Santiago

We have been in Chile for a week now, but four days of that was on Easter Island, a blog about which is to follow. So the last three days of this holiday have been spent in Santiago, we return to Ecuador, and work, tonight.

Santiago is a typical South American capital city; large, cosmopolitan, rich, poor, polluted. Yet it lacks much of the charm of other Latin American cities, there is very little indigenous presence, and not so much colonial architecture. It is also relatively expensive, e.g. a two hour bus tour costs 18,000 pesos (about £27 or 36 US$). Everything is significantly more expensive than Ecuador, probably around the same level as UK prices. We are staying in the Plaza de Armas Hostel, which is located in the historic centre of the city (an apartment for 3 people is costing US$70 per night). In many other world cities, you just wouldn’t have a hostel in such a location. This place has one of the best ever window views, over the plaza.

The view from our window in the Plaza de Armas hostel

In many countries, a location like this in the splendid colonial heart of the city would be highly prestigious. But not in Santiago, the middle classes have moved out of the city and despite its grandeur, the Plaza de Armas is considered a ‘poor’ area.

View from the Plaza de Armas, the building where the hostel is located is in the background.

A feature of many Latin American cities is the grand cemeteries. Traditionally, the rich have been represented by huge structures that are often architectural works of art. The accumulation of these in the cemeteries creates bizarre miniature cities, often the most aesthetic features of the cities in general.

There are hundreds of these structures in Santiago cemetery, laid out out in streets

I’ve visited similar cemeteries in Havana and Buenos Aires, often off the average tourist’s radar; these are definitely worth a visit. In addition to the vain follies of the rich are large monuments of national significance, often there will be a huge structure, for example, to commemorate firemen who have died protecting the city. In the case of Santiago cemetery, probably the most important of these is the monument  to President Salvador Allande and the 2,000 Chilean ‘desaparecidos ‘ (missing). All victims of the right wing dictator Pinochet.

During Pinochet's presidency around 2,000 Chileans went missing, i.e. were arrested , tortured and murdered by the state security. Margret Thatcher was a friend of Pinochet.

Lima

I've only been here in Lima for two days, but I've packed a lot in. I had been expecting a crowded, dirty and polluted city. But in fact Lima is surprisingly pleasant, at least in the areas I reached. I've been staying at a hostel in Miraflores, a suburb of the city. It is very different from Quito, there seems to be no significant crime problem and the place is very developed. Also it is on the coast (with a long malecon) so there is a refreshing ocean breeze. Overall, a very pleasant place to stay.

Copies of ´Nazca Lines´ designs on the malecon, Miraflores, Lima

Miraflores is about 15 kilometers from the historical centre of Lima, but it is easy to reach on the modern bus service. In fact the public transport is better than anything I've seen in the UK. I understand that Lima, like Peru overall, is still a divided place, divided between riches and poverty. There are also huge squatter camps in the greater Lima area. Nevertheless, the capital city is impressively developed in general.

Plaza Mayor, Lima

A dog sleeping under an armored vehicle, near the government palace, Lima

Well, now my stay here is finishing, I'm at Lima airport awaiting a flight to Santiago in Chile, and then on to Easter Island.

Of Gringos and Goats

I went on a chiva ride last week. Chiva means (female) goat in Spanish, but I wasn’t riding an actual goat, the reality of chiva riding in Ecuador is somewhat less dignified than mealy mounting small farmyard mammals. A chiva is what they call a sort of flat top lorry that has been converted into a travelling disco. Not a travelling DJ, but the whole disco; dance floor, bar, light show, mislaid handbags, the whole caboodle.

Mobile disco, complete with lazer show, disco ball, pole dancing, and rope to hang on to

It was Tony and Alyssa’s leaving party, they are a couple of English teachers from the USA. They have been friends since we arrived in Ecuador. These are nice gringos, but many other gringos just aren’t.  The majority of proper gringos (i.e. from the USA) are not necessarily the opposite of nice, nasty, but are at best useless. The problem seems to be that they come here to pep-up their resumes, but have absolutely no concept that things could be done any differently to how they are in Pigsknuckle, Arkansas. They object to the public breast feeding, because this should be taboo, as it properly is at home. They travel to remote towns to experience the culture and then complain that there are no KFCs or Burger Kings. They really do, they whine about this and multiple other differences all the time.

A nice looking vehicle, seriously pimped

The chiva ride was a shining example of gringos abroad. A group I spoke to were here to do ‘charity work’. The resourceful but poor Ecuadorians must be so bursting with glee that some naive rich college kids from the USA have come down to explain to them how to live. Essentially these kids are allowed to hang around, for a fee, until they have enough fodder for their resumes and a return to corporate fascism at home. So these charity workerss on the chiva, showed there respect for the host culture by flashing their arses off the side of the disco/bus. At police cars. After a police warning they switched to a new technique of showing their affection, pissing off the side of the disco as it careered through the city centre.

Blurred arse to the cops

Pissing on Quito

I suppose British people do the same thing to mainland Europe, some Spanish towns have been culturally ransacked to provide ersatz British style retirement and holiday resorts. It’s almost a national preoccupation for the British to do this. Perhaps it’s a good thing then that the majority of people from the USA don’t have passports, only a minority ever venture abroad. The rate of cancer spread is limited.

One of the chiva-pissers sent me a Facebook friend request the following day, yeah right, that’s going to happen. When Hell freezes over, or a person from the USA comprehends why Ecuadorians are Americans too.

University life

The Universidad San Francisco de Quito is possibly the most pleasant place to teach in Ecuador. It is built in a mixture of classical styles, but was actually constructed within recent years. The main campus of the university is located in Cumbayá, a town, twenty minutes by bus from Quito.





Although, it is only twenty minutes from the city, it is 2,000 feet lower in elevation. This means it is significantly warmer than Quito.  Although virtually on the equator line, elevation above sea level makes all the difference here, this can be between sweltering heat at the coast to permanent snow on the Andean peaks.  But at 7,200 feet, Cumbayá has it just right. This climate, combined with the neoclassical architecture, gives it a very Mediterranean feel.






I teach English at the university. Luckily for me some academic classes are taught in English, so I teach Psychology too. In fact, I was able to design my own classes and curriculum, and the students generally speak good English so the language barrier has not been a problem.





This is the most expensive private university in the country and has the richest students. It is expected that many will want to go and take postgraduate courses in the USA. Hence, courses taught in English are valued by the students and management. However, this may not be the case in less privileged private or state universities, were teaching in English may not be common.

This dog, lives on the campus. He is described as 'sometimes friendly' though I've never met him on any of those times. I gave him a dog biscuit once and he spat it out and walked off. He seems to resent the presence of humans on his campus.

Bag Arrived

My luggage eventualy arrived last night, God bless Continental Airlines, less than two months.

Back in Quito

I'm back in Quito and the weather is fantastic, a nice change from the British freeze. My suitcases didn't seem to make it back though. That is the third consecutive intercontinental trip in which my bags have gone travelling independently. We flew with Continental this time, they really are crap. For one of the legs, a five hour trip, you had to pay $7 with a credit card to active the in-flight entertainment system. Our stewardess chewed gum throughout the flight.

Happy Christmas

I’m back in Birkenhead (UK) for Christmas. It should have only taken 18 hours or so to get from Quito to Manchester (via Madrid and Heathrow). However, runway snow and other hassles put paid to that plan. In fact the plan fell apart pretty quickly. It should be simple leaving Quito, as they have an intercontinental airport, slap bang in the city centre; an air disaster waiting to happen, but awfully convenient.

So we set of at 6pm on Friday for a westbound trip to Europe. However, the flight from Quito to Madrid stops to pick up passengers at Guyaquil airport, which is on the coast and consequently to the East of Quito. And it wasn’t so much as a quick stop as a disembarkation then waiting for a different aircraft to take us on the actual flight to Madrid. We are behind schedule, tired and 200 miles further away from our destination than when we started.

But eventually we take off for Madrid. On arriving there we find that our connecting flight is cancelled due to snow at Heathrow. But this is not so bad, we would have missed it anyway, and we get given a night in a hotel and tickets for the next flight in the morning (7am). Trouble is, that flight gets cancelled too, then the next one, and the snow situation is getting worse at Heathrow. We eventually wangle a flight to Amsterdam and when there ask if we can change our destination from Manchester to Liverpool. Presumably because of all the flight chaos none of the airlines had any issues or extra charges, they just wanted rid of stranded passengers.

We arrived at Liverpool about 10pm on Sunday, 24 hours later than planned. In that time we visited 5 different airports in four countries and had at least eight different boarding cards each. But at least we made it. Unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky. One case limped home four days after us, the other two are missing in action, presumed dead.