Saturday, January 16, 2010

Another Jump to the South

Today is Saturday, and I only know this because I happened to look at my watch this morning and notice the little S in the upper part of the screen. Sometimes I literally go for days without knowing what day of the week it is. And then one day I try to go explore a little town and everything is closed...and then I know it is Sunday. But today is actually a significant day because tomorrow, Sunday, January 17th, are the run-off presidential elections in Chile and they are hotly contested. The first elections happened in December and since there was no majority reached the top two candidates, Piñera and Frei, are facing off. Piñera is the more conservative candidate and he is said to have a slight lead since he won more of the vote in December but Frei, the more liberal candidate, may come through on top since the Independent candidate who is generally favored by liberal voters, is no longer in the race. There is such a split in the population that nobody really knows who will win and there is some anxiety since Chile has not had a conservative president in decades. I am pretty interested in the outcome and I am hoping to be able to get access to some election coverage tomorrow. This is somewhat improbable, however, because in Chile, as in Bolivia, election day is treated almost as a national holiday and businesses begin to close today in the afternoon and will remain closed through Sunday so that everybody can vote. Alcohol sales are also cut off tonight and will not resume until Monday. Another interesting election tidbit is that once you vote in Chile for the first time you must vote in every subsequent election or you will be either slapped a huge fine or worse unless you are physically a certain distance away from your voting district. Because of this, we heard that many residents of Santiago travel 6 hours north to La Serena to avoid their voting duties.

Whatever happens in the Sunday elections, Brad and I will be camped out in a little campsite near the lakeside town of Villarrica, in the Lakes District of Chile. We arrived yesterday after a ridiculous day of travelling that consisted of 5 different buses and as many different cities. For the last couple of days we have been in the Reserva Natural Radal Siete Tazas, a park just to the east of the Panamerican highway and south a few hours from Santiago. The park is famous for it´s sparkling clear river that snakes it´s way through an impressively deep but narrow canyon, dropping in a series of waterfalls into 7 pools known as the Siete Tazas (seven cups). There is a beautiful trail that runs alongside the waterfalls and we were lucky enough to observe 3 kayakers descending through each section of of the seven pools! The final sight on this small section of river is a waterfall known as Salta La Leona which plunges out of the steep sided gorge into a wide bowl and a nice pool that swimmers can enjoy (if they can endure the icy water which Brad compared to Crater Lake and I definitely didn´t get in far enough to say). It was really a relief to be out in nature for a couple of days after spending the last few weeks in Valparaíso and Santiago, which were great fun but intense places. We realized that in Chile we have camped almost every night except for when we stayed in hostels in the big cities, but even though we have been sleeping in a tent, we have not been in nature. However, we have reached the Lakes District, the gateway to Patagonia, and that means we will be embarking on some serious nature adventure very soon! On Monday we will begin a short backpacking trip to traverse the side of Volcán Villarrica, which I climbed back when I visited this area in 2005.

The Lakes District is obviously rich in lakes but it is also has plentiful volcanos, most of which are very classically cinder cone shaped and covered in a nice layer of snow. None of the volcanos here are over 4,000 meters so they are not tall compared to any of the Andes mountains in Peru or Ecuador. But they are quite scenic mixed with the landscape of lakes and pine forests which very much resemble areas of the Pacific NW. Last night we also had the first rain we have experienced since I can even remember...maybe it was La Paz...or perhaps there was a slight rainstorm in Tupiza in southern Bolivia that required the use of our raingear. But since then we have seen not a drop of rain so I certainly have no animosity toward a little sprinkling. Plus our tent could use a bath!

That´s pretty much the news for now. I do have one story to relate about Valparaíso. There´s a dance club I used to go to called El Huevo which was amazing because it consisted of 4 floors and at least as many rooms playing a variety of music. Well, of course I had to take Brad there and so we went on the Friday night before leaving Valpo. Besides a higher cover charge and a slightly remodeled space, it was the same place I remember from 5 years ago! Without realizing it, we danced, heard a couple of live cover bands play, and observed some amazing salsa dancers in the rooftop bar until the club kicked everyone out at closing time, 5am. By that time, I had gone back to the dark corner where I had stashed my white fleece sweatshirt earlier in the night and I found it missing along with another light cardigan sweater. I was pretty upset considering I have very few clothing items on this trip and the fleece was a key layer for warmth for me. But then I remembered that on one trip to Huevo back in 2005, I had inadvertantly walked away from the coatcheck with my own 2 jackets and many blocks later realized that I had also taken a light black jacket that certainly was not mine. I wore that jacket all over Chile and Connecticut and Boston and I continue to wear that jacket in Oregon these days. So I guess it was just club karma that took that white fleece from me! Besides, after leaving Huevo, who could be upset while observing the crowds of partiers in Valpo on a Friday night/morning all devouring the classic completo (hotdog with avocado, katchup, mustard, and mayonaise) before stumbling home to bed as the sun rises?

More later!
Chao,
Anika

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