Hild and Kristin go to Chile!
So, finally I was going to see what Chileans are like on their home turf. I was very excited about the prospect and I brought my own little interpreter! Well, actually she is my big sister and she brought me. Kristin and I were going to spend a week and a bit in the famous Atacama desert and then two weeks and a bit in Antofagasta, Santiago and Viņa del Mar.
In the North we stayed in the not so tranquil mining town of Calama. Since this part of our Chile-visit was a tightly scheduled business trip we got very familiar with the road between the airport hotel and the office. Between these extremes we got (not too) familiar with the guard at the gates to the mining compound. He kept stopping us to check our passes because there was something deeply suspicious about two blonde women in a pick-up truck zipping in and out every day. Good man, he was doing his job properly: I would have been suspicious too.
I have learnt these following points - although not always from personal or extensive experience:
In the North we stayed in the not so tranquil mining town of Calama. Since this part of our Chile-visit was a tightly scheduled business trip we got very familiar with the road between the airport hotel and the office. Between these extremes we got (not too) familiar with the guard at the gates to the mining compound. He kept stopping us to check our passes because there was something deeply suspicious about two blonde women in a pick-up truck zipping in and out every day. Good man, he was doing his job properly: I would have been suspicious too.
I have learnt these following points - although not always from personal or extensive experience:
| MINING | ||
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| When you go down an 800 metre deep active mining pit you need to wear the following items: Trousers, long-sleeved shirt, reflective coat, hardhat, steel-toed boots, and gas mask - just in case. | R2D2 still exists - reincarnated as a slope monitoring device named Arturito. | |
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| Dumptrucks are - in actual fact - larger than life! |
When the night shift comes off work in the morning and pickets the gate between the office and the cafeteria, you may have to survive the day on dried apricots and tea. Alternatively get the office manager to find a "volunteer" to smuggle in sandwiches. Coast looks clear now... |
Nothing in life is certain. A road that was there this morning may not be there this afternoon. Ah well, we'll just go back the way we came. |
| By the way, when you are going to stay at 2250 metres above sea level in the driest desert in the world, drink plenty of water all through the day and bring a bottle of eye drops, or wait for a handsome engineer to bring you a bottle. | ||
| FOOD | ||
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| If you go to Santiago in October and don't get offered chirimoya smothered in orange juice you should be very disappointed - and a bit worried. | If you go to Santiago in October and manage to find Pastel de Choclo in a restaurant consider yourself lucky (It's not corn season for goodness sake!! Honestly, what are these foreigners on about?) | You'll find little stands selling a peculiar desert called Huesillos - barley in peach juice! I think it must be an acquired taste or maybe I had just eaten too much chirimoya beforehand? |
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And I'd like to add a few more words of wisdom (?) on food - no photos available/appropriate: * Be prepared to eat all kinds of different seafoods. Chileans are very proud of their seafood including things with eyes and suction cups still attached - yum. * When you get a salad there will invariably be heart-of-palm in it. * When you get a salad it will invariably be smothered in lemon juice. * If you eat dinner before 7 pm you are a wimp, a foreigner, or just plain strange. * Don't sneeze while eating a hot empanada! |
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| Don't judge a book by its cover. According to local knowledge this is the best seafood restaurant, and it is nicely located on the beach between Viņa del Mar and Valparaiso. | ||
| BEHAVIOUR (mine and theirs) | ||
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| Hild dressed inappropriately. | Kristin dressed appropriately. | For chilling entertainment tell your local friends and relatives that you had lunch in the area of Recoleta in Santiago, and watch their faces twist in horror. Then tell them that you walked through Recoleta on your way to visit the cemetery, and then you should probably not say anything more. Leave out the part about your hotel being downtown... |
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If you are like me, so blonde that your skin is blue, wear long-sleeved shirts and trousers or long skirts. Take my word for it: leave the shorts and T-shirts at home. Note that I am not referring to protection from the hole in the ozone layer and the burning sun... It is just nicer to keep a low profile. On this point - if you are in Chile for more than 2 hours and haven't heard a wolf-whistle just bleach your hair blonde. So I put a baseball cap on to hide my hair only to have someone shout "Asesinos, asesinos (assassins) - Gringas go home!". I know, it was only an unlucky encounter and a stupid choice of head garment. Neither happened again. On the whole, Chileans are incredibly friendly towards strangers - sadly, only as long as one has lighter skin color. |
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| If you go to the beach, be prepared to decline offers for deck chairs, normal chairs, sun shades, life stories and offers to be hooked up with that group of Norwegian lads on tour over there (what is going on?!). | ||
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And I'd like to add a few more (mis)behaviour lessons - again photos are not available/appropriate: * Queuing up is not an option - use your elbows! Out of the way old woman! * When you meet a Chilean you will always get a more or less airy cheek-kiss. * When you leave a Chilean you will always get a more or less airy cheek-kiss. * The myth appears to be unfounded - Chileans are on time and often times early too!! |
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| MISCELLANEOUS | ||
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| If you think that having seen one cemetery means you have seen them all, think again and go to Santiago's Cementerio General. They decorate the graves with all sorts of things - sometimes even flowers. And... 3 floors... I guess they are pressed for space... | ||
And - finally:* Heard around the lunch table one day: "Listen! A boat goes on a ship. No I do not live on a boat - I live on a ship! Humph!"... followed by brief silence and then Hild's "oh - I'm sorry!". * No matter how likely it sounds, the mountain will not come to you. Nope, you have to go to it. So schedule some time to go see San Pedro de Atacama and Valle de la Luna (we didn't... workaholics). * If you are in Chile for more than 2 days without checking your e-mail it is probably because you very foolishly upgraded to AOL 9.0 without realizing that it was a terrible mistake. |
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| Hild working off those nasty e-mail withdrawal symptoms. | ||
I learnt lots visiting Chile.
Now if I could only learn Spanish...
Hild Rygnestad,
December 2003
And then Hild learnt a tiny little bit of Spanish!!! (prepared for a beginner's Spanish course)
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