Last year's trip to Chile

I was thinking about my trip to Chile last year, and am posting my email logs from the trip, just so I'll have them here for future reference...nothing new. I was there on a panel that reviewed a site in the Atacama desert in north Chile. I also spent some time on my own in Valparaiso and Santiago.  Pictures from the trip are at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Bob.Roesch/Chile?authuser=0&feat=directlink

8/29/10

I am in Valparaiso. Dinner last night was very good. Tapas and a salad. Food and wine is cheap. Dinner with three glasses of wine and tip was $25. Most food is just OK. Bread, coffee and beer is soft, instant and yellow fizzy. Wine is very good. After dinner I found a bar/restaraunt with Chilean music. Did not understand a word if it, but clapped along with everyone else.

Valpo is interesting. Very steep narrow streets in the old section. I counted 120 steps down one block. I would use low low gear in the jeep to get up the street.

Yesterday I saw a small riot...well, large fight near the docks. Eight police cars responded. I went the other direction. This morning they were filming a police chase scene in the same area...squeeling tires and all.

Valpo has hundreds of dogs. They are very well behaved and just wander around. One walked into a bar and another into church after Mass last night. I assume they were both Catholic.

Very few tourists. Most people speak no english. I am using my very bad spanish and people are patient. Weather is perfect so far.

I have taken a couple of accensors...like elevators to go up the hill to the next street. Quaint...and about 60¢.

More later.

9/2

The rest of my stay in Valpo was pleasant...good weather on Sunday and Monday. I walked a several miles to Toperderas beach at the south end of town. Had a couple of beers watching kids, dogs and attempts at flying kites. Sat with a few Chilean men, we just sipped beers and nodded...great conversation! The beer was yellow and fizzy, but tasted right for the location.  I took a wild ride on a bus back to town...it never quite stops as people get on or off. Races off before door closes....Monday I walked and walked around town following an out of date walking tour. Some passages were closed, but I found a lot of nice overlooks above town...found a few places for espresso...so the coffee got better, too. Monday afternoon clouded up...I ate at the tappas place by the hotel...seafood was good.

Tuesday was cloudy, but I was traveling to Santiago to meet the panel. ..I took an antique (or maybe just old) trolley bus to the main bus station in Valpo...had good connections on buses in Santiago and to the airport. The trip to San Pedro was OK...flew to Calama...all desert for miles and miles. Calama is a mining town, huge copper mine. It is on a rift between two set of mountains...one inland from the coast and the Andes. Andes are TALL. Took a bus in the dark to San Pedro...dinner at a very nice hotel. My room had a indoor/outdoor huge walk in shower. We left for the ALMA site early Wednesday....busy busy day. Went up the high site at 16,400 feet. Air is thin. The building at the top is oxygenated...and the toilet was cool...electric and incinerates poo....no sewers. Worked late. Got back to San Pedro late and dark...fortunately they eat late in Chile...we were just in time for dinner. I had steak, salad and quinoa for the second time. On of the others had steak a la pobra. Pile of fries, steak fries peppers, onions, sauce and two fried eggs...it was bigger than my head. We saw just a bit of San Pedro in the dark...quaint village, would like to have seen more...but we left crack of dark to catch the bus to Calama to fly back to Santiago. Saw more desert and mountains....the Andes are TALL....more on Santiago later.

Bob

9/4

I head home tomorrow. We worked most all of friday...we arrived in Santiago on Thursday afternoon...it rained hard that night..fortunately there was an Irish bar across the street. No Guinness, but a decent stout on tap. We sat by the fire and ate mediocre appetizers. Friday was all work and I checked into my new hotel, but returned to the irish bar again, we left an American sized tip the night before so got the good table by the fireplace. More stout and better appetizers.

Today I met a journalist from Canada who was heading home, he was covering the trapped miners and had some interesting comments. One has a wife and a mistress who has three kids by him, waiting for him at the top, they just met and things are tense, he may want to stay underground.

I went to a local crafts area this morning, very nice local artisans and products.I found some nice small gifts. This afternoon I did the bike tour 1,100 feet up San Cristobol hill. Way cool. Two other on the tour in their twenties, I smoked both of them up the hill...we saw a lot of Santiago and had great views. Diner at the top was great. Primo wines,cheese, olives, salami, bread, fruit, dessert...and a weird drink with preaches and hominy type of wheat. Strange. We were gone six hours, long trip.

I finished tonight with a drink called a terremoto, or earthquake in a bar called "head lice". Really. A large plastic beer glass with pineapple ice cream, cheap bad white wine, and cheap rum. I figured they don't want to over power the pineapple ice cream. If you don't feel the earthquake and order a second one  it is called an after shock, third is a tsunami...there is no fourth one. Tomorrow I will tour the center of Santiago, Plaza del Armes, cathedral and Mercado. Seafood for lunch before heading to airport.

Looking forward to getting home.

Bob

9/5

Final meal in Chile. El Germano. Pork, avocado, tomato, sweet pickles, and mayo. Almost as big as my head. Put hot sauce on it...pretty good. With a short beer, it was nine dollars.

Bread was soft, beer was yellow and fizzy...but just fine for Chile!

Bob

RAGBRAI Thoughts

Now that it has been a few days, I’ve been thinking about what RAGBRAI is all about. It is a weeklong carnival, freak show, street fair, county fair, frat party (for some), spring break (at the wrong time of the year) bike ride with the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I never saw anyone grouchy or mean all week long…and there were plenty of reasons to be grouchy….humidity, heat, head winds, hills, lines, crowds, bumpy roads. The riders were all cool, the townies were happy to see us come (and go) and we were truly welcomed everywhere. I met scads of people who I’ll likely never see again and all were friendly. In each town I tried to find locals to say “hey” and see what they thought of the RAGBRAI invasion. I think it has become a normal thing in Iowa (if that is possible) and the locals are proud of the event. In each town people came out to see us and wave hello, sometimes lining the streets into town; on the way out of many towns we saw folks waving goodbye and saying thanks for coming by. In the afternoons when it was so hot, people set up sprinklers or stood outside with hoses and squirt guns to cool us off. It was like being in a VIP parade of 10,000+ bikers.

I was surprised at the variety of riders…all shapes, sizes, level of fitness and style of bikes. I saw folks who struggled up hills on squeaking bikes and teams of fast riders in pace lines. Somehow, all were biking together in a smooth flow of lycra and spandex…although some of the spandex was stretched to the max! The heat was hard for a lot of riders; I heard the first day many had to drop out. I saw folks walking their bikes into town up the last little hill at 7:30 at night. I saw ambulances every day with flashing lights on the road taking someone off the road. I only heard “rider down” twice both were minor…but not something you want to hear. Overall though most folks did OK, I think those who were in good shape did just fine.

The small towns we passed through were the most fun. Each was different and had its own charm. From mermaids in a pool to a whiskey distillery there was something to see in each town. Everyone was proud of their town. Many towns put together something special for RAGBRAI: a bike Ferris wheel, the world’s largest bike, recycled bikes as decorations, gateways, huge American flags… There were cub scouts, boy scouts, girl scouts, pom teams, cheerleaders, FFA, rotary groups, K of C, Shriners, firemen (everywhere), high schools, middle schools…and kids selling stuff for their college funds.
The overnight towns were a mixed bag. The best towns were the smaller ones where I felt we were in a real town. Grinnell was the best…nice small town feel and the main entertainment area was right in town. We got to visit local shops and bars and restaurants and mingle with the locals. Some overnight “towns” were suburbs of a larger city and it was hard to mingle…the set up was always nice, but it was a little like being in a very nice ghetto. We were all in a designated camping/entertainment area set off from a real town. I talked to a woman in our camp whose bike was stolen in an overnight town, and she knew of another rider who lost a bike. The RAGBRAI tradition is to not lock bikes, which is fine in the small towns, but was a problem for a few riders in overnight towns.

People have asked will I do it again…and I sure will. I’m sorry I waited 60 years to do my first. I’ll see if anyone wants to go with me next year…although I enjoyed doing it alone this year; it was nice being on my own schedule…leave when I want, stop when I want, not have to wait for others, just go at my own pace. I think it is 349 days until RAGBRAI XL