Santiago, Chile

So we went to Santiago one afternoon to take Carolina's uncle to the airport. We only spent like two or three hours here but I liked Santiago. Pictured here is the building called La Moneda which is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It occupies an entire block of the city. We were told that usually you can go inside the courtyard but for whatever reason, on this particular day we were not allowed to enter. It was surrounded by military types on horses. Carolina made sure to tell us about the bombing on September 11th, 1973 of La Moneda that partially destroyed the building. But final reconstructions on it were completed in 1981 (with a passageway built underneath in case Pinochet, or any subsequent Presidents, needed to flee). I also took a picture of San Martin, one of the two men monumentalized in Chile for their contributions to Chilean independence from Spain (the other is Bernard O'Higgins...I know, that name is so not Chilean sounding because it isn't!). O'Higgins was of Irish and Basque descent and he was the second Director of Chile from 1817-1823. He was born in Chillan, which is a little city that we spent one night in during our travels to Southern Chile.

After walking around for a while, we headed off to my favorite part of the day (and one of the highlights for me of the entire three weeks in Chile): the pre-Columbian museum of art in Santiago! Once inside this museum with capacious rooms filled with ancient artworks, I was anxious with excitement and awe (but that didn't last too long because no one I was with was very excited about it; they were interested but not like I was!). I came across a few ceramic figures from the Jama Coaque culture of ancient Ecuador. I had never even heard of them but I almost instantaneously loved their ceramic figures (the Jama Coaque figures are the one who is playing a flute and next to him is a warrior with half his face painted green). I loved this museum!

I have to say that when I found out that Santiago had a pre-Columbian museum of art, I wasn't quite sure what to expect because they said that they had a nice collection of Mesoamerican art. I was wondering why (and how) this museum all the way down in Chile could have these things. But I was pleasantly surprised because I loved so many of these pieces!! They had ceramics from the Maya, the Maya stela pictured here (monolithic rock carving), ceramics and masks from central Mexico, Maya figurines from Jaina (one of the pictures below), and so many other works of art. They even had a nice textile wing of the museum! But most of the pictures I took of the textiles did not come out because the lighting was extremely low and it's difficult in normal museum lighting to be able to get great photos. But I really did enjoy this museum!!

Four of these five photos show artworks from the Moche people of the northern coast of Peru. The Moche styles of artworks (particularly the ceramics) lasted from the 1st century CE until the 8th century CE. I was really excited to see these ceramics because I had just completed a paper on the Decapitator deity of the Moche. The last two ceramic vessels are "fineline" painted and you can see why. The only vessel (the one with two bodies without heads) that is not Moche is from the Nazca culture which pre-dates the Moche by a little (from about the 1st century BCE until the 7th century CE). The Nazca culture flourished on the southern coast of Peru and are most famous for the enormous geoglyphs that they carved into the landscape. I love the abstracted depictions of peoples and mythological creatures painted on the Nazca ceramics.

Then we went to the top of Cerro de San Cristobal which I must say, delivers quite a spectacular panoramic view of the city. We rode the "funicular" (a kind of cable car type of thing) up to the top of this hill. Surrounded by the Andes mountains, Santiago is a rather large, spread-out kind of city. We only spent a few hours here but I liked it. However, I'm realizing that I am no longer a big city person. I really appreciate wide open spaces without a continuous skyline of buildings on top of more buildings. After taking a few photos, we walked up a lot of steps to get a close-up of La Virgen Inmaculada Concepcion. She is quite large as you can see and she has the best view of Santiago.

Valparaiso and Tara, the Family Farm

I loved being in Valparaiso! Carolina and members of her family refer to it as the "prostitute little sister" of Vina del Mar. But I really like Valpo; I know that there is more crime here, more graffiti-some of which was definitely artistic (I don't think I saw any street graffiti in Vina), and it appeared to be a little sketchy in certain areas. However, I felt like I was amongst the people! The weather was just gorgeous and walking (more like climbing) around Valpo's streets gave me a good sense of the place, I think. There were quite a lot of people walking around and a shopkeeper asked me where I was from because it seemed to him that I had "un acento centroamericano," which made me laugh inside. We only spent like 3 hours here in Valparaiso (which didn't seem like enough to me) but I loved the view and our lunch at a little, off the beaten-path pizza place was very good.




And here are some more pictures from the streets of Valparaiso. I really did like Valpo; I suppose that many people, even here in Chile, do not like Vina del Mar's "prostitute little sister," but I could definitely see its charm. I'm sure it was quite different when Pablo Neruda was alive and living here, but it still was one of my favorite places that we visited. I felt like I was among "the people." I was very excited to go to Neruda's home here in Valpo. It is forbidden to take any pictures anywhere inside the house, so I had to settle for a few shots from the outside and one of my friend Kristi and I in front of his house with the view of the bay behind us. It was a very eclectic house with five levels. My favorite room was his personal study; I could see the appeal of looking out over the ocean and being so inspired by its beauty as to be almost compelled to construct such pulchritudinous poetry. "Pablo Neruda" was the pen name (and eventual legal name) of Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He was born in 1904 and died in 1973 at the age of 69. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971. Neruda was in the hospital as Pinochet took over Chile in 1973 and when Neruda died, Pinochet ordered that Neruda's funeral did not become a public event (he even instituted a curfew). But after Neruda succumbed to heart failure, thousands of Chileans took to the streets in honor of their most celebrated and loved poet. It was a remarkable experience being in his house, particularly the room in which he worked.

Then we spent the better part of our second day in Chile at Carolina's family farm, Tara. She starting calling it that years ago because of Gone With the Wind and somehow, the name just stuck. Anyways, it's located at the foothills of the Andes. We were able to stop by Carolina's grandfather's grave in San Felipe; then we spent the afternoon at Tara. Carolina and Fernando cooked everyone a nice meal and we had a great time. The land was peaceful and beautiful. We even went back to Tara at the end of our visit to Chile. It brought back a few memories of my Grandparents' ranch in California. I really enjoyed our afternoon at Tara.

A Few Pictures of Chile

I truly loved visiting Chile! It is a beautiful country and its varied landscapes reminded me of California. I think almost all of these pictures are from the week and a half that we spent in southern Chile (in the towns of Pucon and Frutillar). As we travelled around central and southern Chile, I noticed that the Chilean accent is quite different from the Mexican one. It took a lot of effort for me to understand some people; others I could completely understand. And of course, many comments were made about how strange it was for them to see me as so American but when I spoke, they heard a Mexican speaking Spanish! Hahaha! Well, that's my Mexican half! Anyways, Chile is a gorgeous country. I didn't get to spend much time in Santiago and we didn't go anywhere in northern Chile (nor did we go over to Argentina-something that I wanted to do so badly!). However, it was such a pleasure to get to spend three weeks here in South America.

Chile has many beautiful landscapes. We spent about a week and a half in the south of Chile, which was so pretty. I got quite a bit of sun on my face and neck from spending so much time outdoors. We spent five days in Southern Chile in Pucon. Then we went to Frutillar, another great town with amazing views of volcanoes and mountains. We also spent an afternoon sailing on El Lago de Todos Los Santos (I'm standing in front of that lake in one of these pictures).

And here are just a few more images from around Chile. When we were in the apartment in Renaca (a ritzy suburb of Vina del Mar on the central coast of Chile), every night I would just sit and watch the sunset. It was always breathtaking and relaxing. I had some great experiences there: one of these pictures is the very end of land (on the Chilean side) that one can drive on; once we arrived at the end of the PanAmerican highway, we took a ferry over to the island of Chiloe. Another of these pictures (the one with the cows) is from Frutillar, a beautiful town in Southern Chile.