us camping there and was very friendly. After being dropped off at the base of the lake, we walked to the other side and found a small bay with a bit of grass perfect for camping. We would stay there for two nights and leave on the third day.
The water of the lake was not too cold, so I decided to go for a swim.
On the walk back, we did not have any run-ins with any cars, so we had to walk to the entire trail back to the highway, where they we hitch-hiked with a truck driver back to Puerto Natales. We spent the afternoon to take a shower and have lunch in Puerto Natales, and then took an early evening bus to Punta Arenas. Once we got to Punta Arenas, we took refuge in the Erratic Rock for two days and planned to visit one of the Penguin Colonies and pickup souvenirs before leaving back to Santiago.
Seno Otway (Otway Sound), is a Penguin Colony of supposedly 8,000 Magellan Penguins, but it seemed like there were a bit less than that. Antarctic researchers who were on our small tour hypothesized that the tourist aspect of the colony might have scared away part of the population, but it was not clear since penguins always come back to the same place every year to breed before returning to the ocean once again. There were still plenty of penguins to see.
We also saw a couple Ñandús, which are the Chilean version of an ostrich. Weird creatures. They are endangered since they have been hunted for their feathers and their tasty meat.
We spent the night there, and had a flight the next morning around noon on the 19th. The entire 13 day experience in Patagonia, Chile was most certainly the most scenic trip I have ever taken. It is a unique part of the world with difficult weather (luckily there was hardly any rain during our entire trip), stunning views of nature and wildlife. Visiting the Strait of Magellan is probably to closest I'll get to Antarctica, and I hope one day I can come back and check out the Argentinian side of Patagonia as well.
It would be two quick days in Santiago to pack, pickup gifts, say goodbye to my friends, teachers, co-workers, and host dad, before I got on a plane for Buenos Aires. 6 months flew bye so fast, and if it were not for the fact that I have the graduate after this coming, I could have easily extended my stay another six months. I could also easily come back down to Latin America to work one day, but we'll have to wait and see. It was so tough saying goodbye to my host parents, they because part of my family and I became part of their's. We will keep in touch digitally, but I hope to one day see them again, either in the United States, Chile, or Europe where their daughters live.
So that ends my trip to Chile. I couldn't have expected a better experience, with all that learned in terms of the Spanish language(even though Chilean Spanish is full of so much slang and their owns words it is sometimes hard to talk with other Spanish speakers, but at the very least it is very easy for me to listen and understand others because Chilean talk to fast), all the history of Chile and Latin America that have given me a fuller perspective of the region and my own family history, the experience of being so culturally immersed in a new country while going to school working a job. There are so many similarities Chile has with California, but obviously very different in many ways as well. It is going to be a bit crazy coming back and adjusting to life in the United States, especially since I only have 3 months left of school before I hit to the real world. Pretty crazy. One thing I know for certain, I will definitely be coming back one day.
PS: I will continue this blog until I leave South America on the 4th of January. After that, I think I will create a new blog on my life going forward. It will have a new address and I will post a link here when I create site. But until then, I will have one or two most entries here on this blog. Cheers.
"El niño que no juega no es niño, pero el hombre que no juega perdió para siempre al niño que vivía en él y que le hará mucha falta."
English: “A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly.”
-Pablo Neruda
Chi-Chi-Chi...Le-Le-Le...Viva Chile.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Home stretch
Well it's now November and I can't believe it. Time flew by so fast, and now I am just trying to rush in the last bits and pieces to my trip and my experience down here. Hopefully I will have enough time. I am been so overloaded with school and work lately. I am know just trying to make sure my calender is all lined up before I jettison.
Tuesday the 28th of October was an interesting evening for me because I went to the Clasico Universitario futbol match between Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Catholica. The national stadium was totally packed and the match excellent. For some strange reason they decided to switch the usual entrances for fans and I headed to the Catholica entrance with jersey, hat and face-paint on, and was randomly martial-arts, high-kicked to the face by an opposing fan in front of a cop, who then escorted me to the appropriate entrance. Stupid. Luckily I got the last laugh since La Chile won 2-1 and essentially clinched the regular season #1 position.
That Wednesday was a sad day because my neighbor and her two kids moved down the Pucon. It was really sad to see them go, but I was able to spend a good deal of time with them before they left. So sad that such a random tragedy can instantly change the life of the entire family so drastically. Luckily I set the older son up with a skype account with a webcam so I can keep in touch with them as long as there is an internet connection (which they probably won;t have in house, but there are tons of cyber cafes)
It is interesting to be able to see my three classes beginning to converge. Granted they are two history classes and an economy class as related to Chile, but the same topics are starting to come up, and it allows me to draws parallels between subjects as well as discover more marco themes.
Friday was Halloween, which is not too heavily celebrated in Chile but this year the government declared the 31st a religious holiday (no school, optional work) and in turn the younger crowd is starting to practice the goofy American tradition of trick-or-treating and partying. Basic Bar threw a party with a DJ, which was pretty fun except for that fact that I was working rather than enjoying myself. It was entertaining though cause it gives you a different perspective when working behind the bar. Staying 'till 4:30 a.m., not as much fun. I worked on Sunday and Monday was well.
Tuesday was the big election night, with practically every eye on the planet focused on the outcome. I personal takeaways from the night: 1. I wasn't surprised by the outcome except for how close the popular vote was 2. Expectations are high, but Mr. Obama deliver. From the sounds of it, results are only going to take place in the long term, and it might take multiple terms. Not good. Hope he is the next reincarnation of Lincoln/Roosevelt for the sake of of the overly optimistic American public.
I had two tests this past week, one for Social History on Latin America on the industrialization period of Latin America, and one for Economics on Friday on Monetary policy and the current financial/global economic crisis. Both went well, but it took a lot of energy out of me with all the studying and stress that I had this past week.
Saturday I took ym host parents to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. I thought it would be a good idea considering that 40 minutes of the film is from northern Chile. Unfortunately credit was only given to the country and the end of the credits since in the plot, the area is considered Bolivia since they have to incorporate a fictional dictator and I am not sure that would work so well with Chile. I had work that evening and the following day (today).
I have a final essay to turn in for my Gringo 101 class on Tuesday and then I am essentially work free until the last week of November in which I have another Social History of Latin America test and an essay for Contemporary History of Chile. I am trying to visit a family friend of mine who lives in Mendoza the last weekend of November, then take some final exams that week, head down to Patagonia for two weeks, coming back on the 20th to spend one final day in Santiago before going to Buenos Aires. Flight prices are dropping everyday, so there is no big rush. My last day of work at Bar Basic on the 24th. It's going to be a tough final month, but I am always up for the challenge.
Tuesday the 28th of October was an interesting evening for me because I went to the Clasico Universitario futbol match between Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Catholica. The national stadium was totally packed and the match excellent. For some strange reason they decided to switch the usual entrances for fans and I headed to the Catholica entrance with jersey, hat and face-paint on, and was randomly martial-arts, high-kicked to the face by an opposing fan in front of a cop, who then escorted me to the appropriate entrance. Stupid. Luckily I got the last laugh since La Chile won 2-1 and essentially clinched the regular season #1 position.
That Wednesday was a sad day because my neighbor and her two kids moved down the Pucon. It was really sad to see them go, but I was able to spend a good deal of time with them before they left. So sad that such a random tragedy can instantly change the life of the entire family so drastically. Luckily I set the older son up with a skype account with a webcam so I can keep in touch with them as long as there is an internet connection (which they probably won;t have in house, but there are tons of cyber cafes)
It is interesting to be able to see my three classes beginning to converge. Granted they are two history classes and an economy class as related to Chile, but the same topics are starting to come up, and it allows me to draws parallels between subjects as well as discover more marco themes.
Friday was Halloween, which is not too heavily celebrated in Chile but this year the government declared the 31st a religious holiday (no school, optional work) and in turn the younger crowd is starting to practice the goofy American tradition of trick-or-treating and partying. Basic Bar threw a party with a DJ, which was pretty fun except for that fact that I was working rather than enjoying myself. It was entertaining though cause it gives you a different perspective when working behind the bar. Staying 'till 4:30 a.m., not as much fun. I worked on Sunday and Monday was well.
Tuesday was the big election night, with practically every eye on the planet focused on the outcome. I personal takeaways from the night: 1. I wasn't surprised by the outcome except for how close the popular vote was 2. Expectations are high, but Mr. Obama deliver. From the sounds of it, results are only going to take place in the long term, and it might take multiple terms. Not good. Hope he is the next reincarnation of Lincoln/Roosevelt for the sake of of the overly optimistic American public.
I had two tests this past week, one for Social History on Latin America on the industrialization period of Latin America, and one for Economics on Friday on Monetary policy and the current financial/global economic crisis. Both went well, but it took a lot of energy out of me with all the studying and stress that I had this past week.
Saturday I took ym host parents to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. I thought it would be a good idea considering that 40 minutes of the film is from northern Chile. Unfortunately credit was only given to the country and the end of the credits since in the plot, the area is considered Bolivia since they have to incorporate a fictional dictator and I am not sure that would work so well with Chile. I had work that evening and the following day (today).
I have a final essay to turn in for my Gringo 101 class on Tuesday and then I am essentially work free until the last week of November in which I have another Social History of Latin America test and an essay for Contemporary History of Chile. I am trying to visit a family friend of mine who lives in Mendoza the last weekend of November, then take some final exams that week, head down to Patagonia for two weeks, coming back on the 20th to spend one final day in Santiago before going to Buenos Aires. Flight prices are dropping everyday, so there is no big rush. My last day of work at Bar Basic on the 24th. It's going to be a tough final month, but I am always up for the challenge.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Elections in Chile Complete. Coming Up Next, the United States
Another week in the books, with tons of stuff to talk about. None of that too mind boggling, but still worth noting. Not sure if I will remember each item in chronological order or what day it took place, but I'll do my best.
Last week marked the final week of my Gringo 101 class with the rest of the program. Nothing incredibly exciting about the class other than the fact that it is over. Now I don't have to head out to downtown Santiago 30 minutes before rush hour just so I can get to class on time and have to stay until 9 p.m. at night. I still do have a final paper that is 5 pages and do sometime in the middle of November, but it's a free topic and not a problem.
The family whom tragedy struck a couple months back with the horrible auto accident that resulted in the death of the father are moving today to Pucón down south. It's such an unfortunate situation and I hate to see them go. To make sure I can stay in touch with them, I went out to buy a web-cam, microphone, and setup a Skype account for one of the sons. I explained how the program, essentially a free telephone for him as long as he has internet access. I also gave him my email address. Hopefully he will have time to bring his laptop over a to cyber-cafe every once in a while because it doesn't look like he'll have in-house internet, but he will at his parent's house that is supposedly close by. Regardless, I just want to be able to keep in touch with the family after all that has happened since my arrival.
Speaking of Southern Chile, I have been working with a couple of my buddies on organizing a rough itinerary for traveling to extreme southern portion of Chile, Patagonia, for the two week I have in between in the end of school and when I fly out to Buenos Aires in mid December. I probably won't have another chance in my life to visit this part of the world, so I figure I should take advantage of the fact that I am currently just a plane ride away. Flights aren't incredibly expensive and I have heard the sites and activities are simply amazing: glaciers that won't exist in less than 10 years, stunning landscapes, even a potential access of Antarctica (not the main part, but an island that is considered part of the continent). I can't wait.
Working at Bar Basic has been a good time. I enjoy practicing my Spanish with co-workers and customers, while essentially doing the same thing that I would normally doing if I wasn't working: watching football, eating, and drinking. Last Thursday was one of the owners' birthdays, so he hired a live band to play Chilean covers and invited a bunch of his buddies. I wasn't supposed to work that night, but I volunteered considering it was his birthday and they could use the help. Fun times either way.
Last Friday I went to a symphony performance at the University of Chile theater downtown. The show was a George Gershwin tribute, playing Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris as well as many others. Symphonies are an amazing network of musicans working together on one piece, with solos and necessary harmonies while under the control of one man, the conductor. I am not a classical music critic, and Gershwin's music is difficult to perform, sometimes it felt that some of the musicians were having trouble with some of the songs. I enjoyed it very much nonetheless.
Saturday was an interesting day for a silly reason. I headed over to the local grocery store to try and buy some medicine for a wart that I have on my pinkie toe as a result of the rubbing against the inside of my shoe. I left for the in-store pharmacy without knowing the Spanish work for wart, assuming I could just show them my toe as well former medication (in English). Solo attempt, fail. Aid from three Chilean women also in line who also did not understand what is was but thought they knew, fail. European woman randomly walks up to offer help, whips out her cellphone and types the word in English into her phone and with her simply Nokia she manages to looks up the term using her Spanish-English dictionary. She found a website that has a bunch of programs that can be stored to the on-board memory of her simple cellphone, any cellphone. What a technological world this is becoming? I thought about the incident all during my walk back, while thinking about the future. Imagine when everyone has internet-connected cellphones with key pads. Language barriers will be essentially non-existent; voice translators? The possibilities are endless. There is a part of me that is anti-technology when it comes to interacting, so I feel a bit uneasy about the extensive connectedness to 'the network.' I'd rather be without my computer, PDA, cell phone, a connection and be spending time in person with people than being attached to a network in which information is sent constantly, instantaneously, endlessly. Too bad it is becoming more and more popular by the day with the newer generations and there is almost not feasible to give it up.
On Sunday, Chile had their municipal elections and the entire country was rumbling with political enthusiasm, so much so that no one was allowed to sell alcohol. This made work for me on particularly boring that day since all we could sell was food and sodas, water, juice. Sunday is usually a busy day with all the gringos coming in to watch American football, but it was obviously quite slow. While many municipalities, including Valparaiso, de mi amor, changed from 'left' municipalities to 'right' ones with the election of 'right' mayors, overall the country of Chile say more people voting for the 'left.' This was unusually surprising considering that Sebastián Piñera was the current favorite for President with the election over a year away. Thing are now much more unclear, with the 'right' parties securing only 35% of the population based on municipal elections, with the 'left' parties won over 46%. There was also a small portion of the populace that voted for Communist and other extreme 'leftist' candidates, who when the time comes for presidential elections, they are obviously more likely to put their support behind a 'leftist' candidate than one from the 'right.'The only problem with this scenario is that the Concertación, or the group of 'leftist' political parties, currently does not have a presidential candidate in place. For a while Ricardo Lagos, former President, was the favorite to represent the left, but that has since changed since he insists that he does not want to have to go through the inner-party political process of electing a candidate. If he ran for president, he would want to be able to be the outright candidate since he has so much experience rather than take part in the process. We'll see how things shape up in the next few months. It is not far from the date in which parties are required to have their candidate selected.
Speaking of elections, the United States presidential elections are coming up in less than a week. I already was able to cast in my vote since a member of the U.S. embassy was in Bar Basic all last week handing out forms that will be sent in via the embassy to whichever county one represents. Earlier this week, I came across an interesting article in this week's Economist about U.S. elections and Latin America. I didn't know John McCain was born in Panama? But I guess it doesn't surprise me because he was probably born in a military base down there. Here is a snippet from the article...
"Preliminary data from the latest Latinobarómetro poll, taken in 18 countries over the past month and published exclusively by The Economist, show that 29% of respondents think an Obama victory would be better for their country, against only 8% favouring Mr McCain. Perhaps surprisingly, 30% say that it makes no difference who wins, while 31% claim ignorance. Enthusiasm for Mr Obama is particularly high in the Dominican Republic (52%), Costa Rica, Uruguay and Brazil (41%). In Brazil, six candidates in this month’s municipal elections changed their names to include “Barack Obama” in them.
The poll suggests that support for Mr Obama is greater among better-educated Latin Americans. Marta Lagos, Latinobarómetro’s director, says the relatively widespread indifference shows the extent to which the United States has lost influence in the region in recent years."
I would tend to agree.
Last week marked the final week of my Gringo 101 class with the rest of the program. Nothing incredibly exciting about the class other than the fact that it is over. Now I don't have to head out to downtown Santiago 30 minutes before rush hour just so I can get to class on time and have to stay until 9 p.m. at night. I still do have a final paper that is 5 pages and do sometime in the middle of November, but it's a free topic and not a problem.
The family whom tragedy struck a couple months back with the horrible auto accident that resulted in the death of the father are moving today to Pucón down south. It's such an unfortunate situation and I hate to see them go. To make sure I can stay in touch with them, I went out to buy a web-cam, microphone, and setup a Skype account for one of the sons. I explained how the program, essentially a free telephone for him as long as he has internet access. I also gave him my email address. Hopefully he will have time to bring his laptop over a to cyber-cafe every once in a while because it doesn't look like he'll have in-house internet, but he will at his parent's house that is supposedly close by. Regardless, I just want to be able to keep in touch with the family after all that has happened since my arrival.
Speaking of Southern Chile, I have been working with a couple of my buddies on organizing a rough itinerary for traveling to extreme southern portion of Chile, Patagonia, for the two week I have in between in the end of school and when I fly out to Buenos Aires in mid December. I probably won't have another chance in my life to visit this part of the world, so I figure I should take advantage of the fact that I am currently just a plane ride away. Flights aren't incredibly expensive and I have heard the sites and activities are simply amazing: glaciers that won't exist in less than 10 years, stunning landscapes, even a potential access of Antarctica (not the main part, but an island that is considered part of the continent). I can't wait.
Working at Bar Basic has been a good time. I enjoy practicing my Spanish with co-workers and customers, while essentially doing the same thing that I would normally doing if I wasn't working: watching football, eating, and drinking. Last Thursday was one of the owners' birthdays, so he hired a live band to play Chilean covers and invited a bunch of his buddies. I wasn't supposed to work that night, but I volunteered considering it was his birthday and they could use the help. Fun times either way.
Last Friday I went to a symphony performance at the University of Chile theater downtown. The show was a George Gershwin tribute, playing Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris as well as many others. Symphonies are an amazing network of musicans working together on one piece, with solos and necessary harmonies while under the control of one man, the conductor. I am not a classical music critic, and Gershwin's music is difficult to perform, sometimes it felt that some of the musicians were having trouble with some of the songs. I enjoyed it very much nonetheless.
Saturday was an interesting day for a silly reason. I headed over to the local grocery store to try and buy some medicine for a wart that I have on my pinkie toe as a result of the rubbing against the inside of my shoe. I left for the in-store pharmacy without knowing the Spanish work for wart, assuming I could just show them my toe as well former medication (in English). Solo attempt, fail. Aid from three Chilean women also in line who also did not understand what is was but thought they knew, fail. European woman randomly walks up to offer help, whips out her cellphone and types the word in English into her phone and with her simply Nokia she manages to looks up the term using her Spanish-English dictionary. She found a website that has a bunch of programs that can be stored to the on-board memory of her simple cellphone, any cellphone. What a technological world this is becoming? I thought about the incident all during my walk back, while thinking about the future. Imagine when everyone has internet-connected cellphones with key pads. Language barriers will be essentially non-existent; voice translators? The possibilities are endless. There is a part of me that is anti-technology when it comes to interacting, so I feel a bit uneasy about the extensive connectedness to 'the network.' I'd rather be without my computer, PDA, cell phone, a connection and be spending time in person with people than being attached to a network in which information is sent constantly, instantaneously, endlessly. Too bad it is becoming more and more popular by the day with the newer generations and there is almost not feasible to give it up.
On Sunday, Chile had their municipal elections and the entire country was rumbling with political enthusiasm, so much so that no one was allowed to sell alcohol. This made work for me on particularly boring that day since all we could sell was food and sodas, water, juice. Sunday is usually a busy day with all the gringos coming in to watch American football, but it was obviously quite slow. While many municipalities, including Valparaiso, de mi amor, changed from 'left' municipalities to 'right' ones with the election of 'right' mayors, overall the country of Chile say more people voting for the 'left.' This was unusually surprising considering that Sebastián Piñera was the current favorite for President with the election over a year away. Thing are now much more unclear, with the 'right' parties securing only 35% of the population based on municipal elections, with the 'left' parties won over 46%. There was also a small portion of the populace that voted for Communist and other extreme 'leftist' candidates, who when the time comes for presidential elections, they are obviously more likely to put their support behind a 'leftist' candidate than one from the 'right.'The only problem with this scenario is that the Concertación, or the group of 'leftist' political parties, currently does not have a presidential candidate in place. For a while Ricardo Lagos, former President, was the favorite to represent the left, but that has since changed since he insists that he does not want to have to go through the inner-party political process of electing a candidate. If he ran for president, he would want to be able to be the outright candidate since he has so much experience rather than take part in the process. We'll see how things shape up in the next few months. It is not far from the date in which parties are required to have their candidate selected.
Speaking of elections, the United States presidential elections are coming up in less than a week. I already was able to cast in my vote since a member of the U.S. embassy was in Bar Basic all last week handing out forms that will be sent in via the embassy to whichever county one represents. Earlier this week, I came across an interesting article in this week's Economist about U.S. elections and Latin America. I didn't know John McCain was born in Panama? But I guess it doesn't surprise me because he was probably born in a military base down there. Here is a snippet from the article...
"Preliminary data from the latest Latinobarómetro poll, taken in 18 countries over the past month and published exclusively by The Economist, show that 29% of respondents think an Obama victory would be better for their country, against only 8% favouring Mr McCain. Perhaps surprisingly, 30% say that it makes no difference who wins, while 31% claim ignorance. Enthusiasm for Mr Obama is particularly high in the Dominican Republic (52%), Costa Rica, Uruguay and Brazil (41%). In Brazil, six candidates in this month’s municipal elections changed their names to include “Barack Obama” in them.
The poll suggests that support for Mr Obama is greater among better-educated Latin Americans. Marta Lagos, Latinobarómetro’s director, says the relatively widespread indifference shows the extent to which the United States has lost influence in the region in recent years."
I would tend to agree.
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