Santiago Touristy Day 1

Today I decided I would go to the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Natural History Museum). According to my Rough Guide, it is the oldest Natural History Museum in Latin America ... so instead of staying in my flat with horribly slow internet to non-existent internet, I thought I would venture out. For some reason it was free today. The first floor dioramas were dusty and old ... the pictures and maps on the wall were pealing away from age. I was beginning to think, "Well, I'm glad it was free," when I wandered up to the blue whale skeleton. There was still oils leaching out of its skull, like ones I had seen at the LA Natural History Museum storage unit several years ago during a course field trip for my Masters. Then, I wandered up to the upper level and found a display with wool! With real hand-spun wool ... then I thinking it was definitely worth wandering out to this museum when I found the ocean display ... and they had pressed seaweeds! That totally made it worth it ...

I then went to the Mercado Central. The center of the market is filled with restaurants and a bit disappointing, but the fish stalls are worth going to. The fishmongers really get in your face trying to sell you fish, eels, mussels or barnacles ... one day when I am not alone, I would love to take some pictures with my Nikon!

From the market I meandered back to Plaza de Armas to find the Pre-Columbian Art Museum, where I want to go tomorrow. Once Mass was over, I went into the cathedral, but the pictures of the altar (marble and lapis lazuli) were a bit blurry with my little point-and-shoot. I strolled around the Plaza, stopping in the Correo Central and checking out the stamps for sale in the lobby. The inside of the building is not as nice as the outside. It was around 2, so I decided to have lunch ... the pizza was a bit strange and not very pizza-like, but the people watching was amusing.

I went from the Plaza to La Moneda, the former presidential residence. I took the metro back to the Estacion Central to take a picture of the big Christmas tree in front of the ornate old train station and then I saw the paintings in the Moneda metro station that Samantha Brown had shown in one of her shows. I took some pictures of them before heading back to my flat.

All in all it was a really nice day ... one of the first really nice, relaxing days since I arrived here.

Tomorrow ... I am going to hit three museums around Plaza de Armas that are free on Sundays ... then next weekend I will climb Cerro Santa Lucia for views over the city ... in between I NEED to keep knitting my current project!

Lava tube at Volcan Villaricca

It has taken me ages to load any images from the trip to Pucon ... in part due to internet gremlins, but I should have normal internet again tonight in the flat I moved into at the weekend. So ... more pics from Pucon ...

The last day of the conference included no ecology talks. Instead, the lava tubes at the Villaricca volcano were on the docket. The Gran Hotel Pucon (where the conference was held) had package tours of different areas so the trip was booked through them for the inexpensive 18,000 pesos per person. The weather did not cooperate for climbing the volcano and without Rob I really wasn't interested in climbing especially since the kit includes crampons, ice axes, gas masks, etc. I've never been in a lava tube before so I was excited about getting closer to the volcano (but the clouds did not cooperate so I never got to see it in the end) and a bit of spelunking.

There was an Italian couple, three women from Brazil and a Canadian couple in the tour which was conducted in Spanish ... so I was able to glean some info, but I am sure that I missed out on parts. The tour began in a chalet that was selling coffee and sodas, but had a most welcome fire burning in the hearth. Then, we ventured out with our guide down a pathway of long-cooled lava to a hut. The guide explained the formation of the continents and showed us the history of the Volcan Villaricca. We also passed around pieces of obsidian and pumice. The Canadians had a translator with them so I eventually made my way nearer to them to listen in on the parts that I could not translate on my own.

We doned hard hats (most fashionable) and descended into the tube ... water droplets were cascading down everywhere. My Nikon ended up sheltering inside my rain jacket until I quickly snapped a picture or two. The constant tap, tap, tap of the water on the hard hat kept us company as we walked further until we reached the end of the cave that the public can explore.

The guide then turned off the lights! There was not even a gloom, just pitch black ... you could not even see the hand in front of your face. Then we all started filing back out over two 2x4 planks over a puddle of muddy water and back into the light.

In parts the cave actually looked like chocolate ... and there was no echo, but the reason why I was unable to decipher in quickly spoken Chilean Spanish! I took some pictures of Pucon in the distance before pulling out the latest Wilbur Smith I am reading. After everyone else drank some restoring coffee, we climbed back into the van and drove back down the rutted dirt road to Pucon.

I went to Pucon and all I got was this hat ...

Notice the white hat in the middle?

Wool ... wool ... wool ...

I was in Pucon, Chile for the annual conference of the Chilean Biological Society. Apart from the natural beauty in the area, the hand crafts were amazing ... yes some were run-of-the-mill and you could find them anywhere around the world (kind of like stumbling upon little Eiffel Tours at Mont St Michel!). However, the wool ... there are no words. Granted I have only rediscovered such things as skeins of wool and other textiles recently, so I have never been in a place such as this. Below are just a sample of the pictures I took at all the different like kiosks of local artisans ...

I bough the coke bottle green one in the upper left ... it is an even prettier green in person!


This was one of the shops we found when we were looking for the owners of a shop that was closed. Hanks upon hanks of natural and not so natural dyed yarns!
This was some yarns with "bubbles" that was really neat and luckily we had a little sunlight to highlight the colors of the yarns outdoors!

First post ...

After joining Ravelry and speaking to Claire and Licinia, they both convinced me to start a blog. Over the past few months I have been traveling a lot (Torino, southeastern France, Belfast and now to Santiago, Chile) and I never seem to get around to emailing pictures ... so I finally caved in. I have been in Santiago since Sunday morning and am enjoying the sun and warmth that has been absent from Roscoff ... well absent almost year round, but especially in the last few weeks where torential downpours have been the norm.

So anyway, I am in Chile for 5 weeks learning techniques for my PhD thesis. I am a double degree student ... at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) although I am based at the Station Biologique de Roscoff and at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago. I am here to learn new things and attend a meeting of Chilean biologists in Pucon. It is nice to be somewhere again similar to Los Angeles, at least in terms of weather at the moment!

While waiting forever at the airport in Brest, where it was no surprise, pelting rain, (note to self, don't need to get there that early again) I was flipping through the International Herald since I wanted to save my book for the plane or if I had lots of free time once in Chile and I saw this Peanuts comic and thought it was appropriate, especially since I fly north for several days before flying south again.

The flight was easier than flights to Los Angeles. I actually slept well for about five hours. I wanted to stay awake when we crossed the equator, but I was completely knackered by the time the plane left Paris and I woke up somewhere over Brazil, well I could only tell it was Brazil from the map on my little TV screen ... there were clouds everywhere. After another hour or so of clouds and breakfast, we were over Argentina with the Andes somewhere on the horizon. Nothing could really prepare me for their grandeur ... all of a sudden, they erupted out of the reddish -brown tapestry that was streaking by below us ...



I was reminded of the song from In Search of the Castaways with Hayley Mills ... the one where Maurice Chevalier sings "Let's Climb" when they are in the Andes looking for Captain Grant ...

After scooting in front of hordes of arriving passengers, I was able to pay my $131 fee before the line was miles long. My Chilean advisor told me to go out to the left to avoid the taxi cab drivers, but I was propelled along, like a sardine, to the right and had to run the gamut of cabbies with signs that they put in your face. I found my advisor and he took me to the university and then to the house where I am living at moment. I went to Jumbo (a big supermarket) and bought some food ... and then organized my things ...

The last three days have been sorting out issues ... neither of my debit cards worked nor could I call any Chilean number with my UK phone ... which was an issue on Monday morning but luckily I knew where I was going, sort of.

About to head home to beat rush hour ... then I think tonight I will knit my project that I really want done before I leave ... you'll see why soon enough ... and get to bed early since I have to leave very early to beat morning rush hour.