25th April

The 25th of April marks one of the most important events in the history of Portugal: the end of Salazar dictatorship, back in 1974, in the so called Revolução dos Cravos. The Portuguese community in Chile is small, of around 200 people registered at the embassy, but still enough to organize something, an opportunity to feel the home country closer, to bring a little piece of home to us. Through the embassy, a special dinner was organized in the only restaurant in Santiago where Portuguese food can be found, in fact a family house of a Chilean musician that spent many years in Portugal.

After all this time in Chile, I finally tasted the mythical bacalhau (codfish) again and some wine from Alentejo. We were around 10 people, some that I knew before from the embassy. The atmosphere was clearly nostalgic, with some fados and music from the Revolution sung and played by the restaurant owner himself. It was a true pleasure to share those moments with such special people, each with its own story. There was a surprise in the end: the owner brought his car from Portugal, a Fiat Punto with a Portuguese license plate, the first and probably the only Portuguese plate I will see in Chile!

Easter in the desert

Since a while ago, I was preparing a trip to San Pedro de Atacama with some friends from Paranal. Curiously and without realizing it, we scheduled the trip for the Easter weekend. This was messy! First, there are a lot of tourists in a long weekend; second, accommodation prices rise; third, accommodation availability drops considerably. To spice it up a little bit, our group size was changing quite fast: started with 4, then 2+2, then 2+2+2, 2+2 again, back to 4 and finally 2+2. In the end, we arrived as two groups of two, with 4 different bookings in 3 hostels. One group (mine) was there just to have fun and the other group was there for a meditation weekend. Basically, we only saw the other group twice during the three days.

We arrived in San Pedro at 1:30 in the morning and had to find the hostel outside the center. When we finally found it, it was not that nice and people were not as friendly as we wished. We met a group of crazy chileans and ended up doing a lot of noise that night in the hostel. The next day we decided to leave, made up an excuse for the reservations we still had and searched for another one. We used the other reservation we had and went to this really nice adobe hostel, closer to the center and less expensive, ran by a young couple. Very good choice! In that same afternoon we managed to book a tour to three lagoons inside the Atacama salt flat. In one of them you could bathe and the water was so salty that you would float without any effort. Perfect for relaxing! We ended the tour with a beautiful sunset, drinking pisco sour and talking about ancient shamanism with the guides. For the next morning we booked a tour to the geysers, departing at 4 am. We heroically decided to not sleep that night, went to a bar until 2 am and then had a strange encounter with the hostel owner, back in the hostel, which by chance was half brasilian. We spent the two hours left talking with him around a drink. No need to say, afterwards we slept the whole trip. I had already seen the geysers so it was not as spectacular as before. However, on our way back, we stopped at a very picturesque village, Machuca, where only 8 people live permanently. We were promised some llama meat but it was all gone when we arrived.

This was my third time in San Pedro and it was worth it for the people and the moments created by chance. There was however another small detail that worked out very well: Easter. I had always spent Easter in family, far away from the big cities and very close to the traditions, specially the catholic traditions that mark this date. In San Pedro, as the small village it is and despite all the tourists, I found this small space, where tradition still remains. On the Holy Friday, at night, there was a procession coming out of the church, going around town and into the church again. On Sunday, there was also a prayer in the morning. For a minute there, I lost myself and was back home, with my family, and San Pedro felt just like any other small town...

Easter in San Pedro Photo Album

Buenos Aires

After the crazy Radiohead night, the plan was a weekend in the bohemian and mythical Buenos Aires, Argentina. From a traveller's point of view, it is a big city and with a lot of different attractions to see and activities to do, one of the charms of South America, therefore such trip should be prepared carefully. Well it wasn't! It was actually close to chaos, but chaos brings other possibilities as well! Buenos Aires is a huge city, with more than 14 million people (much more that the population of the whole Portugal). It would have been impossible to see it all in 3 days, so I guess at some point I will go back and play the tourist properly.

We stayed in San Telmo, the cultural center of Buenos Aires. Good restaurants and bars, a bohemian lifestyle that I had already noticed in Mendoza, very different from Chile. We managed to visit part of San Telmo, the center and the fashion Puerto Madero. This last one is close to the river, Rio de la Plata, which bathes Buenos Aires and connects with the Atlantic Ocean. It used to be no more than a swamp until a big economical group decided to finance its reconstruction and it is now the most exclusive part of the city, with expensive hotels and restaurants, yacht harbours and big flat buildings. The center is like every big city center, chaotic. It has big pedestrian shopping streets, a lot of traffic and old monuments alternating with big shiny office towers. What is worth mentioning, again, is the cultural atmosphere, with lots of book stores (books here cost almost half the price that in Chile), some open 24h a day, and street performances.

Now, the wonderful thing about knowing people that know people is that, wherever you go, there is a chance that you actually have someone to visit. One of my friends has a friend living in Buenos Aires, which by incredible coincidence was throwing a farewell party at his place, because he was moving to another place. He shared a house with other young people, like I do in Santiago. The house had two floors and a big balcony on a third floor and was shared by seven or eight people. We spent the evening there, drinking mate (an infusion made of a plant with an effect similar to caffeine, very popular in Argentina) and cooking dinner. The party started later and was absolutely amazing! 60 to 70 people were there at some point, I would lose and find people throughout the night and it lasted until morning. As Buenos Aires is a sort of a reference in South America, it is easy to find a lot of different nationalities around here. In that party I met not only Argentineans, but also Chileans, French, Irish, Paraguayan, Brazilian, Colombian, Mexican and even Dominicans!

No need to say, the next day was spent sleeping... We got up in the evening, the last evening, and had a night of one of the main cultural attractions of Buenos Aires: Tango! We had dinner in a nice restaurant, following our strict diet of meat and wine, where there was a musician playing bandoneón, the typical tango instrument, similar to an accordion, but with a very characteristic sound. After that, we went to a milonga, a place where everyone can go and dance tango. There were also professional shows, but the spirit is to dance yourself, if you have a date and the ability to dance. Unfortunately, we had neither, but it was an excellent way to close the weekend.

Buenos Aires Photo Album

First Visitors

After one year and one month of Chile, I had my first visitors from across the ocean. My good old partner of so many adventures throughout Europe came with a friend to leave his footprint on the end of the world. This ended up with a memorable bunch of moments for us, the ones we will be talking about in a few years, God knows where! Since I was working during half their time here, they came to visit me up North at the observatory. The first time I saw them was 150 kms away from the closest piece of civilization, in one of the remotest countries in the world. How likely would this be, more than two years ago, the last time I had seen him...

For my rest shift we saved some plans. The first of them was a Radiohead concert in Santiago, since I had already bought tickets for me. Kraftwerk opened the night, in a mix of respectful electronic root sounds and incredible visual effects. The stadium was full, full of people that had no idea who was playing by then, not even a clue that, if it wasn't for them, there would be no Radiohead these days. Then we had more than two hours of beautiful melancholy. The most recent album alternating with the classics (see video below).

After the concert we went to a disco. A friend from Paranal got us in the guestlist of one of the most exclusive discos in Santiago, definitely a place to go back to. Quality house music and a good decoration are really hard to find in Chile. In fact we knew later that Radiohead themselves were there two days after... From here the night started to be sprinkled with a succession of odd events that led to us getting home in the morning. It reminded me a lot of the good old crazy moments we had together every time we travelled. History reinventing itself. Strange lines, the ones our paths follow...