That Was Fun.
I had a good past three days in a boat heading towards the southern end of Chile. The second night was a bit rocky but I had no problem with sea sickness so that was great.
In general it was a great learning experience (ha- what time here hasn´t been?). I talked to some amazing people and really ended up clicking with a few. One of the first few people I met was a Chilean from Puerto Natales, the port town where I have just arrived. He´s going to take me around on a tour a bit later of the outlying areas and if we have time we´ll visit the ice age cave with remains of the great sloth that was discovered early last century. After meeting with some Rotarians, I´ll go to a BBQ with him and most likely out dancing but I´ll have to turn in early because I leave early tomorrow morning for my five day backpacking trip in Torres del Paine.
One revelation that I came to while contemplating on the empty deck early yesterday morning-
My life is one great journey that is just beginning.
Does the Round World Have an End?
If it does, then I´m heading towards it!
I spent the day in Puerto Octay and Frutillar- two towns known for their Scandanavian architecture and German population. The kuchen (German pastry) is delicious and the views of Volcano Osorno is amazing as well.
I´m in Puerto Varas right now in an Internet place and will stay the night here. I will catch a bus early to go to Puerto Montt and then off to my cruise at the end of the world. I hope that no crazy huge earthquake strikes here....(My thoughts are with South Asia)
The 25th in Los Angeles (Chile)
I took the passenger train from Santiago yesterday and was heading to Temuco but changed plans about an hour into the trip. I wasn´t aware that the train passed by Los Angeles, but when I heard a few Italian travellers mention that they were heading that way- I knew I had to go there.
My friend Natalia´s mom is originally from Los Angeles, a city of about 150,000 people 6 hours south of Santiago. She called her mom and had her nephew waiting for me when I arrived.
I spent the evening meeting her family and relaxing. We ate dinner at about 10.30 and arrived to church just as mass was ending. We still went inside because I wanted to check out the church. There were people waiting in a big line to kiss the plastic baby Jesus. Interesting tradition.
Christmas in general down here is a bit different- definitely less commercialized, although the Viejo Pascuero (Santa Clause) is an image well known by all. The family exchanges gifts at midnight- usually just one or two and then the kids go out with their friends and hang out till whenever. Natalia´s cousin and I went and had a beer at the local pub and turned in around 3.
I woke up today at noon and we went to the fire station where the firefighters were just arriving from the poorer neighborhoods were they were giving out gifts to the kids. One of the commanders at the station is a family member here and he introduced me to an Italian traveller (different one than I had met on the train) who is travelling the circuit that Che Guevara travelled on motorbike.
I vaguely remembered from the movie Diarios de Motocicleta that Che and his partner´s bike broke down here and they actually slept in the firestation for a few days. Interesting because if you are a faithful reader of my blog (Mom, Sean, and a few others) you will remember that seeing that movie is what inspired me to keep this journal (diario).
Anyways, right now I´m going to eat lunch with the family and then its off to Salto de Laja, the biggest waterfall in Chile. Not sure when I´m leaving the Los Angeles worlds apart from the one in CA yet...
Stuff
Last night was hard. I was in downtown Santiago passing out food and Christmas presents (the items that I had been collecting all year from exchange students who were leaving and couldn´t take everything with them) to people who live on the street. Kids too. Lots of them.
By the time we finished, it was late so I went home in order to pack. I was planning on packing up everything in my suitcases in order to have everything ready for when I return to Santiago in three weeks...but I ran into a problem. I have three suitcases and more than enough stuff to fill them with (I can check in two suitcases but I will have to pay for the third if I want to bring it). But after being on the street with these kids who run around barefoot and live by fires in abandoned buildings...I felt so guilty for even looking at all of the STUFF that I have accumulated.
And do I really need this stuff? Well, most of the things are items that I have aquired during my travels, a few items of clothes, books, papers from school, etc. But other things that I was planning on bringing home include my bedspread and some dishes that I bought here.
How necessary are these things? In order to live, they aren´t, I suppose. In order to be happy, they aren´t either. But where do I draw the line? I don´t know yet. I haven´t decided. I´m going to think about that during the next three weeks while traveling in the south. Maybe seeing some natural beauty will clear my head.
Bad Blogger
I haven´t been in the blogging mood lately...sorry. But in order to update the world- I´m leaving Santiago tomorrow morning to go down south. I´m going to be on the island of Chiloé for Christmas and then I take a cruise down to Port Natales. New Years Eve I should be backpakcing in Torres del Paine National Park. According to the Lonely Planet, it is one of the most breathtaking places on earth. I´ll let you know if it takes my breath away. :-)
As of right now, I´m putting off packing all of my stuff. Instead I´m writing this blog. But it will get done. I just probably won´t sleep because in an hour I´m going to be with friends giving dinner to homeless people on the street. It´s my last project with Rotary.
Speaking of Rotary, I went to my last meeting at my host club on Wednesday and finally exchanged club banners. I am hoping to go to a few meetings down south, but that will depend on my timing...
Well, I better go get my stuff done. Grrr... I hate doing things that I don´t want to do.
Merry Birthday, Happy Christmas
Last night we celebrated Natalia´s birthday at her parent´s restaurant. It was a big bash with lots of food, friends, family, and fun. Unfortunately I won´t be in Santiago on the 28th to help her celebrate the real date, but I guess that means that I´ll just have to come back to Chile in a few years to help her celebrate a different birthday. Maybe the 25th? Hahaha. Happy birthday Nati- I love ya lots!
Well it´s Christmas time and I´ve hardly even noticed- until today. I went downtown to the train station (which happens to be next to an outdoor mall) in order to buy my ticket to go down south and was inundated by the crowds of people doing their Christmas shopping. It was fun doing some people watching and a bit of window shopping myself.
It´s kind of funny seeing a huge decorated Christmas tree next to a big fountain with kids playing in the water. It is summertime here, you know?
Mato
I had a dream that the other day I slept in a cave after a night replete of shooting stars and woke up to the sight and sound of waves crashing on the rocks of a beach on an island thousands of miles away from anything I had ever known before.
This picture is the image from the end of my dream.
Cuando parace ser un sueño pero sabes que es otra realidad- ¿debes tratar despertarte? O solo tratar mantenerte en el corriente para no ahogarse lejos del continente?
(When it seems like a dream but you know that it is just another reality- should you try to wake up? Or just go with the flow of the current and try not to drown, far from the continent?)
Culture Shock
When I left Easter Island I felt empty, yet so full. I was so confused. When arrived to Santiago, I spent about an hour with Adrien in her apartment before heading to the metro to go home. On my way towards the station, I had such an urge to cry and I didn´t know what was wrong. I didn´t want to go home and be alone. I called my roomate Hector, hoping that he would be there, but he didn´t pick up his phone. Then I remembered that he was also travelling and that made me almost sick to my stomach.
When I got home, I turned my key in the lock....and the door wouldn´t open. Someone inside came to the door and opened it for me. It was Amanda, an Australian friend of Hector´s that he had met on Easter Island. She had been crashing at our place for the past few days because she has a flight to the US in a few days and didn´t have anywhere else to stay. I was so relieved to see her.
When I came in, she commented on all of the shell necklaces that I had around my neck. They were given to me as a sign of good luck by all of the friends that I had made on the island. Once I started talking about that...I spilled my guts about ALL of my experiences on Rapa Nui.
By 2am (I had arrives at about 10:30) I had sorted out many things and I realized that most of all- this was my first experience with culture shock. After the eleven months that I had spent in Chile, this past week was the first time that I had had such an experience.
The funny thing was that while it was happening, I hardly noticed. Maybe that was because it seemed like such a dream. And it all didn´t really hit me until I was leaving. Being in such a small town, aliented from practically everything while at the same time having contact with the world was so...tumultuous.
Right now, I am coping well. I spent the day cleaning my room, reading, and writing. And thinking. And reflecting. A lot. Last night, all I really wanted to do was put on my backpack again and travel down south to forget everything and be by myself. But now, I have kind of grounded myself and need to take care of a ton of things before I have the opportunity to do some more travelling. Tomorrow I will post some pictures and some of the thoughts that came out of my pen while taking off in the airplane from the island. I promise. :-)
An Eye Opener
Easter Island is amazing but there are many cultish, strange things that the average tourist doesn´t get to know because of how blindingly beautiful it is.
Number one- practically everyone on the island is related, but that doesn´t mean that their "family" lives in a "family" atmosphere, or are even friends for that matter. Imagine having four brothers and sisters by your mom and dad and right across town lives your half brother who is the same age as you. And he is in your high school class.
Tourism makes competition fierce among vendors, and it is often a cousin or uncle you are competitng with. And if you get in a fight with your mother in law- be careful because she might have her husband´s brother, who could possibly be your child´s math teacher, come and steal the roof off of your house. And you can´t really escape because the next town is 3500 kilometers away. Although you could hide in a cave if you wanted to.
The seemingly lawless of the island doesn´t help anything. Although there are cops on the island, the are really there to establish a "presence" and not to actually do a job. If you are caught speeding or your vehicle isn´t registered, it doesn´t really matter.
And jail?! Hahaha. What a joke. If you are sentenced to time, all it really means is that you get to have a free bed, breakfast, and dinner since you are allowed to leave during the day to do whatever you want.
What kinds of crimes exist there anyways? You´d be surprised. A man sodomized his girlfriend last year with a beer bottle- and now he´s dating her friend. If an indigenous Rapa Nui rapes another Rapa Nui- nothing will happen to him. They will just blame it on their "savage blood". Schizophrenia might also be used as an excuse.
Easter Island is the epitome of "living in the present". Most people make a few bucks and its gone the next day. But its ok because tourists keep coming and spending money anyways. Think about it- if you can charge $3000 per square meter for a painting, then you shouldn´t have too much trouble buying beer for yourself and friends. Plus, if you don´t have food, you can always go fishing or go to Aunt Maria´s house and she´ll feed you.
I think that in the end it was all so shocking to me because I apply my cultural standards and what I know to their way of life. It would be interesting to see what they would say if they were to come to my hometown and make their own judgements of how we live on a day to day basis.
Temptation Island
Well I´m back in Santiago and the past week already seems like it never really happened. But I do have photos to prove it. I´ll try to get them posted soon.
I´m leaving with such a twisted impression of possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth. It´s funny how you see pictures of a place and expect one thing, and then you go there and it is so much different, even though it looks the same.
Having the ability to speak the language and share with the islanders changed the whole scope of the trip. Usually, as a tourist destination, most visitors just see the archeological sites and don´t get to know the people. But Adrien and I spent the past week hanging out with the kids our age and speaking with people from the judge on the island to the air traffic controller and the island´s music teacher.
Pablo Andrés and Adrien
What did we learn? Too much to share in one blog. I could probably write a book based on this past week. But as a basic rundown- everyone on the island is related so they are desperate to hookup with the foreigners. I think I was hit on by everyone in the island. And often times, foreigners will stay. It is an enticing place, afterall. But a few years later after the couple has a kid, the islander usually finds some other tourist that is even better. So they split up. Honeymooning couples on the island have been known to break up and get together with islanders.
Other strange stories- there is even a German girl who lives in a cave with one of the "rustic" or "hippie" islanders. I´m not kidding. They don´t have water or elecricity, but she decided to stay with him during what was supposed to be a week long vacation.
I could have easily had my pick and stayed... I could have become an artist/English teacher/translator on the island, or something like that... but there are too many other places I want to see and things that I want to do. Forgetting that the rest of the world exists can only last for so long for me. But in the future, I wouldn´t mind vacationing there for a month or two. Especially now that I have friends and I could crash in their place for free because it is everything but cheap.
One Day
I have one day left here in Temptation Island. Adrien and I are going to rent a car and go camping with a few friends that we have made. I hope it goes well. And then its back to the real world.
Paradise Lost and Found
Sometimes I hate getting online. Why? Because I prefer to not worry and pretend that the world is as happy as where I am at.
Right now I´m in the middle of nowhere (practially) yet when I get online I learn that some soldier in another part of the world admits to killing a wounded soldier from the opposition. And it makes me sad. (Mind you- I didn´t read the entire story... not that it would have been the "truth" anyways given the half ass means of media communication the the United States receieves anyways...)
Rapa Nui Christmas cheer in a restaurant
But despite the helplesness that I feel...I´m here, secluded from the norm, from most worries, and from most stressful pressures. Last night I went to the Rapa Nui Rotary meeting and I think that it was the best meeting that I have ever been to during my Rotary studies abroad... The members were so real and natural that it seemes almost unreal. My ideal service club meeting...almost. Although the treasurer did walk out because of an internal conflict (it seems), but besides that the club seems very united. Well, I guess that in a communty of 4000 people it is hard not to be, right? (Wrong, as I will explain later.)
Presentation of Rotary symbol
Anyways, the meeting ended well and today I got sunburned on the beach before a tour of the island by the island´s judge. Now I am going to the going away party of a local islander...ironic, huh? In two days I will be going away from the island myself and in one month I will be having my own party before returning to the North American continent...so much to do in so little time.
Maybe tomorrow I will have enough time to tell you about the local men wooing the foreign travellers and getting them to stay here and forget the rest of the world.
I hope I make it out of here alive....
Gilligan´s Island
I think that Rapa Nui, as Easter Island is known to the natives, would have been a better set for Gilligan´s Island....This place is absolutely amazing!
Adrien and I are staying the hotel of a Rotarian right outside of the small town of 4000. Today we went on a tour of about half the island with a group of five other Chileans. We saw many "moai"- the big statue heads made out of volcanic rock- there are over 800 on the island, about 400 of which are still in the "factory" waiting for transport.
The moai factory
These things are so incredible...and some are HUGE. There are many theories about their transport, from levitation to rolling them on tree trunks and even talk of aliens. Adrien is a big alien believer so she is especially loving it!
15 moai
At the end of the day, after the picnic, we drove up to paradise- a white sand beach with coconut tress and crystal blue water. Absolutely breathtaking.
Anakena Beach
While I was out taking pictures, I ran into a teenage kid who was about to climb a coconut tree. I got some unreal photos of him picking the fruit and then later breaking it open. He shared some with me- it tasted like....coconut. Hahaha. But it was a much better experience than eating it out of a bag.
Last night, after an album launching party of a local band on the beach, we hung out with some locals and learned a lot about the way of life here. I´ll have to share that later because Internet here costs five million dollars an hour (not really, but it´s expensive) and I have some other business to take care of. I really wish I could share my photos right away but that will have to wait until I get back to Santiago.
Was it All Just a Dream?
Today is my last day on campus. I ate lunch in the Food Garden with my friend Deyanira where we usually eat together. It wasn´t sad or anything because I´m going to see her again. It did suck though because it wasn´t as good as usual, and that is sad... You always want to go out with a
bang, you know? But given that we waited until 5pm to eat, there were slim pickings.
I´ve been taking photos of my campus for the past hour. I´ll post one soon.
I´m not sure how I feel yet because it doesn´t seem like its ending. I´m not leaving Chile for another month, but it is all coming to a close.
Tomorrow I´m going to wake up in Reno and ask myself when I open my eyes, "Was it all just a dream?"
School Daze
The End is Near
Tomorrow is my finance final and I still have to turn in my take home final for my international political ethics class, but after that- I'm done with school here in Chile! Ahh...nice, but kind of sad at the same time, you know? Well, I'm sure that going to
EASTER ISLAND will help me forget about that!
Yes, I am going to Chile's Polynesian island in the middle of the Pacific. What a good way to begin my summer, huh?
I´m Published
I love this blog because even if my mom is the only who reads it, then at least someone is listening.
So hey mom- if you want to read some more of my liberal spew, visit the Reno News and Review website-
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/2004-12-02/travel.asp
COANIQUEM
I had originally planned to return to Santiago by today, but I just couldn´t leave without meeting one of my few goals while travelling up north- visiting COANIQUEM (www.coaniquem.cl), the largest burned victim treatment centers for children in Latin America.
There are two centers in Chile- one in Santiago and the newest site in Antofogasta. Given that the directors of both locations are Rotarians, it wasn´t too hard to get in touch and get a tour of the facility. It was more a matter of convenience for Dr. Solar, the Director in Antofogasta, and when he could meet with me. Since he had time today, I decided to stay and take advantage of the opportunity.
He picked me up at my hostal this morning and we went to the year-old facility where more than 5000 burn victims are treated per year. The doctors from this center (primarily women!) as well as those in Santiago also travel throughout Latin America in order to train doctors in other countries in the area of rehabilitation of patients who have suffered severe burns.
I got to help in the process of sterilization of materials that will later be used to treat victims as well as sit in on a follow up visit for a little boy with burns on his neck.
In a consultation
The Rotary Club of Santiago, my host club, as well as the San Francisco CA club, the 2nd oldest club in the history of Rotary, support the COANIQUEM Foundation through RotaryQuem (quemado = burned). I made my contribution today by buying the Christmas cards that they sell as a fundraiser. So if you recieve a card from me in the mail, then check out the back- when you read COANIQUEM, then you will know that its proceeds have gone to support a good cause.
1907
I was in Iquique yesterday, a port city in the north of Chile. I didn´t have much time and the paragliding business didn´t have room for me, so I hopped on a bus to visit a ghost town that is about an hour away.
Humberstone
Humberstone was a nitrate mining company town where, at the turn of the century, employees and their families were payed with tokens instead of cash which kept them entrenched in an unbreakable cycle. In 1907, the three thousand town members, including women and children, walked the forty kilometers of sand dunes to Iquique, in order to ask for support from the local government for better working conditions and payment in cash from the company that was ignoring their requests.
Upon their arrival at the town square, two thousand were subjected to a bloody massacre by the local police force- they were shot and killed at point blank, weaponless, and without a chance to voice their needs. The remaining one thousand were forced to return to work without any changes.
This account was related to me by a construction worker who is working on the restoration project of the mining town. He had many wise words for me, two phrases which I will share with you-
"Love what you do, because if you don´t, you won´t love who you are"
and
"Just because a person doesn´t have a degree doesn´t make them worthless. Sometimes, they may be even more educated."
