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