San Pedro de Atacama

I made my way north this past week to visit the Atacama desert--it's striking and wowing spending time there. Parts of Atacama make it the driest desert in the world! Aside from all the grand desert vistas that remind you of movies, there are all the natural wonders too. Here's a run down:

We arrived to San Pedro, the little tourist filled (and i mean filled) town with streets lined with restaurants, tour companies, hostels and souvenir shops one after another. We were tired from a real early flight, but were convinced (by a tour guide, of course) to take advantage of the full day we had and went to the Puripobre termas--usually, you got to Puritama, but Puripobre had the natural warm springs without having to pay an entrance fee :-D. Ale was really affected by the altitude--we were at about 2,000 km, and she actually passed out! It was scary, but the tour guide knew what he was doing. It's generally not very serious and happens to a lot of people, but it was a scare and Ale was sensitive to it for the rest of the trip. She bought cocao leaves and tea so that helped!

The following day we explored the town a bit during the day, and in the afternoon went sandboarding! I had some falls, since that was first time I've done anything like that (I've never been skiing or snowboarding). Definitely a good time--but super strenuous! And the snowboarding is followed by a small hike into Valle de la Luna where we watched the sunset. Really beautiful!

That evening we also got to experience a really awesome party--out in the middle of the desert with a big bonfire and dance music. Pretty incredible to be dancing and mingling with chileans (good practice for spanish at that) underneath the clearest sky and in the middle of who-knows-where. It was really cold, but that made for the fireside chat atmosphere. What a night!

Sandboarding

The next tour we took was a full day one, starting at 8am. It took us to the Salares de Atacama, where not only the salt sediments were sparkling but we got to see flamingos! They are just so beautiful. Hopefully I find a halloween party to go to here, because I've been wanting to go as a flamingo. Now i've done some research!

Look mom! It's like an animal planet shot! I think of you when i see wildlife :-D


Maybe if you enlarge this you'll see it better, but flamingos are just so gorgeous--not only rose pink, but this Chilean Flamingo has black feathers on the underside of its wings. So when they fly, the color schemes going on are just awesome.

After that we went to a couple towns, they showed us how people in the desert get by. The greenery in the photo of Ale and the dog was a part of a whole area where fruit was growing, and where a small river/stream runs by that has pure pure water used by the towns. The other part of the trip was going to the Lagunas--wowww. I think this was my favorite. Riding through the driest of places in the world and then all of a sudden coming across this blue blue oasis is nuts! Plus, I love the salt/white sediments you can see on the shore.

Finally, we woke up at 3am to go on the Geyser tour. At about 5 degrees, early in the morning, the contrast of the hot vapor is most visible with the cold air. So I layered up in some silly outfit (which turned out being okay! us kenyoners are used to that weather, sort of, i just had ice cold hands). They're really something--just like the photos show, hot air spurting up out of the ground! we saw one get started, at first its just bubbling, and once it gets going in under a minute hot water comes spurting out, and eventually turns into vapor. You have to be careful not to stand in it for too long because of all the sediments and chemicals in it.

See that bubbling? This is a small spot of geyser activity--the bigger ones are the ones that spurt out water and vapor. But it's pretty incredible to see bubbling water all over the place.






This was a hole in the ground where we could sit for a moment to warm up (not too long!) You see how hot the vapor coming out really is!

Afterwards we enjoyed breakfast and warm drinks and were looking at some animals, some wild some not, and marshes. I had a taste of llama meat, so good! When we got back we relaxed for the rest of the day, made a delicious pasta and got to bed at a decent hour considering we had to get up early yet again for our early flight home. I'm lucky to have seen a place like that--and Ale was great company. It's nice traveling around with just another person. We also got great practice with our spanish--the Chileans there are impressed when tourists who can really talk with them in spanish show up. So that was great! Enjoy the photos!

Llamas--basically all are domesticated, not wild. Here they are grazing!

anecdotes

It's a long weekend, for el día de la raza, so basically everyone I know (gringos) left for the weekend! Cata era sola! But it was...good! I've spent basically the entire weekend with chileans! Puro español. I thought I'd share some details, because it was a beautiful weekend with weather and company and all.

Last week I made the bold move of asking a Chilean for his number, just to be able to chat more because we managed to have something to say in a span of 10 minutes. He's from Punto Arenas--basically the most southern city in Chile. We went on a bike ride to the botanical gardens--it's crazy getting to know someone in a DIFFERENT language. I wonder if i come off as different in the spanish speaking world. It was a really nice day, good conversation. He was pretty quick to get to asking what i thought about the united states being considered "imperial" hah. usual, huh? Later he felt bad he had jumped to offend my country like that, but it was fine--it's so interesting to hear what people have to say, let alone its not a surprising question. especially interesting because a lot of people only really know about the US's particular involvement in certain things. But also i like to be able to show we don't walk around thinking we're the greatest thing in the world...yeah that subject is all just so complex.

And i spent last night with Dennise and her friend. More chileans! More spanish! We went and got sushi, had a "Chardonnay sour"--yum! chardonnay with lemon juice and sugar more or less. I was telling Henry earlier how in awe i find i feel, how concious i am, of being with "puros chilenos." During our sushi dinner we had nice conversation--its so exciting to be out with some ladies, just like i'm used to, but in the speaking spanish form. And then we went to share some more wine at another place--once there, and once more chileans came, the music was loud enough that i could barely hear people let alone understand them. But every minute is good for my spanish.

But it also leaves ya feeling kinda beat up and worn out. After coming back from the gardens the other day i was so worn out, hoping to find Sarah Lana on facebook or something but couldnt, and its then that you get that slap of gahh-im-far-away-and-alone! and i just had this conversation with Vero (mi mama chilena) about independence and all that, and how she always was independent like me but had god. and what's never been clearer is how much easier it can be when you have something to turn to and know is "with you." so that i wouldn't really be in this romaing around sola part of my life. but, for now at least, i dont have that or see that in sight---having god to turn to. and that gives me this mixed feeling of something really great and something real..heavy. So when no other gringos are around, here and over there in the states, and only spanish is to be spoken, its this crazy mix of amazing and scary feelings.

But then you wake up and have days like I did today! I've started getting responses from some of the granjas (farms) that I wrote emails to about WWOOFing with this summer with sarahlans! Thats so great because finally I know I have something to do come verano (summer)! And I had a cup of coffee and talked with one of my sisters and mama. And I read some more of A Confederacy of Dunces--the characters are so frustrating sometimes its hard to pick up! And relaxed until lunch. And then went to meet Dennise and we headed into to Valparasio to go to a feria (fair, of lots of used stuff and all that). The day was gorrggeouuss. Sunny and breezy, yum. We had a beer, with orange soda! And walked along the boardwalk and had nice conversation. So nice.

And then i came home and went on a run and read some livejournal (world's most wanted blog of the stories of the lives of my girl friends from home) and broke out the vino and had a nice healthy dinner. ooo just the best! and i'm hoping to get my way into the daddy yankee concert that's in viña tonight. that would be just rediculous huh.

Tur histórico

I'm sitting in Rachael's room, waiting for her to come back from a hike she went on today! I'm enjoying a Corona (with lemon, not lime grr), especially because today was heavy. Our tour was led by a history teacher from the University of Chile in Santiago. It was a modern political history tour, so we spent the day absorbing the causes, events and effects of the political situation in Chile during Allende and Pinochet. We also touched a bit on the presidencies and elections before Allende's term, but mainly the tour was to give historical background to the dictatorship.

The tour was really well done. We started off by watching a video released by the "Augosto Pinochet Foundation" (or something of that sort) in the late 1980s. It was, all around, pro-Pinochet and laudatory of the military government. The video presented the situation with Allende's election, starting with his minimal electoral win and moving into the chaos and disorder that came about under his presidency. When it got to the overthrow of Allende's government, triumphant music played and after a brief demonstration of the bomb attacks on La Moneda, the presidential palace, footage of hugging and shaking-hands politicians showed how turning over the government to new hands was done civilly and with much support. Chile stabilized, chaos was over, and people no longer were waiting on long lines for food.

The professor followed up the video with more analysis of what was discussed, and explained the basis on which the military government legitimized the overthrow--in summary, on the grounds that Allende's government was violating the Chilean Constitution. Obviously, this entry could be an essay on the arguments and circumstances of the situation from both the left and right. I'm going to have to skip the detail, but what was important was that we started off the day with the conservative, anti-Allende/pro-overthrow point of view. It's so important because in a room full of american students abroad, there is no doubt the the majority if not all of them are partial to the ANTI-overthrow side, in that what is so well known about this history are the horrible violations of human rights that occurred. Moreover, there is no doubt that Chile was in a bad way for a lot of people under Allende's government--there was chaos, there was disorder--there was a socialistic system underway which was something entirely new and even frightening for people, especially considering the context of the Cold War.

So after hearing more details about Allende's program called "la via chilena a socialismo" (the Chilean path towards socialism), and how it faced problems and the objections of the plan within the government, the group left for the rest of the tour with a perspective in our minds we weren't used to walking around with (not to say that a lot of us didn't already know this part of the history, though there is no doubt that some didn't).

Next stop was the cemetery where all the Chilean presidents except Pinochet and Gabriel Gonzalez Videla are buried, El Cementerio General. Here was where the professor was able to tell us more about the history, from a less anti-allende point of view, such as his programs that focused on equality, as well including what went wrong with those programs--or objectively speaking, what could be problematic.

El Cementerio General

Our tour guide, next to the grave of Orlando Letelier, who was ambassador to the US under Allende. While speaking out about the situation under Pinochet, Ortelier was assassinated in Washington, DC, where he was working at the Institute for Policy Studies.


Salvador Allende's burial tomb. What is incredible is that cross of Jesus peeking through. Allende was agnostic, and being that his commemorative tomb--made for all Chilean presidents--was made under the military government, many think this was a way to disrespect his memorial. (I can't remember or am not sure there is any significance to the design of the site)


Commemorating some of the names of the desaparecidos--those that went missing during the dictatorship--and other victims of the government. Salvador Allende is in the middle to demonstrate that he is considered the first victim. It says at the top, "All of my love is here and remains stuck to the rocks, the ocean, the mountains."

But what was most impressionable was our trip to the concentration camp/detention center in the outskirts of Santiago that was an unofficial and unknown/secret camp for torture called Villa Grimaldi. Here the dark, dark side of the dictatorship was very real. The professor explained the memorial park and each of its symbols--the park is filled with symbolic structures and references, as the photos show more specifically. It's horrifying to hear the stories, especially knowing that not a single recounting of the story can relay what it must have been like. The memorial of the camp though tragic, is beautiful. All the mosaic pieces around the camp come from original parts of the large house that was originally here.

When prisoners were brought in to the camp they were lined up around this circle and beat until they were no longer standing. Surrounding this circle were thousands of roses. This was part of the psychological torture, which was to fill the noses of the prisoners with a scent usually associated to love, and spring etc. Prisoners always had their eyes covered and hands and feet tied, so their experience in the camp is very much so tied to smell. The entire camp ground was filled with these roses--other memories of the roses include how along paths prisoners would walk and feel the spikes of the roses scrape their ankles.

These are dedicated to the women tortured here. This again refers to the theme of roses, trying to take back what the camp turned the symbol into.

The grid-form of the trees and squares are designed this way to represent the way each prisoner would always walk in lines with their arms on the person's shoulder infront of them. That small house was where prisoners were kept for the majority of the day, be it for days, weeks or months. It would hold up to 12 people.

What made and makes my stomach turn the most is observing how a nation with this kind of traumatic experience handles it. While, yes, I can even say--despite papers and research and readings denouncing the dictatorship--that Allende's program was unsustainable, and people needed a change, what came of the dictatorship, and the way the chaos "ended" and "stability" arose was inexcusable. "stability" came because women were raped by men and dogs, parents were tortured in front of their children, electrocuted, ate on their knees with hands and feet tied, were tossed from planes into the pacific in bags--stability was around because chileans lived constantly under the sense of terror.

Last semester in Kenyon, we read a book in my history class about dictators and military governments in Latin America and the tool TERROR they use. While families watched their sons and daughters and mothers and father disappear, become desaparecidos, not only was deep emotional trauma caused but a true fear of the government, facing the fact that their government was ready to use the most inhumane of tools to keep its people pacified, in the name of stability. The professor explained how the perpetrators of torture, the soldiers that were doing the torturing and have been in jail for some years, have all been tried and convicted as perpetrators on a personal level, not an institutional level--the atrocities that happened haven't be called a corruption of the state, rather horrific acts by individual actors "losing their minds with their newfound power." To me, this is the kind of thing that has lasting effects. This is why I've met Chilean youth that don't want to talk about it, are quick to remind me there's another perspective, that say "why keep protesting if it's in the past." Many Chileans haven't accepted what happened--or if they have, they want that to mean their in the right to move on from it.

I'm in a class here called Collective Memory in Chile that has been looking at this problem exactly. We've read and talked about how all these horrible events are going forgotten, because people don't want to remember, people to want to face it. It's understandable, but so unacceptable. A democracy needs honesty, right? What happens if Chileans don't remember these events when it is undeniably a part of the Chilean identity? It also makes me think about the States. Haven't we, more or less, already forgotten about how our government responded to Hurricane Katrina? Do schools all over America do a good job of making its students remember and reflect on slavery? 9/11? Whether or not we are for or against traumatic things that have happened in our nations, we need to remember not only their historical and political implications but their emotional implications--i think those are what give us our identity as a unified country, what identifies us as citizens of the USA.