Bolivia - Beyond Words

I just finished categorizing and organizing our pictures from Northern Chile and Bolivia and I believe they are beyond words (at least beyond few words). They say a picture is worth 1000 words, but I want to share with you one worth 5000. We took so many photos that it will take some time and effort to share the highlights with you on this blog. So to give you all a preview here is the 5000th photo taken with our camera.

La Moneda - Santiago

On Tuesday Feb 13th, Sita and I went to downtown Santiago to see the changing of the guards at Palacio de La Moneda, but we didn’t end up seeing this because it turns out this ceremony is only done every other day. We didn’t find this out until we got there so we ended up visiting La Moneda anyway and doing a few more things in Santiago. Palacio de La Moneda literally translates as “Palace of the Coin” or “Coin Palace” it was used as a mint during colonial times, but is now the seat of the president of Chile. It was used as the presidential residence from 1845 until around 1952, but it is now just the office of the president. It’s like the Chilean White House. Many of you will recognize it if you have ever seen historical pictures of the September 11th 1973 coup.

Sita in front of La Moneda, in the Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Square).
Hari in front of La Moneda, in the Plaza de la Constitución.
A statue of Diego Portales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Portales I took this picture because it reminded me of the town Portales in New Mexico which is the most prominent Portales when you do a search on "Portales" on Google. I decided to see what this guy was known for and I read the article at wikipedia and he doesn't seem that worthy of a statue, his death seemed more important than his life.
A view of the city from the Consitution Square.
Me and Allende. He said "Tengo fe in Chile y su destino" which means "I have faith in Chile and its destiny." Then I was like "Me too, but I bet you didn't realize how long it would take Chile to break the shackles of Pinochet." Then he said "Yeah it's lamentable." Then I said "It's funny how in the face of the unavoidable evidence of criminality of Pinochet, his supporters seek to criticise you to change the subject." Then he said "Yeah it seems like a common strategy of the times." I responded to that saying "It seems so, and that is even more lamentable." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
These guards stand like this all day, but they are apparently allowed to move as I saw them slightly but noticeably move several times.
Me inside the Palace in the first courtyard in front of the door to the second.
Watch out! How did Sita get this canon into the Chilean White House? I hope another coup is not afoot.
Me in front of the fountain in the second courtyard.
El Patio de los Naranjos. The Orange Tree Patio

I thought that it was funny that inside a secured and heavily-trafficked environment there exists this little nest undisturbed.
Sita in front of the fountain.
El Palcio de La Moneda from the Plaza de la Ciudadanía (Citizenry Square).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Moneda
A view of the city from this plaza.
After the visit to the palace we went around Santiago doing different things. Some picture I took just because I found them interesting as is the case below.
Sita asking her dad for directions to "El Rapido" a restaurant/fast food joint where they serve you your order within seconds of you ordering it.
I found this corner interesting because it reminded me of a red light district. The buildigns were old concrete buildings that had been dirtied by smog, add to that graffiti and neon lights and it made for a shady looking place. It's not though as evidenced by the street cleaner and the man in the suit.
Sita in the Plaza de Armas. The following 5 pictures were taken from the Plaza de Armas (Arms Square).
I thought this church and the high rise made a stark contrast.
The central Chilean post office.

There were several copper engravings embeded in the pavement in the Plaza. I found this one interesting as it depected a city planning diagram from th 1700s.
If something drips on you on a cloud free day in Santiago, don't be afraid to look up, it's just water, from a cooler.
Another city view.
Tribunales de Justicia. I believe this is like the Chilean Supreme Court.
An interesting tunnel between skyscrapers.
The resemblance to here to Times Square is not a coincidence the name of the adjacent street is Nueva York.
This is a view in the direction of Peñalolen, the neighborhood in which Sita's parents dwell. This pic was taken from the closest metro station to the house. There's a big mountain in the backgroudn which can't be seen because smog.
These are what taxis look like, for the most part, in Santiago, although anything with an orange license plate is a taxi and sometimes they can be inconspicuous looking like any other car on the road but with an orange license plate.
Now this is probably going to be an odd concept to some, but there are some middle lanes in Santiago that are reversible. That is during some times, they go in one direction and other times in the other direction. You have to look if the light facing you is green or red to know whether you can use this lane. In this case "Doble" mean that two lanes are going in the same direction as you are currently going rather than just one. This system is supposed to relieve rush hour traffic, but many tourists complain as well as some locals, when they arrive on one of these streets in an unfamiliar area and end up going the wrong direction.
Some streets are just one way and that direction changes at a different time of day, except on weekends when it is the same direction the whole weekend. I find these streets to be particularly dangerous as there are no lights just signs in Spanish with large amounts of text describing the times and the days that the streets are in one direction or the other. To me it seems too dangerous to be a good idea, since drivers and pedestrians are sometimes confused. Also I have to wonder if the same amount of money that was required to erect the signs, buy the signs and operate the electric signs was used to differently if it would be enough to simply widen the road and add another lane.

Santiago Market

The day after returning from Pucón we went to a food market in Santiago that is kind of like farmers markets in the US. It sets itself up once or twice a week on a busy street near Sita's parents house and in other locations the rest of the week. One of the lanes of the street in each direction is informally turned into parking for the market. Also, as usual in Santiago, there is someone there to help you park and, supposedly, make sure your car is not broken into. You are required to tip this person at the end of your stay, as this is how they make their money. I say that they supposedly secure your car because sometimes these are the people that break into your car and paying them just ensures that they themselves don't break into your car the next time you park there. In this particular case the parking helper also had an additional service, he was carrying around large pieces of cardboard which he would put over the windshield of vehicles that didn't have sunvisors. This also may have been a way for him to identify which vehicles he helped park, or have people call on him, so that he could then return to collect money when they left. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this scene this time, but I thought this would be a good time to introduce this concept to those unfamiliar with it. Those who have been to Mexico City would already be familiar with this routine as it's the same there. You always need coins in your car in Mexico City and Santiago, because there is a risk involved in not paying these people.

Us arriving at the market.
Sita giving me a look like, "you're already taking pictures?".
Some of the choices at the market and their prices.
Sita and Slyvia checking out the giant zucchinis at 5 for 500 pesos this is a pretty good deal (this is just under $1 USD).
Hari checking out the variety.
Sita looking around while Slyvia is searching for someone to ask about the bell peppers.
These cantaloupes were huge and you could get four for 1000 pesos (less than $2).
Another view of the market.
Some people took advantage of this venue to sell things other than food. There were cheap toys and other household items, but there was also black market media. Rather than having the DVDs and other media sitting on a cloth right there for you to buy as they do in NYC, they instead have a list for you to choose from. I presume that they fetch the DVD for you right then once you've made your selection, but it could also be that they burn it right then and there.
A little fancier than a text list is the cover art of DVDs and CDs.
Homer Simpson is a popular icon here as well, in fact maybe even more popular, I've seen more shirts and images of the Simpsons here in Chile than I usually do in the US. It reminds me of the early 90s when everybody in the US had some kind of Simpsons related article of clothing.
One last glimpse of the market as we were leaving.

Bolivia

This is just going to be a quick text post. I´m using a dial-up connection here in San Pedro de Atacama. Yeah I didn´t know they still existed either. Anyway, we decided to go on a four day tour of Bolivia starting tomorrow, so if all that is available here in northern Chile (a much richer country) is dial-up I expect that I won´t be able to make another blog post for a while.

We flew into Calama this morning from Santiago, then we took an hour and a half bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama, we then found a place to stay, ate some lunch, set up our tour of Bolivia and then rented bikes. We saw the valley of death and rode half-way to the valley of the moon before having to return to town to return the bikes. I took a lot of photos and I have some photos from our last few days in Santiago that I want to share with everybody so don´t worry there´ll be more to see soon.

Saltos del Laja - Waterfall and end of our southern travels

After a week down south and a ton of adventures, it was time to return to Santiago. I didn't take nearly as many pictures on the way back as I did on the way down there. Part of the reason being that I did a lot more of the driving. One place where I did take a lot of pictures was at Saltos del Laja, waterfalls that we visited when we stopped for lunch.

This was the first picture I took of the falls. It was from the patio of the restaurant were we ate.
More pictures from the restaurant. This is a pretty nice view to have while your relaxing, chilling, feeling blessed to be on vacation, enjoying the warmth and the breeze, and eating.

This is the view from the road. We left the cars parked at the restaurant and we walked back over the bridge on our way to the path to falls.
Us.
More pics of the falls.

Immeadiately after the falls the river carved out two different steep paths, this is where they join back together.
Anbody feel like rafting here? :-)

At this point you could feel a mist equivalent to a really fine spray bottle. We didnt' feel inclined to get any closer than this at the base, as we were seeing numerous people coming our way completely drenched in their regular clothing. So we decided to take the path to the top.
From the top we could see a pool were people go swimming. If we had more time, I would have definitely got in here.
A couple more pics of the falls from above.