Un Viaje al Cajón

One thing is for certain, the mountains looming next to Santiago valley look spectacular under their winter blanket of snow and after the rain washes away the dirty husk of the smog, the mountains seem to be everywhere you look.

Last long weekend, held in celebration for Saints Peter and Paul, a group of us decided to venture to Cajón del Maipo, the canyon southeast of Santiago. Having already visited the main village San José de Maipo a couple of times, my lovely Chilean and I weren't expecting too much from the outing, perhaps just a nice meal at one of the many gourmet restaurants. Never did I expect the canyon to extend on into a vast array of hikes, villages, waterfalls and thermals to choose from.

The only trouble was that the public buses barely hit the halfway point in the canyon and so without a car, it's practically impossible to get to any one of these amazing places. Having come this far by ridiculously slow public transport, we decided to wait an hour to take the bus that would take us onto the next village (the last place the buses drive to).

From San Gabriel, we walked along the highway to a little village by the riverside, where people picnicked or had beers at the little café, behind of which began a path that trailed up the Maipo River. We followed this as far as we could, leaping from stone to stone and climbing high up the quarried slopes to avoid the rapid current below. We found a spot to rest upon the rocks while we drank a beer and mediated upon the radiating beauty of the cordillera.

On the way back, we watched as three brave men prepared to kayak amidst the rushing rapids. As we walked up the hill to the bus stop, we saw them far below battling against nature, and then they turned a bend and were gone. Once on the bus, our eyelids became heavy and we awoke an hour later back in the city, the smog once again filling our lungs in a familiar embrace.

Una Hermosa Tierra de Contradicciones

The pride of the south is the longaniza: a sausage similar to the chorizo and commonly eaten in Chile with bread as a choripan. Chile in fact is like the longaniza; it's long and thin and full of different flavoursome components. It is rich in natural beauty of varying colours and rich in natural history.

So much of Chile seems untouched by humans... until now, as you can see by the highly protested decisions to install more dams and introduce transgenic foods and the powerful mining lobby.

I teach English to the private sector, mostly commercial engineers for that matter, a lot of whom are quite conservative in many regards. During one early bird class, a student of mine questioned why so many Chileans were out in the streets protesting against HidroAysén when none of them recycle. Litter is scattered across the streets and outside the rich business end of Santiago, there aren't any council street cleaners with their large palm leaves to sweep away the mess. A receipt is given to you for every purchase, not matter how minor, and the staff won't let you leave until you have received it. Water is treated as if it were in abundance with old men washing down the public footpath in front of their house and a very small minority of households owning a plug for their sink.

There is definitely the possibility to recycle here though. The shopping centres all have recycle bins in their car parks but if you don't have a car, it's very hard to travel half an hour on public transport with bags weighed down by bottles and cans. They have a great system where you can return your Coca-Cola or Cristal beer plastic bottles for a refill, and if you need ink for your printer, you simply take your ink cartridge to be refilled by sticking in a syringe full of ink.

And yet, at the supermarket a plastic bag is used for each individual item. You can't buy bread, fruit or vegetables without wrapping it in plastic. There is a ridiculous amount of plastic bags in my house, which we use to line the rubbish bin but that hardly makes a dent in the pile. Lider supermarket (owned by Walmart) has introduced environmentally friendly blue bags for a cheap price but it is yet to catch on with the masses.

I'm just waiting for the day that the local municipality decides to integrate recycling into their garbage collection system. But that seems a long way off yet. Chile is still in its economic developmental stage and everything is geared towards economic improvement. Until this is reached, recycling and other such things will be consistently pushed to the back of the agenda, something that is happening in many developing countries. And yet the contradiction lies in the enormous amount of people here who feel some sort of connection to the land in some way or another, whether it is to preserve it or to adventure across it.

Because of Chile's geography, it is full of astonishing natural beauty that most Chileans are proud of and are protesting to protect, and yet life in the city seems to suggest something different. The tree-hugging hippy is still having ridiculously long showers.

Bendición de la Casa

Chile is the most economically stable country in South America, making it as some might say, a safer place to live and work. There is an incredible influx of commercial engineers churning out from the many tertiary institutions. Let's face it, Santiago is the business capital of Chile and if you work in any other industry, your chances of getting a good income is just that much harder.

My lovely Chilean's mother's partner is a teacher in the field of educación especial, specialising in the education of the blind. His moral job involves extremely long hours at several places and at 40 years old, he has successfully raised enough money to buy one of the cute, 3-storey, Elizabethan-style townhouses in the same condominio as us.

Last Saturday, he held the bendición - a blessing of the house witnessed by his family. 14 of us gathered around the living room as his brother, who had studied 10 years of priesthood, recited various verses from the Bible and sprayed holy water around the room. This was followed by everyone chanting the Lord's Prayer and the blessing of a cross that was stuck onto the back of the front door as a reminder that the house was now under the protection of the Lord.

The smell of roasting meat on the barbeque drew us all to our seats and we spent the afternoon enjoying a merry Chilean feast. With bloated stomaches we congratulated the new residents and wished them the best of luck with the noisy dogs on one side and the woman on the other side who likes to complain about the light on the path outside the joining houses apparently never being on, even though the light switch is located in the new resident's house, meaning they have to pay the bill.

El Patrimonio Cultural

Sunday, 29 May saw Chile celebrate its twelfth Día de la Patrimonia (Cultural Heritage Day). On this particular day, government agencies, public and private museums and national monuments were open to the public, like Museo Bellas Artes, Santiago Municipal Theatre and the National Library to name a few in Santiago. Yet, what most people don't realise is that these state buildings are not the only heritage-listed feats to check out.

Santiago is filled with heritage-listed garden suburbs: a planned suburban development with open spaces, low-density housing and of course, many private gardens, that were popular in the early twentieth century in England and English colonies. This includes the English that settled here in Chile, most notably in Providencia.

After English sailor, William Noon, arrived in Chile and established Fort Bulnes as governor of Punta Arenas, he went on to construct what is now called the William Noon Community, located on the corner of Manuel Montt and Eliodoro Yanez. This historical area is composed of two-level dwellings that are organized around patios, each one painted identically in deep crimson and eggshell white.

After Noon passed away, he left his estate to the Sisters of the Dominican Order - the name Providencia actually being a derivative from the Convert of the Sisters of Divine Providence, who came to Chile in 1853 from Canada. Providencia now harbours 27 World Heritage sites, including the William Noon Community.

Today, many ordinary Chilean citizens live in these protected garden suburbs. Another such place is Población Leo XIII, again located in Providencia. This population was the first social housing in Chile and was named after Pope Leo XIII, who encouraged the awareness of the bad conditions for workers and hence their need for better housing.

Each one of these cute one-storey houses look very similar to the other, except for their unique shades of pastel. As you walk further along the street, you feel as if you have entered a charismatic country lane in a Hollywood movie set, each cosy-looking house inviting you in for a warm, homemade soup.

Then you step onto the set of My Fair Lady in Viña del Mar Street, with its grand English style houses that are characterised by their bow windows and Art Nouveau wrought iron fences. Nothing makes the street more distinctive though than the vibrant colours that awaken the senses like a fresh summer’s day at the beach.

You can find the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales (Council for National Monuments) hidden amongst the casas, and from them you can get a map of the heritage route around Providenica, which takes you from Viña del Mar Street to the multitude of historical monuments in Bella Vista, including La Chascona and the Plaza Camilo Mori.

These are just a few of the garden suburbs in Santiago. Just aimlessly wondering down the streets of Providencia and Bella Vista is like stepping back into a time in the past when attention was paid to detailing houses and painting them the colours of the rainbow, and making them a part of a community. It just goes to show that you don't always have to pay a price for history.

La Burocracia Chilena

I remember the framer asking me whether or not I wanted to glue my enormous graduation certificate to the frame. Never even considering the possibility of ever using it, I of course said yes. Once happily installed as decoration on my bedroom wall, it was never thought about again. That is until I came to Chile.

Last year I taught English to a lawyer, the head lawyer in the company in fact, and he had said something very interesting that I haven't forgotten. In preparation for a business venture with an American company, he was in the middle of drawing up contracts but was having a difficult time because of the contrasting legal systems in each country. He told me that Chilean society is one that doesn't trust anyone and expects to be cheated.

At first I didn't see it but soon it became apparent as to how true his words were. 'Word of honour' just does not exist here or at least, there is little evidence of it. Every document must be made official by a notary: a lawyer or person licensed by the state to perform acts in legal affairs. If it isn't legalised, it is considered an unofficial document or fraud. In my blatant cultural ignorance, I had never even heard of a notary until I became involved with Chile.

When I signed my first work contract, I had to get it also signed by a notary. When I handed in my letter of resignation, I had to get it signed by a notary and most surprising of all, for the requirement of my next job at a university, I had to get my graduation certificate signed by a notary.

Now this wasn't an easy procedure, especially with my original copy hanging peacefully on my bedroom wall far across the Pacific Ocean. If I ripped it out of the frame, it would surely be destroyed. So I called my university only to find that they didn’t make copies. All I could ask for (ie. pay for) was a testimonial that I had indeed completed my undergraduate degree. I had it sent to my parent’s address. My mother had two photocopies of the document signed by an Australian Justice of the Peace (again something I had seldom heard of before my involvement with Chile) and she then sent them to me.

Two weeks later, we discovered she had sent the two photocopies and not the original. A legalised photocopy by anyone other than a Chilean notary is not recognised by the state so I had to wait another 2 weeks for the original to arrive. My patience grew thin as my work hounded me for a Chilean notarised copy of the document. They could neither put me into the system, so I couldn't even mark the absentees for my student or give them grades, nor pay me for my services.

When the time came, I took the original to first be stamped by the Australian embassy. As there is an abundance of universities in Chile (most of which are uncertified because basically anyone can open an university if they want to - just like opening a business really), I had to get the Australian embassy to prove that not only did I complete a 'real' degree but also that I did it from a 'real' university. Luckily the embassy had an electronic record of all the university registrars in Australia and if my testimonial was signed by one of them, they could easily legalise the document.

But this wasn't the case. In a country where you can simply write on your CV that you have a degree and employers will believe it, a referee had been used instead. The receptionist at the embassy came back and informed me that they could legalise the university seal and stamp but not the signature. I paid $10,000 pesos (more than an hour's pay) and got back my document which now had a giant 'Embajada de Australia' stamp of basically a paragraph of legal jargon. On the third line, the tiny writing "DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the signature" had been crossed out. It was so small you couldn't even tell.

With this, I travelled across town to the Ministry of Foreign Relations and had it legalised. Amazingly, there was no line and I didn't have to pay. The Oficial de Legalizaciones didn't even flip the paper over; he just saw the embassy’s approval and merely stamped and signed away.

The final step was to then take it to a notary, where I paid a little sum to get another 3 more stamps and two certified copies, one of which I gave to my work who then put me into the system. Yet by this time, I had missed the cut-off date for the first payment (which was already 2 months delayed) so I would have to wait another month to get paid - a 3 month wait in total. The incredible thing though was that once the original had arrived, I was unexpectedly able to get my extra 5 stamps in just one morning.

So if you're ever in Santiago, you will soon come to realise that there is a notary on almost every corner. Now how's that for red tape!

El Caos en Chile

Imagine one of the last places on earth that has remained wild and untouched by humans all this time, covered by folds of glaciers, which have unfortunately begun to melt away but only to reveal beautiful pale blue water that almost replicates the sky on land. Now imagine, five ugly dams with 2, 750 megawatts of power hindering the speechless beauty of this unoccupied part of southern Chilean Patagonia.

The HidroAysén project was approved by the Chilean government on 20 May, despite having faced consistent protest. This bill will affect six national parks, 11 national reserves, 26 priority conservation sites, 16 wetlands and 32 private protected areas in Patagonia. The dams would ultimately flood at least 5,700 hectares of globally rare forest ecosystems all for the sake of GDP growth.

80,000 protesters flocked to Plaza Italia in inner-city Santiago to protest, most of whom were peaceful but some of which began attacking the police, who then responded with water cannons and tear gas. All this came a week after a previous protest in Santiago against the dam project (pun fully intended) and some 50,000 protesters in Valparaíso as well as tens of thousands of protesters in 26 other cities. Latino celebrities have now jumped on the bandwagon in demonstrating their support against the project.

In reality more should be done to increase the amount of power obtained from renewable sources like solar from the driest desert in the world or the incredible amounts of geothermal energy. Oh, and did I mention that the President's wife's brother is the head of the energy company that is most definitely going to profit enormously from this venture?

This is all happening at the same time as Chile’s decision to sell copyright of all Chilean seeds to big, multi-national transgenic seed companies like Monsanto (USA), basically forcing Chileans to only produce transgenic fruit and vegetables as well as making small farmers and private owners pay a hefty fee for having even a small plantation of seeds.

(Image from timesonline.com)

El Metro de Santiago

The metro is such an integral part of Santiago life. It is the fundamental link between the hustle of the economic city centre and the poorer outskirts of the Santiago periphery. Consequently it is stuffed with those who have no other means of transportation and it is also snubbed by those who have the luxury of being able to afford to drive to work (the metro is seen to be for the poor people and who would want to mix with them, right?).

Yes, the subway/underground/metro is a metaphor for the Santiago mentality. Old women are the worst when it comes to aggression, as it is they who rudely push and shove to their best ability to make it to the empty seat. If they aren’t assertive, no one will stand to offer them a seat; not the middle aged men or the young men, neither will senoritas with their absurdly towering high heels or the kids in their stiff uniforms.

I remember the local community complaining that the students from my high school weren’t giving up their seats on the train. We were all subsequently lectured in school assemblies about behaving more appropriately and honourably in public, especially when representing the school by wearing our uniforms.

Now, every day I am faced with a constant battle for a seat. People will purposely miss the metro and stand right exactly where the doors open onto the platform just so they can get a seat on the next metro. People don't wait for you to get off the metro before they enter or walk to the right or stand to one side on the escalator for that matter. I have never felt like such an etiquette critic in all my life but dealing with thousands of rushing commuters has made me reflect upon what I consider to be respectful. So much for 'love thy neighbour'.

That having been said, the metro is an absolute lifesaver. It is clean, local and extremely frequent. Who said that a developing country couldn’t have great transportation? It puts my native transportation system to shame. Everyone has a BIP card, which they top up with money when needed and swipe it at the booth to enter the platform, paying the same price no matter how far they travel. So yes, there’s NO TICKETS and your card never goes OUT OF DATE!

The metro comes approximately every 5 minutes. During peak hour, they increase the metro flow with express metros, which are colour-coded red and green, and which stop at every second stop depending on the colour of the station. One disadvantage, however, is that it closes at 11pm even on weekends, even though the clubs only open at midnight. There are buses but they aren’t as direct...

A few years ago Transantiago monopolised the transportation system in Santiago. Before, the bus companies used to compete for passengers, racing around the city trying to collect as many passengers as possible before another company did. Even now, with only one company, the drivers have still retained they crazy driving skills, terrifyingly speeding around and hardly stopping to let passengers on and off.

The monopolisation also meant that the bus routes changed, encouraging people to travel by both bus and metro. Most people now just take the metro because it’s easier just to change lines rather than wait for the bus or sit in traffic. You pay one price for the metro and you get to travel by bus for free for the next consecutive two hours. If you take the bus first you have to pay an extra $20 pesos for the metro.

In general I think the metro is great, although the hardest part to really comprehend is the price. They fluctuate depending on the time of day, peak hour obviously being the most expensive at $560 pesos (A$1.20), which might sound cheap to a gringo but actually it doesn't correspond with the average monthly salary at all!

Last year, I worked at an English institute for $200,000 (A$420) pesos before tax a month. If I caught the metro an average of twice a day, including the weekend it would cost me about a quarter of my salary. Then take out the average amount for rent of about $120,000 pesos or so. That would leave me with less than $20,000 (A$42) for food for the month. Now how on earth do people do it when they have a mortgage and three children to feed? And what if they earn less? I just don't know how they survive, I really don't.