A NEW TRIP TO SOUTH AMERICA

That's right, once again I go to South America...and considering that this will be my fifth trip down there in six years I'd have to admit that I seem to be hooked on the place. As usual, with the surroundings here enveloped in the typical cold and snow of late December, the knowl;edge that summer has just begun in the lands below the equator always seems to drive my desire to return.

But now there is something else that drives me, and that is the accumulated friendships I have made in Chile and Argentina over the course of my previous four adventure journeys. Of course, my arrival will be welcomed as it always has been in the past by my good friend and agent in Santiago, Andres Gabor, who will be putting me up in that great city and will once again supply me with a decent rental vehicle. Then I plan to hit the road - only a short drive this time - to go back out to the coast of the South Pacific to stay once again in Cabaña Numero 5, at Las Siete Cabañas in El Tabo, once again reunited with my friends Diego and Luisa, their two kids Diego Jr. and Connie, and (I suspect) the dogs El Negro and Lorenzo...

Sadly however, the current severe economic recession has eaten into my financial reserves with a vengeance, leaving me with less to travel on, so I have forced myself to limit this trip to a mere two weeks in Chile - eight days on the coast and six days in Santiago. But at least I can "service" my South American obsession to some degree, and hopefully I can plan a more ambitious trip for a year from now.

Speaking of it as an obsession has always made me speculate as to how long it has been a part of me, and I confess that a part of me has always felt a yearning to wander down there and go exploring. I have saved an old photo that my father took of me - which I believe was taken when I was just in the 7th grade. It shows me putting the finishing touches on a rather striking salt-relief map of South America which was a project for my social studies class. I can remember how much care and diligence I put into making that map, and I also recall how much pride I took in the finished project. Here you can take a look at that old picture..

Anyway, I will be flying out of Salt Lake City on Monday, December 29. The first leg of the journey will put me down in Atlanta, where I will change planes and make the overnight non-stop flight to Santiago, Chile. My scheduled arrival will be in the morning of December 30. I will overnight with Andres and then the next day take a rental car, a Fiat, I believe, and drive out to El Tabo and settle in - in time, I figure, to celebrate New Year's with Diego and his family, and watch the fireworks at Midnight over the bay to the south as the residents of the port of San Antonio celebrate the advent of 2009.

Then after enjoying a week's worth of beachcombing, reading and just relaxing, I will drive back into Santiago to hang out with Andres and his family and to take in the sights and the food in the big city before my return flight leaves on the evening of January 13th. The return should get me back to Salt Lake City at about 10:30 a.m. on the 14th - which will give me plenty of time to drive home to Nevada.

So there it is. I encourage you all to visit this blog whenever you wish during my absence as I will again try to post regular updates as to my whereabouts and what I am up to...so you can vicariously come along with me!

FAREWELL TO FRIENDS, FAREWELL TO THE COAST

Yesterday I said my farewells to my friends Diego and Luisa Savignone, who are the caretakers who run the quiet and peaceful little collection of cabins known as Las Siete Cabañas on the central Chilean Pacific coast at El Tabo, the modest-sized resort hamlet just south of Neruda´s Isla Negra and due west of Santiago. It was the end of practically four full weeks of rest and relaxation for yours truly, and a sad moment for all as we bid adieu before my final drive into Santiago. During that time, I´d enjoyed the full gamut of the famous Chilean hospitality from these two wonderful hosts, especially the many good times spent chatting, joking and laughing over morning coffee, during Luisa´s famous almuerzos (lunches), or just out and about on the grounds of Las Siete Cabañas.

It was also my final goodbye to that little dog, El Negro, as well as to Diego and Luisa´s daughter Connie and her boyfriend Bastien, and goodbye to my own Cabaña No. 5, which had been my home for the entire time since my arrival on December 19th. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a last look out to view the waves crashing on the long sandy beach belowthe cabañas, because the morning fog was so thick yesterday morning. But that´s okay.

I did spend a bit more time with Luisa, as she took advantage of my return to Santiago to hitch a ride along with me for free so that she could see a doctor about some muscle problems in her hand. She rode along with me as far as my friend Andres´ office here in Santiago Centro, from where she took one of the city buses to her son Alvaro´s apartment, where she is currently staying until Friday.

So today I am ensconced here in Santiago, taking full advantage of my full access to the web on one of the computers here in the offices of Andres´ businesses, ChileCellRent, Lys Rent-A-Car and AbsolutChile, his travel agency. It looks as if my last few days here, staying in one of Andres´ apartments over on Calle Mosqueto (on the other side of the block here in Santiago Centro) will be peaceful and completely uneventful as I enjoy the food, sights and sounds of the Chilean capitol during the lingering days before my flight back to the USA leaves on Saturday night. Whether or not I will be posting anything more here on the blog before my departure will depend on if, for some reason, something worthy of writing about occurs. But I have my doubts.

It´s been a different sort of trip, of course, largely thanks to that nasty explosion that happened back on December 11th. If that had not happened, I´d have gone forward from San Pedro de Atacama and crossed the cordillera into Argentina to experience whatever sort of adventures I´ll never know of now. But I would not have been able to spend such quality time with such fine people as Diego and Luisa Savignone. Memories of that time spent will stay with me forever, and will certainly stand out as the highlight of this, my fourth visit to South America.

RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK

Here on the central Chilean coast, time passes by slowly, defined mostly by the ebb and flow of tourists coming out to spend a few days relaxing on the beach, usually for a well-deserved break from the stresses of an urban life in the metropolis of Santiago, which is only a couple of hours drive inland from this modest-sized resort town of El Tabo.
But for yours truly, this stay has been something a bit different. By the time I will finally depart from here on my final return to Santiago on the 15th of January, I will have spent the better part of a full month (four weeks) enjoying the peace and quiet of my rented cabaña here at "Las 7 Cabañas."
Now I suppose that some people might think I´ve retreated from the original expressed intent of going off on another adventure, and they´re right. But when one takes a look at the way things are here currently, especially in regards to the costs involved in continuing to drive great distances across the length or breadth of the so-called "Southern Cone" of South America, then the picture takes on a different hue.
One factor which really stands out in my mind has been the dramatic slide in the value of the U.S. dollar in relation to the Chilean peso. When I came here for the first time, in November 2002, one dollar could buy 735 Chilean pesos. Now, as of this morning´s currency exchange rate, a dollar will only get you 487 pesos, and that´s down from the 505 pesos it could buy back when I arrived here in late November, 2007. A big reason for this fall has been the continued rise in the price of copper (which just went up by a stunning 5% at the beginning of this week), and Chile is just about the world´s leading producer of copper, which is one reason why Chile´s economy is surging. Add to that the whole myriad of factors which are depressing the value of the dollar, and you can see that making a trip like this has become a very expensive proposition.
Another factor has been the stunningly steep price for gasoline here, as elsewhere. When I started out on my drive northward from Santiago back on the 1st of December, I immediately was shocked at the much higher price for fuel from what it had been back during my last trip of February-March 2007. Now, as most of you know, my plan had been to drive north as far as San Pedro de Atacama and then to cross the frontier into Argentina, and then work my way gradually back south. Well, the explosion in the pickup truck on December 11th effectively ended that plan, but I still had a long way to drive - to get back to Santiago by retracing my steps instead of touring through NW Argentina. What I am saying is that even though I didn´t do Argentina, I still consumed the gas. The long drive up to San Pedro and back (3600 km, or about 2232 miles) cost me a total of 243,550 Chilean pesos. Converting that to U.S. currency at the 500 pesos per dollar rate, that´s $487 dollars spent just for gas, to travel that distance. And if you are wondering, my calculations, converting pesos to dollars and liters to gallons, indicate that my average price for gas was a stunning $5.33/gallon. To me, those are fairly sobering figures to contemplate. . .
Anyway, as I´ve said, for me, the December 11 explosion effectively ended this trip. But I still had over five weeks left until my flight back to the USA was scheduled (and I had a no-change clause in that contract), so my choices were limited to: 1.) buying another ticket entirely, a pricey one-way ticket; or, 2.) make the best of it, and spend as little as possible. In reality, there was only one choice, then. I remembered having enjoyed the tranquility of my two previous stays here in El Tabo, and since I was not wanting to spend oodles of cash for gas nor did I want to encounter any more unexpected setbacks, it was an easy call to return.
And the Savignones (the caretakers here) also had pleasant memories of my previous stays, so they graciously rented me their cabaña no. 5 for approximately four weeks duration. Also, they gave me a price break, giving me the place for the cheaper December rate of 20,000 pesos/day ($40 USD) instead of the standard January rate of 30,000 pesos/day ($60 USD).
As far as most of the time here, I´d say it was a great choice. But there has been one unfortunate development. That little street dog´I´d made friends with, "El Negro," unfortunately had a bad case of pulgas (fleas), and quickly that became a problem for me, too, as some of the buggers climbed off of Negro and started giving me some very itchy bites! I had to get out the Jungle Juice and apply it daily to my torso while at the same time it was necessary to de-bug the cabaña with a strong dose of Raid. Even a bath couldn´t rid poor Negro of his nasty little buggers, so I have had to chase him away whenever he has come around, and if he stops to take a nap on the porch of the cabaña, I get the Raid out and give the porch a thorough dousing. Thankfully, after treating the cabaña and exiling Negro from my premises while also keeping him at a distance, I am no longer being bitten. It´s sad, because he is such a friendly little dog, but the fact of the matter is, you do what you have to do.
Anyway, regardless of the fact that I´ve had to stop being friendly with little Negro, I am continuing to enjoy this time here. But there´s only six nights more before I return to Santiago and spend a final few days there before the flight home. So it is.

BOOKS ON THE BEACH: THIS TRIP´S MOST NOTABLE TITLES

As usual, when I am on an extended South American road trip like this, I do a lot of reading. And my expressed purpose for this post will be to highlight some of the books which have caught my attention and as such, have captured my imagination.
But before I get into that, I just want to say that my days spent here in El Tabo have been, despite the fact that I am no longer "touring" as in previous trips down here, have been most rewarding. And the rewards have been of a different sort - also because on the surface it might appear as if I´ve simply given up and gone off to do beachcombing instead of going on with my exploring...
These rewards have come from my ongoing daily contact with the Savignone family, Diego and Luisa, and their children Diego (the younger) and Constanza, aka "Connie," as well as from Luisa´s extended family who joined us for a real whopper of a New Year´s Eve celebration. These people have become very good friends, and I am amazed now at how much my Spanish-speaking abilities have grown through my daily contacts with them all. So in addition to the friendship, that´s a real reward - something to treasure. But it will certainly require me to try to find a way to keep that broadened Spanish ability nurtured, which won´t exactly be easy once I am back in the United States.
But now, on to the books. The first one I want to speak of actually was a gift - given to me by the younger Diego Savignone upon his return from an end-of-school-year trip to Brazil. In my previous stops in El Tabo I´ve always gotten into some lintersting and lively discussions with this bright young man, and these discussions have often reached into the realms of intellectual discussions, at least as far as my limited Spanish would allow. But this time we really got to talking, and the topic quickly turned into a discussion of great Latin American writers, and it eventually became a discussion about the work of the amazing Argentine author, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Eventually, Diego said to me, "Tio, I have a book for you to read. It is written by a Chileño, a fellow named Waldemar Verdugo, entitled En Voz de Borges (which would translate roughly to "Borges in his own Words") The above picture shows the cover of this book, and the small image shows the book´s author, Verdugo, reading to Borges himself, who in his later years was quite blind.
Yes, in his later years Borges went blind, in sort of the same ironic way that the great composer Beethoven went deaf. That, of course, is a fact, but it is not the subject of this remarkable little book. Verdugo had the good fortune to get to know Borges fairly well back in the 1970´s, and he later gathered together the materials for this unique biographical revelation of the life and work of this cerebral Argentine writer and got it published, initially in Mexico in 1981, and finally, re-published in 2006 in Chile. The book delves deeply into the mind of Borges while at the same time it examines his various writings. As such, it could be seen as the perfect Borges primer for anyone interested in the poetry, stories and essays that he wrote during his lifetime, but even more than that, it opens up for us a very precious window into what exactly made Borges become the visionary writer who is today so revered in literary circles, in Latin America and in the world at large.
Verdugo brings us close to the great author´s prime influences, and elaborates on these various people, movements and subjects so that the reader can have a much better idea of the man Jorge Luis Borges. One of the people most influential on Borges had been his father, who early on had impressed upon his son the idea that, "...of all the diverse instruments created by man, the most astonishing one has been, beyond a doubt, the book. The others have been simply extensions of the body. The microscope and telescope are extensions of our vision; the telephone is an extension of our voice; the wheel an extension of our feet; the shovel and the plow are extensions of our arms...but the book is quite another thing, the book is an extension of our memory and our imagination." If time and space would permit, I would go on with the rest of that quote, but here in a cyber café time is money, and I do expect that I will need to move on as well to try to cover some other books.
But still on the Borges book, Verdugo goes into other influences, including Argentina and its culture, including the city of Buenos Aires, its poor neighborhoodsand their glorious offspring, the tango; 0ther Argentine authors and publishers, including Alfonso Reyes, Aldofo Bioy Casares (who collaborated with Borges for a time), Victoria Ocampo and others. He also delves into the books that so moved Borges, such as Dante´s Divine Comedy as well as the works of scores of other great authors, many of whose works were available to Borges at a very young age in his father´s massive library.
The book looks at how Borges worked for a time as a film critic in order to earn his daily bread, and how deeply enchanted he had become with the actress Greta Garbo and the films she had made, while he came to believe that the "Western" genre of film was something of this era´s real epic art form, such as the fabled greek epics from Homer and other writers in ancient times because the Westerns brough back the concept of the "hero," which Borges felt had been an essential literary device which had been largely abandoned by contemporary writers.
And in that vein, Borges eschewed much of the current writing from many authors who sought to write in deep, dark, and largely obscure modes, "forgetting that clarity, besides being a form of the truth, represents a courtesy to the reader."
Verdugo also goes deeply into Borges´views of life, loove, women, politics and all manner of similar essential parts of this life, but now I must reconsider my space and time and conclude by saying that I found the book to be almost electric in its imagery, and as such, I simply devoured it. It was (and is) a very special gift from young Diego.
Now another book I have been reading (I´m not finished yet) has been a veritable epic of Russian Literature: Life and Fate, by Vasily Grossman (1905-1964). Grossman was a Russian Jew who was one of the greatest Soviet war correspondents during World War II, covering both the battle of Stalingrad and the battle of Berlin. After the war, he molded his intimate experiences at the front into this book, which Verlyn Klinkenborg of the New York Times has described as being "arguably the greatest Russian novel of the 20th century."
Now I could go on and recount the drift of this massive (871 pages) work in my own words, but I think that the summary on the back cover of the New York Review Of Books edition will give a much more concise overview:
"A book judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the state, Life and Fate is an epic tale of World War II and a profound reckoning with the dark forces that dominated the twentieth century. Interweaving a transfixing account of the battle of Stalingrad with the story of a single middle-class family, the Shaposhnikovs, scattered by fortune from Germany to Siberia, Vasily Grossman fashions an immense, intricately detailed tapestry depicting a time of almost unimaginable horror and even stranger hope. Life and Fate juxtaposes bedrooms and sniper´s nests, scientific laboratories and the Gulag, taking us deep into the hearts and minds of characters ranging from a boy on his way to the gas chambers to Hitler and Stalin themselves. This novel of unsparing realism and visionary moral intensity is one of the supreme achievements of modern Russian literature."
It is a work often compared to Chekhov, and bears a structure loosely based on Tolstoy´s War and Peace. What I am feeling as I move towards the conclusion is a powerful feeling that I am in the midst of reading a work of clear genius - filled with great warmth and power.
As I close out this post, I would at least like to mention one other book which I´ve read on this trip, and that is Noam Chomsky´s most current offering, entitled What We Say Goes, which is a scathing visionary look at American foreign policy and how successive U.S. governments have seen fit to throw their weight around the entire planet, as if it belonged to the USA. It is a highly disturbing and sobering essay, but it so enthralled me that I found myself reading it twice, before giving my copy away to my friend and agent in Santiago, Andres Gabor.

SETTLING IN ON THE CENTRAL CHILEAN COAST

Yesterday I went into the port of San Antonio, Chile with my friend Diego Savignone, who is also the caretaker of Las 7 Cabañas where I am staying in El Tabo here on the central Chilean coast. Our purpose was to buy some fresh fish right off of the docks for upcoming meals. The image above shows some of ther activity going on yesterday on the dock that extends out from the main fish market there in San Antonio, with a freighter of South Korean registry in the background.
As I´ve been saying, of late I have largely come to eschew the idea of going out on another long, extended drive into another part of this continent, and now I have come to the decision that even going on some smaller excursions from this rather stable base on the shores of the South Pacific would most likely just be excercising an option that now seems to be an unnecessary use of funds and energy while at the same time departing from a decidedly good thing which I´ve found right here.
So what all that means is that I like it here, and after all, this is supposed to be a vacation and not something meant to be unsettled or stressful. So, I´ve talked to Diego and his wife Luisa about extending my stay at Las 7 Cabañas in El Tabo right up until 15 or 16 January when I am supposed to be bringing my rented 4x4 pickup truck back to Andrés and his company there in Santiago. They are quite happy with having me stick around, as they have come to really enjoy my presence, and have welcomed me into their home as sort of part of their extended family. And their two kids have started to call me "Tio," which is Spanish for uncle.
It is the sort of thing where I´ve come around to understand that there really is no chance, in the scant three weeks I have left to be able to find anything better than what I´ve got right now, and with the heavy tourist season set to begin immediately following New Year´s, I´ve decided it is in my best interests to simply stay put, and enjoy where I am.
Watch for a new post in a day or two about some rather rewarding reading I´ve been doing here in my digs in El Tabo. Until then, I´ll say chao, amigos.

LA IGLESIA EN EL CAMPO

Yep, that´s "La Iglesia en el Campo," or The Church in the Field, in English. This time I´m using the Spanish, because I think it has a much better sound to it. Back on Saturday, my friends Diego and Luisa Savignone, the caretakers of this group of oceanside cabañas I´m staying at, invited me to a big family reunion at the very impressive country estate their family owns at an agricultural community known as Codigua, which is about 80 kilometers from here, inland from the sea and about 20 kilometers from the agricultural town of Melipilla (80 km SW of Santiago). To say that this church, located out in a pasture, and with no congregation whatsoever, is an anomaly is an understatement. But what an impression it had on me when I first saw it!
Actually, the church is an exact replica of another church which exists on the Chilean island of Chiloé, about 1200 kilometers south of this estate, where this copy was built six years ago.
I am including photos of the interior of the church as well as several views of the estate, to give you a better idea of this beautiful and quite pastoral place.

This picture to the right shows the main house on the estate as viewed from the church, complete with a pasture full of horses whose owners pay to have grazing rights in these pastures.

Here are some images of the interior of the church, which show that the structure´s interior has also been replicated with an eye towards accuracy, right down to the posting of the Stations of ther Cross on the interior walls. The dark photo on the right was taken on the upper level, showing the ladder that leads up into the steeple (sorry, no church bell, however).

The image to the right shows the altar and some of the pews.

The above image shows Diego at the church, and he told me that in the winter months when there is little work at the cabañas, he spends quite a bit of time down here at Codigua, working on maintenance projects to preserve both the church and also the main ranch house as well as the guest house (seen below and to the right) and the rest of the estate.

Now, I have posted many of these pictures in "small" size in order to get them onto the blog with a minimal use of space. Remember, you can click on any one of them to view a larger image.

This last image I´ve posted here is of the pond which is also a part of the estate. There are ducks that have nests there, and the waters are stocked with trout as well.

Anyway, Saturday was a special day spent with Diego and Luisa and their family. Ther almuerzo was superb, even though everybody ate too much. But the real joy for that day was discovering such a beautiful and peaceful place, and enjoying it in such good company.

RELAXING ON THE COAST AT EL TABO

After spending five idle days in Santiago, I finally resumed my travels, albeit on a much less ambitious course. To be specific, I drove more or less due west, in a return to the rustic cabins at El Tabo where I had spent time at the end of my trip last March. The resort is called "Las 7 Cabañas," and is located about one kilometer south of the center of town of El Tabo, and only a few kilometers from Pablo Neruda´s famous ocean-front home at Isla Negra. If you go back through my archives to my posts from March 2007, you will see images I´d taken at the Neruda compound.
Anyway, the above picture shows cabaña No. 5, which I am currently occupying. The big windows (my bedroom windows) look out upon a variety of dwellings down below the slope

and feature a superb view of the South Pacific.

In keeping with my resolution to cut back on driving and to spend more time relaxing and taking in wherever I am at, I´ve booked myself into this place through the holidays, with my scheduled departure for points south down the Chilean coast set for January 3, 2008. I expect that this will be a time for introspection and reflection. I´ve already gone for one really nice beach walk, an activity I am assuming will be part of my daily routine as I while away the days between now and the New Year.

The following pair of images hopefully will give you a little better impression of this quiet place. Incidentally, I also stayed here at the start of my 2005 Chile-Argentina trip, which was when i first found these cabañas. But during my visit last March, I´d learned that the place was up for sale; and now the caretakers have informed me that it has, in fact, been sold, and that the new owners have decided to transform it into a spa. At the end of this year´s tourist season in march, they plan to raze the cabaña I am occupying as well as cabaña No. 4, and in their place they are planning to erect a new "dormitory" which will become the primary residence for business executives and other upwardly-mobile types whom they intend to target at their principal clientele. The cabaña below mine, No.6, will be gutted and turned into a massage parlor, and the cabaña that is currently functioning as the residence of the caretakers as well as the office will be completely remodeled and used for other spa-related functions. The caretakers will remain, but will move into the cabaña up by the coastal highway. Naturally, from my point of view, these changes are a big disappointment, because it means that it is the end of this place as I´ve known it. Perhaps the one good thing about "progress" is that it follows the dictum that nothing stays the same; and all things must pass.

So I am looking at this time here in El Tabo as being my opportunity to enjoy this place for one final time.

Now, I need to introduce to all who visit this blog to my newest friend - a mellow little Chilean street dog who has taken up semi-residence here at Las 7 Cabañas and goes by the name of "El Negro."

El Negro showed up at my cabin door at about 8 p.m. last night and immediately took a liking to me, hanging around until I finally turned out the lights at 1 a.m.. But even then he didn´t want to leave, choosing to scratch at the door until i let him back in. Well, I turned the lights back out and El Negro came up to my bed and tried to jump up on it. I didn´t let him, and he proceeded to set himself up to sleep on one of the chairs in the living room, where he still was this morning. While I cooked my breakfast, I gave him some bread and cheese, as well as a slice of turkey sandwich meat, which he really loved. Actually, he has become fairly inseparable from me, as he joined me for my morning beach walk, and is currently waiting for me to re-emerge from the caretaker´s cabaña where I am writing this post. So I´d figured I´d be experiencing some relaxing solitude here at this time, but it appears that this time around, I won´t really be alone, with my little pal, El Negro, keeping me company.

ASSESSING THIS TRIP AND FIGURING OUT WHAT´S NEXT

Yep, that´s a map of central Chile, borrowed some time ago from the website of Turistel, which is no doubt the foremost Chilean publisher of tour guides for the country. I´ve posted it here because it illustrates where I will soon be going once I finally take my leave of the capitol city and venture out again on the road.
Since I finished my "forced march" drive down from San Pedro de Atacama following that very unfortunate explosion inside the pickup truck, I´ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about what to do next. Part of the task has been to make a study of the current realities I´m facing, and that includes looking at my costs so far. When I left Santiago back on the first of the month, I kept note of my gas purchases, and it turns out that the drive up to San Pedro and back cost me nearly $500 USD. Gasoline, as some of you know, is quite expensive in Chile, with the rates for the "regular," or 93 octane running between roughly 625 and 670 Chilean Pesos per liter, depending a number of factors. When you convert liters to US gallons and pesos to dollars, in my case, and then figure out the "average" price I paid for that run up to the north and then back, it came to about $5.33 USD per US gallon. And you thought YOUR gas prices were high!
Realizing that I spent nearly $500 for gas to drive that distance in a period of only two weeks is really kind of humbling. Add to that my own sudden aversion to spending so much of my travel money on fuel and so much of my valuable time left on this adventure behind the wheel, and I can start to see myself stepping back from going on another extended drive into some as-yet undetermined hinterland but rather opting for something much less ambitious, so that I can spend more time enjoying where I am at and less time getting there.
In more precise language, I am now leaning much more heavily towards heading due west from Santiago, out to the Pacific coast, to try to rent a cozy little cabaña for something like two or three weeks and spend my time reading books, meditating and beachcombing. Another reason why I am thinking this way is that I am still fairly shell-shocked by the explosion and the attendant hassles and fears which arose from that incident, (NOTE: If you are logging into this blog for the first time in a while, I suggest that you go back a couple of posts and start reading from there) and, as my fellow vagabond amigo Roberto told me, "it´s at times like this when the calming sound of ocean waves lapping on the beach is much desired." -Of course (to you, Roberto) those weren´t his exact words, but it was his sentiment, exactly.
So, I have in mind going back to the same little cabañas I´d stayed at back in March of this year, at the end of my last South American trip, just 2 km south of Isla Negra, where the late, great poet Pablo Neruda is buried, on the grounds of his fabled oceanfront home. at the moment, their name escapes me, but that´s not really important. What is was the fact that when I stayed there the last time, the housekeepers told me that they were for sale, and were about to be sold, so now my chief concern is, what changes have the new owners installed, and, considering that the real tourist season hasn´t quite started yet, if they are even open for occupancy?
I guess I´ll see soon enough. But for now, I´m spending another couple of days here in Santiago as the most welcome guest of Andrés in his third floor apartment over on Calle Mosqueto, on the other side of the block from his office, where I stayed this weekend. I´ll post more here soon, so stay tuned.

BACK IN SANTIAGO - WITH A QUICK CLARIFICATION

I got into Santiago about two hours ago after making the roughly 1700-kilometer drive in little more than two day´s time. Sure, my head is still swirling around in circles regarding the explosion and how that curtailed my trip up north, and I´ll try to get into describing a little of that a bit further on, but right now I need to make a distinction, or if you will, a correction regarding one specific fact: originally I had said that I believed that a fire extinguishor had exploded; in fact, it had been a different sort of cannister - it was one of those emergency "Fix-a-Flat" tire inflators which exploded. Initially all I could tell was that it was some sort of pressurized canned accessory, and looking at the mess of debris I could make out the can shell, some valve apparatus, and a hose mixed in with bits of shrapnel, shredded papers and the drying slime goo that was all over the place. I instinctively figured it was the fire extinguisher. I didn´t even know that the truck was equipped with an emergency tire inflator, and certainly didn´t know it had been placed in the upper glove box, which opens up on the top of the dashboard.
Anyway, I was able to piece together some of the shredded label for that device, and could read that it warned against storing the object anywhere the temperature might reach 50 degrees C., and that the contents were extremely flammable. Considering the latter little bit of information, I guess I should say that I was lucky that the explosion didn´t ignite, and cause the entire vehicle to become engulfed in flames. And I´ve done some rather amateur physics analysis during my drive back to Santiago, and I figured that originally, the can had been packed and pressurized somewhere near sea level. So I figured that driving the vehicle to a significantly higher elevation (San Pedro de Atacama is 2,470 meters, or 8,100 feet above sea level) could cause the critical temperature level to correspondingly drop, as the pressure inside the can increased with the elevation climb.
Anyway, as I drove the long road southward, my mind kept playing over and over the frightening "what if scenario" in which the can didn´t blow until I was off on my drive over the top of the Andean cordillera, the Paso Jama, which reaches a height of 4,600 meters, which is over 15,000 feet, in a couple of places, and the entire ride from San Pedro to Susques, in Argentina, is over 4,000 meters. What if the cannister exploded while I was driving the truck at that elevation, with the blazing hot tropical sun blazing down through the windshield and onto that dashboard? Would I even know what hit me? It would have been like my own personal car bomb blast, a la Gaza or Baghdad, except that it would be happening in a very remote spot. Perhaps it would have caused me to have a heart attack. Maybe my eardrums would be blown out. Shrapnel could have ripped my flesh, and the whole vehicle could have been engulfed in flames, while hurtling down the road at 100 km/hr, careening off the pavement like a real fireball.
So I suppose I should not try to dwell on that scenario so much but rather, to count my blessings instead. I left San Pedro de Atacama with a severely damaged windshield on the day before yesterday. I knew that it would be impossible to drive all the way to Santiago with such impaired vision, and of course, the Carabineros would have stopped me for sure and directed me to the nearest town for repairs.
Well, that´s exactly what I did. I drove straight back down the hill and back to Calama, where I was familiar with the work of the Leo-Loa Parabrisas (Windshield) repair shop. They´d fixed a broken camper shell door for me on my 2005-2006 trip, so I knew that they did good work. And this time was no different from the first time, they had everything changed, a new windshield with all the inspection stickers and registration tags neatly transferred, as well as the all-important auto-toll reader that is required for vehicles using the highways in Santiago. All done in a little over two hours´time. Cost: $170 USD, which I will expect to get reimbursed once Andres has had time to assess the damages.
With the new windshield I was again legal, so I set off from Calama on my concerted drive south, making it back to Taltal before nightfall. Then the next day I figured I´d really have to push myself so as to get into Santiago in prime working-hour time so Andres and his staff could take me in, assess the damages and get me put up for a weekend in the city. So I left Taltal as early as I could, and then proceeded to push south, eventually making it all the way to Los Vilos, a forced drive of nearly 900 kilometers, but only 225 km from Santiago. It meant that today´s drive was a piece of cake.
So now I am soon heading with Andres to lunch and to take my bags to the apartment. I´ll plan to talk to him more about what happens next, and once I know that, I´ll share the news with you.
So that´s it, for now.
Chao.

EXPLOSION IN TRUCK WRECKS JOURNEY

Okay, so I wrote earlier today that I´d reached the high desert oasis of San Pedro de Atacama, where I was going to stay for three nights before heading up and over the cordillera and into Argentina´s Jujuy Province and a planned stop for Christmas and New Year´s in the town I´ve come to really love on the past two South America trips: Cafayate.

Well, I got myself settled into the nice Hosteria

Incahuasi (I recommend it to any one of you who are considering traveling to this part of South America, especially with the new management) and took a siesta during the heat of the afternoon.

But while I was sleeping, there was an explosion in the truck, which was parked just outside of the Hosteria. I didn´t know it yet, but there was a fire extinguisher that Andres´mechanic had placed in the glove box...and as you can imagine, with all the intense heat from a sun beating down from virtually directly overhead (yes, this is thr tropics here), plus the pent-up pressure from being at high altitude, and BOOM!

It not only blew out the right side of the dashboard (and possibly vaporized the vehicle registration papers) but the force of the blast shattered the right side of the windshield (although it is mostly still intact).

Well, there is no place here in San Pedro where I can effect repairs, but I do know of a place in Calama where I can get the work done at least to replace the windshield - but regarding all the safety and emissions inspection info and the Santiago auto-toll device, all of which are attached to the windshield, I do not know what will happen. Actually, I REALLY do not want to have to go back to Calama. I´m hoping that I can dodge the Carabineros all the way back to Santiago and then drop the rig off with Andrés.

But one thing is for sure, I will have to turn around first thing in the morning and start on my way back to Santiago, to bring the truck back to Andrés, and to see if he can get me some kind of vehicle to salvage something of a trip.

I know, there´s a phrase for this sort of thing...Sh*t happens. Shucks.

JUST ARRIVED IN SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA

Hola, everyone, this time I`ll just be making a quick post to let you all know that I arrived in the high desert oasis town and hip little tourist trap known as San Pedro de Atacama. Sorry, no pictures yet, as I`ve only been here for less than an hour so far and have not booked myself into any accomodations as of yet.
But I am planning to spend the next three nights here, and then will set out to cross the cordillera into Argentina on the 14th. One thing I would like to say at this moment is that it sure was good to get out of Calama this morning. I have never liked that rather grimy city, which is the main population center here in this corner of Chile with about 125,000 people, many of whom are connected in one way or another with the huge open pit copper mine of Chuquicamata, which lies just a few kilometers north.
Anyway, my drive across the Atacama to Calama went smoothly enough, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of trucks on the road hauling hazardous materiels, like radioactive materials and sulfiric acid - that sort of thing.
After I get settled in here and snap a few photos of San Pedro, I`ll log back on here and post something before heading out for Argentina.
My best to you all. Cheers, the Atacama Viajero.

HIKING THE CERROS OF LA PUNTILLA

Three kilometers south of the city of Taltal the rocky promontory known as La Puntilla juts out into the deep blue waters of the South Pacific.

Its rugged permanence defines the southern limits of the Bahía de Taltal,

and its presence helps to preserve the relative tranquility of the Taltal waterfront. From there one can appreciate a unique view of the town itself across the bahía.

Every year, in February, Taltalinos use the chapel and shrine on this promontory for a series of ceremonies in Taltal´s annual Fiesta de la Virgen de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, a spectacular religious and dance festival that draws hundreds of participants from Antofagasta, Calama, and from other communities in northern Chile, many of whom camp out at La Puntilla during the fiesta.
Pictured at left is the shrine where these ceremonies take place.

Yesterday I made my own pilgrimage out to the promontory, which is currently unoccupied, and hiked around on the cerros (hills) which help to define the character of this small peninsula.

The following images will give you some kind of an idea of the beauty of La Puntilla.

I hiked out about as far as I could and sat down to enjoy a sack lunch I´d packed along, and looked out onto the farthest rocky extension, a guano-covered islet which contains a lively (and loud) sea lion colony, which along the Chilean coast is known as a "loberia." Form my vantage point high above the loberia, I could see several fishing boats operating in the shoals surrounding the islet, and it seemed that their presence was very disturbing to the sea lions, whose agitated barking and growling seemed to be met by similar guttral utterances coming from the fishermen. No doubt there is little love to be found to exist between the two - as the fishermen likely see the sea lions as little more than competition for the fruits of the waters.

This last image looks southward from La Puntilla to the Bahía Tegualda and Punta Verde and also the coast extending further south. Here too, the waters seemed to be alive with fishing boats busily working to extract their harvest of fish for the day.

Last night this little city rocked out with a "Reggaeton" music extravaganza, an event which didn´t even begin until 11 p.m. It then ran through most of the night, finally concluding at close to 5 a.m. this morning. The music was loud enough to be heard throughout the town, with driving, pulsing rhythms undoubtedly thrilling an eager audience of the town´s youth, who could frequently be heard cheering the musicians. I suppose if I were a few years younger, I´d have gone to it, but as it was, I tried my best to sleep through the heavy reggae and rock beats of the performing groups. So I didn´t sleep so well last night, but hey, it was put on as another fundraising event, linked to Chile´s annual "Teletón." (Remember, I´d mentioned Teletón in an earlier post?)

Today is going to be my last day in Taltal, and I am planning to get on the road early following breakfast heading up to the northeast, bound for an overnight in the city of Calama before heading on to the desert oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama.

Incidentally, I am looking into making some changes further on in my journey. After my time in Argentina, I see that I might be able to shorten my route considerably if I re-cross into Chile further south, at Paso del Agua Negra (east of the Río Elqui Valley) instead farther north at Paso San Francisco (east of Copiapó). Consider that this change is highly a highly probable alternative to what I´d originally posted.

NOTE: Perhaps you will have noticed that I´ve altered the layout for this blog page a bit. I did that because for some unexplained reason, My Profile, my site Links, and the Archives of this blog had slipped down to the bottom of the page, even though the template layout6 seemed to show that they should be at the top. Anyway, yesterday I tried all sorts of possible fixes for this problem before I decided I needed to change the layout. Now, at least, visitors can (hopefully) see My Profile when they access the blog, instead of having to scroll down to the bottom. I hope that this fix doesn´t get undone!

Next post will likely not be until San Pedro, so have patience.

Chao, amigos.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT TALTAL

So here I am, once again spending some quiet time here in this very tranquil small coastal city of some 15,000 people known as Taltal. Considering the fact that this is one of the few places I´ve spent time in during each of my four trips to Chile ought to say something about what my feelings for this place are. It´s quiet (usually, but not always), laid back (all the time), clean and scenic. Still, my friend/agent in Santiago, Andrés, sort of thinks I am a little off my rocker to "like" sich a place, and choose to spend days and days here rather than in some real tourist centers such as La Serena or Viña del Mar. But hey, people who know me recognize that I eschew crowded places and prefer to spend my time a little bit off of the beaten track.

Such sentiments fit, for me, here in Taltal. Above you can see a view of the nicely-shaded town plaza from Avenida Prat (1st picture); and above, a glimpse of the view northward of the Pacific shoreline looking north from the waterfront park. The structures on the right side of the picture are historic, going back to the late 19th century when Taltal was Chile´s third most important nitrate shipping port.

Anyway, that thougtht brings me to write, as the title of today´s blog reads, "a little bit about Taltal."

Taltal was founded in 1858, originally established as a port that would serve the emerging copper mining industry in Northern Chile. With the treaty of 1874, Chile ceded everything north of the 24th so. parallel to Bolivia, so for a time, Taltal was the northernmost port in Chile. Then, when the possibilities for exploitation of the huge nitrate resources began to change the face of the Atacama Desert and transformed its economy, the Chilean government looked toward developing Taltal as a major port to serve this dynamic new industry. In 1876, with the emergence of scores of "oficinas salitreras" (nitrate mining settlements) in the desert inland, Taltal began to grow exponentially.

Then the War of the Pacific (1879-1884) happened, and Chile was victorious over the combined forces of Bolivia and Peru, wresting territory from both, leaving Bolivia a suddenly landlocked country, which it remains today. The territorial adjustments effectively gave Chile the bulk of the extensive nitrate beds of the Atacama Desert (spoils of war?) and Taltal continued to grow, as the Taltal Railway Company linked the port to the nitrate mining settlements in the interior. Antofagasta and Iquique also grew as a result of the war´s outcome, and the fabled "Nitrate Clippers" sailed across the seas from Europe to load up with this precious raw natural resource to haul it to the world´s markets, to make both fertilizer and munitions.

At the end of the 19th Century, Taltal´s population was approximately 20,000, but that figure would shrink once the lucrative nitrate mining business was crippled by the eventual technological breakthroughs which allowed for the manufacture of synthetic nitrates. But thanks to the fact that the ocean provides for a lively fishing industry and the fact that the interior remains a source for other minerals, such as copper, silver and iodine, Taltal has survived. And now the city is looking to develop the potential for to serve an expanded tourist presence, basing their efforts on sandy beaches both here in town as well as a few kilometers south, at Cifuncho, plus the pleasant climate. So Taltal is growing, gradually.

These three pictures are just a few taken from a series of murals that have been painted on the walls of Taltal´s primary schoolyard by student artists. The first one is entitled,¨"El Paso del Teniente," or the Path of the Lieutenant.

The second image is entitled,

"Mujer de Piedra," or the Woman of Stone.

And here, the final one is entitled,

"Matador de Tiburones," or The Shark Killer, and depicts the bay here at Taltal.

Of course, as always, you can click on any one of the above images to see an enlarged version.

DRIVING INTO NORTHERN CHILE: THE LAST FOUR DAYS

Okay, so I´ve got a lot of traveling to put up on the blog, and I´ve uploaded a bunch of pictures to help give you an idea of what´s up here. The above photo was taken last night b efore the sun went down at the place I ended up camping at. I´ll tell you more about it when I get past today´s images from the road

So today I arrived at Taltal, which as some of you know, is about my most favorite places on the north Chile coast. The image to the left is of a line of stunning, chocolate-ribbed hills that lie just east of Chañaral, right near km 1000 on the Panamericana (Chile National Route 5). It´s about 150 km south of Taltal.

Now, the image to the right (if this sequence holds up is of tanker truck - but this tanker truck is a beer truck! Now, of course it is a common sight to see beer trucks, but they are always carrying the finished product - bottled or canned beer - either to a distribution warehouse or to a retail outlet. This was the first time I´d ever seen a tanker truck...Crystal is one of the most popular of the Chilean beers...

Now the next photos come from my campsite, where I stayed last night. The first picture is of a young red fox - when I woke up and climbed out of my tent I was surprised to see this little one curled up awaiting my emergence - only about 10 yards away from me. I immediately took his picture, and then commenjced a very interestin g morning as this fox was joined by another, slightly larger one, and they both seemed to be intent on watching my every move. It turns out that despite being in such a remote place, these foxes have figured out that wherever humans are, there is food. Well, they were totally passive towards me and I never felt that I had anything to worry about from them, so I eventually shared my breakfast with them...a piece of bread, some water, a slice of cheese for both, and part of my banana, which was hogged by the bigger fox. They stuck around and watched me pack up my sleeping bag and tent, and then I waved good-bye to my little fox friends, although I know that theywere probably only disappointed that I wasn´t leaving anything behind for them to tear apart.

Here is a picture of my camp. It was up in the dry mountains at the site of an abandoned silver mine known as Chañarcillo, which once upon a time apparently had been a real monster producer of this precious metal, and was significant for providing much of the early wealth to the biggest city in the region, Copiapó. The silver at this mine was discovered in 1832 by an entepreneur named Juan Godoy, and the city which sprang up at the base of this mountain came to bear his name. In 1860 the town of Juan Godoy was the second largest in the region, after Copiapó, boasting a population of 14,000 people.

But as many of these sorts of places go, the boom was folowed by bust, and I understand that the mines closed forever in 1888, once it was determined that the caverns had flooded with seeping groundwater.



The picture to the left shows the remains of perhaps what was the most striking mine shaft on the mountain. Known as the Pique Dolores, built after the discovery in 1832, it still shows the massive rock wall buttress that once held up the smelter and various outbuildings on the slope of the mountain. Now the buildings are gone, and the buttress holds up what is now the precarious roadway that winds up and around to the top of the mountain.

The image to the left shows one of the many deep and un-fenced mine shafts that drop straight down into the heart of the mountain. When I approached this view, I was struck with the most frightening sense of vertigo I could imagine. To take the picture I found myself dropping down onto my hands and kn ees to approach the opening to take this fleeting glimpse into what I would clearly call the abyss...

Now, these two shafts are right next to the abyss, and even though they open up to the front, the dark interiors suggested both mystery and danger. Best to take the pictures and be on my way, I figured.

But before going to camp at the mine at Chañarcillo, I´d spent my first two nights in Vallenar. That´s the plaza in Vallenar to the left. I´d originally planned to spend one night in Vallenar, and two in Huasco, which is downstream from here on the coast, but by the time I´d got to Vallenar on my big push up fro m Santiago, there was plenty of daylight left, so I decided to drive straight out to Huasco. When I got there, I could not find a single accomodation that was open for business. It was frustrating, but hey, I was going to need a room somewhere. So I doubled back and returned to Vallenar, and booked myself into the Hotel Puerta de Vega, a nice, clean place, but pricey!

Well, I was booked in to Vallenar for a quiet and peaceful Sunday after putting something like 770 kilometers on the odometer of my rented Nissan 4x4 the previous day. So I slept in, and then, when I felt like it, I took a leisurely stroll through town. Vallenar has a nice park set up along the banks of the Río Huasco, which flows down from the snows and glaciers of the high Andes through here to the sea. The above picture gives a glimpse of this modest river which gives this arid valley its life.
The image to the left gives another view of the Río Huasco, downstream from Vallenar. I stopped for a moment on my ill-fated drive down to the coast, in my attempt to find accomodations in Huasco. But such is life, here on the road.

But there was one pleasant surprise waiting me on that otherwise forgettable drive down the river to the coast last Saturday: Totally by chance, I stumbled upon a floklorico dance that was in progress in the town of Freirina (pop. 3,200) . It was in conjunction with the big national "Teletón," which is exactly like the Jerry Lewis Telethon in the USA. Chile holds this big fund-raiser every year on Nov.30-Dec.1 (except in election years), and many local communities hold special events in their plazas while most of the major TV networks carry the pledge drive feed to draw in the most money possible. Well I stopped for maybe 15 minutes at most. I donated 1000 pesos, roughly the equivalent of $2 USD. But I was extermely impressed with these young dancers, pictured above.

Now I will be here in Taltal for several days - actually I won´t likely leave until next Monday. So I´ll be getting around and about this town of some 15,000 people, and maybe I´ll post something about the local scene here.....

So stay tuned!

Cheers,

JMK, The Atacama Viajero