Chilling (or thawing?) out in Chile
Trip Start
Sep 1999
1
9
16
Trip End
May 2004
All around, Chile
Sunday, May 18, 2003
If Melbourne and Crowded House think they have it bad, well they can stop complaining and try it out here as you get four seasons in one hour, not one day. The fog drops suddenly like a tonne of dense custard, obliterating everything. The rain can sheet down for hour upon miserable hour and the end of the world feels nigh. Hiking in all this can be a pretty soul destroying experience, to be honest. And then the sun blasts out, suddenly the sky is so so blue and surprisingly thereŽs lakes, rivers, granite peaks, snow topped mountains, volcanoes and people materialising out of the mist, the hikers stripping off layers of clothing as they go.
So its pretty amazing, unpredictable and the sheer scale of everything is incredible. I especially dig the glaciers, 14 km long fingers of ice snaking down from the mountains, fed by huge catchment icefields bigger than Britain. Just one huge ice cube really. Although Ive just landed in Ecuador and discovered there are at least 4 peaks over 5500 metres and climbable by amateurs here, altitude sickness allowing, and I might tackle a couple so Išll get back to you on whether the scale is impressive with hindsight...
Patagonia was equally wild and beautiful, bare and stark. Saw lots of traditional swarthy southern gouchos (horsemen) working sheep and dogs across estancias of thousands of barren acres. At the opposite extreme the cities are wall to wall Supermodels with their long haired scruffy boyfriends (explain that one to me...). Chile is surprisingly class driven and divided, by clothes, money, skin tone, accent...which means my pale complexion elevates me and my backpack and clothes drop me right back down again till IŽm pretty much hanging off the bottom of the pecking order ladder.
Culturally, indigenous Indian society has been practically erased and seems to have been irreplaceably replaced with a monotone cultureless westernism and little else. Its not the thing to come here for unless its hiding out in the northern parts and I havent found it yet. Maybe a century of dictatorial government killed centuries of history, although its still alive and kicking in neighbouring countries. That suppression and suspicion may also account for the people not being the friendliest Išve ever met. I accept that smiling connects teeth with air, painfully, like biting permanently into ice cream. And my pigeon Spanish/French/English doesnt allow me to mix easily with the locals but still, smiles are few and far between and only encouraged by the sight of dollars.
The men, well they look good in magazines. I{ve seen a few dark haired, twinkling blue eyed babes (the germans have been here)..... and then their stunning girlfriends. The average mans approach is borrowed from prehistoric Neanderthal man, is strong/aggressive and involves a personal space allowance of only a few inches. And closing fast. Staring is de rigeur and there seems to be no concept of my true value. At least in Egypt I was offered camels. Here Im offered short, broke men, lacking teeth and dental hygiene. Bizarre...
If youve ever wondered why Chile has never been a major player in world domination, ive found the answer - its because an army marches on its stomach. So Chileans would be marching on empanadas (meat/pastry snacks), sweet caramelised milk cakes and steak. My balanced diet has been predominantly stale unleavened bread and tasteless rubber called cheese, or queso, which is more fitting as its considerably closer to queasy than cheesy. No sign of a vegetable in 3000 kms of country. Nigella would be at home with Chilean cuisine. Me, as Ive started dreaming of brocolli instead of Brad its time to move one..
And indeed yeaterday I did try to leave. Its a battle when buses dont connect with any others to anywhere useful, exacerbated when the countrys land doesnt even seem to connect with itself. Just thousnbads of islands, one road that randomly ends on the map, an impassable land mass called the Andes and a zigzagging border with Argentina. Its all so confusing. So I decided to take to the skies. Airlines - cant fly without them, sometimes cant even fly with them. My ticket said Thursday, the airline rebooked me a reservation for Saturday and cancelled Thursday, spontaneously changing my whole itinery without telling me. An hour of gesticulating and interpreting at 6.30 in the morning and they let me on, with bad grace. So now Im exploring Quito and Ecuador - Amazon, diving in the Galapogos and avoiding thieves. Plus a huge abcess growing daily in my mouth to lance. Excellent! Till next time, Defrosting Girl out.
