Voluptuous Thinking

South to Santiago: the Wrap-Up

April 13, 2008 | Military Life, South to Santiago

Now that I’ve got some distance between me and the Chile trip, I thought I’d offer a few reflections on things.  I didn’t necessarily have time or energy to write about these things along the way, and felt they should be mentioned.  So, without further adieu, here’s my “South to Santiago” wrap-up and some random notes as well as a few bonus photos:

– The City.  It’s difficult to make a full judgment on the city.  Literally, my time was split between the middle of downtown (in an area called Providencia) and the airport with FIDAE and Newen.  So, I saw some of the inside of a major metropolitan city.  Traffic jams.  Smog.  Lots of smog.  And that’s too bad.  The city is stuffed in between a series of mountains.  If I could have seen them, I would tell you that they are lovely. :)  Admittedly, one day (a Sunday) the skies were fairly clear.  Probably because no one was on the road.

There are a number of town homes, condos and hotels.  Facilities are mostly modern – in the center of the city.  Along the highway we traveled to get to the airport, a huge aqueduct snakes alongside the road.  On the edges of the aqueduct live people in tin houses and ramshackle lean-tos.  Lots of poor people and piles of garbage.  As you get out of the city toward the airport, the neighborhoods are crowded and there’s graffiti everywhere.  In any case, I viewed most of this from a van to and from.  Mostly, the city reminded me of Los Angeles in both sprawl, climate and surrounding vistas.

– Culture.  Hard to gauge.  The Air Force plopped us in a pretty ritzy area of town.  On an adjacent street, good restaurants littered the area.  Our group found this Italian place and we ended up eating there four times in the span of two weeks.  But all the restaurants were expensive.  Notably, we were on “Chilean time,” meaning that things were a bit slower.  At one restaurant, from sitting down to storming out, we managed 3.5 hours.  That didn’t go over well.  There were two large malls and plenty of shopping nearby.  I didn’t take in much else, save television, which gets its own paragraph here shortly.  However, my overall comment is that Chile feels very European.

– People (Chilean).  All friendly.  Some spoke English.  It’s the first country where I’ve traveled that an English speaker was hard to find.  Even our driver, Rodrigo, didn’t speak English well. 

– People (I worked with).  We traveled with two media people.  Paul Ridgway is a Brit who’s traveled the world as a rally race driver and freelance photographer.  Sagar Pathak (mentioned below) is also a fine freelancer.  I worked with two other military people.  1st Lt. Candice Cutrufo joined us not longer after one of her B-2 bombers crashed in Guam.  My boss in Chile was Capt. Nathan Broshear, with whom I worked at RAF Fairford, UK, at the start of the Iraq War.  The two Stars and Stripes reporters, Leo Shane III and Rick Vasquez, were gems.  Leo had an especially cutting sense of humour.  Rick was funny and versatile (I enlisted his translation skills more than once).  Toward the end of the journey, Grace Jean joined us.  She’s a real pro, smart and talented. All in all, a great “hang.”

– Television.  Especially the first two days, when the illness kept me in bed, I had a chance to absorb Chilean television.  First, most of it is in Spanish or is subtitled.  There were a few American shows, like “Family Guy,” that ran in English.  However, for the most part, since my Spanish is rusty, I had a hard time watching television.  And let me say – plenty of futbol.  Soccer ran rampant on four networks, including Premiere League stuff.  I managed to catch two Liverpool FC games.  The real bright spot?  Catching two episodes of “Inspector Morse,” and Helen Mirren in “Prime Suspect.”  BBC News and CNN were also in English.  Plenty of telenovelas and some uncensored movies after 10 p.m., including some Skinamax.

Other more random notes:

– “Shopping day” came on the day before we flew out.  We managed two hours to do this.  Rodrigo shuttled us first to the Chilean equivalent of Wal-mart, called “Jumbo.”  And it is that.  It’s like Wal-Mart met and married Ikea.  H-U-G-E.  And a lot of the same cheap stuff.  I picked up a few things for the trip, and a couple of gifts for Annabelle.  The second third of the trip had us in the Lapis district.  Chile is known for its Lapis Lazuli.  Rodrigo drove us to a small district of stores, probably all connected and giving him a kickback (and good for him).  But all too pricy.  However, if you ever get to that district into that store, look for the Lapis Lazuli Tick.  No kidding.  It’s on the second shelf as you walk in.  The final third we spent in the US Embassy store in the basement.  I got a shirt and hat.  Then waited almost 30 minutes as the cashiers futzed around trying to jam more receipt paper into the credit card processing machine.  Eventually, a team of Embassy specialists were sent down and it still took another 20 minutes.  Somewhere in there, we managed to leave.  I love my hat.  My daughter loves the shirt, which I thought was a men’s large, but probably would have better fit a young Macaulay Culkin.

– This is the first time in about a year I realized that my work camera probably needs to be replaced.  It’s a Nikon D100.  I have two of these.  By my calculations, the technology is seven years old.  So, I’ll be lobbying for a D300 (I just don’t need a D3).  I’m going to give it a thorough cleaning and all that when I go back to work.  However, I’m just not happy with the picture quality.

– Speaking of camera gear, here’s what I took: Nikon D100, Nikon 28-105 lens, Nikon 70-300 lens, Nikon 18-35 wide angle lens and an off-brand 28-105 lens.  I also brought a Panasonic HVX-series video camera and got some great video (which I’ll share as soon as I can encode it).

– Since I had a room with two queen beds, I took in a roommate, a freelance photographer, about four days in to help him save some money and make the logistics of getting around a bit easier. Sagar Pathak’s photos are fantastic and, besides the snoring, it went well.  I highly recommend hiring him and visiting his Web site.

– This was my first trip below the Equator.  Google Earth tells me the 10-hour airplane ride from Fort Worth to Santiago is about 4,990 miles. 

– In Chile, Coca-Cola, along with other soft drinks, are made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup.  This is also true in Europe.  And it tastes better.  Trust me.  It tastes better.  Speaking of food bad for you …

– McDonald’s in Chile is no different from McDonalds in Warner Robins, Ga.  And they won’t serve you a burger before 11 p.m.

That does it.  If you enjoyed the series, please comment.