Patagonia Road Trip - Chapter II: Ruta 40 and the Glaciers

As soon as we crossed the Argentinian border, the landscape changed dramatically. We left the green forests and the snow covered mountains behind and found ourselves in the middle of the endless plains on the other side of the Andes. The weather also changed, from rainy and rather cold to sunny and warm. These are the famous pampas! Here we took the also mythical Ruta 40 in Argentina, a road that crosses the country all the way through, from the Bolivian border up North to the Chilean border at the southernmost Patagonia. We just did 1/6th of it approximately and this was more than 1500 kms! At these latitudes the road is basically a dirt road, but quite wide and safe, in the sense that you ride across plains and there isn't the risk of falling into a river or a big slope if you go out of the road. We drove south, for 12h straight, with just short stops to refuel and buy something to eat. It is amazing how you can drive for 5h across the same landscape, sprinkled here and there with guanacos, sheeps and ñandus, a sort of ostrich, and suddenly arrive at a small village, which has not more than a dozen of houses and a petrol station. Of course, they charge whatever they want for the petrol, there is no competition and everyone (literally everyone) has to stop here to refuel since the next station will be 300 or 400 kms away. Even though they inflate the prices, fuel here is 1/3 the price of that in Portugal!


The goal for the day was to gain the extra day and reach El Chaltén, a small town existing since 1985 with a very specific purpose: tourism. It is strategically located inside Los Glaciares National Park, the symbol of the Argentinian Patagonia. From the town it is easily possible to do day treks to amazing places: glaciers, lagoons, waterfalls and Patagonian forest. We arrived at night and rented a fully equiped cabaña, managed by a very friendly Argentinian from Buenos Aires. The day after, we did a beautiful 4h-trek to Laguna Torre to see a glacier and the plan for the next day was to get up early and leave in the morning but... it was Friday night.


As good latinos and since we believe it is one of the best ways to assimilate the local culture, we couldn't miss a Friday night. We had a few beers at home while playing cards and we decided to go out and see what was happening. We immediately met another group, a local group, who were going for the same. Armed with Quilmes (aka Kill Me), the national beer, we went to a bar and this was the best night of the whole vacations and the most memorable one as well. I will not go into full detail around this epic night, but one of the remarkable moments was when the DJ started playing Buraka Som Sistema, a Portuguese electronic group, and among the fuss we made about it, I met an Argentinian girl who had been in Portugal recently! Needless to say, the next day nobody woke up early and we decided to stay an extra night. We took the evening to drive to a lagoon nearby and see some waterfalls and more glaciers. We spent the extra day here, but it was definitely worth it.


The next day we left early to see the biggest tourist attraction of the Argentinian Patagonia. On the southern part of the Los Glaciares National Park is the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the very few that is not retreating and is able to regenerate itself. This monster glacier is in a lake (Lago Argentino) and acts as a natural dam, dividing the lake in two. There are one-hour boat rides that approach one of the glacier sides and where you normally can see some ice collapsing from it. The total area of the glacier is equivalent to the area of Madrid and it is indeed an impressive view. At the end of the day we went to El Calafate and decided to stay there for the night. After an hearty discussion, where the four of us needed to distress from the tight schedule, we decided to loosen it up a little bit and cut part of the trip, namely the incursion to Tierra del Fuego, and gain two days with it. It was getting stressful! The next day we drove the last miles of Ruta 40 to reach the Chilean border via Rio Gallegos, on the Atlantic shore. This was all from Argentina. It is interesting as Patagonia is normally more associated to Argentina than to Chile, but the symbolic spots of its Argentinian part are gathered in one single National Park and it is just in the border with Chile...

Patagonia Road Trip - Part II Photo Album

Patagonia Road Trip - Chapter I: Carretera Austral and a 4WD

Since I arrived in Chile, I had one conviction regarding Patagonia: it had to be done by car! From top to bottom, through Chile and Argentina, this area has more than 2500 kms length, two mystic dirt roads (Carretera Austral in Chile and Ruta 40 in Argentina) and a tempting lack of regular connections and civilization in general. With a 4WD vehicle you can go (almost) everywhere and, with time, it is the perfect companion to discover the true unexplored Patagonia, far from the tourist traps. This adventure started taking shape when two friends from Portugal came to visit me and we decided to go to Patagonia. A 17-day road trip through the entire Patagonia was the plan, from Chaitén to Ushuaia, driving more than 5000 kms across the most remote parts of this remote place. Another friend from Paranal joined the group and the four of us departed to the end of the world. We flew to Coihaique, in the middle of the Carretera Austral and there we rented a vehicle, which played one of the main roles on this trip. Suzuki Grand Vitara 2010, 4-Wheel Drive (4WD), air conditioning, 7000 kms, 2400cc, manual transmission and a lot of character!


The first unexpected event happened already before the trip started. One of my friends had his bag lost somewhere on the way to South America and we had it sent to Coihaique. Fortunately, it arrived the day after and we didn't lose much time with that. We spent one night in Coihaique, the capital of the XI region of Chile and the center of this part of Patagonia, and went the next day to Puyuhuapi after getting the bag from the airport. We basically went North through Carretera Austral, which is paved around Coihaique but soon becames an exciting and dangerous dirt road. Distances here are large and the road conditions are bad, so every 300 kms we have to drive takes not less than 6 hours and this is the normal distance between villages. In between, the landscape changes quite often from high basaltic snowed rocks to deep green forests, always sided at some point by rivers or crossed by water streams. The road traffic is barely existent, we could drive for 6 hours and pass by just a couple of vehicles. Mobile phone coverage is zero and sometimes phone coverage in villages as well...


We reached the first checkpoint of the trip. Puyuhuapi, a small village by an amazingly calm lake, known in Chile for its top level hot springs (which we didn't visit) and for the big Queulat National Park, which we trekked the morning after, to try and see a glacier. It was covered with the typical morning mist, so it was a flop, but the trek was very nice, through dense woods. We met the first israeli group of the journey. Like every other group we met, they were hitchiking, but we had the car full, so no luck for them. We went back to the village, filled the tank (Petrol is another big issue in Patagonia) and departed to the next stop: Futaleufú, known by its world-class rapids, the best rafting in South America. We kept going North through the Carretera Austral, until the second unforeseen event happened. One of the girls asked to drive, full of confidence, and after 15 minutes we had the car sent outside the road and landing on a considerable rain pond and several wood trunks. Result: A bad wheel, a damaged door, the front bumper heavily damaged and a car in the water without any hope to get out of it, in the middle of nowhere! First thought: How the f*ck do we get out of here?! Second thought: This is it, concerning holidays!


Luckily, after a few minutes, we stopped a car passing by and asked for help. They went to get a rope and came back to help us get the car out of there. A second car stopped as well to help. The plan was quite simple: tie a rope to our jeep and pull it out of the pond with another jeep. Easier said than done, the car was stuck with some logs underwater and it took a while and one broken rope to get it out. I was helping with the independent 4WD torque, but while in the water it was useless. We finally made it, thanked the people who helped (they were priceless), changed a wheel and it was on the road again, though we thought it wouldn't be possible. We drove to the closest village and called the rent-a-car company to report the event. They advised us to get back to Coihaique to have the car properly checked... Ok, we didn't get any further and went back. On the way we stopped at a proper garage to see if the car would make it to Coihaique and to report the event to the police, for insurance matters. We slept another night in Puyuhuapi and the next day drove all the way to the beginning. We arrived at noon, thinking the trip had come to an end... Miraculously, at 5 pm we had the car checked and they told us we could still use it for the rest of the trip. The tire we changed was actually good, though the steering was a bit damaged, however the car was able to continue. We got back on the road immediately, with a damaged door, a couple of lights less and a front bumper half ruined, but happy and grateful that we could go on with the plan. We slept close to the Argentinean border and prepared to cross it the next morning. We didn't get to raft, but in the end we gained one extra day to spend elsewhere... Who would have thought?...

Patagonia Road Trip - Part I Photo Album

Trance Festivals

Even though Electronic music is not widely popular in Chile, it is still here that some of the best DJs in the world are born. This means that you sometimes have to search a lot for a good place to go and dance, but once you find it, it is almost sure that you will not be disappointed. This last weekend, there was a quite low profile psychedelic trance festival in a camping area, about half an hour south from Santiago. With some friends, we decided to go and camp for the weekend, enjoying almost 24 hours of trance and house music. There were not many people, between 50 and 100, but you don't need a huge party to enjoy it and we had a great time. We brought meat for a barbecue, there was a swimming pool, we danced all night long and were dead the next day. Trance festivals are more mythical in the desert, but those I could not find yet. I am close though...

APEX

After a short visit to La Silla, I was assigned one shift in another observatory and therefore visited all ESO sites in Chile. APEX (Atacama Pathfinder EXperience) is basically a sub-millimetre radio antenna that studies the "cold" universe and the deep and far cosmic galaxies. It is an experiment for the more famous ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) observatory, a group of 66 radio antennas under construction, in what will be the most advanced radio observatory on Earth. Both sites are located in the high plains of Chajnantor, near San Pedro de Atacama, at more than 5000m, where the humidity is very low and best results can be achieved. Due to his status of experiment, APEX is run by few people, when compared to Paranal for instance. I came here to temporarily replace one engineer and help on operations and maintenance and even had to do a medical effort test, to qualify for heights above 5000 meters.


The operations facilities are located in San Pedro de Atacama. Unlike the concrete residence of Paranal, this place is in harmony with the surroundings, with the buildings being made of adobe (clay). In fact, it resembles more a San Pedro hotel than science facilities. From here, all antenna operations, observations and repairs can be made and going up to the 5100 meters are just for maintenance and troubleshooting. From here to the antenna it takes around one hour by car, taking the ALMA road, still under construction. We drive around 60 kms and climb 2500m in height. Working at 5000m is an experience by itself, you cannot move too fast or you'll get dizzy and tired. The simple task of carrying a load of 10 kgs between two people for a few seconds, takes you 5 minutes to catch your breath! The views are also amazing, the entire Atacama salt flat, the second largest in the world, can be entirely seen from up there, as well as the Licancabur volcano, a constant presence around San Pedro. Work done at APEX is challenging, as the resources are less. Most of the times you have to come up with solutions using what you have around, which is different from the "industrial" Paranal style. From my side, and seeing this work experience in Chile as a traineeship, this week has been excellent and this rotation around sites very fruitful. Each place seems to have its very own charm that pulls you into staying there and making you not wanting to leave...

APEX Photo Album

Galileo in Chile

A couple of weeks ago, we got a very special visit in Chile. With more than 400 years, Galileo Galilei, the father of astronomy, came to visit South America, showing excellent shape and that age is what you make of it. He is however a bit naughty and enjoys scaring people. While in Paranal, several maids were scared by his presence in the room, as he would sit in the dark and stare at them. In fact, he did the same in a restaurant and in the plane, staring at people either naked eye or through his handmade telescope. I had the pleasure to travel side by side with him back to Santiago. He doesn't talk much, but is a good lad. After scaring the stewardesses, he sat comfortably with his laptop and his headphones, preparing his next trip in South America. However, during lift-off he felt a bit sick. It is not easy to adapt to these modern means of transportation... The steward gently offered him a snack and a beer and Galileo, as a true party animal, just drank the beer and even asked for a second! He got sick again and fell asleep! We had to wake him up when arriving in Santiago, but not for a moment he showed any signs of an hangover. Full of initiative he asked the stewardess if he could visit the cockpit and he proudly sat on the captain's seat, feeling the thrill of being in command of such a weird steel bird. He left us, as he stayed at the airport overnight. Next morning he was going to take a flight to La Paz, Bolivia...

Waterfalls and Rainbows

The Laja river is one of the main rivers of this region of Chile. It ends in and contributes to the Bio Bio river, the widest and second longest river of Chile. It is born in the Andean range, in a gorgeous National Park called Laguna del Laja. Here a big lagoon is formed between snowed volcanoes. This lagoon gives birth to the river, that crosses almost the entire width of Chile to join the Bio Bio close to the ocean. We crossed the park by car, taking the time to enjoy the big forests and rock formations and the snow that still endured throughout the park. We just managed to reach one edge of the lagoon, before the snow sent us back. In a short couple-of-hour walk we crossed part of the forest to see some waterfalls and even a small rainbow, in a shy and short visit from the sun.


The day after, the last day of the long weekend, we went to see the biggest waterfalls in Chile, further down the Laja river and on the way back to Santiago. The scenery is indeed impressive, as the water flying from the falls covers a wide area and soaks you in few seconds. There are in fact four waterfalls. The most impressive is open to the public and is a tourist attraction. There are two more close together inside private property, where an exclusive hotel was built. We asked to get in just to see the falls and we were allowed to go and take some pictures. Again, a beautiful rainbow formed just below us, providing us with unique pictures! On the way back to Santiago we still had time to go to Cobquecura, a coastal town with a big beach and volcanic sand, where we met a friend for lunch. What else could we ask for?...

Laguna del Laja and Saltos del Laja Photo Album

The World of Narnia

In a not so touristy region of Chile, a not so visited National Park holds one of Chile's biggest treasures: it is one of the last places where there still is native forest and where millenarian Araucaria trees, Chile's symbol, can be seen. The park is named Nahuelbuta and is part of the coastal range in the Araucania region. Together with two friends, I went for a large weekend, in another successful attempt to run away from Santiago. In a five-hour car trip from Santiago we reached the hostal we chose to stay. Run by a friendly German family, we were welcomed at their house, in the middle of the woods, full of Nature and peacefulness. A wonderful place indeed and very central to the major attractions of the region.

The first day was dedicated to explore the Nahuelbuta Park. We went for a 4-hour trek across the park, that reaches one of its highest points, Piedra de Aguila. It was windy and cloudy, but not so cold, tough some snow was still around. In the beginning, the huge Araucarias were astonishing and looking up to the treetops would simply make you feel dizzy. There were other endemic species as well, most of them covered in lichens, giving it an even older and special look. We saw nobody along the way, a full native forest just for ourselves. Suddenly, to complete the surreal picture, it started to snow! It was very light as it was not so cold, but the landscape turned white and the bushes were now covered in snow on top, in what recalled the world of Narnia or the Lord of the Rings. It was just perfect, we were just waiting to see a faun or a hobbit popping up from the bushes. The drawback of this was that it was foggy up in the viewpoint of Piedra de Aguila. We couldn't see the famous views that go from the Pacific ocean to the Andes, where several volcanoes can be spotted, but it was a fair compromise. On the way back to the hostal, we stopped at Angol to see Chile qualify for the World Cup and then joined the people on the streets and celebrated the event. Wooohooooo!

Nahuelbuta National Park Photo Album

Countryside

The typical Chilean countryside lies just south of Santiago, in a region which is also home of the most famous vineyards. This is the place were you can find huasos, the typical peasant, riding his horse with his hat. From this region comes the most famous Chilean folklore, specially the cueca, already mentioned in the previous post. One good example is Santa Cruz, were I had been before for a wine festival. Another example is Buin, just south from Santiago, where a very good friend of mine comes from and where her family is. Buin is not more than a small town, but you can still find bars, discos and a lot of entertainment. However, the grace of it is that it keeps the same family standards and habits that I left in Portugal. I went a couple of times to visit her and her family and the feeling is so familiar that for some moments there, I went back to the family reunions in my grandparents' house. First of all, they are excellent hosts, food and wine on the table, they make you feel comfortable and part of their home. Then comes the atmosphere, quite a big family, the cold outside and the fireplace inside, the smell of burning wood, the unlit nights. Also, the neighbours and the ease for them to drop by, come and visit, talk to you and make you feel comfortable as well, even though it is not their home. Finally, the conversations that last hours and never die and even the bad habit that people have to create couples and make them blush in shame. All this was part of my childhood, but I live it now in a different way, more as a participant than as a spectator that would use these reunions to play until later because nobody would go to bed. These are the moments that are really special and that you can only reach by living for a while in a certain place, as you go deeper and deeper into Chile's roots and traditions.

Fiestas Patrias 2009

As I mentioned already last year, the 18th September is Chile's national day (see here). This year it was not very different. I was working again, the same folk group came, the organization of the event and the folk show this year were a little different, people were less up on the mountain, but the spirit was the same. The show presented folklore from Chiloé Island, a very peculiar place in the south of Chile, that I will visit soon, and the typical cueca. There was also some acting together with the dancing. In what is called a repicada, one of the girls came to pick someone from the audience (which turned out to be me!) to dance in a very provocative way, while her partner would try to start a fight, in jealousy. The act would continue after the dance, now with the guy trying to pick someone from the audience and the girl making a fuss. It ended with them making up and dancing together. It was very funny, specially because I didn't know all this before. Finally, it ended with the cueca and I saw myself drawn into a contest. Luckily, I had had one cueca lesson a couple of days before and got myself a second place! Not bad at all!

Chocolate Chilote

Pilgrimage to the Andes

I needed to escape. I had been under some pressure lately and needed some time on my own, apart from everyone and everything, to find myself again. Those who have been through this before understand what it feels like. Anyway, I decided to rent a car and just drive away from Santiago for three days. Destination: Cajon del Maipo, an area southeast from the capital, in the direction on the cordillera, that I wanted to visit since a while but never had the chance. It is a beautiful valley and one of the best summer destinations close to Santiago. Since now we are at the end of the winter, this place has a different feel, which I had sensed already when planning the trip. Winter in the Andes means snow. Snow in dirt roads means limited accessibility to many places. Bad access, together with low season and week days, means no people around. No people around means peace and isolation, exactly what I was looking for. I booked a floor at a mountain lodge, checked the road conditions and left, for one of the best trips in Chile!

Once you leave the pre-cordillera, with its villages and green valleys, to enter the cordillera, the paved road ends and the snow shows up on the mountains around you. The lodge was located almost at the end of the dirt road, in front of Morales, a summer village known for its hot springs and glaciers nearby. All this area was covered in snow, a beautiful and rare sight for me. The lodge is run by a family, which lives there, and I was the only customer for those days. Around the lodge, two hectares of land with pine trees, a lake and snow all over gave it a delightful alpine look. Electricity was limited to a few hours a day and there was no mobile phone network. Just perfect, peacefulness and isolation guaranteed! I borrowed a pair of snow boots and sunglasses (I am still an amateur with respect to snow issues) and the next day went to explore El Morado natural park, just next to Morales. The park ranger told me I should not go much further as there had been some avalanches and the risk was still high, so I walked around only for one hour, on snow, trying to adapt myself to the feeling of sinking at every few meters of walk. I saw some hares and footprints of foxes and even pumas. Coming back to the lodge, I climbed a hill on the back of it, to see the sunset back over the valley. When coming down, at some moment it felt like the sun had been switched off for one second. Looking up, I saw a couple of condors, the Andean condor, one of the biggest birds in the world, with a wing span that can reach more than 3 meters. This is the season when the juveniles learn to fly, so you see more of them.

This day alone was already worth the trip, but it was surpassed by the day after. 11 kms further up into the mountains there are other less popular hot springs, where the dirt road ends and which are open in summer. Now the road was closed just one kilometer from the lodge due to the snow and I was told that it would take me around 4 hours to get there in normal conditions. Driven by the confidence gained the previous day, I took the risk and this turned out to be one of the treks of my life. The first two hours were really tough, because I had to make my way through avalanches and soft sinking snow. Moreover, the first part was the steepest, around 500 meters difference from the lodge. Soon the terrain levelled off, but just before reaching the springs, the worst part came. A huge snow field, made endless by its softness. Literally at every step I would sink half of my leg into the snow. To make things a bit more interesting I realized at some point that I was not on snow, but on cracking ice and with a river below it. The springs were all covered in snow. For some buildings you could only see the roof, and the pits had no thermal water. No hot bath for me, but while having lunch, I met the only other living being during this walk. A fluffy yellow and black bird approached me, naturally curious about my food. It didn't look scared and, as I put some bread bits on my hand, he fearlessly came, jumped onto my fingers and pinched my hand softly until all the bread was gone. This was a moment I will never ever forget! On the way back, the snow was even softer as the sun was melting it throughout the day. Luckily most of it was walking down now. It took me 3.5 hours to get to the springs and 3 hours to get back to the lodge. The views were amazing, truly breathtaking, and I was alone all the time, not a single person around. I arrived almost dead and this lovely family was waiting for me with a hot cup of tea.

These three days went by really fast, but time was enough to taste every minute of it, without rush or stress. I would wake up, have breakfast, get out and walk for the whole day, have a cup of tea and a soup for dinner, read a couple of hours and go to bed early. No computers, no internet, no mobile phones, no television. Just me, snow, a book and the mountain, the silent and imposing presence of one of the biggest mountain ranges of the world, just a couple of hours from Santiago. I didn't solve all my problems and I'm not sure if I found myself, but the feeling of being there and going through it all is something that I will never forget. I shall once again say that "...I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for, 'cause it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something, and if you find that moment... it lasts forever...". It will last forever...

Cajon del Maipo Photo Album

A tough fix

© Gerhard HudepohlIt is known that the Paranal Observatory has some of the biggest telescopes in the world, with its 8.2-meter mirrors. These huge mirrors need maintenance once in a while and the procedure to do this is far from easy, giving it credit enough to get coverage from National Geographic and be considered one of the toughest fixes in the world. These mirror coatings take typically a full week and are the most demanding periods from an engineering point of view, involving the coordination of all the departments and contractor companies. First of all, the mirror, together with its structure (cell), have to be removed from the telescope and transported 3 kms downhill to the coating building. This is one of the most critical moments, and the weather conditions may delay this operation for several days. Afterwards, the mirror alone is removed from the cell and put inside a clean room, where the coating procedure starts. The goal is to remove the aluminium layer from its surface, clean the glass mirror and replace the aluminium, aiming at the biggest reflectivity possible. The mirror is sprinkled with an acid-base solution to remove all the aluminium and then washed with demineralized water (see photo above). After assuring the cleanliness of the glass surface, the mirror is put into a vacuum chamber and coated with a thin aluminium layer. Finally, the mirror goes back to his cell and is brought up to the telescope again. The procedure is repeated for each of the four telescopes every 18 months approximately and while the mirror is being coated, other kinds of mechanical and electrical maintenance are performed inside the telescopes. Today, the mirror was put back to the telescope and another coating procedure is officially and successfully over. On previous coatings I had been helping with electronic maintenance inside the telescopes and this was the first time I was actually inside the clean room with the mirror. It is indeed impressive, to see a 8.2-m diameter and 20-cm thick piece of glass held defencelessly without its shell, another impressive thing about Paranal to sum to all the others.

After the rain comes sun...

Winter seems to be gone in Santiago. When I arrived at Santiago airport for another rest shift, the temperatures had gone from close to zero to an astonishing 20ºC during the night. The next day I woke up with a beautiful warm and sunny day. Time to open doors and windows, greet the spring and let the sunshine in. I spent the whole afternoon in the garden, together with Michi, the cat, enjoying the sun and reading. The garden had grown wild during the rainy days, it was green everywhere. We started working on it, cutting tree branches, removing the weeds and the leaves, giving it a cleaner look and also preventing future insect plagues. Gardening is fun and clears your mind, but it will take its time until it is finished. We need more hands!

Healthcare in Chile

Last week I went to see a doctor, for the first time as a private entity, making use of my personal health insurance. No worries, it is nothing serious, just a knee injury that is having some problems in healing completely. The whole process is far from clear to me, specially when you have three parts involved: a Portuguese patient, a Chilean clinic and an international (English) insurance company. Let's put it like this:

Act 1: The Insurance Company
I first contacted the company, since I'd never used the insurance before. They have a neat and fairly efficient online chat service. I explained my problem and they said that for just an appointment with the doctor I would have to pay for it myself and then send a claim back to them for reimbursement. In case I would need an expensive exam, like an imaging or x-ray, I would have to call them before doing it, for pre-authorization, and they would deal directly with the clinic. Sounds nice if it all works well, but it is a complete black box to me. And to the clinic?...

Act 2: The Clinic
I went to the same clinic I do my annual work examinations, since it is indeed a good and credited clinic. It looked expensive as well, but that is the insurance company's problem, not mine (I hope!!). I went directly to the orthopaedic floor and asked for an appointment at the reception, hoping that I could have it the next day. She makes a couple of phone calls and tells me:
-"You can pay here and after you can go directly to room number 4."
-"Will the doctor see me now?!"
-"Yes."
-"So... I just pay and don't even have to wait for someone to call me?!!"
-"Yes. Room number 4."
Ok, I had to pay 50 Euro just for the appointment and yes, it is a private clinic, so service is usually better, but I was still surprised. I paid and went to room number 4...

Act 3: The Doctor
The doctor was young, but very friendly. I had to answer the usual Chilean questionnaire: where are you from, what are you doing here, for how long, do you like chile, what do you think about Chilean women, etc... Then he examined me, made a lot of movements with my leg and told me that I had nothing serious, that I basically needed to give the knee some rest, prescribed some medication for the inflammation and that I should go back if it didn't disappear in a couple of weeks. 50 Euro for 20 minutes... I start searching for the claim paper that the doctor had to fill in, thinking already if he would know how to fill it in, specially because it was in English (not very popularly spoken across Chile):
-"Do you need me to fill something in for the insurance?"
-"Yes, here it is, it seems you have to fill in this part. It is in English..."
-"No problem, I was two years in New York studying."
-"Great, and are you used to filling in this kind of papers?"
-"Yes, but they are normally smaller."
Ok, I was impressed again...

Epilogue
I come out and remember the part that the insurance would contact directly the clinic for pre-authorization of exams or treatment. I ask the receptionist:
-"You know, my insurance company said that they would contact you in case any exam would be needed, but I'm not sure how this is done..."
-"Yes, they send a paper like this and they pay us directly."
-"So, you are used to this system, no problems?..."
-"Sure."
Yeah, sure! I'm glad it all seems so straightforward, at least for someone... I came out of the clinic and faced the Andes, covered in snow. A beautiful sight, rarely seen in a smoggy Santiago. In general, private healthcare in Chile is very good. One can live well in Chile, "if you are not poor..." as someone told me. I may go back for the exams, I'm curious to see how the sequel of this play ends.

Putre

After a long time, I went back on the road. I guess I got lazy or maybe I settled in Santiago and dedicated more time to friends. I also went home for holidays for almost one month, so travelling around Chile was on hold since a long time ago. It is still winter here, so it is better to avoid the soapy weather down south and relax under the desert sun up north. One of the few spots left for me to know in the northern Chile was Putre, a small desert village, 150 kms inland from Arica, 3500 meters above sea level and very close to both the Peruvian and the Bolivian borders. This area is as North as you can get, while still in Chile, and has a strong influence from the ancient indigenous Andean people. The Aymara people are one of the few indigenous communities that survive in the Andes and is spread around Peru, Bolivia and Chile. They appeared before the Incas and integrated their empire peacefully, but their decline came with the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. They have their own language and culture, which manages to survive despite the technological invasion. They raise cattle and live from the pachamama (The Mother Earth) and you can still hear them speaking their dialect. It does feel special. I did not go alone on this trip, it's now more than 8 months that I haven't travelled on my own. I went with Veronica, a friend from Antofagasta, and we stayed in Putre in a lovely and quiet lodge, La Chakana, with a breathtaking view over snowy mountains and deep canyons.

Putre is located in the Chilean altiplano, at the entrance of the Lauca national park. The park has an average altitude of 4500 m above sea level and the lack of oxigen is definitely felt. As soon as you take a few steps you cannot speak and walk at the same time anymore and you are lucky if you don't get strong headaches and breathing problems. Inside the park you can see snow and small glaciars, frozen rivers and ponds, rare wildlife like vicuñas and viscachas, a whole bunch of bird species, snow-topped volcanoes overseeing big lakes. Parinacota volcano and Chungará lake are the most famous. Scattered around Lauca there are small adobe villages, home of Aymara people, where you can see beautiful churches and eat a strong alpaca soup for 1 Euro. Alpacas are similar to llamas and their meat is delicious and very healthy, without cholesterol.


The road that crosses the park is the international road that goes to Bolivia, also known as the carretera de la muerte (Death Road). It is built along the sides of high mountains, with hard turns and big slopes. Lots of trucks take this road every day and many don't reach their destination. Anyway, at some point there is a police control, where you have to register with your name and passport. Some local people settle here to sell handicraft or some goods. Here I met Loly, a fat and spoiled llama who has also settled here to beg for (or demand) food from people passing by. As soon as we stopped the van and the guide went to register, Loly approached and put her big camel head through the window to check if we had something for her. As we got out, she rubbed her long neck on my arms, demanding attention. Since I wouldn't give her anything, she started sneezing at me (lucky me she didn't have anything to spit) and I gave her an orange. She won! She always wins, as I was told.

After three days in Putre and due to a logistical problem we went down to Arica. There is only one ATM machine in Putre and surprisingly it only works monday to friday, during the bank's working hours. We ran out of money, so we had to go down. Veronica had lived in Arica for some time and showed me some parts of it I hadn't seen before. There's always something going on in Arica and we saw a performance of different local chilean artists on the street. Among them there was an Aymara folk group, performing typical dancings (see below), and a peruvian group, dressed up in Carnival outfits. Curiously, I have now been in close contact with those indigenous faces so many times that I am already used to them and don't realize where I really am and how far-fetched this seemed when back in Portugal. Well, sometimes I do and a smile shows up.

Putre Photo Album

Desert Snow

After a rest shift in Santiago, I went up to the desert again for working. As usual, I fly to Antofagasta and from there a bus takes us to Paranal. As the trip starts very early in the morning, people normally sleep in the plane and in the bus. I am no different, the excitement times are already gone and the desert views don't change that much. I woke up in the middle of the trip, I felt cold and cursed the driver for turning off the heating. Suddenly, I look through a breach in the bus curtains and see something odd, white stripes in a normally brown landscape. As I open the curtains, I realize that the desert was sprinkled with snow! It was hard to believe, the so-called driest desert in the world hit by frozen water, but it was there to see. The hills were covered in white, while the area closer to the road had still some stripes of snow. The Andean range in the background was completely white in a beautifully surreal scenery. Rain and snow in the desert are phenomena that happen once every ten years or so! As we approached the observatory, the snow disappeared and only some spots on the higher altitudes could be seen. However, when we reached the gate and looked up to cerro Paranal, where the telescopes stand, there was a surprisingly white hill, sprinkled with snow and still covered in clouds! It had snowed the night before, apparently the weather changed completely in half an hour, as usually happens. In that morning a lot of the snow had already melted, it was apparently totally covered in snow. The telescopes were not opened for a couple of nights, until all water dried, and the road up to the telescopes was also closed that morning due to security reasons. In Antofagasta, it apparently rained heavily for a while as well, which left a big mess, since the desert cities are not prepared for rain. It never rains... until it rains!

Reality Shows

The time of reality shows is far from gone in Chile. TV channels fight for audience between them, each one with its own kind of show. One of them started a series of reality shows, where people live in a particular historical time, with the existent conditions and technology and the same outfit of those times. The first one was called 1810 and they are now starting the 1910. The name obviously states the time they live in. Next year, the 2010 will go out, celebrating the bicentenario, Chile's 200 years. These realities involve celebrities invited to participate and they compete among them to win a prize of 50 million pesos, something like 65,000 Euro. But I don't see TV here, so how do I know all this? Things happen...

Just another Tuesday, coming down from Paranal and drinking a beer with the colleagues at the Antofagasta airport. They announce the plane arrival (which is the same that takes us back to Santiago) and we go in the line for boarding. Suddenly, I see a girl coming out of the toilet with a strange outfit. While I was trying to decipher what was that costume about, a colleague stares at her and says "Wow, that's Pamela Diaz!". I see... and who the hell is Pamela Diaz? Apparently, a famous actress in Chile. When I look around, I see many many people wearing the same weird outfits, together with a huge crew and cameras. "They are the ones from the reality!", someone says. "They were shooting here in the North of Chile." All this excitement and I had simply no idea of who they all were. I offered myself to take some pictures to my colleagues with their famous people, but they didn't want. We were flying together with all this television crew of people, which couldn't be for sure more boring than a normal flight. I entered the plane and took my 14A seat, next to the window. Afterwards, a colleague comes and sits by the aisle. We had one seat left in the middle and we joked about Pamela Diaz sitting there. Well, it wasn't her, but suddenly the TV people started coming and this gorgeous girl in a strange costume stops right at our side. "14B, it's here." My colleague immediately stood up for her to pass while I meticulously removed the seatbelt from the seat opening space for her to sit. She kindly thanked and smiled, looked at me and smiled again and then whispered something, which I, for ethical reasons, will not reveal. In a few more seconds, I heard her moaning a few words in Portuguese. She was Brazilian, what are the odds?! "So you speak Portuguese as well!", I said in my native accent. "Yes, I am Brazilian!", she answered in that sexy Brazilian accent. This was definitely my most entertaining flight in Chile, after that detour to Mendoza, last year. I got to know all that about the reality show, that they had been shooting in the North and they would now move to a place, where they would be isolated from the outer world during three months and where the reality would start. There I was, in the middle of famous people that I had never heard about and appearing in some shootings they did inside the plane. I was probably the last person she talked to before entering the show. I kissed her goodbye and wished her the best luck for the show. I promised to cheer for her, maybe this time I start watching some TV...

Violeta Parra

A couple of days ago, I saw in one of my Portuguese friend's messenger a reference to one of the most famous songs of Violeta Parra, which reminded me that I promised a post about her long time ago. She is, together with Victor Jara, one of the most remarkable and widely known Chilean artists. Violeta was a singer, poet, painter, sculptor and ceramist, and gave a lot to Chilean culture and folk music. Her story is however tragic. Like many artists, she was never well accepted and understood in Chile and was more successful abroad than in her own country. Adding that to a failed relationship, she became depressed and finally committed suicide. She is now a symbol and has a permanent exhibition of her legacy in La Moneda's museum in Santiago. Her most famous song is Gracias a La Vida, but others like La Carta or Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte, the latter written after the departure of her loved one, are also worth to listen (see below).

La Carta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUAfWKLX438
Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ9CeICphL8

Trapped between two worlds...

I was on holidays, in Portugal, ten months after the last time. It was the annual visit, paid to family and friends. I left one world, in Chile, to arrive at another world, in Portugal. When you live in two completely separate worlds that you enjoy, you can easily be inside each of them and find good moments, happiness and comfort. Unfortunately, switching between worlds that are totally separate implies leaving all of one world behind and grab all you had left before from the other world. Leaving things behind is never easy, I'm actually terrible in achieving that, and grab all you left would be easy only if you grabbed exactly what you left, if nothing changed meanwhile, if you didn't have to realize that what you left is not as you left it anymore. The switching process is therefore tougher, harder and you even risk staying trapped between worlds. Since all you can carry from one world to the other are memories, you can easily find yourself dwelling in them, trying to make memories real and pull them into the current world. This happened to me last year, and costed me one month of happiness in Chile. This year things went smoother, I was prepared. I only arrived this morning to a cold Santiago, I do not know yet how I will feel on the next days, but chances are good that I don't dwell again in a world that does not exist...

Southern rains

Santiago had been dry for months. I was spending my time between the driest place on Earth and another considerably dry and polluted place and I was tired of it, so I went searching for rain. In this season it means simply going south. Together with two other fellow Portuguese, we took advantage of a 3-day weekend and went to visit Valdivia, one of the rainiest towns in Chile, located in the rivers region, just a few hundred kilometres north from where Patagonia starts. It is at the junction of two rivers, 30 kms from the sea and 10h by bus from Santiago. It also has a strong german influence and community, beer breweries, a big university and even its own "jungle", motivated by the peculiar rainy climate.

We arrived and... it was raining! And cold! And windy! Apparently Valdivia was coming out of a storm. No complains, we knew it was going to be like that! We took the first day to explore the city and some museums. Starting by the food, Valdivia has a lot of tasty and fresh fish and seafood. I got so full of seafood during those days that I couldn't even see it on the week after! The museums were also very interesting as this was a very important city during the Spanish occupation. However, the biggest adventure was to actually reach them. We had to cross a bridge to the opposite shore and we were suddenly struck by heavy rain propelled by a strong wind. We arrived at the other side half soaked wet and half completely dry! Epic! Then we went for the beer. Valdivia brews the Kunstmann beer, one of the best and most famous in Chile. They opened a restaurant next to the brewery and now allow people to taste other less known kinds of beer. We asked for a taste of all of them, 8 in total, then chose one and asked for a 2.5-litre column and finished with the strongest (and tastiest) of them all. In total we had around 3 litres each, with all the side effects that come with it!

On the second day it was raining again and we went to the coast. There are several fortifications on both shores of the bay, built during the Spanish occupation to protect Valdivia from pirates. In Niebla, there is a museum that goes through the details of the design and building of the fort system. The fort plans were designed by a Portuguese architect and the whole structure was ruined by an earthquake back in the 18th century and rebuilt afterwards. The whole museum was quite impressive! We then decided to cross the bay by boat to the other side, to Corral, to visit the other fort. We stopped at the tourist center where we talked long time with the manager. He knew a lot about the history of the place and also about the region. It went dark and we didn't manage to see the fort properly, but the talk was worthwhile. The boat trip back was very peaceful, enjoying the light rain and the night darkness across the channel.

On the last day it was sunny! A miracle! We went through the town again and it looked like a different place. It is amazing how sunlight can change everything! We went for a walk in the botanic garden, which had a sample of many of the characteristic species of Chile and then back in town to try the typical crudos, raw meat "cooked" in lemon juice. That night we took a night bus back to Santiago and when we arrived... it was raining! After nine months, it rained again in Santiago, cleaning the air a little bit. At last!

Valdivia Photo Album