Dec 25-26 Crossing to Chile

Politics contrasting Chile and Argentina.  Argentina has 41 million people and Chile 17 million.  In both cases almost half of the population lives close to the two capitals, BsAs and Santiago.  There appears to be a bit more diversity in Chile, especially up North where Bolivia and Peru border the country.  Also, there is more of a German influence in Chile and Italian in Argentina in terms of immigration.  Both have a recent past of authoritarian rule and more recent one of democracy.  Both presidents are women who are in their second term.  However, while Mrs. Kirscher’s adminstration of Argentina has been marred by scandal and poor fiscal management, Michelle Bachelet’s of Chile has been squeaky clean and she is seen as a good fiscal manager who is trying to do some redistribution of wealth.  Of interest she is a physician and went to middle school in Bethesda.  While a socialist, her government has been much more entrepreneurial, open to new relationships and less nationalistic. 

Chile seems more developed than Argentina (other than BsAs).  There are more paved roads and some highways, more substantial homes and verdant fields.  While Argentina is known for beef, Chile is known for fish.  However, where we are passing now are fields of sheep.

Yesterday and today have been mostly travel days.  Yesterday we crossed over to Chile through a necklace of large lakes.  We took a catamaran across one lake, than portaged with a bus to the next lake and repeated this 3 times.  This was the first cloudy day so lousy for pictures but brought needed rain-none for 3 months (although it could have waited an extra day for my part).  There are 9 volcanos in this region and we saw one that reminded me of Mount Fuji, with a perfect dome-it has been inactive for a hundred years.

Today we took a 2 hr plane ride and are now driving for 5 hrs through fields to reach the National Park Torres del Paine where we will spend the next 3 days hiking, horseback riding and learning some indigenous history.

Karen:

The Chileans are proud that they didn’t exterminate all their Indians as the Argentines did. Apparently their tribes fought back against the Europeans. It is nice to see a population that isn’t as totally white as we saw in Argentina. In previous years we traveled in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, which have more of the feel one expects in South America.

We have found the food in both countries to be bland by our standards. Many times there is no salt or pepper on the table. Today I purchased a can of Pringles to get my salt fix. Even their cheese has almost no salt. Salmon is a very important part of their economy. This afternoon we are going to a place which will serve us lamb. And as Mark mentioned, I have never seen so many sheep in any country in which we have traveled. If someone was a vegetarian they would have difficulty here. Ordering a salad will produce a plate of lettuce with no other vegetables. We had one tour guide who was new age into organic healthy eating, but not a vegetarian as you would expect. Eating beef is the main staple. We have found the beef to be quite tender but not seasoned as we expect.

The weather has changed from hot in Buenos Aries to warm in the last few places to pretty chilly and windy where we are today.

We saw a condor soaring in the skies today. The condor is the national bird of Chile.

Yesterday traveling between Argentina and Chile, you have to go through customs in Chile where they open up your suitcases and search them. You are not allowed to bring any food in Chile, even a cookie is prohibited.

Until yesterday we have had good cell phone service. Yesterday our phones wouldn’t connect. Hopefully our location today will be better.