Travels and Treks, Part V: San Pedro

The ride to San Pedro was a bit of an adventure all by itself. So few people speak English that it is often difficult to figure out what is going on. Along the seventeen hour journey, we made several stops, and at each one, I could never be sure where we were. At one point, we all got off, and the bus pulled away a good fifteen minutes, and while I was fairly sure we were not at San Pedro, it was difficult to be certain.

When we pulled in, a guy from one of the local hostels was waiting, recruiting folk to come and stay. It was a nice place, and as soon as I arrived, I was given breakfast and informed that a tour of the area was leaving pretty much right away. I ate my bread and coffee and got ready to head out for the day. San Pedro sits in the middle of the Atacama desert, the driest place on the planet. This is determined by annual rainfall, of which there is less than a millimeter, and some weather stations have never received rain at all. It's much higher, and the sky is nearly cloudless, so each day is bright with a clear, deep blue sky. There are two observatories nearby, as the local environment makes it one of the best places for sky watching. Indeed, the night sky is a wonder, with very little light pollution or atmospheric interference.

On the tour, we visited an oasis and wandered about. On the drive, we passed through a zone of high natural magnetism. At the bottom of a small hill, we stopped the van and put it in neutral. Completely without power, the van began to move slowly backwards, pulled by the magnetic forces there. It's very cool. The highlight of the day was our last stop, to see the salt flats and flamingos. We arrived not long before sunset. There area is a reserve for the flamingos, of which there are several types. It is interesting to see the formations of nothing but salt, and the flamingos wade around in the water pools that litter the landscape. As sunset comes, everything turns pink and orange, and it really is a very gorgeous sight to see. The next day, I took a tour out to Moon Valley and Death Valley (no, not Cali). Essentially, the entire area is just rock and not much else, but there are some rather interesting geological formations. Finally, I grabbed a bike and rode out to a an archaeological site where an old settlement on the hillside was unearthed. The entire fortress has been uncovered, and you can wander around the individual rooms at your leisure.

Because the area is so high up, physical exertion will make you more tired than you really think you ought to be. It's a nice place to stay for a little while and rest, take in the sights. The town is small and populated largely by tourists, making it one of the more expensive places in Chile. Still, I very much enjoyed my stay there, and I met some nice folk at the hostel. There was an older Australian with whom I talked finance for several hours, and a couple of French girls from whom I sadly neglected to get contact information. Due to a mis-communication, I almost didn't catch my bus back to Santiago, but did get a ticket, leaving San Pedro behind. There was a lot there, for certain, but I feel that after a little while, all the rocks start to look the same. A worthy stop, though, to be sure.

Travels and Treks, Part V: La Serena

Um, it's been awhile. Whoops. So, here it is: La Serena, San Pedro, Santiago again...fin!

Okay, more detail? Sure. From Santiago I took a bus north to the city of La Serena. It's only a seven hour trip, so not bad. A word on the bus system in South America: fantastic. Trains are uncommon, if not nonexistent, so the buses have to be good. In most instances, there are two grades of seating--what in Chile are known as and cama and semi-cama, literally bed and semi-bed. Cama is to bussing what business class is to flying, and for the longer trips, it's absolutely worth it.

There aren't a lot of specific spots for tourism in La Serena. It is the second oldest city in Chile, after Santiago, and houses almost two dozen churches. The nearby city of Coquimbo erected the Millenium Cross in 2000, a giant monument to South American Christianity. It stands on a hill and is over 270 feet tall, made almost entirely of concrete (a very common building material there). Elevators inside the cross take people up to the arms, where they can walk out and get probably the best view of the area. On my first day in La Serena, I rented a bike along with two others from the hostel and pedaled my way (probably about 5 miles or so) out along the beach and up a very steep hill to arrive at the cross. I don't imagine there was much in the way of breaks left on those bikes after the trip back down. It's a spectacular view from the top, and the cities and ocean spread out before you.

Most of the rest of my time was spent wandering about, or sitting in the mall, drinking coffee and people watching and reading. I did see Public Enemies, finally. Most movies are in English, subtitled in Spanish. Except on buses. Frustrating. The city is home to a lot of very old churches, so I wandered and found a few of them. They were churches. There is an archaeological museum in the city. It was small, but had some interesting exhibits, including human remains on two occasions. At one point, I ran across a group of street performers playing swing and jazz. They were pretty good, and I enjoyed watching them for awhile. There was no one dancing, though. On my last full day there, I met a group of students from Concepcion in the hostel. We were all headed out to el Valle del Elqui, which is the primary pisco producing region in Chile. Unfortunately, I was unable to do the two things that I would have most liked to have done: the tour of the pisco factory and the tour of the observatory. It's quite beautiful in that region, and the little town of Vicuña is very quaint. I certainly had an enjoyable day, but to have taken the observatory tour would have meant missing my bus back to La Serena.

The next day, I hopped on the bus to head north for San Pedro de Atacama.

Travels and Treks, Part IV: Santiago and More

A FEW MORE DAYS HAVE passed in Chile-land. Lots going on, too. So, let's try and think back...today is Monday, okay.

Saturday was rainy, if you recall. I went back out to try and find some food and change money. I managed the money changing bit, but it was apparently some sort of holiday, so just about everything was closed up. In wandering, I ran across a couple from the UK and struck up a conversation. They were about as frustrated as I that nothing was open. We wandered about, looking for things to do. I needed some food, so we stopped at Mercado Central, which is this amazing fish market cum restaurant. If you're familiar with the Pike Place market, it's like that (and even if you are not), but much bigger. Then, all around it are little restaurants--booths, really--where you can eat it. We did eventually find an open museum, el Museo de Historio Nacional, and an enormous church, la Iglesia Catedral del Gratitud Nacional. It reminded me of the churches we saw in Italy.

On Sunday, we met to travel out to Valparaíso, a beautiful coastal city about an hour and a half from Santiago. The entire city is built up onto the coastal cliff, so to reach the upper levels, it is necessary to either walk up steep roads, steep steps, or ride one of the several funicular elevators. Mostly, the day was spent walking about. We started by exploring the flea market that ran for several blocks, where you could, quite literally, find just about anything that you wanted. Think massive garage sale with hundreds of everything, including decade old cell phones and cassette tapes. I kid you not. Valparaíso is also an active port town, so there was much sea traffic. The Chilean Navy is also headquartered there. We wandered into an exhibition of the work of LUKAS, a famous caricaturist and political commentator. I'm sure most of what was there would have been great if only I spoke Spanish. Sigh. What was probably most intriguing to me was that in walking about we got far away from the tourist areas of the city, and ended up walking through more than a few back alleys and tumbledown stairways. I would say "people's backyards," except that no one really has a backyard. Most of what is there is fairly run down and everything is put right next to each other. You'll find little shops, most little bigger than a walk in closet, stocked up with sodas and water and vegetables. They are just the most quaint things that you will ever see. When we tried to walk down the pier to take a closer look at the naval ships, including their rather famous tall ship, Esmeralda. We must have looked like tourists or something, because we were not allowed down, despite the crowds of pedestrians beyond the gate. It was bizarre. Also, they don't allow photos of the navy, even though the entire city faces the harbor. Oh, look, a ship...

It really was so nice to meet some folk with whom I could tour around with. Adventuring is all well and good, but it's nice to have another voice besides your own as you go about.

Today was much less full. I slept in until the steady stream of noisy Chileans on their way to somewhere woke me up. Getting out seemed like a good idea, so I opted for a wine tour. I feel kind of guilty just staying in and doing whatever when there is an entire city and more to explore. Well, the tour finally happened, when the bus showed up over 3o minutes late. There was just one stop, and the winery gave about a 30 minute tour of the facilities, which included two brief tastings. Worth the money? Definitely not. Well, that'll teach me to pay a tourist agency. Ah, well. There's naught to be done, now. Then, I wandered a bit more, ate a street vendor hot dog, and returned. These vendors are everywhere, and I generally think that they can be trusted.

And that's it. If I can add another night on, I'll be in Santiago one more day then head up to La Serena by bus. It's about seven hours north of here, so the trip should not be an unpleasant one. Once their, I'll find a hostel and set up shop. After that, who knows...

Travels and Treks, Part III: Santiago

I have made to the lands south of the equator. They are cold and, for the moment, wet. I am told that Santiago does not really get much rain. We shall see. This is unfortunate, though, in that it makes going out and sightseeing somewhat less appealing. I went out for a short walk earlier and got just hammered by the rain. It's heavy and nonstop. I guess I'm getting they're entire year's worth of rainfall right now. Nice.

The flight in was good. Long, of course. Total travel time was around fourteen hours. As far as flights, themselves, go, though, I really couldn't have been more pleased. Luckily, the flight crew all spoke English, so language was not a problem (I was flying Mexicana and Aeromexico). In fact, on the flight from Mexico City to Santiago, all the in-flight entertainment was in English. And, if I fly back during August, I'll get to see Star Trek again. I find this to be a tempting offer. Even on the two hour flight, we were served breakfast, which was a rather delicious omelet for having been served in a tin pan. I'm glad there was a long layover in Mexico City, though, because I had the hardest time figuring out where I was supposed to go. I even had to go through Customs (which really is a joke) just to switch terminals. They do have the coolest things there: VW Bug taxis. On the longer flight, we were given pillows and blankets and all the amenities, and two separate meals, and free booze--and this was the cheapest option to get to South America. Remember this folks, when you get on another plane and they won't even serve you peanuts. The biggest problem was that no matter how hard I tried, I could not fall asleep. Sigh.

The place I'm staying at is quite beautiful, though. It's a small little place, with only five rooms, but it's cozy. What I love about it is the character. The floors all creak and some of the doors let through a little too much light, but hotels just aren't the same experience. In lieu of going back out in getting soaked again, I'm writing this and trying to make some plans for just what I'm going to do while I'm down here. The service is wonderful here. Free wifi, super friendly English speaking owners, and I came back after my walk to find my room completely organized. Top to bottom. My toiletries were arranged aesthetically, my clothes hung in the closet, cords and charges stacked neatly together, dirty clothes piled nicely, and all the miscellany straightened. I was floored; it was practically a work of art.

Not much else at this point. Ciao!

Travels and Treks, Part II

THE AMERICAN PORTION OF MY journey is very nearly through. Tomorrow, I leave for Chile. I've been up to a bit, though, up to this point.

First, I finished up in Rhode Island. We didn't make it up to Boston, but that was never the goal, anyway. Someday, I'll get back to see the USS Constitution. We did go into Providence last Saturday night for Waterfire. It's a very cool deal that happens after sundown. The city has a canal running through it, modeled after Venice, and there are, in fact, gondolas running along it. About every ten feet or so, there are buoys that hold firewood, and after dark, boats with black-clad folk come down the canal to light them. All this time, there is eerie or soothing music playing out of speakers. It's an amazing time to just people watch, as they float along or sit and watch the firelight play upon the water. On different stages all around, there are concerts going on, whestre people can just come along and sit in chairs set up in the middle of the street. I thought the idea is fantastic. We also visited the Roger Williams Zoo, which was nice. The red panda was just too cute.

I left from Boston, flying standby. That's an experience. Apparently, everyone likes to fly red-eyes, as both of the flights from Boston to Houston were overbooked. Luckily, there were enough no-shows that I made it on without any problems, and even my luggage followed doggedly along with me. Houston is a hot and humid place. Gross. However, despite the unfortunate climate, I met up with my friend, Ben, after he decided to come to the right airport. Actually, I was not aware that Houston actually has three different airfields, and so did not inform him which I was flying into. We drove out to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. I am convinced that Texans simply do not believe in road signs, since wherever we went, we could hardly find our way around. Apparently, you just have to know. When we tried to park to see the Saturn V rocket, the 19 year old armed guard gave no indication just as to where we were to park. So, we parked in the lot right near where the tram had let us off. When the LBJSC Police officer drove up behind us, he informed us that we were parked in the employee lot. The empty employee lot. So flustered were we that as we drove out, looking for the public lot, we drove straight through a red light, the officer still tagging along. In a bout of luck, the officer was kind enough to simply give us a warning and send us on our way. The sign for the public lot was cleverly hidden on the far side of the entrance as you drove, hidden by the gate. Pure win.
However, all this was worth the Saturn V, which is absolutely an awesome sight to behold. The thing is a behemoth, 363 ft. tall and 33 ft. wide. Inside the engine nozzles, I could have easily stood on my own shoulders. The main boosters put out under 3 million pounds of thrust for 2.5 minutes, and three men were strapped to the top of it! If there was but one 20th Century wonder, this would be it.
Of course, I must point out that "United States" and "USA" are clearly painted all over this thing. Happily point out. Ben and I agree.

From Houston we proceed to College Station, where Texas A&M is. It is a huge school. And aside from the fact that Ben is going there, I don't really care. Moving on. The next day, we drove to Texarkana, located over the Texas-Arkansas border. Exciting. Here, I was most pleased to meet Ben's lovely girlfriend and her family. I helped them pack up a moving truck, was fed some most amazing food at her grandparents', and stayed the night.

From there, I bussed to Dallas. Once in Dallas, things got interesting. A man from New Orleans (supposedly) picked up my bag and had me follow him to the transit system, called DART, and wanted $15 for his services. Not wanting to argue with the man, I paid. All in all, it took me five vehicle transfers to make it from Texarkana to my hotel outside Dallas. Dallas is, I must say, a beautiful city. DFW is huge, too. In fact, as I was in the hotel shuttle leaving the airport, we drove under several runways. It's a little odd to be driving straight toward a taxiing plane. I was able to meet up with another friend, and we went to dinner and found some swing dancing to pass the evening. And finally, today, I slept in, paid far too much for a taxi to a mall, and did some necessary errands. Now, I sit here typing this for you, while the coffee I made gets old in its pot.

Tomorrow, I board a 7 am flight to Santiago, where someone from the bed and breakfast I'm staying at will pick me up. More to come. Stay tuned.

Travels and Treks, Part I

I landed in Providence, RI on Tuesday, after flying through JFK. While I won't have the opportunity to go to New York while I'm here, unfortunately, it was at least cool to be able to see the Empire State building from afar as the plane landed. I am enjoying the stay here. The weather has been pleasant overall, with just Wednesday being pretty humid. I walked outside and felt like I was trying to swim with my clothes on. Ah, well. It's mostly been just hanging out with friends. Yesterday, I met a friend that I hadn't actually met before, which was very exciting. I am so glad that it was able to work out for both of us. Today, I got the tour of Brown University. My friend with whom I am staying is working toward his doctorate there. Definitely a nice and good looking campus. Of course, the entire area is just beautiful. While it reminds me in some ways of Seattle and Portland, there are definitely a lot of differences. One big one was the absence of coffee stands on every corner. Coffee isn't that hard to find, because Dunkin' Donuts is everywhere, but it's odd too see. Also, no evergreens. I am hoping that I will have some time to visit Boston, but that may not happen. Unfortunately, I won't get to see everything on this trip.

Everything is good, I'm doing great, and really enjoying this whole opportunity. I hope that you all are well.

~Paul

Around Town

This is kind of a hodgepodge of themes and locales, but I'm starting to amass photos that have not yet been posted. So...here you go. Spew.

This was completely by accident, but I really liked the way it came out.

Ducks in the lake at Manito Park in Spokane.

Manito has some incredible gardens. These tulips stood out superbly.
I took over 300 shots that day, so I've still got some work ahead of me...

As a Whitworth grad, I am obliged to take pinecone shots.
The Larch.
(Not really, but bonus points if you get the reference.)

I love dilapidated buildings. This and the tree above go together.

The best shots of the day were taken on my way to and from the forest near Chewelah.
I was super excited when I saw this barn and am quite pleased with how it came out.