Santiago: A Complicated History

The day started ominously, as we walked up the stairs of the Baquedado metro station in the heart of Santiago. Sitting at the entrance of the station, was a man typing on his laptop with a data card and a very expensive Canon camera. On his face was a full on gas mask, Breaking Bad style. This is one of the most disorienting and disjointed images, a dissonance with the leafy boulevards, innumerable cafes and all the other trappings of this huge, progressive and global city.

My first thought was that this could be someone intent on doing harm to the public in the very busy and essential metro here. But, with 3 police and guards watching on from 10 feet away, this seemed very improbable. As we cautiously walked above ground, things became clear. As we emerged from station, we were in the middle of a thousand+ people protesting, as well as over a hundred riot gear cops. In the distance, i saw tear gas drifting up from in front of one of the University of Chile buildings. Whoa. The man in the subway is clearly a journalist recording this student led protest about inequality within the education system.

We proceeded carefully and directly through the protest, wanting to get through the potential smoke zone as quickly as possible. Many of the people here have scarfs wrapped around their neck to guard against the gas. There are a smattering of others with gas masks, the extra prepared ready to record or agitate. Everyone, the protesters, the cops and bystanders, are quiet, as if waiting for the conflict to begin.

We walk down the principal boulevard to the stately Bellas Artes museum, maybe a half mile away. Standing out front museum is a platoon of riot cops, reinforcing that this is not a normal day out. The entire time we are in the museum, sirens are ringing out from the streets and my mind keeps reverting back to the scenes we have just seen in the streets. This connection is made stronger with the excellent exhibit of works by Hernan Miranda.

The most powerful works in the exhibition are done on large copper plates, with pictures of riot police in action, an artistic twist to the reality we have seen an hour ago.

The theme of public conflict continues as we move on towards one of the most powerful and disturbing museums I have ever been to, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

This museum is dedicated to sharing the hard history of the 1973 coup that established Pinochet as dictator with Allende's death and all of the horrors that followed; the disappearances, the concentration camps, the torture, the truth, and the reconciliation. We were privileged to be there with Paulo and Natalia, getting the personal painful reaction to this history as an additional context to the museum.

Three searing parts of the museum were a massive wall of candid pictures of those that were disappeared during the Junta, with empty frames interspersed throughout the wall. Then, listening to Allende's final radio address on the day he died and power transferred to the Junta, from the presidential palace that had been bombed by his own Air Force (pictured below and repaired from the damage caused by the coup). Finally, a video with survivors of torture talking about their experiences in detention and the lifetime of hurt that was inflicted, as well as the strength of overcoming those terrors. Everything in the museum was incredibly well done, as I would expect from this city and befitting the topics and history covered.

This brought to a close our weighty trifecta of a day, from the streets to art to political history. A powerful day and one that has deepened our understanding of this city we have been calling home for the last week.

 

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Travel thoughts: Babymoon in Santiago

We love Santiago and Chile! I love the neighborhoods, the mountains, the sculpture gardens, the food --especially juicy and crisp apples that are bigger than softballs. But I may be biased. I may be biased because two great friends from DC, Sohair and Sergio Aguirre are here with us in Santiago. They are on their "babymoon". A babymoon is the trip that a couple takes before the baby is born. Sohair is in her second trimester and is leading the charge to explore -- the neighborhoods (we especially like Barrio Lastarria), the "cerros" or hills (we are hiking up Cerro Sancristobal today where the Virgin Mary perches above Santiago), and Santiago's clean metro (Sohair is currently beating me at a balancing game that we have been playing on the metro).

My Santiago enjoyment shines through even though Santiago is famous for its smog and the past two days have been a deluge of rain and flooded streets. We have had two days of constant wet feet but that rain is gone for today. And the rain has cleared away the smog. The white capped mountains are towering over the city in full force.

Another reason for why I am enjoying Santiago so much is that Sergio has an Aunt and cousins who live here in the city. They have been so welcoming to me and Wilson. We have been invited along to long lingering lunch, to Chile's famous port town, Valparaiso, and a delicious home-cooked meal. The home-cooked meal makes my mouth water two days later -- basil stuffed fish, fresh spiced cheese, tater-tot like potatoes (except they were perfectly round), and three different salads of: tomato and grated onion with spices, cucumber and yogurt, and avocado and lettuce. So good. Thank you Natalya and Paulo!

 

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Torres del Paine: Rising like Ghost

The rain and snow have been coming down for a couple hours, cold rain that made us contemplate not even hiking up the pristine Valle de Frances. This is the center pillar of the famed 'W' hike which allows trekkers to see the massive walls and glaciers of Torres del Paine national park, here in Chile. It is day 2 for us, out of the 4 required at a minimum to complete the tour in the off season.

We had a great time yesterday, with big vistas of the granite towers that give this park its name, as well as large snow capped mountains framed by opal colored glaciated lakes. Each of the dozen or so lakes we passed during our time here seemed to have its own unique, and totally new, color blue. Some tending towards the opaqueness and complexity of opal, others to the brilliance of turquoise. Many are fed from glaciers a few miles away and are strongly influenced by the glacial runoff and sediments released as the glacier moves forward.

The calm weather of yesterday was a bit of a mirage, this part of the world that is notorious for being fickle and treacherous on that front. We greatly enjoyed our first day, getting up the Torres valley and then traversing the ridge to take us to the heart of the park. We took full advantage of our limited daylight and pulled into the camping area right as darkness descended in full.

Today as been a bit worse, and we have been heading up the valley for 2 or so hours. Right now, we can only see one huge glaciated cliff band, which is not even in the head of the valley. This glacier has let off a few avalanches, tumbling down the sheer face of the rock and ice. Oddly, the sound of the falling mass takes quite a bit longer to get to our ears than the spectacle unfolds in front of our eyes, a phenomena we have seen with other glaciers down here in Patagonia.

As we continue to climb up the valley, we have to resign ourselves to the probable reality that we will not see anything. Still, the hike is along a rushing torrent of a river, with dozens of tributaries crossed and little edens spied in the forest. Very peaceful. We get to the top of the forrest, and out on to a high alpine environment, utterly barren. As we make our way through this landscape (or moonscape), we see faint hints of massive rock towers emerging from the white clouds and mist. First one, then two and then an entire massif. Then a second massif, and another, and another. For a brief moment, five or ten minutes, we are able to see all of the massive torres and cols. Some are too steep to hold snow, others more mountainous, with glaciers stuffed in various cracks and weaknesses.

The vista is stunning, all the more so for its improbability. Muriel observes that these wondrous formations are 'rising like ghosts' and that phrase perfect encapsulates the ephemeral quality of what we see in front of us. The millions of tons of granite and ice around us seem unreal at this moment, half there instead of the result of millions of years of geology. Adding to their ghost-like qualities is the fact that the weather has stripped all color from their face, the entire valley appears as a black and white photo from the Ansel Adams era. Ol' Ansel would have had a field day in Patagonia in general, and Torres del Paine in particular.

Just as quick as the valley appears for us, it closes back and the snow resumes in earnest. Thankfully, the 30-50 mph wind is at our back as we pick our way back through the alpine rocks and climb back down to the main trail of our trek. That night, we continue on and sleep in one of the two refugios still open, with hot showers, a huge kitchen, a wood stove and comfy beds. The next day takes us to the head of the Grey Glacier, over 250 square kilometers in area, and the following day brings us out of the park.

Trekking in this massive National Park gets pretty cushy during the high season, with huge meals and this very lodge booked out until next January already. It is more rustic in the late fall, less amenities but more personal. We love being here in the low season, when the prices are lower and the trails empty. Overall, we hike about 95 kms in the 4 days and crossed paths with other hikers on the trails less than a dozen times. It is like the park is all to ourselves, with gems large and small around the corner waiting to appear.

 

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Patagonia: "It is a very beautiful place"

We are waiting the bus from one of the prettiest places I have ever been - Chalten, the base for epic Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The later two are super famous sheer mountain towers that have been among the hardest climbing challenges in the world over the last several decades. They are stunning.

We have been in this sleepy little town for 3 days, which is extra sleepy due to the late fall season down here. It has been so pleasant, with these massive and jagged peaks high above the town and really great weather.

As a bit of background, the weather here can been horrendous -- like, never see the huge towers that are mere miles from town horrendous. People can be in Chalten for weeks and not get a clear view of the peaks, and part of their difficulty as climbing destinations is trying to squeeze in the summit push while battling the notorious weather. In some seasons, no one gets to the top of the peaks.

Thankfully, we got a sublime window of weather for our time here. In fact, the day we arrived and stopped at the national park office, the ranger was giving as short talk (in very cute english actually) and was positively giddy about the window of weather we were going to enjoy. He kept recommending various hikes and viewpoints, and for each would say happily - 'It is a very beautiful place'. With the knowing smile on his face, and the fact that he lives here, we knew that we were in for a treat.

Cerro Torrre and Fitz Roy did not disappoint, and we used up as much energy and daylight as we could muster. One surprising part abut exploring and hiking down here in the fall is the short supply of light. It gets dark by 6:00ish and does not get light till 9 am. One day, we did not see the sun lift itself above the ridge until after 11. This is a great place to come for guilt free sleeping in, and really just sleeping in general. However, for our purposes the season leaves only 9 or so hours of daylight. You have to be on your game to get up on time and out of the hostel, all while it is pitch dark.

By my calculations, we were in the town for about 23 hours of usable daylight spread across the three days. We hiked in the park for 20 of those hours, covering around 78 kilometers. The trails are in great shape and tooks us to a variety of destinations, all of which come highly recommended. One day to the lake at the base of cerro torre, with the massive glacier rising from the lake up to the sheer walls. Cerro Torre actually is my favorite of the spires here, because it is steeper and seems more improbable.

The next day, we did a big loop up around Fitz Roy, to a huge glacier and lake with thousands of ice chucks waiting to melt in the nearly freezing water and then around a number of clear mountain lakes. This was our biggest mileage day and left me a little worn out, but oh so worth it. Fitz Roy started the day obscured in clouds and I was worried that we would not be able to see it, as is the norm. Thankfully, in the afternoon the weather lifted and the clouds started swirling around the many thousand foot sheer faces of the tower. Wow.

Our last day was spent climbing a smaller peak, one with a much more gentle slopes than the towers. The hike started right about dawn, at the gentlemanly time of 9, and the view of the rising light on the massive face of Fitz Roy was the most beautiful site i have seen thus far in this magical part of the world.

The end result of the hike was sweeping vistas over the heart of the park, which gave a cool closing memory of our time here. It was nice to look out across the park and feel like we had grown to know some of what we saw in some small way, and be able to transition of the sheer amazement of the splendor that I felt upon arrival to a more nuanced and detailed view of specific crags, crevaces, hanging glaciers and lakes. I needed a fair bit of time to move from the grand to the minute, and etch those observations into my memory.

So, yes - Fitz Roy, Corre Torre and the rest of the mountains here are very pretty places, and we are so thankful to have had such a great window to get to experience their beauty.

 

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1000 kilometers from Ushuaia: Glaciers North and South

We are currently in El Calafate -- the town that is the jumping off point to see the Perito Moreno glacier part of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. We arrived in El Calafate at 1:30 am after a very long day that started at 4:30 am with a snowy walk to the bus station in Ushuaia. Despite 21 hours of travel, we were delighted to reach El Calafate for many reasons. One being that at 5 am (when the bus was scheduled to leave), we still didn't have tickets for the three bus rides and a ferry ride over the Strait of Magellan. Oh yeah, it was snowing too. All bus and ferry transport were needed to reach El Calafate approximately 1000 kilometers north of Ushuaia. If we would have gone 1000 kilometers in the other direction, we would have reached the glaciers of Antartica and only needed one mode of ground transport -- a boat. (Ah, live and learn.)

Luckily and even without bus tickets, we were able to ride the bus for three hours before we bought tickets at the first bus change. This bus change was right before our first border crossing of our 21 hours journey- Chile. El Calafate is an Argentinian city but Chile carved out a piece of the territory in 1881 between Ushuaia and El Calafate. Chile's territory gives the country access to the Atlantic Ocean and includes the Strait of Magellan.

Crossing the Strait of Magellan

The Strait was a surprising blue green color with white capped waves. We crossed it on a two-story red ferry that carried three buses and some passenger cars. The ferry rocked back and forth as we made our way across this strait that Magellan crossed in 1520 on his voyage to find a route to the spices of the East.

As Wilson and I perched on the second deck of the ferry, we spotted wildlife in the green-blue turbulence below. I saw a penguin and Wilson saw two penguins. All three appearing so briefly in the waves of the water and the glare of a low sun that neither us were able to share in the other's sighting. The sightings were especially thrilling because most of the penguins have migrated to Brazil for the winter. Otherwise, we would have seen many penguins on our Beagle Channel boat ride the day before. I also saw two dolphins before the ferry reached ground and lowered a ramp onto the cement ramp coming out of the water, on to points North.

Glacier Perito Moreno

Nine or so hours after the penguin and dolphin sightings we were in El Calafate -- 80 kilometers away from Glacier Perito Moreno. The size of glacier Perito Moreno is staggering -- 295 square kilometers. It is one of only three Patagonia glaciers that is growing. In fact, you can hear the gun shot and blast sounds of that growth -- the new ice pushing against the old ice. We also saw the old ice crashing into the Lake of Argentina with twenty five foot splashes of water.

The glacier is one of the most important Patagonia tourist destinations because of its accessibility. It even has disabled access with an elevator to one of the look-out platforms. Despite the glacier's accessibility, tourists can't get too close to the glacier because the old ice can shoot out from the glacier, peligroso. In a twenty year span (from the sixties to the eighties), the glacier's falling ice killed thirty-two people. No deaths today nor too many tourists, so we had an excellent time marveling at such an impressive natural wonder.

 

 

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A weekend on the bottom of the world

Our five plane journey finally reached its destination in Ushuaia, Argentina, the most southern city in Argentina, and really the most southernly city in the world. The city is nestled on the Beagle Channel, where Darwin visited about 180 years ago and below the very southern tip of the Andean mountain spine, which tower over the town in an impressive fashion.

We spent the weekend in Ushuaia, exploring nearby Tierra Del Fuego national park and getting out on the Beagle Channel, all the while doing our best to stay warm in the cold weather. Sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing.

Day 1 - Hiking the Park

Our first day took us into the Park, for a couple of hikes in the ancient forest and along lakes and bays. Both hikes were great, with expansive views to peaks near and far. The sheer size of the mountains was amazing, and even more their wildness. It is so rare in this world to be looking across miles and miles of space and know that there is not as single person out there, nor any roads, nor any vestiges of civilization. There are few places left in the world that have this kind of true, unaltered wilderness and that scarcity makes them all the more precious. For example, we hiked about 18 kms in total and hiked about half of the trails available in the park. Yet we must have seen less than 1% of the park, which is not even one of the largest parks down here in Patagonia. Down here, the distances are vast, the lakes clear, the mountains steep and basically inaccessible to humans. May they stay this way forever.

Day 2 - On the Water

We went out on the Beagle Channel, which was blustering with about 25-30 knot wind coming due east down the channel from Chile. Thankfully, the tour was a go, before some nastier weather blew in during the afternoon and evening. It was fun considering the history of this channel and the importance of Darwin's trip in the history of modern science.

One clear highlight of the tour was the sea lion colony on an island in the channel. These lions were in various states of repose, snorting and lying around. But when they wanted to move, they skirted around with surprising dexterity for their girth and overall shape.

The second highlight was getting off the boat in the channel on windswept island in the middle of the channel. This island had been home to the Yagan people. They lived here for centuries and possibly millennia before explorers/conquistadors arrived 5 centuries ago. These original inhabitants, and other tribes in the area, were incredible. They carried around a small fire on their boats and lived basically naked with a covering of sea lion fat/oil as their only barrier for the elements. This covering worked to wick ubiquitous moisture off their bodies. Still, it gets super cold down here in winter and I really can't fathom how people could live that way, so tough. Standing on the island, shivering against the wind, looking across the bay and the steep mountains, seeing the coming weather - i was so impressed with the toughness of the Yagan people.

I am guessing this picture does not make you want to head to the beach.

 

 

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And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Dateline: Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico or Guayana

I write this as we head back on the road, in a state that has become oh so comfy: moving. We are 35k above the warm blue Gulf and heading to Buenos Aires, and then down to Patagonia. It feels great to be back abroad, enjoying the anticipation (and the free wine and movies).

These last couple of days doing last minute prep have reinforced how natural the whole process now feels. I have realized that my current default is this state of moving -- downsizing from dozens of boxes -> to a full car -> to backpacks is liberating. I viscerally feel the leanness and sharpness that comes from physically having all your immediate belongings on your back. Also washing back is the mental focus required to keep your wits about you in uncertain, and exciting, environments.

Don't get me wrong, I love my gear/stuff as much as anyone, but having gone through the process of choosing what will make the trip south and what won't, what gets shipped out and what comes on our trip, i have confidence in those choices and know that if I am carrying it, I love it or need it. Also, I know that I can't forget to pack something at our first hostel and just replace it effortlessly, which leads to a heightened engagement with the surrounding world.

We have had a wonderful time in the States. Between a healthy dose of travel around the States and people coming to visit Colorado, I estimate that we saw 50+ friends/family in these last 3 months, across the skiing, weddings and getting around to various cities. Thank you to all that were part of our last 3 months, we love you guys. For those we missed, our apologies and I bet that we see you sooner rather than later.

One aspect of our travels that we are looking forward to is resuming our blogging in earnest. It has been so cool to hear how many of our loved ones have enjoyed the posts during the first several phases of travel. Countless times, I was talking with one of you over these last months and you recounted a story or picture that was memorable, which brought immense joy, and admittedly pride. It has been especially cool to hear the diversity of peoples' favorite posts.

In CO, it was harder to find topics and experiences to share. I did not think that a day of skiing followed by feasting on March Madness over dinner was all that interesting nor worthy of a post. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat x 40. For mu in that moment, it was probably a little less than nirvana, she is not the biggest sports fan after all.

We have really loved the process of sharing our thoughts on this medium, often using it to sharpen our reaction to what has transpired or deepening the historical context. Having a record of where we have gone and what we have seen is a great secondary bonus as well. Thank you for your participation, we hope these next 3 months from the bottom of South America to the top are chock full of blog worthy moments.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

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Doing it all in Moab

As we reluctantly departed CO, it seemed like a good idea to stop in Moab, an outdoor mecca in southern Utah, for a few days of sun. We left lovely Blue River on a monday morning, with a good 6 inches of snow having fallen on our car overnight and temps WAY below freezing. 5 hours later, and one tricky last run up and over Vail pass, we were pulling into Moab for a casual outdoor lunch. That would certainly not have happened in CO during our time there!

True to form, we did not just hang by the pool at our hotel for the 2+ days in Moab. Shocking I know. One of the big draws of moab for me was the diversity of stuff we could get into, way more than we could hope to fit in for our time there. We got lucky with the weather, it was sunny but not too hot.

Climbing

First on deck was climbing at a crag called Wall St. This crag is right off a little state road that heads along the mighty Colorado river. In some spots, it is just the width of the road between this huge river that carved the Grand Canyon and many hundred foot sheer cliffs.

The climbing was good, not amazing, but certainly worthwhile. It is true desert sandstone, which meant a fair bit of the always tenuous slab climbing as opposed to the more physically challenging, and obvious, face climbing that is more my forte. Still, we got on some really nice climbs and got a flavor for the area. The pic below was snapped by some friendly CA climbers that we chatted with, right as i top out on a classic for the area.

As a bonus, the climbing is next to some really cool native american cliff art, some which is believed to be over 3,000 years old. It is amazing to view the art and think to how different the world and humanity were when it was created. I also enjoyed the similarity between this art and some done at an equivalent time in human history in Zimbabwe that we saw several months ago. Here were two groups half a world apart, in totally different biomes, yet both were creating similar art to enrich and explain their existence.

Trail runs

After climbing, we drove a mile up the road to a trailhead elevated off the Colorado river for an evening trail run. The next day we went for another beautiful run in the Arches national park. Both runs had vistas that seemed to go on forever. For both we had these great views of snowcapped mountains, which rise to over 11k and yet also transition quickly on their slopes from snow to sun baked sandstone pillars. Impressive stuff.

Mt Biking

The next morning, I had reserved a mt bike to get after the trails. Moab is probably best known as a world class destination for biking and the plethora of options reinforced this title. I am a very competent mt biker, but far from a world beater and was curious how my skills would hold up on the famous slick-rock. I got a nice 27.5'' frame, my first time riding this tweener size bike and headed out for some trails on the other side of the CO river from where we climbed. It took a mile or two to readjust to biking after skiing, and recalling both physically and mentally how amazing bikes are nowadays in their performance. Once I got readjusted and plugged in, rode for over 4 hours and loved it. All of the trails were spectacular, with my personal highlight one called Captian Ahab --opened only a month ago. This being a double black diamond trail, some of the drops were a bit over my head. Literally.

Hiking

We also got to do a couple shorter hikes around various arches and other natural wonders in Arches. These were super mellow, but the scenery was quite impressive. For example, one of the arches we walked under is over a 100 feet tall and that same distance wide. It as cool to observe the parking lot packed full for sunset one evening, these are our nation's treasures and people should be out enjoying them.

Photography

Finally, I got to restart my photography, mostly in anticipation of heading back on the road. For whatever reason, I never get around to taking my camera out and taking pics when we are stationary. I probably have more pics using my nice digital SLR camera from Malawi than the Bay Area. As our moab jaunt was the re-starting of our travels in my mind, my impulse for snapping some shots was kickstarted. The below shot is part of a series that mu and I have collaborated on, and this is a nice contribution.

You can really see the diversity of options in Moab, I bet we could go for a week and never repeat any activity. We left the next and headed for Vegas, tired in a good way and very glad to have worked in these play days.

 

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