Thailand is Great!

Trying to get back to the original idea of this blog, which was to give regular Yes, we're alive! updates to friends and family. I'm already failing, though; almost a week here and this is the first time I sought out more than 5 min online.

In our short time so far, we have experienced Thai food (cheap and amazing), Thai massage (using feet, interrupted by the occasional cell call), temples (our favorites are the old ruins, not the new shiny ones), elephants (we fed them sugar cane), and monkeys (a bit over-plentiful, actually). More photos will be forthcoming when I find a better internet cafe...keep your eye on flickr if you're interested.

Jennifer

The Glorious Parques

During the semester I studied in England, I joined a lot of groups, among them the gentle sounding “Walking Club.” The only “walk” I joined had me spending two days half-jogging up steep rocky trails while icy rain whipped against my face and seeped into my clothing. With this experience very much in mind, we signed up for a Patagonian “soft adventure” tour package. As the 3rd septuagenarian boarded our tour bus, we realized we probably could have gone with a more strenuous version.

Having said that, a bus tour was the perfect way to spend our first day, given the limited amount of time we had to explore the parks. We were able to see a lot of the area surrounding the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, including several lakes and the cave where Captain Hermann Eberhard found the remains of a milodón (giant 15-foot sloth) in 1896. The enormous cave now hosts a replica of the herbivore, which menaces tourists in hundreds of photos just like these.

At the conclusion of the tour, we waited for our ride to the next night’s accommodation inside the park. The refugio was in no way what I expected – we had clean sheets, hot showers, excellent food, and access to the comforts of bar, hot tub and masseuse. We reserved these accommodations because we didn’t have our own camping gear, but once we arrived we realized that renting equipment would have been simple. If we make it back, we will most likely opt for rented tents.

Day one we hiked to the base of the Torres. As expected, I was much slower than Jason and Brandon, who were reluctant to leave me behind and trek off on their own. Eventually we made it up the path, along the edge of a mountain, through a forest* and over a boulder field to reach the hidden lake below the towers. As with most of the lakes in the park, mineral and sediment runoff turns the water a milky blue-green that is impenetrable to sunlight, inhabitable to life. We worried only about temperature, not creatures, as we waded slightly into the pool.

On our second day, we rode through the park on horseback. Some confusion about the location of the horses resulted in a late start, but we were saddled up and on our way by mid-morning. Our group included a gaucho (cowboy) and a guía (guide), both of whom spoke mostly Spanish. The guide was extremely knowledgeable about the park’s flora, fauna and history, and seemed a little disappointed that we didn’t take more photos as we skirted Lago Nordenskjöld. At the end of the ride, he invited us to share mate, which was my first communal mate experience. It tasted like a bitter green tea, which was lovely for me, short about 1/4 cup of sugar for Jason. Brandon thought enough of it to buy a souvenir bowl and pipe once we returned to Santiago.

Our final tour left from Puerto Natales, and took us by boat to enter Parque Bernardo O’Higgins. The highlight of the boat-access-only park is Glacier Serrano. The glacier is enormous, although shrinking. Jason blames the daily allotment of ice chipped from its sides for tourist drinks. I suspect there may be other factors at play. In addition to conservationally-unsound beverages, the tour included a parrilla (grill) lunch. This is essentially a massive platter of meat – lamb, chicken, sausage and steak – grilled with no spices to speak of; it is probably the most traditional meal in Chile, and most Chilean parties are parrilla-centered asados (barbeques).

This was our last day exploring the southern parks. There were no flights directly from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt, so we took a bus to Punto Arenas and spent the night there before catching a flight. Punto Arenas is home to the world’s most southern brewery, Chile’s only Hindu temple, and several other things we didn’t have time to see during our brief stop. In fact, our only photo from the entire city is of the Magellan-honoring statue in the center of Plaza Muñoz Gamero.

*This section of the park consists of fairly new growth. In 2005, a Czech tourist started a wildfire that destroyed 55 square miles 500-year old forest (7% of the park). He was fined the maximum amount of CP$120,000 (about US$250 today), which angered a lot of Chileans in light of the severe damage and US$7 million or so restoration is costing. Embarrassed by all the bad press, the tourist donated another US$1,000 and the Czech government contributed US$185,000.

Quirly*

I confess, I vicariously discovered Patagonia only a few years ago, thanks to musical duo Lemon Jelly. Even more recently I learned exactly how big the area is, extending far beyond the world-famous national parks at the southern tip of the continent and up into Chile’s ninth region. Last month I furthered my personal experience with the area, as Jason’s friend Brandon joined us for a road-sea-air-foot-horseback sampler tour of Patagonia.

After the briefest of introductions to Santiago, we took TurBus down to Puerto Montt, seedy gate to the beauties of the south. The three of us were most likely asleep when our Patagonian vacation began, sometime around 5am as our bus neared Temuco. Once in Puerto Montt, we contributed our own US$30 to the area’s billion dollar salmon industry with lunch at Angelmó before we started the ferry portion of our trip.

The Navimag Ferry is an excellent way to see more than 900 miles of almost-untouched coastline and experience the Chilean fjords. The route so enjoyed by cheapskate tourists today was created by necessity in 1978, when a row between dictators Pinochet (Ch) and Videla (Arg.) closed borders, stranding Chileans living in Tierra del Fuego. The passage is slow and beautiful, with nothing other than scheduled mealtimes and your own entertainment to distract from the scenery.

Having skipped over all of the expensive cruise lines, we did splurge a bit on our ferry accommodations, opting for a private bathroom and only one stranger in our room (Andre, from Italy, age 55+/-, enjoys physical therapy, tango and Italian lovesongs) aboard the Evangelista. The cramped cabin would be a problem during a rougher voyage, but we spent all of our non-sleeping time circuiting slowly from lounge (cards/books) to deck (scenery/i-pod) to cafeteria (bananas/food/lectures/movies).

Passage usually includes a brief stop on Isla Wellington to visit Puerto Edén, home to the few (10) remaining members of the Alacaluf/Kaweskar people among others. Navimag has an obligation to stop at the otherwise isolated port during every passage, in case residents need/want to reach the mainland. However, the accidental death of a British actress during previous passage and the resultant delays meant the Pto. Edén excursion was cut from our itinerary; town residents took boats out to our ferry, but no passengers disembarked.

During the four days, we saw several species of birds, dolphins, a glacier, quirly water, forests, waterfalls, and several channels, passes and gulfs. The latter includes what became known as Golfo de Penas (sorrows) when non-Spanish speaking explorers couldn’t reproduce the gulf’s original name, Peña.

On the final day, we tromped down steep ladder and broad dock into the town of Puerto Natales, looking for food, an internet connection, and our pre-reserved hostal. The food we found at one of Chile’s best pizza restaurants, La Mesita, where strangers bump elbows at one of two large picnic-style tables while consuming their gourmet pizzas and micro-brewed beers. The hostal was a bit out of the way, but it was clean and attractive, the owner was very friendly (and her granddaughter adorable!) and at US$15 a person with private room, shower, and breakfast included, it felt like an excellent deal. We really will have a hard time re-adjusting to US hotel prices…

*Merriam-Webster online doesn’t recognize this word, but it was used often on our Navimag voyage to describe rough waters, and may be my new favorite.

Valpo, Reprise

So... we'd been to Valparaiso several times, but never took the time to do more than the most cursory of self-guided tours. We remedied that last month by joining a group trip organized by the excellent Escuela Bellavista, where Jason and I have been frustrating our respective Spanish teachers for the past year.


Much of the trip included repeats, but new sights included one of Pablo Neruda's three houses (check out the cow-shaped punch mixer) and the Open Aire Museum. The latter was a very cool and successful attempt to liven up parts of the city by inviting artists to paint murals on the sides of buildings. It caught on so well that home owners outside of the designated museum wanted their own murals. Of course, they weren't always happy with the results, so some art-student murals have been "improved" by subsequent owners.

Also interesting is the statue of Chilean Justice. Rumor has it that after an unpleasant brush with the Chilean justice system, a US businessman donated the statue to the city. Note the lack of blindfold and addition of... sword? cross? club?

Southern Holidays - More about 2007

My folks' visit was filled with only good things; we had an excellent Thanksgiving meal with lots of fresh produce from La Vega, visited some cool places and ate at many excellent restaurants. For the big meal, we were even able to find a grocery store that brought in a special shipment of cranberry sauce! This was necessary to replace those Mom had very kindly tried to bring in her carry-on: airport security immediately recognized them as the deadly weapons they undoubtedly were and sent them to a PA food bank to harry unsuspecting families.

This was our only Chilean Thanksgiving, and it was successful in large part because mom was around. I kept remembering the first Thanksgiving Jason and I celebrated together – he visited during my semester at University of York, and a group of non-chefs got together to burn sweet potatoes and other traditional fare in the too-small British oven. The only item that hadn’t been overcooked was the turkey… we hacked off and ate the external 2” because the middle was basically raw. The Chilean oven worked much better for us.

In addition to gorging ourselves at Thanksgiving, we did a lot of sightseeing. Mom and Dad went up to the Atacama Desert, where they visited a lot of the same places we did during our desert trip, and got much better photos while doing it. While together, we stayed mostly within Santiago.

We took a tour of coastal cities Vina del Mar, Valparaiso and Zapallar over a long weekend, staying in beautiful Hotel Isla Seca. Based on the number of houses that included helicopter pads, Zapallar is a very wealthy beach town, and home owners there probably spend a small fortune on landscaping. The shape of the beach and the bordering mountains keep the area relatively cool and misty, which means floral species that wouldn’t survive on US east coast shorelines thrive here. The result is a winding oceanside path from hotel to the beach that passes stunning gardens cascading from the mountainside houses.

There are several species of birds that nest in and around Zapallar. The most interesting of these are the pelicans and the penguins. We hired one of the fishermen to take us out near the islands where the penguins nest. He actually got a bit closer to the island than we would have preferred; some of the penguins started to look distinctly nervous. The pelicans, on the other hand, were well-used to people. They lingered close to the restaurant and fish market, only moving when an overly excited dog ran barking to within 4 feet of one of the largest.


Jason’s parents’ visit also started out filled with good things. We saw the sites of Santiago, including a condensed version of the changing of the guard at La Moneda, the fresh produce and seafood at El Mercado, and a very, umm, thorough special exhibit of non-procreative sex in the Pre-Columbian Art Museum.

The big highlight of the vacation was our trip to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) a tiny island that legend holds was found to satisfy the monarchial yearnings of a Polynesian King’s younger brother. The prince astral projected himself over the ocean during a dream, and when he woke up sent seven of the island’s best explorers out to follow the landmarks he remembered from his dream. They found the island, and when the prince and his new subjects arrived in the 63 square-mile kingdom, the first Moai were erected to honor the seven explorers. Unlike all other Moai on the island, they face out to sea and keep watch for new travelers.

We arrived on the island late on Wednesday, went directly to our cabanas and fell asleep. We had arranged a tour through Viator for our first full day, so that we could see the entire island. But… the tour company never showed up. So we wandered around the island, ate lots of fresh tuna, made arrangements with a different tour group for the next day and got an early start on our sunburns.

Friday we took a boat ride out to the rocky island that was/is the focus of the Birdman cult then did some snorkeling in a somewhat protected part of the ocean. Flying fish streaked silver across our bow, and the early morning breeze had yet to reach its daily high. We didn’t see many really colorful fish when snorkeling, as we were too high above any coral, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Jacques Cousteau once declared the waters off Easter Island to be the clearest in the world, and we certainly had no problem seeing the 60 meter-deep bottom.

After dashing into dry clothes, we started off on our tour of the island. Our guide, Terry, was fluent in English, Spanish and Rapa Nui. We saw the ancient villages, heard the most recent theories about which/why/how people originally lived on the island, and saw a lot of Moai in various states of disrepair. We were touring the quarry where Moai were chiseled from the rock face when the vacation took a turn for the worse.

Vicki fell on the poorly-maintained dirt path, shattering her ankle and beginning a week-long adventure of crazy transportation (backboards and truck beds and ambulances, oh my!), hospital visits, staff both helpful and un- (hospital and LAN airlines, respectively), and a quick and necessary increase in Spanish vocabulary. In the interest of continued good relations with Vicki, no photographs were taken of this part of the trip.

She was released from the hospital on Christmas Day, and she and Brad were able to leave Chile on their scheduled flight. Because I took so long to write this post, I can share the happy news that she is now out of her cast, and is walking again with the help of leg brace and cane.

San Carlos de Bariloche

Now that we’re more than two weeks into the New Year, it’s past time to officially wrap up 2007’s events. The last months of the year brought on a flurry of visitors, with Shannon visiting in late October, my parents visiting over Thanksgiving, and Jason’s visiting over Christmas.

We like to get in at least one trip with each visitor, but deciding where to go can be a challenge. We’d heard a lot of positive things about the Argentinean lake district from people who had visited both the Chilean and Argentine sides, so Shannon, Jason and I took a plane/bus journey to Puerto Montt then on to San Carlos de Bariloche. Puerto Montt was reconfirmed as a somewhat decaying port town (albeit with an excellent fresh seafood market), and it was also where Shannon started feeling the first symptoms of a stomach bug that would follow her for the rest of the trip.

Bariloche is beautiful, with architecture that clearly harkens back to its days as a German and Swiss settlement. If the building style didn’t give it away its international influences, the prevalence of chocolate and fondue probably would. Shannon had never tried fondue before, so tracking down an appropriate restaurant was one of our first priorities.

Our second priority was finding a place to stay. After leaving the expensive, no-working toilet hostal we originally chose, we stayed on the penthouse floor of an apartment building with peaceful views of mountain-ringed Lake Nahuel Huapi. The glacier lake is massive (roughly 1,400 feet deep and 210 mi²), bitter cold (we decided against any kayaking trips) and home to several varieties of trout (which show up grilled or smoked on every menu and most grocery store shelves in town). The prime location of our hostal was especially fortunate given the amount of time Shannon spent in the hostel, reading by herself or being roped into yet another round of Bananas.

While Shannon was recovering from her lingering illness, Jason and I took a short day hike to a municipal park alongside Lake Llao-Llao where they have a small grove of Arrayanes trees. Their twisting, knotted shape and soft cinnamon color give them a whimsical appearance, and it felt a bit like walking through the set of some epic fantasy movie. One of Argentina’s best hotels and golf courses is also located here. My students told me that luxury Hotel Llao-Llao had been severely damaged by a fire in the 1930s, and was only recently restored and reopened. Of course, they also told me that beach volleyball was invented by Tom Selleck…

On our last day we went up to Cerro Otto. We took the cable car up, which had Shannon a little nervous – her mom has a fear of heights and she’d never tested herself – but the ride was pleasant and she didn’t have an problems. As with the hostal, the views were lovely. It was easier to judge just how big the lake is when looking at it from above, and the mountains facing the water are beautiful.

The primary activities in Bariloche seem to be hiking and eating. The city is known for its excellent chocolate, and every word is truth. They even had something that was amazingly close to Lebanon County’s opera fudge. I think we bought from 3 different shops while we were there. I was worried about having trouble crossing the border back into Chile (we had been advised that only unopened packages could make the trip), so most of the chocolate we bought stayed untried until our arrival back in Santiago. Of course, we couldn’t go without eating any chocolate, so we opened one box shortly before leaving Bariloche and then had to cram ourselves with the remainder of the ¼ kilo box as we approached customs.

We returned to Santiago slightly fatter and significantly poorer, with enough chocolate to see us through the next few weeks in manjar-drenched Santiago. Shannon took a day to relax, then headed home to PA, where 10 hour workdays, cold weather and sometimes cranky patients awaited her. It was wonderful to share part of our time in the Southern hemisphere with her, and we were sorry to see her go.

Bio Bio

We went to Bio Bio a couple of weeks ago when we had a free afternoon and an urge to experience something new in Santiago. Chilean friends scared us off of visiting with amusing stories of audacious thefts: Andres tells of a guy who was missing one hubcap. He went to Bio Bio and described what he wanted to the vendor, who said, "Let me go check my warehouse... come back in 30 minutes." After 30 minutes, the guy came back to the vendor, who said, "You're in luck! I had one!" But, when the guy got back to his car... he was missing two hubcaps! But, we decided to risk it -- although, we did leave our wallets at home.

The giant flea market was like a junkier Roots on steroids. The best part was these funny coconuts-like treats I found! Points to anyone who can identify them...

Jennifer