A couple of days after we arrived I was speaking to a former colleague on Skype when he asked me “how will you able to manage staying for almost 3 months – won’t you be bored, what will you be doing?” and I couldn’t really explain what life is like here with us – and it’s not boring as you may think!
Following on from last time last Saturday we were at an evening concert at a partly open air amphitheater with a marvelous Symphonic Orchestra from Santiago, consisting of at least 80 young musicians and the same number in the choir. There must have been 5000 in the audience on a lovely balmy evening. The restaurants were packed as the evening was only just starting in Viña and Reñaca about 11 in the evening, and there were even traffic jams at that time of night.
Monday was spent part of the day looking for a present for a friend’s birthday at the one of the shopping Malls in Viña http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi%C3%B1a_del_Mar which was very relaxing until the earthquake!
I was speaking to Tim, my brother in Norway on, once again Skype, when there was an ominous rumbling noise and the house starting shaking – thankfully it lasted only about 15-30 seconds, but you never know! The epicenter was not too far away, see the website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/c0007i2m/us/index.html and was measured at 5.1 on the Richter scale. It made the evening news but not much more, and thankfully we live in a on the ground floor of a 2 story house - its not much fun on the 14th floor. Here in Chile it was not called an earthquake, it was a tremor, but a strong one. It tends to quicken your pulse rate a bit!
There was no damage done apart from the fact that left a book I was reading in the garden, after all the excitement of the tremor/earthquake forgot to take it in and Phillipa the 2 year old Rottweiler obviously doesn’t appreciate Bill Bryson because she tore it into shreds and there are still pieces we find in the bushes – AND it was a present from my children…..
We spent the day and evening on Wednesday in Santiago, taking a “Turbus” from Viña in the morning and returning together with Gonzalo at the end of his working day at 9 PM. The coaches from Turbus and other companies are a chapter in themselves, running – in our case every 15 minutes in luxury coaches costing the equivalent of 40 kroner for the 1 and a half hour journey (130 km) .
Greater Santiago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago has a population of 6 million, and the country as a whole has about 16 million. We got off at the nearest Metro station “Pajeritos” and took it to “La Moneda” (the Presidential Palace) to an Art exhibition by Chiles Dali/Picasso – Matta . And it was hot, rising to 35 degrees C in the afternoon. After Paty had chosen some furniture coverings in another area of Santiago, Vitacura it was so unbearably hot so we spent the next 4 hours in an enormous shopping Mall (one of many) that reminds you immediately of the USA – and it was air-conditioned!
Although it was so hot you could still see the snow on the Andes in the distance.
It is not often that we are in Santiago but it is a beautiful vibrant city and there are high rise buildings going up everywhere – although all buildings have very strict building codes (Marta will tell you all about it) to withstand earthquakes, imagine what it would be like on the 50th floor . The recession has certainly not reached Chile yet, there are signs of prosperity everywhere although you don’t have to go far into the outskirts of the capital to see a different picture ….
Friday was yet again spent on the golf course, and on a minor road on the way, which is part of a not so well off neighborhood we had to slow down by a handwritten sign saying “beware hole in road” and as there were 2 young men on the way to it to fill it up with sand, and in gratitude for this act one rolls the window down and gives them a small tip. It was exactly the same I remember 2 years ago. There is however a strong possibility that as soon as the car has driven past that they go and empty the hole again ready to fill it up! I think that is a fantastic story and you can only admire them for their business acumen……
