Palegoldenrod

I did so much in my last month in Santiago. Next week I am leaving Chile for Argentina and eventually to Bolivia for a few months.

Parties

I went to Grainne’s farewell at her house (nicknamed the Pisco Disco) and met some of the most awesome people in Santiago. Abraham, a very talented drummer who has now gone to England to compete for a scholarship to study music; Cristhian, a software developer / network admin who also DJs on Santiago Radio and other clubs – now gone back to Bolivia to visit his family for a while; Cris’ girlfriend Bio, an Italian with a great sense of humour and who is a lot of fun; Mauricio and Christian, whose professions are cinematography and who produce music videos among other things; Pablo, a photographer…. ah, so many cool people. Hi guys!

I partied at the Pisco Disco many times over the last month or so, including catching some of Abraham’s concerts with various groups. I had a lot of fun

Sight Seeing

Dennis and I went to the Pre-Columbian Museum in Santiago (don’t miss it) as well as the Museum of Natural History at Quinta Normal (missable… nothing special). We went for a walk through Quinta Normal park too which was nice enough, though nothing too spectacular.

I checked out Parque Arauco, which is really just a shopping mall and doesn’t reflect anything of Chilean culture at all, except the division between rich and poor.

I went with Rose to the Exposición del Cuerpo (Exhibition of the Body) where human bodies have been plasticised and sliced and diced and made available to the public. It was very interesting, though I also learnt that this particular exhibition has some questions raised over the source of the bodies used – some believe they may have been underhandedly acquired from asia.

Music

I enjoyed two symphonic orchestra concerts with my friend Dennis: one was the Santiago Symphonic Orchestra, one a combined concert of the Youth Orchestras from Munich, Germany and Chile. The youth orchestra concert was free at the Catholic University – there are so many free and awesome events in Santiago… Make sure you catch some of them!

I went to an Inti Illimani concert with Patricio and his family, to also support Pato’s cousin who is the percussionist in the supporting band. Both groups were great.

Dennis and I also went to a performance at the Goethe Insitut. We thought it would be some classical style music but it turned out to be “experimental” (a bit much for us).

I went with the Pisco Disco guys to some of Abraham’s concerts and also to an album launch to see Christian Carmona’s music video being displayed to the public for the first time. Excellent work on both counts.

Valparaiso

Dennis and I went to Valparaiso again for a weekend and were lucky enough to be there when the weather was perfect. It was sunny, a very slight breeze, warm (about 18 degrees or so) and we walked a lot and took some very cool photographs. Dennis is a great person to spend time with (very relaxed and easy going) and I really enjoyed this experience at Valpo.

We went to the old prison at the top of one of the cerros, which is now a public space for art and music. The vibe there was so strong and unique. A very special place. We also went out dancing on Saturday night in Valpo which was cool too.

I think Valpo is my favourite place in Chile so far, and if I come back I want to go there again. There are one million more photos from this trip on my Flickr page.

Mendoza

My visa was getting a bit tight so I went to Mendoza, Argentina for a weekend. The pass through the Andes closes every night in winter (and sometimes in the day in bad weather) so there are a lot of people trying to get through last thing at night. After a three hour wait at the border I got through and arrived in Mendoza at midnight, without having booked a hostel. Luckily I chatted to another traveller and went with him to a hostel nearby which was clean and relatively cheap, if not very quiet.

I wandered around Mendoza, feeling somewhat weird after all the familiar faces and action of the big city of Santiago. Mendoza is very quiet. I walked around quite a bit and was just starting to get comfortable when I returned to Santiago. Unlucky for me when I arrived at the bus terminal I realised I had forgotten to change my watch to local time and had missed my bus by half an hour (d’oh).

So I paid for another ticket in a microbus and when I arrived at the loooong waiting line at the border spoke to the conductor on my original bus (held up in in the line too) and changed to my original, more comfortable, warmer bus for the rest of the journey.

Jamming

I practiced both my violin and mandolin much more. Last week I took my violin up to Cerro San Cristobal and sat in the sun and played and sang for a few hours. To my surprise some people walking by stopped and sat with me and one guy started humming / singing harmonies. It was really cool – especially because I can neither sing nor play very well, haha.

I also jammed with my cousin a lot, with him playing either the chaurango or piano. I really love music even though I make it poorly (he is much better than me!).

Hanging out

I caught up with Rosemarie (what up, chica!) for shopping, talking, drinks, and everything in between; Dennis (of course), Patricio, the guys from the Pisco Disco (Cris, Abraham, Mauricio, Francisco and all the rest), Luis, Jorge, Diego, my friends at the Dublin Pub, Club 102 and the Ex Fabrica Club…. I had a lot of fun with you all.

Thank you for being so awesome – I will miss you.

On Friday morning I arrived at a hostel in San Pedro to meet my new travel mates – the guys on the Pachamama tour back to Santiago. First I met one Yerson Muñoz – our guide – a young Chilean with a wicked sense of humour and an unhealthy enjoyment of teaching bad spanish words to foreigners.

My other travel partners were two English couples who knew each other from England and so were very relaxed and a lot of fun. Because the bus was quite empty we could stretch out and take up more room than my trip north to San Pedro – awesome.

I also learnt a whole bunch more Spanish (read: bad words) and, as Yerson was quite relaxed, was comfortable enough to practice a bit of mine. While this sometimes resulted in being laughed at, it was all good, haha.

Pan de Azucar

We left San Pedro a little late (one of the guys had his new iPod stolen and exchanged for a crappy damaged one without music in San Pedro and needed to go to the cops about it for insurance). We stopped by a ruined town in the middle of the desert which was sorta cool.

As a result of leaving late we arrived at Pan de Azucar after sunset… we got out, walked around the bus a little and then decided to push on to the cabins at Bahia Iglesa again rather than camp in the cold at the park. lol.

Bahia Iglesa

We stayed that night at Bahia Iglesia again – a reason for another barbeque (awesome). Some music and drinks and then off again to Valle Elqui.

Valle Elqui – Vicuña

We stayed two nights here… the first night we went to Mamalluca observatory which was pretty cool. This observatory is not a research observatory – rather it is for tourists and education only. We listened to a presentation on the origins and formation of the universe, the lifecycle of stars etc. Then we went up to the dome and had a peek through the big telescope at such things as Jupiter, the Moon and some star clusters. Afterwards we were able to take pictures of the moon through some smaller telescopes outside.

Later we visited “disco” which was pretty ordinary, but we had some drinks and danced anyway, haha. We went to go back to the hostel at about 4am but Yerson was also a bit tipsy and got us lost on the walk home, ahaha. Eventually we all arrived in one piece.

The next day we (finally) got up and Andy and I decided to participate in the day’s activities – horse riding and a tour of the Capelo Pisco Factory. In reality the tour of the factory was not very interesting, and the horse riding (for only a half hour I think) was very short, though the view from the mountain was pretty cool. I think if I go horse riding again I want to ride for a longer time.

We had a quiet night that night – I think we were still tired from the night before.

Fray Jorge National Park

The last day of the trip took us through Fray Jorge National Park just for a toilet stop and a half hour walk. The walk was nice enough – you can see the different types of vegetation in the different parts of the hills depending on the height and whether direct sunlight is received or not. All very interesting.

I don’t have many photos this time because really I wasn’t in the mood for taking photos, though a lot of the scenery was quite beautiful.

I was disappointed at the speed of the tour especially on the way back. There was a lot of driving, and unfortunately waiting for an entire week for the next bus was, in most places, too much time… Maybe it would be better in Summer when the buses come through a few times a week rather than just once. Hmm.

In general, Pachamama was a good service, though there is a lot of driving involved covering these distances, especially on the return leg.

Poor old PGR, so neglected. Please prepare for a barrage of posts as I cover my adventures of the last two months

So, I spent a little over a week in San Pedro de Atacama while I waited for the Pachamama bus to return and take me back to Santiago.

So I stayed in San Pedro de Atacama from Thursday night, Saturday morning my group left on the tour and I moved with a friend to another hostel a bit closer to the centre of town and a bit warmer.

The next few days were quite relaxed… I walked around the town; I picked a direction and walked in the desert for a few hours; I found a book trader and a hammock in the sun and read; I went to the markets and the museum.

When my friend left for Bolivia I decided I would actually do something… I went to a tour office to arrange for a tour to the Geysers del Tatío, where I started chatting with a girl from Ireland named Grainne. We realised we were going to the same tour in the morning and that we were both travelling solo and got talking… we decided to go horse riding together too one day, and for dinner that night.

While I was relaxing that afternoon a strapping young Chilean man spotted me in the hammock and asked me if I could recommend any places to go. He introduced himself as Patricio (Pato) and he was visiting San Pedro for a week with his friend Rosemarie.

He and Rose joined Grainne and I for dinner – we all got along very well and had some fun. Over the next few days we hung out quite a bit together and were joined by others from Brasil, Turkey and the United States.

Grainne and I went to the Geysers del Tatío – a 4am start and -15ºC at the Geysers at sunrise, but beautiful. It was funny, on the way back you get to see cute llamas and then you stop in a village called Machuco and you get to eat them. Hahaha.

We also went horseriding in the Valle de la Muerte, again beautiful, though it was the first time I’d been on a horse in more than 10 years and I felt quite uncomfortable for the first hour. The saddles were also different to in Australia, and the horses were trained for single-handed control (I’ve no idea what the proper name for that is) which was weird to get used to.

Grainne, Rosemarie, Arturo, Pato and I decided to go for a walk to the Valle de la Meurte for some fun. We packed some water and a bit of food and trudged off into the middle of the desert. A combination of me being very unfit, walking on sand with bad knees, the heat and the altitude made for an easily exhausted Carly, so when Grainne and Pato (both marathon runners) decided to climb up the steepest part of the biggest sand dune in the valley, and Rose and Arturo decided they would clamber over the rocks nearby, I sat myself down in waved them on. It took them over an hour to scale the damn thing, and I could hear Pato repeatedly exclaiming “oh shit” as he and Grainne realised that they could no longer walk up the sand and needed to crawl the rest of the way… this was 1/3 of the way up.

But they finally made it and were (rightfully) very proud of themselves.

We also visited nearby Quitor, a ruin of a native village and fort which was the location of the first Spanish defeat in the area. There was a great feeling there, especially at the top with such a broad view across the valleys.

After all this I prepared to head back down to Santiago with Pachamama… (next installment)

As usual, more photos can be found on my Flickr Profile.

OK, OK. You’ve come to expect everything a little late with me. I’m sorry. Again.

So here is a bit of a spiel about my recent wanderings around the north of Chile. I booked a loop tour with a company called Pachamama By Bus. Now I prefer not to travel with tours, but these guys are good because they take you to places that a direct bus can’t, and also you can jump on and off whenever you want and often as you want. You just need to wait for the next bus to come through, which in winter is weekly.

Some background info (very rough). Chile is roughly divided into two contrasting climates – desert to the North of Santiago (in fact the driest desert in the world) and temperate fertility and greenness in the South. As Santiago was getting cold I decided to take refuge in the desert!

Here is a very brief rundown for you

My friend Beatrice had just finished her internship on Friday afternoon, so we decided on Friday night that we would leave with the tour on Saturday morning. All very last minute, haha.

Day 1 – Santiago to La Serena

We left from Barrio Brasil, hostel La Casa Roja (looks like a really awesome place) at 9ish am. Our tour guide was Maria Jose (nick name Cote) a young woman who looks like she has character, though a bit tired. Our driver was Marco, who seemed fun from the start. Cote spoke English very well, Marco knew a little. Beatrice and I, having spoken an awful lot of English and not enough Spanish, determined to try and speak Spanish as much as we could.

Our travelling companions consisted of:

• a group of 3 English girls travelling together
• a group of 3 English boys travelling together
• a group of 2 English girls who had run into the 3 English boys in the past
• an Australian girl
• a solo travelling English girl

The trip took us to a small town for lunch, where we had a peek at a cool little church that is built into the rock right on the beach. Then we went straight through to La Serena where we arrived just in time for sunset on the beach.

We have a short amount of time for a bit of shopping and then to dinner. A few of the less tired of us go out for a few drinks but generally everyone ends up in bed at a reasonable hour. Aburridisimo

Day 2 – La Serena to Bahia Iglesa

In the morning we had a newcomer to our midst. Chrissie, a german girl, had arrived overnight. She originally intended to join us for the departure from Santiago but had become stuck in Argentina and had only just managed to join us in time in La Serena.

From La Serena we went north along the coast to Punta Choros, where we went for a boat tour to a few protected islands (including Isla Demas) to check out the penguins and other birds and plant life. On the way to the islands we saw a bunch of dolphins and everyone get very excited and started taking photos of empty water or whitewash, haha. We jumped off on the only island we could (the others are completely protected) and had some lunch and a wander around before we went back to the bus and pushed through to Bahia Iglesa.

Our accommodation in Bahia Iglesa was cabins on the beach – simple, but clean and warm. And did I mention it was close to the beach?

Day 3 – Bahia Iglesa

The weather was pretty nice so Beatrice and I went for a walk down to the beach. The sand is really white (its not really sand, it is crushed shells) the water is very blue; the rocks are black. The sun was out. It was nice.

The interesting thing for me was seeing the desert extend right down to the ocean. Having grown up on the East coast of Australia, I am mentally conditioned to expect coastal areas to be greener than the interior of a continent. But here… there is nothing. In many areas absolutely no vegetation at all.

We went for a short trip to nearby Caldera, to visit the internet cafe and pick up some groceries for dinner.

In the afternoon Beatrice and I went for a walk through other parts of Bahia Iglesa. We climbed a hill with the cross on it and got a nice view over the village and into the desert. We then had a pack of dogs follow us back to the campsite. Beatrice was terrified.

Later in the evening everyone helped prepare food and Marco cooked us a barbeque (yorm). Drinking games ensued, spearheaded by the English. The highlights of the evening included several climbings of the tree, several fallings from the tree, and one incident of Carly being kicked in the head by a person in the process of falling. All in all it was a big, good night.

Day 4 – Bahia Iglesa to Antofogasta

We hauled ourselves out of bed to shower and made our way to Antofogasta. On the way the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere in the desert and bought icecreams from a man on the side of the road with a freezer box.

We also went to a sculpture of a giant hand. Cote told us that there is another hand in the very south of Chile, in the lush landscape, with only its fingers showing. These two hands show the contrasts of Chile – desert and lush green.

We arrived late in Antofogasta and missed out on the light to get decent photographs of the Arch, a naturally formed archway of sandstone just off the coast which is a famous landmark of the area.

The hostel in Antofogasta was very nice

Day 5 – Antofogasta to San Pedro de Atacama

From Antofagasta we set off for San Pedro. I found it unbelievable how much time could be spent driving through a desert… it is HUGE.

In the middle of nowhere we arrived at the town Baquedano, important because it marks the entry into the heart of the desert (our guides needed to provide the police with a list of passenger names) but also the junction of two important rail lines through the desert. I think one runs north-south and the other east-west. At Baquedano we had lunch and visited a railway museum which was pretty cool.

We continued on for hours and eventually stopped at a few different places in the salt flats followed by the tiny Oasis village of Peine. We learned that a lot of water in the area comes from subterranean supplies and is heavy in arsenic among other things.

For sunset we went to Chaxa Lagoon, a reserve for flamingos. It was beautiful. I was just saying so when my camera’s battery ran out, so unfortunately I missed the opportunity to photograph a lot of the event. But the experience was well worth it.

We arrived at San Pedro early – our hostel greeted us with a warm fire and warm red wine with cinnamon and lemon I think. It tasted interesting but nice.

We all went out for dinner, a few of us came back early and I sat and drank and talked with Marco and some other hostel residents around the fire for a few hours. It was a nice night.

Day 6 – San Pedro de Atacama

I woke in the morning to find Beatrice and one of the other girls had been violently ill through the night and were still unwell. We weren’t sure if it was altitude (San Pedro is quite high – about 2300m above sea level), food poisoning or a viral bug. Those two girls had gone to bed fairly early – the others were also feeling a little under the weather but due to a big night rather than anything else.

We had a free morning, where I wandered around the village and jumped on the interwebs. Some of us had lunch at a local cafe (the food was sooo nice) and then we went to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) in the afternoon.

First we went through some cool little caves near the entrance of the valley, then checked out some cool rock formations, and then on to the main viewpoint for the sunset.

We needed to climb a large sand dune and then part of a mountain ridge for the best view. It was well worth it, even though the altitude was effecting most of us. The view from this ridge at sunset is the view seen on so many postcards from Chile.

There were a lot of people up on the ridge, but it was still awesome. We took the shortcut way down (ran down a steep part of the sand dune) and then it was back in the bus to San Pedro and out for dinner again.

I told Cote and Marco that I wanted to stay in San Pedro for a week and get the next bus. I needed a break from travel and San Pedro was beautiful – both the village and the area around it.

Unfortunately Beatrice was too ill to stay with me. We agreed to catch up again, either in Santiago or Germany (when I finally get there) and in the morning I said goodbye to most of my new friends.

Visit my flickr area for more (many more) photos. Coming up next: my week in San Pedro de Atacama and my return trip.

I was told that travel is an experience. I thought “oh yeah, you get to see stuff, and do stuff, and stuff goes wrong and you have to deal with it and all that”.

But I was not prepared for this feeling, so hard to describe. Maybe its the solo travel that is adding this new aspect for me. I am alone. Now don’t get me wrong – this isn’t the same feeling you get when you are at home and bored and you decide to start calling your friends. That happens, and then you transcend that, and arrive where I am now.

A fundamental understanding of the value of being alone.

Don’t mistake this for being lonely, I’m not. This is an appreciation of the quality of that feeling. Becoming comfortable with that feeling – even in a city of six million. I guess on some level becoming comfortable with oneself, which (I noted last night) was something that I haven’t done very well in the past. Actually it quite probably interfered with my brain in such a fundamental way that I would make poor decisions because of it.

Last night I went to the local Irish pub (yes, in Santiago, Chile, there are Irish pubs). I tried a local beer (Kuntsmann Miel if you are interested) and I sat in a corner seat and watched the football (soccer). Now, if I had been sitting alone in a pub in Australia – even as recently as 3 months ago… well, I wouldn’t have been sitting there. I would need a reason to be there: waiting for someone maybe. And if I were waiting I would fidget. I would get self conscious. I would feel like I needed to be doing something, talk on my phone, read a book, something.

Last night I sat and watched football. I thought. A lot. I felt. Maybe not a lot (not strong feelings), but many different things. I thought about what I wanted, which is (for me) one of two big questions of my life. “What do I want?” and “Who am I?”. (I figured that one defines the other so I just picked the one that seems easier to tackle).

I came to a few conclusions that surprised me. I hadn’t thought that the answers would be so… concrete for me, especially when I am usually such a fence-sitter. Other things arose as a result of those conclusions, and I’ve yet to tackle those, but the feeling I had after this initial realisation was of being grounded. Stable.

Maybe it is Chile (or South America) that is doing this to me. I have a scientific mind. I work with facts, unchanging. I think this approach has caused problems with things like “what do you want?” because the answer is based on feeling (unpredictable) and not fact. This somewhat sterile approach is easy to get by with in Australia. Chileans, however, feel a lot more. They have “the passion”. The feel energy, they are open with their thoughts and feelings, they dance and make music and sing and love and compose poetry and are utterly unselfconscious about it. It is beautiful, and maybe contagious

So after all this thinking and conclusion making my brain produced a few lines of something and I’m not really sure what to do with it. As it is so rare for me to create such things I thought I’d put it up here. Its not like anyone reads this anyway, so I think I am pretty safe, haha.

Its not really very sensible, but hey. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

Love you guys.

I started walking on a long dirt road slowly with you years ago
and only now is the end starting to draw near
The dust is settling
I can tell which way is north
I can tell which way is north even without you.
even at night, sometimes
even though, right now, i don’t know where I am

The many stars still guide my way
but these are further from me.
They don’t blind me like the sun
they are gentle, beautiful
less intense
unreachable

Sometimes on nights like this I pause for a moment
In the silent darkness.
I let the dust swirl slowly to a halt around my ankles.
And I wonder if there is such a thing as middle ground
Or balance
Or perfection.

In those moments I feel like we are forced to choose between extremes:
like beauty untouchable and numerous
or blistering splendor in blinding proximity.
Neither satisfying.

But such a choice is impossible -
Preferences have no meaning here
On this road.
Things are not chosen, cannot be chosen
They just are.
Like you and I
and the dirt caked on my shoes.

Maybe my only hope for perfection is to watch for dawn and dusk
When part of the sun and the stars are obscured, but visible
When the sky itself manifests magnificence, even if only fleetingly.
A testament to the beauty of impermanence.
A twice-daily reminder of mortality.

So I have decided to stay for a week in San Pedro de Atacama, a small town in the middle of the desert.

The town is about 2km above sea level, is about 15-25°C during the day and between 0-10°C at night in the town. There is not a cloud in the sky during the day, the rooves of many houses are just sticks or are without much of a roof at all – it doesn’t rain here.

This place used to be home to a pre-columbian people. The museum here has information about the natives, their interaction with nearby Incas and other tribes, and finally with the Spanish. Now it is a tourist town – there is nothing else out here really for it. Maybe a mine or two nearby.

Because it is a tourist town, things cost more. Because it is isolated not all places have power or hot water all night. Water here isn’t potable – you need to buy bottled water. The sun is warm and the air is incredibly dry. But there are a bunch of things to do: sand boarding, cycling, nearby geyser viewing (4am start and -15°C OMG), flamingo viewing at sunset, sunset at ¨The Valley of the Moon¨which looks like a moon landscape, horse riding and other things.

There have been interesting things afoot in Chile (and I hear maybe even around the world?). The truck drivers are protesting the taxes on fuel because the fuel prices are incredibly high and are becoming unworkable. Their protest is enacted by blocking many major highways and connecting roads, mainly blocking food and fuel but in some cases we are hearing that all traffic has been turned back.

There have been some stories of stores not having produce and fuel shortages in some areas too. I have just read that the Chilean govt has agreed to discount fuel and that the road blocks are starting to be lifted, which is nice. Especially so for San Pedro – every single thing is imported as nothing grows here and there are no factories (there is barely enough power and water for the town, let alone a factory).

Today I said goodbye to the Pachamama tour group as they left to return to the south. I’ll jump on the next Pachamama bus that comes through here (hopefully in a week if the fuel and road access is not affected) and start my journey home.

On this tour I have met an Australian girl, a German girl (aside from Beatrice who I already knew from Santiago) and a whole bunch of English guys and girls. All of them were really nice and a load of fun. I am sorry I couldn’t spend more time with them but I think I may see some of them again in Argentina or in Europe if/when I finally get there.

Unfortunately some of them were a touch sick when they left (I think it may be a virus although were were wondering if it was caused by either food or altitude at one point). I hope you are all feeling better and have a great trip back!

Once again no photos at the moment (computer and internet is slow and I don´t have my laptop) but I will upload a heap when I get back to Santiago. The desert landscape is so beautiful!

Hi all.

This will be a quick and unfortunately boring post, just to let you all know that I am ok and the tour is going well. We arrived last night in San Pedro de Atacama, a small town in the middle of the Atacama Desert. The town exists pretty much just for tourism so it is a little expensive but it is beautiful.

I’d upload some pics for you now but the interweb here is slow, unreliable and expensive so I will have to wait until later. The place is so nice that I am thinking of staying here for a week and continuing the tour next Thursday

If I do stay, I´ll post again tomorrow.

Hope you are all well!

Carly

Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading north for a while with Pachamama By Bus. This tour will take me up to San Pedro de Atacama via La Serena, Antofagasta and a few other places, and then back to Santiago through a few more places, including some that are a bit less accessible for someone without a car (national parks, small villages off the normal way etc).

This bus service has a really great reputation (both online and from people here in Santiago who have travelled with them). It offers “get-off-get-on” service, with unlimited time. You can jump off the bus anywhere and get back on the next time the bus comes through or whatever. It also goes to places other than the cities (parks, beaches, tours around each area), stops frequently for exploration, photos and other things, and is very flexible and welcoming. Groups are usually no bigger than 15 or so.

The tour I am taking goes for 10 days, usually 2 days driving / exploring / sight seeing, then 1 day staying in a place, 2 days driving again etc. Beatrice is going too, and thinks she may want to stay longer in San Pedro if there are enough things to do. I’m not sure – I’ll stay somewhere if it feels nice (warm and without rain = nice at the moment! haha).

So, I’m leaving my laptop and instruments here (travelling light this time) but will be back in Santiago in one or two weeks before I say goodbye to Santiago and head north for real. I’ll try to post a few bits and pieces here and there if I can

Sunday the 25th May was Chile’s National Day of Patrimony, where all (or most) of the national monuments are open to the public. There are so many national monuments here – in my first week in Santiago I recall a tourguide on a bus boredly repeating every 2 minutes “That is the blah building. Its a national monument.”

Beatrice and I decided we would take the opportunity to check out some of the more interesting buildings – like La Moneda. Now, those of you who have been reading will have thought “Oh, Carly, but you have been there already!”. Well the normal tour is to walk through the courtyards only. On la Dia del Patrimonia Nacional, the entire building is opened up. You can walk through almost every room and even look into the President’s office!

There were a lot of people interested in seeing the national monuments – families, but also young and old people and individuals, which was good to see. I remember people talking to me about loss of Chilean culture, both through Pinochet, the popularity of the west and I guess in some way sometimes a touch of cultural inferiority – it feels like a lot of Chileans don’t like Chile, they just want to get to the west. Well I think this National day of Patrimony is a great thing – a lot of people are obviously interested in knowing more about Chilean history, the day has a festive feel (street performers come out, art is being created in the streets, everything happens on one day). In La Moneda people were handing out stickers “I participated in the National Day of Patrimony” – to adults and children alike. What a great opportunity and technique for passing on (even reviving) the history of a nation, and thus pride in it.

The buildings aren’t just opened – the tour guides are very well informed, good humoured, and welcoming. In La Moneda (where my cousin informs me the guards are specially selected for both skill and a good appearance) the guards in each room were encouraging children to the front, asking if people had any questions, and in some cases patting the children on the heads as they moved them along. It was a very cosy feel – surprising to me for a few reasons. Firstly, I don’t recall any building tour in Australia being quite as welcoming as these, and secondly for the sheer number of people moving through each building (especially La Moneda) I was surprised that the guards weren’t more serious, more concerned about security. Maybe they were but we didn’t see it.

The La Moneda tour also included an opportunity to taste traditional Chilean cuisine, for free (what a great idea). I had a tiny serving of Pastel de Choclo which was very yummy. I think Pastel de Choclo may be my favourite Chilean dish, just above the El Completo

In the Plaza de Armas, people were dancing traditional northern dances, the usual sunday game of chess was being played, and there was an incredibly long path of sand/sawdust/floral art on the ground from the entrance of the catedral along two sides of the plaza and down a pedestrian street. I’m not sure how far it went or where it ended, but from the corner of the plaza it went down the pedestrian street as far as I could see. I think it must have signified a historical pilgramage to the catedral? All of the art we saw was Christian themed. Maybe a local can help me figure this one out.

After La Moneda we had a look at Casa Colorada, one of the first houses in Santiago and now a colonial museum. Here were a bunch of young people dressed in period costume and traditional music was being played in the courtyard.

We then had a look at the Santiago Town Hall which had some beautiful and intricate interior architecture… I don’t think the photos do it justice.

The National Day of Patrimony is once a year, and monuments across the nation are open for free all day.

As usual, more photos are available in my Flickr area

Pomaire is a village about an hour and a half bus ride from Santiago (more or less – it depends on whether you take a direct bus or one that wanders around a bit first). It is famous for its pottery – both the clay from which it is made as well as the skill of generations of potters that have lived there. It is also famous for its huge 1kg empanada, or as I like to call it “The Empanada of DOOM“.

Beatrice and I decided we wanted to go and have a look at Pomaire one Saturday (the 17th, sorry for the delay in posting) and had a really nice time. The village is pretty small and is outside the layer of smog that usually envelopes the city. It was also a nice day to be outside as the sun was out most of the day.

We went through all of the shops and markets and tried to decide what to buy and figure out how we might be able to get it home. The pottery is heavy and of course can break in transit so it was a conundrum. Beatrice will probably carry hers home but I need to post mine.

So the cool thing about Pomaire pottery is that the clay distributes the heat very well, and is easy to clean. Self-respecting Chileans serve pastel de choclo only in a clay bowl from Pomaire, and the tiny clay bowls for salsa used in restaurants and cafes are usually from Pomaire too.

They are so cheap. Four normal sized bowls for pastel de choclo (imagine a bowl a touch larger than the biggest circle you can make with your hands) can be bought for $1000CLP. So at 250 pesos each, that is (roughly) $0.50AUD. Very affordable, especially for a hand-made item which is also a souvenir of the trip.

I bought two mugs as a gift to my cousin, a jug, a cute little jug and salsa pot set and a set of different sized bowls. I think it came to a total of about $12AU or something. Beatrice bought a plate, an alpaca jumper and a few other bits and pieces too.

For some reason I found it difficult to get good information about how to get to Pomaire – both in guidebooks and on the internet. So here is some info that I hope will help.

What is there

There is a lot of pottery, and of different grades and styles. For example, most of the larger vendors probably make the pottery themselves and the quality is generally pretty good. Some of the smaller vendors my not make the goods themselves; they may be selling 2nds. Not all, but certainly from what we saw while we were there, it was obvious that even the Chileans avoided many of the smaller stores.

There are clay products ranging from traditional simple bowls for pastel de choclo through to trinkets and modern painted and glazed works; vases, masks, casserole dishes, cups, mugs, plates, jugs, clay jewelry and a piggy bank (money box) the size of a pony, I kid you not. There are also a few side streets with other markets – clothing, textiles, artwork, jewelry etc.

You can buy blocks of the clay itself, sweets, a bit of fresh fruit and vegetables (but not much from what we could see), fresh herbs… I think it will depend on who is selling what when you get there.

You can eat well enough there. There are at least 4 or 5 decent sized cafes serving cooked food including the giant empanada. I had a 1/2 kilo empanada for lunch, which had both chicken and mince in it. I was a little surprised when the chicken was still on its drumstick and the whole thing was inside the empanada, but hey. It still tasted nice.

You will also find friendly people – individuals in Santiago are friendly enough, but outside of the city people seem much more open and inviting, and willing to help.

Timings

It takes about an hour or an hour and a half to get from Estacion Central to Pomaire, depending on your bus.

I am told that Monday the village is closed. It will be quieter during the week anyway, and packed on weekends because even Chileans like to shop there.

For one week in May there is a bit more of a festive air in the town as it celebrates harvest of a certain crop from nearby farms… I never did find out what crop it was, but if you know please comment below

You could spend a half day there, depending on how you shop and if you are after something specific. Beatrice and I left Estacion Central at 11ish and arrived back in Santiago at about 4 or 5pm after looking in every shop and eating lunch there too. Your mileage may vary.

Getting to Pomaire from Santiago

The easiest way is by bus. Go to Estacion Central – you can easily find buses to Pomaire usually via Melipilla, which is a larger town closer to Pomaire. You have some choices – it is unlikely that you will find a bus directly to Pomaire unless you go on a tour, so you can either get a direct bus to Melipilla and then a collectivo or microbus from there, or you can take a microbus from the station – it will just stop at a bunch more places on the way and take a bit longer to get there.

For any bus that does go to Pomaire, Pomaire is the last stop. The buses do a loop through the village and then head back to Melipella.

When we went, we took a microbus to Pomaire (about $1200CLP) then caught a microbus back to Melipilla and from there took a direct bus back to Estacion Central (the direct bus cost about $1400CLP). Either way it is pretty cheap and easy