Easter Island

I had an amazing time on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as everyone there calls it. The Chileans call it Isla de Pascua, which translates to Easter Island, and they constantly affirm how it´s a part of Chile. The natives are considerably less enthusiastic about being part of Chile, though they´re mostly indifferent. Anyhow, it´s a stunning place, completely isolated in the south pacific. The people are a fascinating blend of latin american and polynesian, with a mix of facial features, language, and music that reflect the mixture. The pace of life more relaxed than anywhere I´ve ever been, its definitely island living.

The Moai, the giant statues, are awe inspiring. Ive never seen anything like them. Massive stone heads all over the island, for miles and miles, all taken from the same quarry in the side of a little of a little volcano. And the island is completely quiet outside Hanga Roa (pop. 4,500). Ive never been anywhere so quiet. Stone heads, grass blowing in the wind, and waves crashing. Thats the only sound. It adds to the effect of the Moai, no question.

The hostel was FANTASTIC (my first use of caps on this blog). They pick you up at the airport and give you a lei, and it´s run by a lady named Ana Rapu and her nephew Nane and his austrian wife. The hostel consists of little tin roofed buildings with chickens and puppies running around the grounds. The tour they gave us consisted of Nane, his wife Agnes, and their 9 year old son Joaquin Tosauro driving around the island in a Ford 4x4 and taking hikes around the monuments as each parent took turns with the baby in the car. It was like taking a family outing among the ruins. Also, it didn{t hurt there was a lovely girl from Paris named Nadej staying at the hostel who wanted to see all the same things I did. The 5 of us had a fantastic day touring the Moai and seeing Rapa Nui.

All in all, the 5 weeks ended on a high note by seeing such an incredible place. I´m at the Santiago airport, on a flight to Atlanta in two hours. This is my last post from South America, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read it. I´m putting together some internet photo albums when I get back, let me know if you´d like to see them. Hasta luego...

Kirt

Santiago

I´m in Santiago for the last leg of my trip before I head out to the Island. I´ve enjoyed seeing the sights and had a good night out in the city with some Brazilian med students and a couple from Dundee, all of whom I met at the hostel. However, I´ve been getting frustrated enough with Chileans that I think I should reflect on the best things in this country and the worst in Argentina, I´m starting to get a bit down on it. The problem with seeing Chile after being in Argentina is that Chile is more expensive, and the people are much less friendly (to the point of sometimes being total jerks), harder to understand, and less attractive. It´s a bit like visiting Austria after visiting Australia. Yes, Austria is a perfectly nice place in its own right, with some admirable qualities. But it still would be a bit of a letdown. So in an effort to give Chile a fair shake, here it goes:

2 Worst Things about Argentina

1) Bus Drivers

A help wanted ad for a bus driver in Argentina might read something like: ´Do you suffer from rage attacks? Do you require a profession where you can drink on the job? Is your vision impaired in one or both eyes? If you answered yes to all of these questions, an exciting career awaits you trying to kill your fellow man as a bus driver in (insert Argentine city).´ I´ve been some places with bad drivers, I´ve been to Boston and New Jersey, but for a combination of recklessness and bloodlust, no one can match Argentine busdrivers. They actually speed up when you´re in the crosswalk...and they have a red light they´ve just blown through!

2) Getting Change

It may be a holdover from the currency crisis, but it is impossible to get change in Argentina, no one seems to have small bills and coins. Anywhere. People in shops are genuinely upset and disappointed when you don´t have exact change. They´re explanation for the coin shortage? The buses. Everyone has to have exact change to ride them so they hoard the change. Again, the buses are an enemy to man.


2 Best Things about Chile

1) Efficiency

The flip side of the lack of typical latin warmth and energy is that Chile is as efficient as a northern hemisphere country; the metro is excellent and spotless, services run quickly and predictably, and the airport is nicer than SeaTac. It is somewhat of a relief to know things will work as they should when you need something

2) The Land and Climate

That is Chile´s true blessing; incredible natural beauty in land rich with resources. Further, the climate in middle chile is perfect. Not too hot, and sunny 100of the time in Spring and Summer. It´s gorgeous. It´s one of the reason wine producing is so successful here, rain during the harvest season is almost unheard of.

There. That wasn´t so hard. Now I like Chile again. Off to an asado (BBQ) at the hostel. Will post again from Easter Island....

Master and Commander

I spent this morning at Chile´s naval history museum, on the site of their original naval academy. It´s a fantastic museum, with a stunning view of the harbor. Particularly interesting were the exploits of Lord Thomas Cochrane, a ginger haired Scot who founded the Chilean Navy. The museum is practically a shrine to him, with massive stained glass windows depicting him destroying the Spanish fleet and kicking the Spanish out of Chile. After reading about him there, I did a bit of internet research and found he was the inspiration for Patrick O´Brian´s naval hero Jack Aubrey, portrayed by Russel Crowe in the film Master and Commander.

Nicknamed the Sea Wolf, he had an incredible life, one that took him from being a student at the University of Edinburgh to a royal navy officer to a disgraced member of the House of Commons, wrongly convicted of white collar crime. He went to Chile and became one of the great naval heroes of the 19th century. He also married a half spanish woman twenty years younger, for which his rich uncle Basil disinherited him. His life is full of crazy episodes like that. Here´s his wikipedia entry, it´s worth looking at: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cochrane

ps one thing i love about travelling on my own; if i decide i want to spend a half (or whole) day being a history nerd, then that is exactly what i´ll do! try and stop me...

Valparaiso

I´m here in the coastal city of Valparaiso, just to the west of Santiago. It´s a beautiful sunny spring day, and the hostel has great views of the city and the port. I took an overnight bus from Valdivia, and managed to sleep through most of it. It was time to get out of Valdivia, it reminded me of Dundee, Scotland more than anywhere else. A perfectly nice and prosperous little historic city, but with year-round wind and rain that keeps the town from being very festive. Valparaiso by contrast is bustling, noisy and sunny.
I was up taking photos from one of the hills, until a stocky Navy MP made clear that taking photos of the navy cruisers in the harbor was forbidden. That seemed odd to me, as anyone from a tall building could take the same photo, and it´s not like chile´s naval cruisers have never been photographed before. It´s some bangup counterespionage those MP´s are doing, that´s for sure. When Hugo Chavez tries to invade, he´ll have to do it without firsthand photos from the tourist overlook of those 6 ships in the harbor, thank you very much.

I´m readjusting to the Chilean accent. People in Argentina told me they can´t understand a lot of Chilenos, so it makes me feel a bit better that I´m often at a loss. The dialect is very fast, spoken back in the throat, and loaded with all sorts of changed and invented words. Maybe that´s why Valdivia reminded me of Scotland so much, everyone was unintelligble there too.

Anyhow, I´ll spend the week here and poking around surrounding towns like viña del mar and isla negra. Then for the weekend, I found a half-price ticket on lan.com for easter island. I still can´t believe I´m going, but that´s how I´ll be finishing up the trip. I get back from the island to Santiago on Monday, hang out in the airport for several hours, then start the trip back to DC late monday night.

Back in Chile

I crossed back into Chile today, and was treated to spectacular views the entire way. It´s amazing to have had lunch way up above treeline in the Andes with snow all around, and now to be sitting in a little coastal fishing town for dinner. The lushness of this part of Chile is incredible, I´ve never seen anywhere so green. The farms look beautiful and idyllic, and there´s all sorts of crazy birds around, which I don´t usually notice. This town, Valdivia, was crucial to the conquest of the country, and I´m going to go check out the old spanish forts by the river in the morning. It´s worth noting poor Pedro de Valdivia met his end here rather badly. The Spanish nobleman who founded Santiago, he was eventually captured by the Mapuche indians near here. The Mapuche were unimpressed with the Spanish lust for gold and their rape and pillaging of Chile to find it, so they killed Pedro by making him drink molten gold. The Mapuche were among the fiercest tribes in the Americas, there were areas near here still unsafe for Europeans in the mid 19th century. Considering the Spanish showed up in the 1540´s, that´s a long time to fight them off.
Anyhow, it´s mighty quiet as the students are gone for summer break from what turns out to be a university town, so I´ll head north either tomorrow night or Sunday morning.
ps I talked to some Israelis on the bus headed to the USA after this. I asked them what they looked forward to eating there. Their answer: s´mores.

Posting Up

I´ve been laying pretty low for a few days. I didn´t want to needlessly worry anyone, and I feel great now, but I caught a bug going around the hostel in mendoza and showed up in Bariloche feeling pretty nasty. After arriving at the world´s worst hostel, where my room had no curtains, no pillows, and where i got locked out for two hours when they gave me the wrong key, I did something I´ve never done before; just walked out to find a new place. The hostel offered to give me a free night´s stay, but who wants a free night in a dump? Anyhow, I walked down the street and found a hotel, where for the princely sum of 30 dollars a night I got a sparkling clean room with a view of the mountains, a tv with 4 channels of movies in english and a big comfy bed. I´ve spent two days basically sleeping and watching movies, and now I feel perfect. I also shaved my beard I´ve been growing the whole time down here (won´t get to grow one of those for a few years). It´s a bit of a shame that I couldn´t get out and explore the hills here, but a few days under the weather in a 5 week trip isn´t bad.

One thing worth mentioning is linking up with the Israeli travel trail. There is a pretty well worn path of Israelis who get done with their military service and go off to travel in South America for 6 months. Bariloche is definitely a stop, there are even signs in the restaurants and shops in Hebrew. I met a great group in Mendoza, and even sang a late-night round of Ba´Sha Na Habah´ah with some Israeli army vets, a Hebrew song I learned in swing choir at Curtis HS. A long way from Tacoma, no?
Also, it´s nice being able to talk about my job in coversation, as the Israeli vets obviously have no problem with military affiliation. And apparently the TV show JAG was a big hit in Israel. I´m quiet about what I do with Argentines, they tend to have very strong feelings about the military as an institution. I can´t really blame them, Argentina´s military murdered 30,000 of their own people barely 30 years ago. Still, even when I´ve tried to explain I´m a lawyer in the American Navy and not a corrupt policeman in the Argentine Army, a few kind of assume I´m a fascist. Better to just say I´m a lawyer for ´the government´ back home.

Now I have to figure out my itinerary for the next 10 days. I think I´ll cross into Chile tomorrow or the next day, spend a few days in Valdivia and the Chilean Lake District, then up to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar on the coast for the tail end of the week. I´ll be in Santiago next weekend, then back to the states on the 18th.

Jacksonville

I arrived in Bariloche yesterday after a 17 hour bus ride from Mendoza, and it was worth the journey. This area of Argentina is stunning. It´s called the Lake District, but the mountains and forests make it look like Yosemite. Bariloche is a little resort town, and while a bit commercial, is a great place to hang out for a day or two before heading up into mountains to do some hiking.
Anyway, I got word on gmail yesterday to call in to the Navy detailer in Tennessee about my first duty station. As a result, I learned in an internet phone booth in Argentina that my first assignment will be Jacksonville, Florida. I report in March, 2008 after I finish Naval Justice School in Newport, RI. I´m really looking forward to it. It´s meant to be a great office, and the base is the third biggest in the Navy (after Norfolk, VA and San Diego) so there should be a lot of good work.
That´s the news of the day. I hope everyone´s well, and staying dry after the massive storm in WA. Nos vemos.

the good, the bad, and the feo

In the last 24 hours, I´ve had a pretty representative experience of the things that make Argentina a wonderful country, while being maddening and exhausting.

The good: Getting invited to a party by two local people you´ve only known a week, and then the warmth with which you´re treated as a guest. The party was hosted by a Mendoza couple that are friends with the two girls, Mika and Soledad, who taught me Tango this week. Mika and Sole are both university students in their mid-twenties, and they get together with their friends at this house every monday to dance tango and have conversations with lots of dramatic hand gestures and shrugging. Honestly, the people here seem more like Italians (which most of them are genetically. At one point in the 19th century, there were more italian last names than spanish ones in Buenos Aires) the longer I´m here. There were about 15 people at the house, all about my age and all excellent dancers, besides me of course. The men tended to be big athletic guys, probably averaged about 6´2, and were amazingly agile, so that was kind of intimidating. The women were characteritically beautiful dancers, which is always intimidating. But everyone there went out of their way to make me feel welcome, and I even danced a few songs on the dance floor without managing to knock anyone over or destroy Mika´s toes. Anyway, the warmth and joie de vivre of the people here is fantastic, and something it´s impossible to get tired of.

The bad: The logistics of everyday life. I brought a cheap portable cd player here, as i didn´t want to risk my ipod, plus it´s easy to buy cheap cds here so you have new music. Anyhow, the 20 dollar fred meyer cd player stopped working yesterday (though I got some good runs with it in the amazing park they have in mendoza.
I went to go buy a new one today. After finally finding a store that carried a discman, I presumed I might simply select my item, take it to the cash register for payment, and leave. Ah, but this is Argentina. I was required to speak with no fewer than 5 people over the course 30 minutes, submit my passport, and fill out a stack of forms in triplicate while shuttling around to different counters. I asked them at one point in spanish ¨Am I buying a cd player or real estate?´´ It´s typical inefficiency. Everything shuts in the middle of the day for a 4 hour siesta. Or it doesn´t open at all. My friend Kristie runs a business in B.A., but has to pick up payment personally from all of her advertisers because you can´t trust the mail. And on and on. Perhaps Italian efficiency?

The feo: Trying to adjust to Argentine hours is ugly (feo). Don´t like staying up late? Since dinner often happens at midnight, then that just means you´ll go hungry. Argentines still wake up early after staying up until 3 am, but they´re exhausted and just go back to bed for 3 more hours at 1 pm. And then they commmute all over again. Maybe I´d get used to it, but it feels kind of feo for the time being.

I´m off to Bariloche on an overnight bus with my well-documented cd player. Also, I should know by the end of the week where I´ll be based in the Navy! It looks like Bremerton, DC, and San Diego are unfortunately off the table for this first year, but there are some good bases that look like I should have a shot at.

better environs

After the bee incident, I moved to a new hostel called Damajuana. Its on a better street, with better facilties and a swimming pool. In short, it rules. My spanish has gotten markedly better, and I´ve spent entire evenings of conversation only in spanish. It´s really fun. I lucked out and had a great spanish teacher this week, a really funny guy from Buenos Aires. I now know a few bad words I didn´t before as a result.
I also met an Irish guy last night at dinner whose uncle owns the Primo Grill on 6th Ave in Tacoma. What are the odds? Spent today running in the amazing park they have here, followed by a tango lesson, then an afternoon meal with some Israelis travelling after finishing military service. I´m about to put on my mancapris and do some reading, just thought I´d post to let everyone know I´m fine. Also, will stay here until Tuesday, at which point I will go to Bariloche in the south. Have been invited to a party by my tango teachers on monday night, which should be a lot of fun and great spanish practice, though not sure my dancing is ready for a party with the locals. Will try to get some good photos.