We are currently in Chile and are way behind in our blog. We rarely had use of a computer and found that we are still struggling with the tablet. So today is catch up day.
We left Mendoza on the 24th and flew to Santiago after saying goodbye to Larry and Susan who were leaving later and returning to Portland. We were picked-up at the airport in Santiago by a friend of a friend who lives in Georgia. Oke and his partner Mark are Canadians who have retired to Chile in the small community of Quizco on the Chilean coast about 45 minutes southwest of Santiago. Oke picked us up and took us to his home with a spectacular view of the ocean. Here we met Mark. The arrangement was actually a set-up as Mark had contacted us and asked us to keep Oke busy while he got ready for a surprise 40th birthday party for Oke. We were only too glad to help with the conspiracy. Once we dropped off our luggage, Oke took us to lunch and to tour around the area, including seeing the the home of poet Pablo Naruda. We got Oke, back to the house about an hour late, but the surprise was none the less effective. At one point in the early evening, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and saw some spectacular scenery and and an amazing sunset.
The Next Day we went to Valparaiso, also on the Chilean coast, but closer to Santiago. There is a busy port and some colonial building here. The town is built on the slope of a many hills, and as a result there are several funiculars to help pedestrians get around the area.
The next day we traveled to Santiago. When we arrived, we had lunch and then went exploring and found a fair trade shop where we bought a Mapuche weaving for our living room couch. That evening we had dinner with Ron´s cousin Michael and his wife Hila. We hadn´t seen Michael in about 15 years and had never met his charming wife. Chile has adopted a new no tolerance alcohol law which has extreme consequences for anyone who is caught driving after having any alcohol.
The next morning we went up the funicular in Metro Park to catch a view of Santiago. We were horrified by the brown cloud of pollution hanging over the city. Scary! On the way down the funicular we started a conversation with a woman from S Africa and invited her to join us in seeing another of Pablo Neruda´s houses called La Chascona which he named after the unruly hair of his mistress. This house was his love nest with her. Later he married her, his third wife.
On our last day we visited a place recommended by friends in Wilsonville, Pueblito Los Dominicos. This was an ártists´village filled with many shops, mostly high quality. We spied a small woven rug we couldn´t pass up.
. We stayed in a lovely hotel in Santiago, Villafranca Petit Hotel. It was a lovely home in a quiet residential neighborhood and just around the corner from a hot Peruvian restaurant called Astrid and Gaston. We dined on the terrace by candlelight with four men serving our every need. The meal was divine. The next day we also visited Museo Visual Artes that had a wonderful exhibit and a permanent exhibit of pre Columbian pottery and weavings. We were thrilled since the PreColumbian Museo was closed due to earthquake damage and not due to reopen until 2013. Later that day we moved to a different hotel as Villafranca didn't have room for us for the third night.
The next morning we flew to Easter Island, about 2200 miles off the Chilean coast, the most remote island in the world that is inhabited. We stayed at a small four room guesthouse owned by Jerome, a Frenchman, who has lived here for 18 years. He is married to a local Rapa Nui woman, Nancy. Jerome was our guide for the three days we were there. He was quite knowledgeable about the archeology and history of the island.Our expectations were far exceeded here. The island is beautiful, surrounded by turquoise, royal and navy blue waters. The island has rolling hills covered in grasses, shrubs and some trees, mostly eucalyptus.
Almost all food is shipped in to the island as is everything else. Petrol arrives once every five weeks. This is a small island about 14 miles long by 7 miles wide. Seafood is the main food here of course. We had it every day.
Our first day we had a half day tour and got to see some of the incredible moai, the famous head statues that weigh up to 14 tons. The second day was a full day tour with lunch at a beach shack with empanadas and I chose tuna. YUM. The moai were made to honor the tribal chiefs. Each moai is unique. The platforms upon which they rest are called ahu and as many as 15 are on the ahus. The moais were carved in the quarry and moved to sites up to 12 miles from the quarry. No one knows how that was done exactly. Much of the history was lost when tribes started warring in the 1700´s due to a growing lack of resources as the population grew to 10,000. It is said that cannibalism was practiced at that time. It is also thought that this is when the moai were toppled. In addition after Europeans discovered the island the contact with Europeans brought devastation due to exposure to diseases for which the islanders had no resistance. Finally Incas captured over 1,000 islanders and brought them to Peru as slaves where all but 100 died due to disease. Those who were returned to the island brought diseases back with them. Ultimately the population was reduced to 100-200 people and the knowledge and culture has never been fully regained..
Today about 5,000 live on the island. and there are 70,000 visitors. The only industry here is tourism with many small shops and guesthouses.
Jerome told us a great story about when Kevin Costner came to the island and filmed the movie ´Rapa Nui´ in the 90´s. Costner paid locals $100 a day when the going rate for work was $10 a day. This allowed locals to have enough money to build guesthouses and small businesses for tourists and create the opportunity for tourism to expand. Kevin had heard that Jerome´s mother in law was a great person to go fishing with and he went to her house and asked her if she would take him fishing. Her response was ´´Can´t you see I am cleaning my house? Come back tomorrow´´, which he did. Great story. Being a movie star didn´t mean anything to this woman.
Easter Island was "discovered" in 1722 by a Dutch explorer on Easter Sunday, hence its name. To the locals however it is called Rapa Nui. It has been a Chilean territory since 1888. The original inhabitants were Polynesians and today the music played and the native dress for festivals is Polynesian. The native language is Spanish and children are taught Rapa Nui in school. There is no written Rapa Nui language. The earliest archaeological evidence is from 800 A.D.
On our 2nd day there we did a full day tour, and on our third we did a half day tour. All of the upright moai are the result of restorations over the years from foreign countries as all of them were toppled during the island conflict when the resources were used up.
We flew back to Santiago and that evening we boarded an overnight bus to Puerto Vargas, about 600 miles south of Santiago. This was an experience as we thought we had booked a ´sleeper´seat and discovered this bus didn´t have any of those seats. The chair back reclined pretty far but the leg rest didn´t lift up so I kept sliding down in my chair. Finally I put my feet on the wall in front of me as we were in the first seats and managed to sleep (sort of) in this fashion. We arrived about 8:30 in the morning after 13 hrs on the bus and walked to our guesthouse, a lovely German art noveau house about 100 years old. We had a great breakfast, showered and went exploring.
We left Mendoza on the 24th and flew to Santiago after saying goodbye to Larry and Susan who were leaving later and returning to Portland. We were picked-up at the airport in Santiago by a friend of a friend who lives in Georgia. Oke and his partner Mark are Canadians who have retired to Chile in the small community of Quizco on the Chilean coast about 45 minutes southwest of Santiago. Oke picked us up and took us to his home with a spectacular view of the ocean. Here we met Mark. The arrangement was actually a set-up as Mark had contacted us and asked us to keep Oke busy while he got ready for a surprise 40th birthday party for Oke. We were only too glad to help with the conspiracy. Once we dropped off our luggage, Oke took us to lunch and to tour around the area, including seeing the the home of poet Pablo Naruda. We got Oke, back to the house about an hour late, but the surprise was none the less effective. At one point in the early evening, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and saw some spectacular scenery and and an amazing sunset.
The Next Day we went to Valparaiso, also on the Chilean coast, but closer to Santiago. There is a busy port and some colonial building here. The town is built on the slope of a many hills, and as a result there are several funiculars to help pedestrians get around the area.
. We stayed in a lovely hotel in Santiago, Villafranca Petit Hotel. It was a lovely home in a quiet residential neighborhood and just around the corner from a hot Peruvian restaurant called Astrid and Gaston. We dined on the terrace by candlelight with four men serving our every need. The meal was divine. The next day we also visited Museo Visual Artes that had a wonderful exhibit and a permanent exhibit of pre Columbian pottery and weavings. We were thrilled since the PreColumbian Museo was closed due to earthquake damage and not due to reopen until 2013. Later that day we moved to a different hotel as Villafranca didn't have room for us for the third night.
The next morning we flew to Easter Island, about 2200 miles off the Chilean coast, the most remote island in the world that is inhabited. We stayed at a small four room guesthouse owned by Jerome, a Frenchman, who has lived here for 18 years. He is married to a local Rapa Nui woman, Nancy. Jerome was our guide for the three days we were there. He was quite knowledgeable about the archeology and history of the island.Our expectations were far exceeded here. The island is beautiful, surrounded by turquoise, royal and navy blue waters. The island has rolling hills covered in grasses, shrubs and some trees, mostly eucalyptus.
Almost all food is shipped in to the island as is everything else. Petrol arrives once every five weeks. This is a small island about 14 miles long by 7 miles wide. Seafood is the main food here of course. We had it every day.
Our first day we had a half day tour and got to see some of the incredible moai, the famous head statues that weigh up to 14 tons. The second day was a full day tour with lunch at a beach shack with empanadas and I chose tuna. YUM. The moai were made to honor the tribal chiefs. Each moai is unique. The platforms upon which they rest are called ahu and as many as 15 are on the ahus. The moais were carved in the quarry and moved to sites up to 12 miles from the quarry. No one knows how that was done exactly. Much of the history was lost when tribes started warring in the 1700´s due to a growing lack of resources as the population grew to 10,000. It is said that cannibalism was practiced at that time. It is also thought that this is when the moai were toppled. In addition after Europeans discovered the island the contact with Europeans brought devastation due to exposure to diseases for which the islanders had no resistance. Finally Incas captured over 1,000 islanders and brought them to Peru as slaves where all but 100 died due to disease. Those who were returned to the island brought diseases back with them. Ultimately the population was reduced to 100-200 people and the knowledge and culture has never been fully regained..
Today about 5,000 live on the island. and there are 70,000 visitors. The only industry here is tourism with many small shops and guesthouses.
Jerome told us a great story about when Kevin Costner came to the island and filmed the movie ´Rapa Nui´ in the 90´s. Costner paid locals $100 a day when the going rate for work was $10 a day. This allowed locals to have enough money to build guesthouses and small businesses for tourists and create the opportunity for tourism to expand. Kevin had heard that Jerome´s mother in law was a great person to go fishing with and he went to her house and asked her if she would take him fishing. Her response was ´´Can´t you see I am cleaning my house? Come back tomorrow´´, which he did. Great story. Being a movie star didn´t mean anything to this woman.
Easter Island was "discovered" in 1722 by a Dutch explorer on Easter Sunday, hence its name. To the locals however it is called Rapa Nui. It has been a Chilean territory since 1888. The original inhabitants were Polynesians and today the music played and the native dress for festivals is Polynesian. The native language is Spanish and children are taught Rapa Nui in school. There is no written Rapa Nui language. The earliest archaeological evidence is from 800 A.D.On our 2nd day there we did a full day tour, and on our third we did a half day tour. All of the upright moai are the result of restorations over the years from foreign countries as all of them were toppled during the island conflict when the resources were used up.
We flew back to Santiago and that evening we boarded an overnight bus to Puerto Vargas, about 600 miles south of Santiago. This was an experience as we thought we had booked a ´sleeper´seat and discovered this bus didn´t have any of those seats. The chair back reclined pretty far but the leg rest didn´t lift up so I kept sliding down in my chair. Finally I put my feet on the wall in front of me as we were in the first seats and managed to sleep (sort of) in this fashion. We arrived about 8:30 in the morning after 13 hrs on the bus and walked to our guesthouse, a lovely German art noveau house about 100 years old. We had a great breakfast, showered and went exploring.
No comments:
Post a Comment