Pedro de Valdivia...and how his city failed - or - It´s a Girl!!

Mea, Tim and I finished up our excursions with a relaxing stay in Valdivia, which just happens to now be one of my favorite Chilean cities. We had some exciting hitches from Bariloche across the border and on Chilean turf once again. Pedro de Valdivia, the main conquistador in Chile (and the only one killed here), founded Valdivia as a Spanish fort in the Mapuche area of the lakes district. Although a valiant conquerer of sorts, his city failed miserably. Located betwixt a slew of rivers, and thus nick-named the River City, it was sacked by everything under the sun: Mapuches time and time again, pirates time and time again, and the largest earthquake in recorded history in 1960...luckily that only happened once. Anyway, Pedro was stubborn and wouldn´t give up on conquering Chile, despite the fact that all others had. He didn´t end up defeating the Mapuches, and they remained the longest lasting free-reigning natives in the Americas until an agreement of sorts was made around 1900. All the major societies fell quickly: Inca, Maya, Aztec, etc. But the little-known Mapuches held out for hundreds of years and the Spanish themselves never conquered them. This girl sporting a campaign flag during the post-election celebrations intrigued me. "Estoy Contigo," Bachelet´s theme, means "I am with you." There were banners, parades, and honking all night. So that´s where we passed the end of our trip south. We were greeted by screaming throngs of Bachelet supporters celebrating her presidential victory in the run-off election. Now what are the chances that she could be elected in the states.....let´s see. She´s an atheist, socialist, divorced, mother of children from multiple men. Oh, and a doctor to spare. And Chile is supposed to be a Catholic, socially conservative Latin American country. That´s interesting. Mea and Tim in the botanical gardens, which weren´t really what we would think of them in the States but more of a pretty park with some labeled trees. And Kuntsmann! We later strolled around the city and enjoyed its botanical garden, riverfront market where seals and sea lions awaited fish scraps, and the Kuntsmann brewery. That´s right, the home of my favorite Chilean beer happened to be our final stop. What a way to end. And I only missed a few days of school! And a trip to Valdivia couldn´t be complete without a horrendous battle reenactment at one of the many forts in the area. The juvenile boys had a blast screaming and kicking one another. So although the historical elements were hard to grasp, it was still enjoyable.

Once Upon a Photo Story...

It will unfortunately be impossible to recount my parents´full visit. So I´ll walk you through a bunch of photos from the time.

Rendezvous Santiago



The kids had fun before the parents showed up. Tim took a few days to bring the motorcycle down from northern Chile. Tim´s father came several days later than my parents and unfortunately was pick-pocketed within hours of arriving. Santiagoan thieves are so good they are said to have silk hands.



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Marí, my Chilean mom, found the bird the same day that Tim arrived, so little Tim was the project of the holidays! He eventually flew away about 3 weeks later and having grown like crazy. He also crapped like crazy and woke me up in the morning with annoying squawks. But he was fun to have around. Us on one of many city tours - this time in front of La Moneda, the capitol building.



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It´s hard see Santiago without the Virgen. Actualy, it´s hard to see Santiago from the Virgen, although it is a perfectly placed hill. The smog was horrible and we nearly lost our way (not because of the smog, but because I´m bad with directions!) while walking down Cerro San Cristobal on our way to a tour of Neruda´s Santiago house, La Chascona.
This little guy, at the foot of the Virgen, was undoubtedly the highest dog in Santiago. And looking pretty bad.



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At some point we all piled into the truck and made a day of barbecuing at Lago Peñuelas.





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Cumplí 22 Años



My friend Gry-Mette hosted a great birthday party from her apartment´s rooftop terraza of sorts. It was mainly Scandinavians and J, Mea, Tim and I. But there were some Chileans mixed in as well. After a few hours on the roof we went out to a dance club until the wee hours. Below are Hector and Gry.





Gry and Anna. Me and Maria, a good friend from the program who I will have to visit in Denmark.


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The Beach



Mom, Dad, Mea and I then headed to our Chilean beach house at La Serena after Jamie took off. Mom found el Oceano Pacifico to be freezing!



It was wonderful to fully relax. We took a day trip into Valle Elqui to see grapes, a pisco plant, and some beautiful scenery.







And we had fun.



Unposed above, and posing for a different camera below.







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Christmas



Plaza de Armas had about 5 separate Santas with their own little sleighs for pictures with el Viejo Pascuero. This guy was trying to find a better spot!





The ´rents in central Santiago with a street performer in the background. The days leading up to Christmas meant tons of food...comida muy rica! Marí making empanadas and Mom with an apple pie.





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We opened gifts Christmas Eve, as is the Chilean tradition.



Although there were few gifts, we entertained ourselves for hours and had a very memorable holiday.



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Christmas Day meant borrowing the truck, heading up to the Andes, and getting a good tan. We made our way up to the ski areas near Santiago and then got off the beaten path to a conservation area of sorts.





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After Christmas we had a few spare days to see the city before mom and dad´s return flight. One of the most interesting excursions was El Cementerio General. We spent hours making our way in and out of mausoleum lined streets.



It was common to have have mausoleums stacked 12 high or so, but there was one 10-story building. It held thousands of coffins and was unlike anything we had ever seen before.





There was also a huge monument at Salvador Allende´s grave, only outdone by the tribute to those 3,000 or so who disappeared during Pinochet´s rule.
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I couldn´t have asked for a better holiday and start to my vacations. It was fantastic to have the whole family together for a few days.
Almost immediately after all the parents took off, Mea, Tim, and I headed south. There are more pictures below on previous posts, too.

The 15-Story Ice Wall

Oh yeah, and it´s 3 miles wide and 30 kilometers deep.



Welcome to Glacier Perito Moreno, one of hundreds located in Parque Nacional Los Glaciers in Argentina. From El Calafate, which is the most frightening little tourist town on earth in my opinion, we made a day trip up to the Andes to see the spectacles of some of the lowest lying (speaking in terms of altitude) glaciers in the world. These all stem from the Patagonian Ice Field, which is the the 3rd largest ice sheet in the world - trailing only to Antarctica and Greenland. The Patagonian Ice Field is and has been the source of many border problems between Argentina and Chile because both countries want to claim the gigantic source of fresh water (although in solid form).



My first experience with the ice monsters came several days earlier in Torres del Paine when we camped near Glacier Grey. I spent several hours one evening trying to make my way down to the glacier by way of a treacherous rock slide, just to find out later that I had wasted time, energy and good lighting conditions (for photos) when there was a great spot about 2 minutes from our campsite on a well-marked trail. Ahhhh, what an idiot. Meaghan laughed her ass off at my misfortune and/or stupidity.

But Glacier Grey and Perito Moreno are hard to compare. It´s actually almost impossible to compare anything with a 60 meter face of ice that calves (breaks off) less than a kilometer in front of you.



A tiny piece, which could have been the size of an SUV, made an incredible explosion sound. And the effect of seeing the equivalent of a 10-story building topple off the side and cause a small tsunami is hard to explain. It was an experience I will not soon forget. There were several calves of immense sizes. The tons of tourists along the balconies overlooking the glacier would cheer when a good piece fell. It was amazing that hundreds of people could be almost silent as they watched ice with rapt attention. The multi-level tour boat looked like nothing next to the glacier. Perito Moreno (the 3rd largest in PN Los Glaciers) is larger than Buenos Aires in surface area. Buenos Aires has roughly 12 or 13 million inhabitants, far larger than New York. Hope that helps as a reference point. It was unfortunate that we didn´t have a reference point or scale comparison other than the boat from where we were because it was impossible to tell the size of some things.





This is about a 12-story building or so crashing down. The crack of the ice is sensational and unbelievably loud. The initial wave it threw was probably over 100 meters. And then the tsunami-esque entension rippled along the length of the glacial face, sometimes causing other calvings.











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We´re currently blowing time until we get on a bus at 3 am. We have a roughly 33 hours worth of bus riding to take us to Bariloche in the Argentine lakes district. We´re hoping to then cross to Chile and camp again for a night or two before I try to book it back to Santiago. It´s not looking so great that I will be back in time for classes on Monday!

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This is Glacier Grey in PN Torres del Paine. Not nearly as tall as Perito Moreno, but equally expansive, reaching into the Andes as far as the eye can see for tens of kilometers. We camped near it and could hear it throghout the night.