Starting all over again – end of March, April and May 1st
On the second lonely weekend after coming back from travelling in the south I had the pleasure of being able to something vaguely helpful and constructive, in both senses of the word. Along with a couple of busloads of students from Universidad de Chile, 7 VEers and I travelled 7 hours south to the small town of Retiro. It’s not far from the epicentre of the earthquake and was pretty heavily hit, mainly due to the fact that there seems to be very lax building restrictions and so most of the one-brick thick walls had just pathetically collapsed without even breaking apart. This obviously presents a problem for the people living in-between the walls and so our job was to help construct new homes called mediaguas; basically glorified wooden sheds. If there was ever a Chilean operation to classify a typical Chilean operation it was this weekend. It may be better to list the bad things: there was no one in charge, students just want to drink, no communication between groups, the clocks went back an hour on Saturday night, we were in an Earthquake zone (with tremors every now and again) and everyone got up, ate, drank beer, got high, worked and went to bed at entirely different times of the day. This meant we routinely found ourselves in ridiculous situations such as having to dismantle a mediag
ua completely as it had been put up so badly, and then predictably finding the building instructions under the floorboards. The next day we were lying around playing cards and eating crackers and were only called upon to dig nine 70cm foundation holes in someone’s garden just as the sun was setting. Luckily a shopkeeper from across the road donated one of his portable fridge lights to the cause. It was a still an enjoyable weekend and it did feel great to help in some way rather than just sitting on our rich foreign thrones in Santiago drinking fine wines and planning our next holiday. The people were certainly grateful and I was invited to join a group of toothless old men relaxing with some beers in their front yard. They were amazed by my 12th floor earthquake tale but only I could know that the damage was unimaginably greater where they were living.I’m now living in a large 3 story house with a Chilean, his father, two students from Canada and Tata (Mr Beef) the boxer dog. Roddy (amazingly, the Chilean) is a properly nice fella and it’s good to be living with someone who has a real lo
cal knowledge of what to do and where to go. Plus he apparently doesn’t mind sharing the whole of his spirits cabinet over the course of a night. The house is in Nunoa which is a district to the south of the center and this means that, although it takes slightly more time to get to places of interest, it’s very quiet and a much calmer place to live. Plaza Nunoa has some great places to go out and drink in any case. Another factor is that I now live only 2 blocks from Pleyades where I work and this is obviously really convenient. On the other hand I’ve had to keep my new location a secret from the staff as I can imagine many phone calls along the lines of; “Can you come over to watch the kids while we go out for a pizza Jack” or “We were thinking you could stay the night tonight as you live so close and then you could give all 10 kids baths, supervise their TV time, read them each a bedtime story and then wash up dinner while we sit around eating chocolate.” (“No, pero porque?”) Tata gives handshakes, Daisy the cook/cleaner regularly lets me to test her amazing cooking, there’s always people coming in and out to share a beer with and Roddy drives a classic 2CV Citroen. (“I don’t lock it because if anyone figures out how to start it then they deserve to have it”) It’s all good at home.
cal knowledge of what to do and where to go. Plus he apparently doesn’t mind sharing the whole of his spirits cabinet over the course of a night. The house is in Nunoa which is a district to the south of the center and this means that, although it takes slightly more time to get to places of interest, it’s very quiet and a much calmer place to live. Plaza Nunoa has some great places to go out and drink in any case. Another factor is that I now live only 2 blocks from Pleyades where I work and this is obviously really convenient. On the other hand I’ve had to keep my new location a secret from the staff as I can imagine many phone calls along the lines of; “Can you come over to watch the kids while we go out for a pizza Jack” or “We were thinking you could stay the night tonight as you live so close and then you could give all 10 kids baths, supervise their TV time, read them each a bedtime story and then wash up dinner while we sit around eating chocolate.” (“No, pero porque?”) Tata gives handshakes, Daisy the cook/cleaner regularly lets me to test her amazing cooking, there’s always people coming in and out to share a beer with and Roddy drives a classic 2CV Citroen. (“I don’t lock it because if anyone figures out how to start it then they deserve to have it”) It’s all good at home.Work has been very up and down lately. I seem to find myself spending 60% the time having the time of my life and feeling delighted and proud of the fact that this is what I’ve dedicated half of my 2010 to. On the other hand a fair amount (40% I suppose) of the remaining time is spent really looking forward to travelling in June/July and getting away from everything for a bit. Unfortunately these emotions more often than not take place in the same afternoon due to the nature of the kids being up, down, hate you, love you, laugh, cry, sit down and have a nice quiet read in the library, take all my clothes off and spit on your face.
Unfortunately I’m still feeling the effects of the trek in Patagonia and, although I don’t regret completing the trail by walking the last day with a painful knee, it is not letting me forget the decision in a hurry. After a couple of weeks struggling around Santiago I decided to visit the doctors and now, after x-rays, medication and two weeks of physio, they’re telling me I have tendonitis of the Patella, the tendon just below the kneecap. This is bad news as it takes a long time to heal and the only really effective treatment is rest and it’s almost impossible to rest your knee. I think I can put up with the pain and inconvenience for now but I’m truly going to be pissed if it affects my travelling in a couple of months to any extent. If you would like to contribute to my medical bills then please, feel free. Go into the Stroud branch of HSBC and quote my account no. 1630133109 and pin 7865.
We were lucky enough to have an English visitor to the house late in April as Ellie stayed for a few days
en route from Bolivia to New Zealand. On her final night on the continent we went out to have some rum and then, at 3.30am, decided to do something special before she had to get on her plane. We got a bus to the bottom of the hill at the centre of the city, San Cristobal, and walked up it. (Check out the river in the photo - it's actually made of melted chocolate.) This took much more effort than you would assume as both entrances had police guards and so our option was climbing a wall, a 10ft barbed wire fence, a steep bank and then through another fence and even after that there was CCTV. It’s a hill people, not a god damn gold mine! It was worth it in the end though and we dozed at the summit, watching the city lights down below until the sun rose majestically over the Andes and we stumbled back home and on to work and Oceania respectively.
en route from Bolivia to New Zealand. On her final night on the continent we went out to have some rum and then, at 3.30am, decided to do something special before she had to get on her plane. We got a bus to the bottom of the hill at the centre of the city, San Cristobal, and walked up it. (Check out the river in the photo - it's actually made of melted chocolate.) This took much more effort than you would assume as both entrances had police guards and so our option was climbing a wall, a 10ft barbed wire fence, a steep bank and then through another fence and even after that there was CCTV. It’s a hill people, not a god damn gold mine! It was worth it in the end though and we dozed at the summit, watching the city lights down below until the sun rose majestically over the Andes and we stumbled back home and on to work and Oceania respectively.The end of campaign trivia event was held at La Casa Roja, the place where I started my trip in December, along with sausages (real ones), a big black DJ and lots and lots of wine. It was good fun bu
t floored as a fundraiser in many ways, primarily the fact that the volunteers had free access to the bar and so by the end only a select few very well-off guests could compete on the alcohol to blood ratio. We went out after to some generic club with bad music and I wandered off to get food at about 3. (I have a very worrying condition where, when drunk and upon seeing a sopaipilla stand, I will just get out of the car. This could have some negative consequences in the future such as being run over or simply dying of heart failure due to too many greasy roadside snacks.) That night I didn’t actually get home until 6.30 and its fair to say the 3 ½ hours were not well spent. I got on a bus, fell asleep and woke up in the middle of nowhere somewhere on the outskirts of the city. It was f’ing freezing and I was very lucky that I found the bus terminal at the end of the line and they put me on the 505 back to the centre. Then I broke into my house (second time in a month) because I’d left my keys in my bag. Good night.
t floored as a fundraiser in many ways, primarily the fact that the volunteers had free access to the bar and so by the end only a select few very well-off guests could compete on the alcohol to blood ratio. We went out after to some generic club with bad music and I wandered off to get food at about 3. (I have a very worrying condition where, when drunk and upon seeing a sopaipilla stand, I will just get out of the car. This could have some negative consequences in the future such as being run over or simply dying of heart failure due to too many greasy roadside snacks.) That night I didn’t actually get home until 6.30 and its fair to say the 3 ½ hours were not well spent. I got on a bus, fell asleep and woke up in the middle of nowhere somewhere on the outskirts of the city. It was f’ing freezing and I was very lucky that I found the bus terminal at the end of the line and they put me on the 505 back to the centre. Then I broke into my house (second time in a month) because I’d left my keys in my bag. Good night.
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