Question of the day as I say goodbye to my fabulous Mom and my rockin Girlfriend. In truth, I really wasn't nervous at all- even as the plane began to take off and I flew over the lakes and canyons of the west and the neat cookie-cutter squares of agricultural outposts in the Midwest. It wasn't until the flight captain announced our arrival at Miami (the words "Welcome to Miami" made me think that I was doing this trip "Big Willy Style"-scored me a laugh anyways) that my mind began to orient more towards excitement than that of anticipation. As I raced through the airport to make my second connection, I was able to enjoy some of the local music in Miami; Bob Marley singing the soothing melody of something or another...
The flight to Santiago was uneventful as well; I actually enjoy flying it seems.
Enter: Immigration; Day 2
Santiago or SCL in airport jargon is a zoo when I arrive. Trying to beat the crowds I race to get my temporary visa which costs me 131.00$ US (Thank you Mom! Birthday present already gone, darn Chileans sticking it to the touristas), then to the immigration center where check in was quick and easy. Worried about my precious luggage, I raced to baggage claim to quickly grab all my bags. I stagger down the airport center weighed down terribly by my bags. At customs, I quickly have my pineapple rings my Girlfriends generously gave me seized by officials and after a number of scowls and finger wags, I am out looking for my USAC grupo. Though it was a group flight, none of us never saw each other and after furiously batting away the taxi drivers telling me to stay at a hotel and not wait (nice try boys) for my group that had probably already left, I was approached by my director who quickly rushed me away from the frenzy of smooth talking taxi drivers.
Por Santigo de Chile
It was sprinkling as our bus took us through the bowels (credit: Weston Lippia) of Santiago. Santiago is, by far, the largest city that I have ever been in. I understand it to be bigger than LA and the torrential rain from the past few days there had brought every piece of trash on the ground into the streets and lots of the lower-income sections of the city. It was a sad sightseeing such an impoverished sections littered with graffiti, broken glass, busted cars and dilapidated houses. Near the university was much better though and soon I found myself being briefed about the upcoming field trip and classes for my stay here.
Host Family, time to speed things up.
Holy hell.
I meet my family for the first time at the university de Andre Bello and they are absolutely the nicest people ever. George (pronounced hor-hey) is way excited for me to be there and Claudia (pronounced claw-oo-dia) is insistent on showing me everything Santiago has to offer. We drive to the capitol center where the presidente lives and the guard is out in full force and I receive a number of suspicious glances as, seemingly being the only gringo in the city, I kinda stick out like a blonde thumb. The whole time we drive I am clutching my seat belted in as snug as possible- I am suddenly reminded of driving with Dante- accelerating quickly after every sudden stop and taking corners at near-terminal velocity. Only instead of doing this in the desert or the empty streets of Fallon, I am on a two-lane US 395 and we are weaving through traffic in our little SUV with the recklessness of Eval Kineval (spelling?) on every methamphetamine known to the residents of Sun Valley. I thought that I may have seen a speed limit of some kind nailed up on a tree but who knows, I was going too fast to see it. There are few two-way streets here and I understand why.
Family of Family and downtown Tokyo
My host family takes me to the mall to exchange money and then home to unpack. After this, I meet Sonia, the sister of Claudia, and she is the funniest person I know. A successful realtor in Santiago, we leave to go get my cell phone in her nice little SUV. The cars here are small and as we careen down the streets as fast as Sonia's accelerator allows us, she tells me that she is not crazy- though we nearly hit so many people I stopped counting. Seriously. She blares Lenny Kravitz and CCR so loud none of us can hear each other. Awesome. I quickly find that I can't understand anything anyway; the dialect is too Castilian, too fast and I’m just too slow to make sense of it all.
We go to this huge, HUGE flee market-like place where the light bulbs are flickering and the masses of people are scurrying for the best deals. It's crazy here. People by the THOUSANDS, tons of stores, all under one roof/carpet/shawl/whatever-can-keep-the-rain-out device. Here, I find my phone for Santiago.
We go to Sonia's house to meet the rest of the family. They all live here and there are never less than 10 people in the house at one time. The wine here is amazing. Enough said.
Sleep --> day 3
I sleep in my new down parka because it is so cold. There is no central heating here and I refuse to use the small space heater provided for me. I fall asleep seeing my breath.
The next day I grab a fabulous lunch with shrimp, avocado (everything has avocado in it here) and more wine. Next, I am off to meet my USAC group for our field trip to Northern Chile. Everyone is really nice in my group I reason, a few are quite interesting (someone really enjoys walking barefoot) but if anything, it makes for more entertainment- and we're all about the entertainment here.
The two hour flight to Calama is uneventful, although the views over the Andes are quite amazing: glaciated peaks piercing saturated layers of clouds, beautiful sunrises and of course, the Pacific coast. Upon arrival in Calama, I feel like a rock star as we all get out directly on the tarmac and enter the tiny airport in the middle of the desert. Next is a long bus drive to San Pedro de Atacama: an oasis at almost 8,000 feet elevation riveted with canyons and black sand dunes. The reason why there is civilization out here is that there is apparently a very large natural aquifer underneath the village. We stay in a nice Hosteria with heating, plumbing, hot water- even maids. We’re kings here. I sleep very sound.
Day 4 –San Perro… Oops! I mean San Pedro
Today we eat as a group and take a tour of the town. There is a nice church constructed out of cactus matter, mud and stone. We get free time and Jeremy and I decide not to see the town on foot, but rather by bike- a very good idea indeed. We fly everywhere, kicking dogs lying in the middle of the street out of the way and covering so much ground that we understand the framework of the town quickly. Jeremy’s bike breaks down and I managed to end-o over my handlebars in front of a group of people, nice. After trading in Jeremy’s bike for another, we venture out to the borders of San Pedro and take marvelous pictures of 18,000-foot tall volcanoes just waiting to be climbed. The volcanoes here are extremely active and there is often plumes of smoke cited ventilating from their snowless peaks.
We go out into the desert and approach a large sandstone massif in which we intend to climb. We scale the salt-ridden sandstone chutes with difficulty but are able to top out reasonably fast and it is from here that we can see the vast expanse of the Atacama Desert with astounding clarity thanks to the thin, arid air. We meet again and drive out to a nearby fortress that was constructed by someone important and then take off to La Valle de la Luna in order to see el puesto del sol (sunset). This valley is unbelievable.
It is truly another planet. There are gigantic dunes of salt and black sand, creaking canyons comprised of needle-sharp salt-cicles and vast expanses of pyramid-shaped rock formations. Sunset is fantastic and the Chilean alpenglow is perhaps one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. Again, we eat as a group of gringos back in San Pedro and quickly rush to our rooms to change.
We leave our hosteria at about 930 pm and go “downtown” to catch some of the incredible wine of Chile. Finding a place quickly, we learn that there is a happy hour going on and all order two drinks a piece. I order a Ruso Negro and a Ruso Blanca (black/white Russian) and boy howdy are they strong! We turn in for the night; I sleep in my clothes- shoes included.
Day 5- More Salt & Flamingoes
Today we get up early to venture out to some of the mountain villages nearby to meet some of the indigenous people of… The Inca Empire! We go to a small town called Tocano and visit the school there.
The kids are quite funny and after a few rounds of ‘tag’ we are given some free time. I climb to the top of a hill where a telescope is stowed in a small hut. The view is breathtaking and the sky is a fierce blue against the red rock of the volcanoes nearby.
Next we go out to the middle of B.F.E. to the Flamingo Reserve. There is a bit of [foul-smelling] water here amidst a plain of salt and a whole load of flamingoes. One of my group members comments that the environment around us with impossibly tall mountains giving relief to the odd salt-rock formations across the landscape resembles something not of this world. The pink flamingoes balking at the each other for trespassing into their sea-monkey eating territory only makes the landscape that much stranger.
No comments:
Post a Comment