Palegoldenrod

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

Hola chicos y chicas.

Well this week I am not taking Spanish classes, so I am left to my own devices and able to wander the streets of Santiago terrorising innocent people with my terrible Spanish. Muahahahah!

Last week my German friends from my first week of classes left - Burkhard went home, Beatrize started her internship and Simone took some private language lessons and spent the week making friends with Chileans and exploring.

We had our fiesta on Thursday night with our awesome teacher Luis DJing for the evening. It was a good night and I made some new friends, both foreigners and locals.

Everything caught up with me this week and I have been incredibly tired. I somehow managed to find energy to go to dinner with some of Simone’s Chilean friends. It was a homecooked meal of shellfish (pippis I think?), a traditional Chilean fish and an awesome homemade desert with fresh raspberries. Yorm - it was a great meal and good company - the girls were very friendly.

Saturday was Simone’s last day in Chile so we wandered around and had a bit of a quiet day, then went out for dinner and to a club. This time we ran into another German girl staying at the hostel with Simone, so we went with her and her friend Francisco to a rock club. They had a few live Chilean bands and then put on a video screen and some American/UK pop from the 80s and 90s. Retro, wot. Oh, and OMG - everyone here can dance salsa. It is so awesome to watch, but those of you who know me will already be laughing because you know how badly I dance. Oh well, luckily some of the people I know aren’t keen dancers either

On Sunday I went solo to Franklin Market, on the other side of the city. It is a huge market filling sidewalk and buildings on both sides of the street for five or so blocks, and starts right near a metro station. I bought my cousin a wireless router and had a look at a few other things. Some computer parts (e.g. hard drives, RAM) seem a bit more expensive than in Australian markets, even given the good exchange rate and the fact I was looking in markets. Maybe the computer markets we get at Newcastle have more direct access to Taiwanese and Chinese suppliers, and shorter transport distances to keep the cost down. Hmm.

In the afternoon Dane and I went up to Cerro San Cristobel (Saint Christopher Hill) which has a giant statue of Mary (not St Christopher) just like those photos you see of Rio with Jesus standing over the city. The only difference is that Santiago is too smoggy to have a nice view from on the hill, hehe.

Anyway, today I have slept in a bit, done some cleaning, some work on the internet and a little Spanish study. I feel much better after the sleep. Soon I’ll walk the dog and then I might go into town to catch up with some friends for the evening

Oh, and the volcano is nowhere near us here, though the volcano at Maipo has been getting a few tremors and might esplöd. I think my teacher Luis mentioned that the ash from Chaiten might be heading our way soon but hopefully it will be high in the atmosphere and not down here making the city smoggier than it already is.

So what’s going on with you guys? Anything awesome?

On the first afternoon I arrived in Chile, while my cousin Dane and I were walking the dog, we passed two young men putting up a sign in Spanish. I tried to read it - “The freedom to decide. Protest against the dictatorship of the Constitutional Tribunal”. Dane started telling me about how common protests were in the city and that if I stayed I would almost certainly have an experience with tear gas. I thought that was interesting, especially given that Chile is improving month by month and when compared with the country under Pinochet’s rule I would have thought they’d have little to complain about such that it required a protest, let alone tear gas.

So off I went today, on my own, for a walk. I wandered from Recoleta down through Barrio Bellavista and into the city to Santa Lucia by lunch time, where I happened upon a large group of people preparing to protest. And the media. And a whole swarm of police. And some riot vans. And some armored water cannon vehicles. Not that they were required, it was very peaceful.

The story is this - more than a year ago, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet (a paediatrician and single mother) noted that the morning-after pill was expensive and was effectively unavailable to poor women (who incidentally are in most need of assistance with contraception). She authorised a move to make the morning-after pill available for free to all women over 14 years.

Since that time, the president’s right-wing opponents (read: Catholic conservatives and wealthy male business owners) have taken the matter to the tribunal declaring that the morning-after pill was not a contraceptive but an abortive, and that as such was illegal (abortion for any reason has been illegal under Chilean law since around the end of Pinochet’s rule).

The tribunal agreed and the directive from the president was overturned. Apparently there is no way to appeal a tribunal decision. This didn’t make the morning-after pill illegal, it just overturned the decision for public clinics to provide it. Which is weird… if they decided it was illegal to use it to abort, why not enforce this across the board rather than allowing those that can afford to pay for the drug (or for a doctor to prescribe it in a private clinic) to step around the law?

So a lot of women (and not a few men) gathered together to show their displeasure, as expressing oneself seems to be something highly encouraged in Chile (maybe after such restrictions as Pinochet?) and the protest, while serious, appeared to be in good spirits and peaceful.

I had a bit of a sticky beek at Santa Lucia and then went about my walk through the rest of the city, and eventually found my way to Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in the centre of the CBD. I was standing just in front of the church when a group of police (complete with helmets and bullet-proof jackets) appeared, and their favourite little riot van. Not long after this the protesters arrived as well. Just before they entered the plaza the police closed the gates to the church (kindly informed those inside that no, they would not open the gates) and then blocked off some side roads with other police.

At first I thought they were moving through the plaza on the way to the tribunal, but when they stopped it appeared that they were specifically protesting against the church on this one. As I found myself sandwiched between the church wall, a bunch of armoured cops and a large group of protesters - none of whom I could understand - as well as a few dodgey (cough - pickpocket) looking young men, I thought it prudent to promptly move on from the plaza so I am not sure if they did continue to the Tribunal building. It was only a block or two away so I’m guessing they got there unless the police stopped them.

I did see a single man with a sign standing in front of the Tribunal, but I couldn’t quite make out the message on his billboard, let alone translate it into English.

Anyway, so ends my first experience walking alone in the CBD, and my first Chilean protest. No tear gas this time, but Dane tells me that the May Day protests usually get a bit heated and occasionally end with people interfering with cables for power supply among other things, which of course pretty much guarantees a response from the police. I might stay home for that one

Other info on the protest and the reason for it (all in English):

• Reuters - Court blocks Chile move on morning-after pill
• International Herald Tribune - Dueling protests support, oppose ban on free morning-after pill in Chile
• Catholic News Agency - Bishop Goic calls for end to attempts to distribute abortion pill