Santiago de Chile

I arrived in Santiago last Friday, the 30th--I believe. I had an 11-hour layover in Miami the day before. I don´t want to be overly critical and I don´t know how much of its present condition can be attributed to the recent hurricanes but Miami is a terrible city. The beaches are pristine and beautiful though. The flight itself was super nice.

Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport is in the outskirts of the city. From the airport I took a shuttle (they´re called transfers here) to the new Stanford center. The center is great. The ride to it wasn´t pleasant but eye-opening. The outskirts of the city are occupied by slums and shanty neighborhoods. The city itself itself is beautiful but also very priviledged in comparison to the rest of the country and in absolute terms. I dropped off everything except my backpack and left for a hostel. The primary mode of transportation is the Metro (subway); it´s clean and efficient. From there we went to Plaza Italia which is lots of congregations happen--mostly of political nature. That particular afternoon there was lots of political campaigning going on in the form of flag waving and leaflet distribution. [On the 12th of December none of the candidates managed to achieve an absolute majority--required by law to win the presidency] This upcoming 15th of January the run-off election will take place between Michelle Bachelet (of the Concertacion alliance, left-of-center) and Sebastian Piñera (the right-wing candidate). At the moment Bachelet leads the polls.

From Plaza Italia we went to Bellavista which along with Ñuñoa are the bohemian centers of Santiago. The main avenue is lined with small restaurants and bars. La Chascona--one of the homes of Pablo Neruda, now a museum--is located here. From there we went back east to Providencia (where the Stanford center is located) and had dinner. Late at night we returned to Barrio Brasil (a quarter popular with students) and slept.

The next morning we decided to go to the bus station and buy tickets to go North--our (Laura Rodriguez being the other person) destination, La Serena (a coastal town 8 hours north of Santiago). Laura being uptight insisted that we take the bed bus up there. The other options being semi-bed and regular seats. We arrived early the next morning and at the bus station we were approached by Mauricio Berrios and very nice man who owns a hostel near the center. Laura refused to take a ride with him and insisted we take a taxi. We took breakfast which consisted of bread, cheese, jam, butter, jam and ¨coffee¨(Nescafe isn´t real coffee). We dedicated the rest of the day to checking out town, going to the beach. The family running the hostel invited us to their family New Years´Eve dinner and we decided to accompany them. We brought 2 bottles of champagne along. At dinner we spoke extensively with a Czech journalist/winemaker. He asked me about US foreign policy and I asked him about life since the end of communism. Afterwards, midnight came, sirens played over the radio and the fireworks began. Everyone hugged and kissed everyone else. Mauricio´s father was there as well. The man to me seemed a bit looney (Mauricio´s wife, Mary agreed). He seemed to be a man who shirked from his responsibilities his entire life and, in general, very transient. I played along. Mauricio son, Mauro (about 4-years-old) was unforgettable--he wouldn´t stop taking about the fireworks for days. The conversation and pisco-drinking continued into the late night. Eventually, I dropped what I now like to call the ¨Pinochet Bomb¨and asked about life since and during the Pinochet regime. Most people seemed very reserved and staved-off from making strong statements.

The people of Chile outside of Santiago are very kind, light-hearted, caring, proud and helpful people. They´ll treat you as if you were a close relative who´s returned from a long trip. The people of the capital on the other hand are dry, curt and unsympathetic. Moreover, the people of the capital are excessively ¨American¨and try very hard to imitate US clothing, music and culture--something which was very hard for me to see and accept as a reality. What bothers me the most is they unquestionably love everything American. Terrible American pop music, fake, cheap American clothes are seen in high-regard. Burger King, McDonalds and Pizza Hut are ubiquitous--especially at the Malls. I should also say that there are strong traditional, as well as resistant anti-American sectors within Chilean society.

On the 2nd of 2006 Laura went of some tour of some islands close-by. It didn´t sound that great so I roamed about. I called my father and wished him a Happy Birthday. I went to the center, mailed out some letters and bought some inexpensive Brazilian sandals called Havaianas. I went to La Recova and bought myself a hat. Later that night we went to the near-by town of Coquimbo to its Barrio Ingles (which is a very nice part of town lined with restaurants and clubs). We had dinner with a pair Swiss kids around our age that Laura had met during her tour (Tomino & Fabienne).

Oh, I forgot to mention that on the night of the 1st Laura and I had dinner at this authentic Chinese restaurant in La Serena. The food was outstanding and the situation was increadibly fascinating. The idea that this family had immigrated from China to a small beach town in Chile was a bit incomprehensible for me.

Tuesday Laura and I took a tour of the Elqui Valley. It was, literally, magnificent. We went inward a bit and stopped at a huge dam. Apparently the dam was built where an old town used to be--now it´s all underwater. Our tour said the inhabitants were financially compensated and given new homes to live in. From there we went to a pisco factory, one owned by CAPEL the most popular pisco manufacturer--CAPEL stands for Cooperativa Agrícola Pisquera Elqui Limitada. From there we went to the nearby town of Vicuña which was once home of the Noble laureate Gabriela Mistral. From there we travel through Elqui Valley. My God, this place is incredible. It felt like a dream being there, it was so beautiful. Perfectly Mediterranean, picturesque, enchanting vineyards dotted with very small towns--it was heavenly. I´ve never seen a more beautiful place. At lunch a VERY passionate discussion took place between our tour guide (a very liberal, very intelligent man), us and two Frenchman (one, an agreeable student, the other, a fat ignorant old man from Burgundy). The discussion was centered on history, the effects of globalization and traditional cultures. In the Valley we visited the winery in Pisco Elqui where pisco was first made. It´s still manufacturing although its production is limited. From there we backtracked to Montegrande the town where Gabriela Mistral was born and went to the ¨Schoolhouse-Home¨Museum of hers. That evening we returned to La Serena said goodbye to Mary and Mauricio and took the overnight bus back to Santiago, arriving on the morning of the 4th.

The 4th, today the 5th have been and I anticipate tomorrow the 6th as well to be off-days. We´re now staying at a hostel of the South American chain Che Lagarto. This particular hostel is a renovated old mansion. We´re just blocks from the National Palace--La Moneda. Today we went to Vitacura and Las Condes (suburbs east of Santiago), Laura wanted to get a sense of where she would be living. We went to the cinema and had dinner and one of the 4 Mexican restuarants in all of Santiago.

Lots of photos to come. Besides the regular photos, I´m compiling a graffiti album cataloguing political graffiti throughout Chile--and there´s lots and lots of it.

http://santiago.indymedia.org/
http://www.partidoradical.cl/
http://jjcc.cl/
http://www.pschile.cl/

Ciudad de Mexico

As promised I´ll say a bit a about Mexico City. I´ll be brief though because I want to tell about Santiago de Chile and because I had already written a fair amount when the a blackout happened just minutes ago at this internet cafe.

The most telling and appropriate word to describe Mexico City is contrast. From the Airport I took a taxi to the hostel I was staying at in the center plaza, el Zocalo, where the National Palace (which contains famous Diego Rivera murals) and the Cathedral are located. The ride is about 20 minutes long and tours the outskirts of the city which are primordially composed of dirty, crime-ridden slums. The plaza is sorrounded by mid-range to swanky hotels and discotheques. Its colonial architecture disguises the fact that it´s built on top of the Aztec temple of Tenochtitlan (Templo Mayor). The temple was discovered 27 years ago by electrical workers. To the west of el Centro Historico (the focal point being el Zocalo) there´s Alameda (a large park) and Bella Artes (the National Theatre--whose interior is decked with famous murals). The main boulevard, Paseo de la Reforma runs East to West--it´s incredible. Further west along Reforma there´s Zona Rosa which is a financial and shopping center that entertain a happening scene at night. Condesa is the bohemian quarter. Further west in Chapultepec and this is where the National Museum of Anthropology, the Museum of Modern Art and the National History Museum (a converted castle, where Moctezuma, Cortes, Maximilian of Hapsburg and Porfirio Diaz all once lived); it´s jawdropping. The Siqueiros murals will bring you to your knees. North of Chapultepec are the privileged neighborhoods of Polanco and Roma--all the streets are named after poets and philosophers. in the south there´s the neighborhood of Coyoacan (Coyo = Coyote, Huacan = Place of)--where Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky once lived. It´s a nice, fun, quaint place. Forty-five minutes north is the mind blowing sacred city of Teotihuacan (Teoti = Gods, Huacan = Place of). The main corridor is the Avenue of the Dead. The main temple is that of the Sun on the right. The second temple is at the end of the Avenue and is the Temple of the Moon.

Another example of contrast was the night I went to an ¨antro¨ (or discotheque) right behind the Cathedral. It was this free party being thrown by the Spanish Cultural Centre. One of the girls (Mariana Huerta from Stanford--who I met randomly) I was with was invited and it was spread only through word of mouth. The façade of the building is centuries old but the interior was ingeniously post-modern (recently remodeled). There were galleries and art installations on the first few floors. The party was on the roof. There was a dance floor, tables and a full bar. There was a full moon. There were 5 Djs with heaps of audio visual equipment playing drum n' bass. There was a projector onto which a few video artists projected images and video. The place and the people were uber trendy. Joints and pipes circulated left and right. Although the majority of the people there were "fresas" (wealthy kids) because of the party's word of mouth nature there was a fair amount of non-"fresas."

The city is swamped by tourists during the Summer, especially Europeans. I met two Irish girls, two French guys, a German, an English girl and an Australian.

The city is a meeting place between contrasts. A meeting place between Northern and Southern Mexico (two distinct cultures smashing themselves into one another in this central valley). A meeting place between rich and poor. A meeting place between old and new. Ethnically, culturally, socially the city is an explosion.