Shantaram

I recently finished a book that I highly suggest picking up. Shantaram is incredible. It´s difficult to believe that such a variety of ludicruous things could happen to a single person, but author Gregory David Roberts takes the cake. Escaped convict, drug runner, freedom fighter, slum worker...you name it, and it happened to him. Although I don´t agree with a huge amount of the decisions made by main character Lin, one of many fake identities used by Roberts, the story and learning process that he goes through are second to none. It also raises a plethora of wonderful intellectual and philosophical debates ranging from the reasons for the wrong that we do, to the order of the cosmos, to the meanings of love and suffering. And even more excitingly, the blessed Johnny Depp will be starring as Lin in the upcoming movie. But read the book because I´m sure the movie will be obliged to omit quite a bit of fun.

Los Geysers del Tatio

Probably the most impressive, and the most exhausting, of the trips was seeing geysers at sunrise.



Seeing them at sunrise meant that we left San Pedro at 4 AM, which is fine is you go to bed at 6 PM the previous evening. We got to bed around 1 AM, overslept the alarms, and got ready in record time when the hostel manager knocked the door 15 minutes after we were supposed to be waiting outside.



And the lovely prospect of sleeping on the 2.5-hour ride to the geysers was made difficult by heavily rutted roads. Katie almost got sick, and I came out of my weak sleep every time we went over an especially violent bump, which was often.

However, all bitching aside, it was worth it. Los Geysers del Tatio make up the highest geothermal field in the world, for one of many odd facts that we learned on the trip. Our guide put chocolate milk in one of the pools and we were later rewarded with delicious hot chocolate.



Stories of people falling through soft crust and being boiled to death frightened Katie at first, but we found nicely marked areas to walk and admire the natural blow holes. It was amazing, though, when what seemed to be an inactive random hole would suddenly send up several feet of sulphury water, steam and fumes with almost no warning. Thus, we were careful.



After the geyser field we were the only group of probably 15 vans to go an awesome natural spring. You had to step on stones not to burn yourself, because the floor of the thermal creek was insanely hot. I unfortunately discovered that when taking a poor step on my way out, burning my foot, howling in pain, falling over into the stream simply to alleviate my foot, and in the process splashing multiple people resting on the edge soaking only their feet. It was a sight. It was also incredibly painful and taught me much more respect than watching the geysers had done. I guess molten lava isn´t a joke after all.





Katie and I then split up the 20+ hour bus ride back to Santiago by first catching an overnight bus to La Serena, spending the day on the beach (which we pretty much had to ourselves now that vacations are over and fall is coming on), and catching another overnight bus back to Santiago that evening.

El Salar de Atacama

Why not top an amazing sunset by heading to the world´s third largest salt flat, only trailing Bolivia´s Salar de Uyuni and Utah´s Great Salt Lake desert?

El Salar de Atacama is hard to navigate for several reasons:
-Its unique formation is made up of so many minerals that large crystals are produced as the salt water lake slowly evaporates, making it drastically different from the salt flats of Bolivia and Utah. the structures grow about 1 mm every year, boasting as much as 3 feet of jagged, multi-colored pillars in some areas.
-El Salar is located in the middle of Parque Nacional Los Flamencos, meaning that it is one of the main breeding areas in the world for 3 of the world´s 4 flamingo species. Since they are highly protected, it is impossible to go into many sections of the salt lake.



The salt lake is a massive area (over 1,000 square miles) formed from Andean runoff waters being stuck with no place to go. The problem for the water is that there are two other mountain ranges making it impossible for any escape. The underground runoff eventually comes to the surface as it sits and evaporates, bringing with it salt left behind form when the entire area was a massive lake millions of years ago. The other minerals are brought down from the mountains and give the salar it´s unique rugged surface.



Flamingos eat a crustacea that is only found in highly salinated waters. The crustacea gives flamingos their pink color. So the older the flamingo, the more it has eaten, and the pinker it is. Younger ones, which is what we mainly saw, are pretty much white.



From the salt lake we made our way up into the Andes, stopping at several small towns and eventually making our way to Laguna Miscanti and its smaller neighbor, Laguna Miñeques. The lakes are above 14,000 feet and awe-inspiring. During the mating season in August and September, the lakes are filled with thousands of flamingos. We saw none. The only rain that the lakes get is from El Invierno Boliviano, or the Bolivian Winter, which happens to be in the middle of summer, when we were there. Bolivia receives a lot of rain, but the lakes and the Atacama simply receive enough to stay at roughly the same level year to year.



Miscanti above. One of many desert cemeteries below. They have an interesting tradition of putting wreaths on crosses every November, but the wind then makes the wreaths into creepy fragments of what once was.

El Valle de la Luna

One of the most impressive sights I have beheld was Moon Valley.



We got lucky that rain several days before we came drew salt to the surface of almost every surface. Although warned to take it easy due to the high altitude and the fact that many people get sick when going there, Katie and I opted to join my friends Sana and Marco on a bike ride. Not just a bike ride...a several-hour ride through the desert. Not just any desert...the Atacama desert, which happens to be the driest in the world.



Luckily it didn´t kill us.



We then spent the morning hiking in several parts of the park other than Moon Valley itself. Later that day we took a tour to see the famous sunset at Valle de la Luna as well as several surrounding areas such as Death Valley, where lots of people sandboard on the dunes. We unfortunately didn´t have time to do that as well.



Death Valley above, and La Duna Principal (the main dune) of Moon Valley as we made our way across to watch the sun set.









Just as the sun went down on our west, a nearly-full moon rose from behind the Andean volcanoes on our east, causing a dramatic effect as both were visible for several minutes.





It was a great way to start La Atacama.

Go ahead and Jump...Just Jump

We used Van Halen´s wonderful idea and used San Pedro as the jumping-off point for several days of excursions around the Atacama. (By excursions I mean that we bought a packet of several guided tours...really roughing it.) We decided that me renting a car a probably getting lost in the desert just wasn´t worth all the the small amount of money we might have saved. San Pedro de Atacama is Chile´s most expensive town...a huge tourist attraction that often houses 7,000 tourists in high season next to the 3,500 residents. Somehow it´s a huge hippy spot as well. Like males in Calama, hippies come out of the woodwork in San Pedro. Although the last 10 years has drastically changed the city (there was 1 restaurant in the early 90´s), the literal appearance is quite similar to any other area because of an ordinance that requires all buildings to be in the adobe style known to the region. So slums to 5-star hotels look pretty much the same, although I sure they offer slightly different amenities. From here Katie and I saw El Valle de la Luna, El Valle de la Muerte, El Salar de Atacama, El Altiplano, Los Geysers de Tatio, and a variety of other things.

The CCC

Although some former history teacher would love for this to be a reference to Roosevelt´s Civilian Conservation Corps...alas, it is not.

These 3 C´s are Calama, Chuquicamata, and Chiu Chiu. 4 C´s, I guess.

A plane and several buses brought Katie and I to Calama, in the middle of the Atacama desert, to meet up with my "cousin" Tamara. We stayed with her, Gustavo, and their son Gabriel.

Calama = Males. The numbers are outrageous. A ratio of 10 or 15 males:1 female is not an exaggeration. The town is crawling with them, thanks to the world´s largest open mine being about 20 km away. To please the hordes there are tons of topless bars and a casino is also being built to help further deplete the padded pockets.

Calama, which generates more money for Chile than any other city, is by far one of the ugliest places in the country. However, the nastiness did not stop Tamara and Gustavo from welcoming us, taking us in, putting us up (I found a compromising position to sleep in Garbiel´s bed (he´s 4 or 5)), and giving in-depthndepth tour of the area.

Chuquicamata is a ghost town. The main plaza is almost barren.



Codelco, the country´s main mining company, has decided to move all Chuquicamata residents to Calama, allowing the ever-expanding mine to slowly eat the former city. Roads disappear into heaps of discarded rubble that is dumped from the top of man-made mountamonstrousstruous trucks. They say the mine will steadily produce copper, Chile´s main export, for at least 50 years - meaning that the main pit, already 4 km wide and 3 km long, will continue growing.



They showed us the former houses where my host family lived when Tadeusz worked for Cadelco. Fences and gates now close off almost everything of the once bustling town. Only a few offices and restaurants remain open.

From desolate Chuqui, we drove into the desert until we found the oasis town of Chiu Chiu. The town, as are many others in the region, is famous for its white church. As opposed to the others, Chiu Chiu also sports a mysterious lagoon. Before catching a bite to eat and wandering the lone dirt road that makes up the town, we stopped at the lagoon. Jacques Cousteau once investigated the infamous location with a research team and they never found a bottom. That´s right. There is no known end to the lagoon. No one has ever discovered a base.



Katie and I exaggerated the wind, but not by much. It was difficult to stand. In the presence of such a unique body of water, Gustavo and I decided to take a dip.



It was fun and refreshing, only to be followed up by some empanadas and checking out the church.



The roof of the church is completely made out of cactus. And no nails were used in its original construction. And Katie was weird and played with Gabriel next to the graves out front.

Malabaristas

Street performers...that´s how I started my week vacation with my old friend Katie visiting - watching street performers. Strolling along almost any part of Santiago will bring you across a variety of street performers: mimes, bands, a blind man singing karaoke to a religious song through a portable boom box, a man teaching/demonstrating soccer-juggling skills, etc. Old, insanely young, fat, thin, funny, sad....everything.

The two jugglers went to school to learn their trade. They swapped performance times with another group on the adjacent street - whoever had a red light had the stage. It´s not uncommon to see all 4 sides of an intersection crowded with jugglers or dancers at some locations around town. They were hoping to see Cirque de Sol when it comes to town.





Perfectly timed performances allow them to make it about 4 cars deep asking for tips before the light turns green, then it´s dodging traffic until the next time through. They perform the almost exact routine time after time, only allowing a drop here and there to spoil it.





Then they await their next opportunity.

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Several pedestrian roads near the Plaza de Armas always offer a wide variety of performers, including this energetic washboard player along with his band and dancer.



The low light made it all a little blurry, but that luckily didn´t impact how much the crowd enjoyed the antics. The hat then served as the perfect receptacle to pass around for tips



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And sometimes the dogs are just too cute to not call attention to themselves. This little guy devoured a sweet of some sort.

As Of Late

Somehow I actually keep somewhat busy with only 3 days of classes. La locura that is my family continues, and I recently spent part of the weekend helping clean out and paint the grandparents´ former home as it is prepared to be rented out to help cover the costs of advanced care for the grandfather. Although a sad situation as dimensia grips him tighter, I passed the day sweating and laughing as we rushed to get the house ready for students (as it is near la Universidad de Santiago). Marí (my host mom) and her sister Gabi entertained with stories of their childhood and the house as we uncovered old papers, photos, report cards, and a variety of other hidden gems. In other news, I have pretty much abandoned my search and hope for a newspaper internship because there simply isn´t time. I have inquired and interviewed at several papers around Santiago, but it wasn´t meant to be. Everyone was on vacation, I could only begin at earliest in mid-March (when I have some breaks from school and want to travel) and I didn´t want to derail plans to then stay longer in Santiago after the program in order to obtain the internship. Thus is life. Now I´m hopefully off to some exotic locations. Oh, and Theresa put a trenza in my hair...HOT.

Maldito Canadiense

Damn Canadians. That´s right, I will speak poorly of the U.S.´s cold, northern neighbor. A recent, long-anticipated camping trip to Parque Nacional Puyehue was thwarted yet again. My friend Kristy and I took an overnight bus down to Osorno in the Lakes District about 12 hours south. We eagerly calculated food needs for several days of camping and laughed off the front page of the newspaper that described a disappeared person in the national park 1 hour away. I have been wanting to hike in PN Puyehue (pronounced POO - as in doo-doo; YAY - as in a giddy child; WAY - as in the phrase "no WAY" when someone can´t believe the splendiferous magnificence of a situation) for months now. I would describe it as one of my top 5 sites to see here. The park...no, specifically the trail that I wanted to hike within the gigantic national park that borders Argentina...features a volcano that last erupted in 1960 leaving dried lava rivers, sweeping sand dunes, active geysers, and wild hot springs (not to be confused with the geysers). Oh, and the peak of the volcano is easily reached (supposedly) with a short hike, yielding a breath-taking view. Well, neither Kristy nor I know if any of that is true because a stupid Canadian caused that section of the park to be closed as they searched for him. Apparently the police and park officials didn´t want random hikers happening upon the aforementioned disappeared idiot. On a side note, I am being so harsh only because he did live in the end, which we discovered after our camping. We still had a wonderful time seeing other areas of the park...but I was pissed. We went to Pampa Frutilla (Strawberry Field). It was a beautiful area, but the second day seemed never-ending as we hiked for about 8 hours without encountering new water sources and rationing the small amount we had. After finally arriving at Pampa Frutilla, I climbed a small hill to look for a camping spot and promptly put my exhausted and ill-tempered ass to bed. However, I was greeted by just about the most astounding thing: 2 lakes about 20 minutes away. We immediately drank as much of the remaining water as we could stomach and high-tailed it to the liquid gold awaiting us. The swimming was wonderful, although quite unusual because the lava-rock bottom immediately gave out, making it impossible to slowly wade into the icy, mountain lake. Although breathing was difficult, the swim and the following spaghetti feast made the entire day and trip well worth it. We were the only people on the trail the entire three days, minus the 2 people leaving as we first entered the trail. We had luck hitching to other areas of the park to enjoy the domesticated hot springs. Our luck ran out back in Osorno, though, with all buses back to Santiago being sold out. So we trained it north several hours Monday morning and that night took an bus back to Santiago, making me unfortunately (I can´t describe the pain I felt) miss several days of class! I have now been spitting and farting to the north in hopes that it will dampen the air quality in Canada - I´d appreciate it if you did the same.