Time is timeless

We are continuing our journey down south, towards the end of the world. We are now some 300 miles south of Santiago, camping near a river. The summer season has not started yet, campgrounds are mostly deserted. Tonight, there are only two other vehicles in this huge campground under the trees. Some people are swimming in the river, I do not know how they can handle this, the water is awfully cold, but it is a relaxing sight. The barbecues are warming up for the meat (plentiful in this part of the world), the wine is ready to pour. This is the perfect time to reflect on time.

From the beginning of this journey, we have embraced a new relationship with time, gentler, more appeased. Time is not the enemy anymore; it is no more such an important part of our lives, because we have plenty of it. And this is priceless. We have decided to take it easy during this year, to get away from the insane pressure that we willingly subject to in normal times. It is probably the only time in our lives that we will be able to enjoy such a luxury. We take our time: we wake up in the mornings whenever we are ready, take a hearty breakfast (eggs, bacon, avocado, roasted coffee, cheese, berries) in no hurry. I read my numerous newspapers and magazines, first time in my life that I actually can read them properly; I am pretty sure that I am better informed on what happens in the world than most of you. We also have plenty of time to read books, plenty of books; and to write for the blog as well. We have freed our brains from menial details, such as what to wear today? Well, we just take the first shirt that comes off the drawer. We live a simpler life, so we do not get overwhelmed by all these endless things to do or take care of. Of course, we do some sightseeing as well, but there is only so much you can see at some point; I call this sightseeing saturation. We prefer to see one thing properly, rather than rushing around to see absolutely everything. Like, what is the point of visiting all the colonial towns, picking up two or three of the best is sufficient. In the evenings, we sometimes make a fire, specially when it is a bit cold and retreat to the camper to do some reading before sleeping. And sometimes, doing nothing is also great. Yes, it is, and I have no shame admitting it. Just spending time enjoying the moment. I have never felt so relaxed in all my life. Mental exhaustion is a distant concept now, stress too. I wish they could stay where they are, away from me, forever. 

Casa de Pablo Neruda, Isla Negra

Vingt ans après : un musée qui raconte la dictacture sous Pinochet…

La Moneda

Nous sommes restées trois jours à Santiago. Pour moi qui ai vécu quatre ans dans cette ville ça m’a fait quelque chose… La ville a beaucoup changé depuis seize ans. L’avenue principale est complétement changée avec des ponts pour piétons, des routes qui passent au dessous, des voies pour les bus… Il y a beaucoup plus de centre commerciaux et dans certains quartiers,  comme Bellavista où Providencia, les restaurants sont regroupés dans des parques avec des vendeurs de souvenirs tout autour et c’est très agréable ! Les bus ne sont plus jaunes comme ils étaient avant, il y a toujours les cireurs de chaussures, les kiosques qui vendent des journaux au coin de la rue, il y a beaucoup de mendiants dans le centre ville qui nous ont demandé une pièce, il y a des musiciens et des magiciens, des collégiens, des femmes qui proposent de t’épiler en pleine rue ou de la podologie… Les rues sont remplies de monde, la ville fait sept millions d’habitants… Et la population total du Chili c’est 17 millions !

Nous sommes allées voir le musée de la mémoire et des droits humains. Il a été inauguré en 2010 par Michelle Bachelet la présidente de l’époque. Elle a été réélue il y a six mois. C’est un musée qui relate ce qui c’est passé pendant la dictature de Pinochet.

Le musée est très moderne, avec des télévisons partout, des interviews de personnalités politiques, des témoignages de gens qui ont été martyrisés pendant la dictature sous Pinochet. Au premier étage le site est consacré au 11 septembre 1973. C’est comme si on y était ! Il y a plusieurs télévisions de l’époque qui filment la Moneda (le palet présidentiel), on voit les chars, on entend les deux discours du président Allende, les chars attaquent le palet présidentiel, les gens fuient… On voit vraiment comment c’est passé le coup d’Etat. Au deuxième étage c’est la vie pendant la dictature, avec les arrestations, la torture, l’exil politique pour des milliers de chiliens, la résistance à travers les syndicats et la pression internationale. La dictature sous Pinochet a tué 3 000 personnes et en a emprisonné 30 000. Le dernier étage est sur le référendum qui a eu lieu en 1998 pour savoir si les chiliens voulait continuer avec Pinochet où dire non à la dictature. Les chiliens ont voté a 54% non à Pinochet.

J’ai été impressionnée par ce musée !  

A Case just in case

Well, we are in Chile after all, so we had to go wine tasting at some point, right? Chile is famous for its wines, white, red, rosé and sparkling. They are exported all over the world at very competitive prices and are reknown for their consistency (no unpleasant surprise when uncorking).

So here we are, on a Monday afternoon, on a wine tasting spree. We selected a winery among the many listed on a map provided by the tourism office. A beautiful place, on the top of a hill, surrounded by vineyards entwined with roses. The roses lure the many insects so they do not damage the grapes; but the combination is beautiful all the same. We are in the New World, so everything is very modern and automatised. After the tour of the winery, we tasted three different wines, one white and two red. We finally ended up spending the whole afternoon there, because of the restaurant offering a gourmet menu with five courses plus dessert, each course accompanied by a different wine, all this sitting on the terrace overlooking the vineyards. Difficult to resist… We finally left the place with a case of six bottles of white in tow, just in case we do not find any more wine in Chile… it is now stored in our bathroom with the gallons of water, one more alternate use for our bathroom, more useful than its original purpose for sure. 

Fortunately, we did not have a long drive to reach our campsite for the night. We spent the night in a rest area for trucks by the highway, just two kilometres from the winery. In Chile, most gas stations and some rest areas have bathrooms and hot showers, with lot of pressure, real hot water, and clean. Our main reason to go to a proper campground is to use showers and bathrooms. Here we can get the same at gas stations for a token. So we do wild camping from time to time and shower at gas stations, or even stay the night. This is what we did, after the gourmet menu, parked in between two huge trucks, and we slept very well. 

Life without a fridge

We are now about 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Santiago de Chile, on the coast. We have been leisurely driving down along the coast, enjoying spectacular sceneries: the desert first, gradually giving way to a few bushes and scrubs; orchards; cliffs; beaches with volcanic rocks scattered around; and the Pacific ocean. This area is scarcely populated, I love these somehow inhospitable sceneries: rocks, waves and wind. It is like we are reaching the end of the world (we are in a way…). I had the same feeling at the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa. Yesterday, we camped next to a seven kilometres long sandy beach under eucalyptus trees (fabulous scent). The view was gorgeous but the ocean is too cold for a dip. There are a few people sunbathing; it is the beginning of summer season here. But still too cold for me, I am wearing a windbreaker to fend off the chilling gushes of wind, so sunbathing is a distant priority.

The area closer to Santiago is more populated, with beautiful houses perched on the rocks, overlooking the sandy beaches. I guess many people from Santiago spend their weekends there. This is where we stay tonight, in a campground, again under eucalyptus trees, but no view on the sea this time.

Our fridge is in a moody mood. Since we left Peru, it does not function properly. We suspect it is because the electrical network is now on 50 hertz whereas our camper works on 60 hertz. Or maybe it lacks gas; or it might just be have been damaged by some power surge. Would it not be easier if all countries could be on the same electrical system, with the same plugs, voltage and hertz? We decided to switch it off completely and live without it. This needs some kind of planning (or not planning actually): we cannot keep food long, so we buy it on daily basis; we also buy ice to keep it cold. Who wants to drink a warm Pisco Sour (or a warm glass of white wine for that matter)!!! This works quite well, actually and our rear batteries last longer, no need to charge them everyday anymore. I am now wondering why we needed that fridge in the first place! Actually, all things considered, we do not need much. Hot showers and… Internet; this is all we need really! 

Si vas para Chile !

J’ai vécu quatre ans au Chili de 1994 à 1998 quand j’avais 23 ans!!! Vingt ans après je retrouve le même Chili en beaucoup plus développer. Il y a des autoroutes partout et s’il n’y a pas d’autoroutes les routes sont bonnes, nous avons vu des champs d’éoliennes dans plusieurs endroits, on peut se doucher à l’eau chaude, il y plus de campings que dans toute l’Amérique Latine, internet fonctionne à part dans des tous petits bleds, on lave sa voiture soi-même, il y a des centre commerciaux comme aux USA et en Europe… La vie est un peu moins cher qu’en Europe, je pourrai la comparer au coût de la vie au Mexique. Les Chiliens sont accueillants. Ils sont très patriotes ! On voit des drapeaux chiliens un peu partout.

Nous sommes à la Serena à 500 km au nord de Santiago. Je n’avais pas visité le nord du Chili quand j’habitais dans la capitale. Pour l’instant ce n’est que du désert… St Pedro de Atacama est une ville très jolie. On a visité la « Valle de la Luna et de la muerte » et c’est assez beau.

La côte est très belle avec plein de rochers et des plages. Mais le paysage est un peu monotone…

Je vais peut-être retrouver des amis à Santiago, ¿Quien sabe ?

A Holiday in Chile

We have been in Chile for four days now, and it feels like a holiday, or rather a holiday within our holidays! It is nice and relaxing to be in a place where everything works properly.

I am writing this post relaxing in a hammock in a very nice hostel at San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of the desert. It is quite hot during the day, but nicely cool at night. We sleep in the camper in the parking lot of the hostel but we can use all the amenities: a very nice kitchen,  fully equipped, bathrooms with toilet paper and soap, great common areas and internet! Tonight we are going to watch the stars, it is apparently the best place in the world to do so. We also visited a huge open air copper mine in Calama two days ago. Very dusty but impressive. The visit was organised by the State mining corporation exploiting the site, with a guide speaking both English and Spanish. Very interesting. There are many such mining sites in northern Chile, copper being one of the major exports of this country. We could see the huge pit from a view point and the giant trucks going up and down with their loads of raw copper. Their wheels are almost the size of our camper!

Yesterday we visited the Valley of the Moon, near San Pedro. It is rightly named, it looks like being on the moon, even though I have never been, at least not yet. 

Tomorrow we will start going south along the coast. As Chile is a very thin and long country, this going south will take a while. But first we will have to wash our dusty camper. I reckon we will have to do it ourselves in a Wash Your Car place. Nobody will do it for us here, welcome back to the developed world!

Unlocking Bolivia's Potential

After a few pleasant days in Sucre, we left for the salt flats of Uyuni and the Eduardo Avaroa National Park in the southern part of Bolivia. We booked a three days tour on a Toyota Landcruiser as we did not want to venture on our own; distances are huge and dirt roads not in a very good shape; also it is nice from time to time to just go with the flow without having to organise everything ourselves.

The tour was fantastic. We drove on the salt flats, dazzlingly white and eery; because of the bright sun reflecting on the salt, we had the impression that the islands far back were floating in the air. So floating islands do definitely exist, on water, and on air!!! We saw altitude lakes of all colours, red, green, black and white; caves; volcanoes; geysers; hot springs; flamingos, llamas, alpagas, vicunas. A pure delight for the eyes. We slept the first night on a hotel made of salt; very cozy, the salt kept us warm. Second night was a bit tougher, at an elevation of 4’300 meters in a very basic place with no heating and only cold water. I did not sleep very well, because of the cold and thin air.

Yesterday, we left Bolivia for Calama in Chile. A 420 kilometres journey, elevated, half on it on dirt roads and again, fantastic landscapes. The camper survived, us as well. We had made a forward projection beforehand: no flat tire and no mechanical breakdown in the middle of nowhere, please. It worked. We are taking it easy today, relaxing at the campsite.

We liked Bolivia very much. Sceneries are absolutely stunning. However, outside of big cities such as La Paz and Sucre, amenities are at best shabby: internet exists only in our most fanciful dreams, despite the many signposts advertising it; toilets are most of the times appalling; sparkling water is unknown of; and last but not least, finding gas for the car a constant challenge.  

Bolivia is another land of limitless opportunities, but its potential needs to be unlocked. Who will push this country into the 21st century??? 

L’enfer existe toujours !

Avant hier, nous sommes allées visiter la mine d’argent de Potosi qui se situe à 4300 mètres d’altitude sur la montagne du ‘’Cerro Rico’’. Le tour incluait l’entrée dans la mine, les vêtements de protections : un pantalon, une veste, des bottes, un casque et une lumière pour ne pas se perdre dans la mine.

Quand on rentre dans la mine, il fait noir. On était 5 dans notre groupe plus la guide. On se dirige avec notre lampe et tout de suite la voie se rétrécit de plus en plus. Il faut se baisser pour passer. Le sol est couvert d’environ 20 cm d’eau et il y a des rails pour transporter les wagons de pierres avec les précieux minerais dedans. On descend dans la mine avec des échelles.

Susanna nous explique qu’au temps de la colonisation des millions d’indiens sont mort à cause de problèmes respiratoires dus à la poussière qu’ils respiraient ou quand ils était bloqués après un éboulement.  On s’arrête près d’une statue représentant le dieu ‘’Tio’’, c’est le dieu des enfers ou du monde souterrain. Susanna allume deux cigarettes pour les donner au dieu ‘’Tio’’, elle en place une sur la bouche et une sur sa cuisse. Elle verse des feuilles de coca sur sa tête, sur ses jambes et sur son sexe. Elle nous dit que les mineurs doivent faire des offrandes pour attirer sa bienveillance.

La mine est calme. C’est même difficile de rencontrer des mineurs…C’est aussi difficile que de rencontrer de l’argent dans cette mine ! Il n’y a plus d’argent dans cette montagne parce que les Espagnols ont extrait tout l’argent qu’il y avait dans la mine.

Hier c’était un jour férié : la Toussaint. Il y avait trois jours fériés et les mineurs sont allés dans leur village pour honorer leurs morts. Le dimanche nous avons vu des tas de gens dans les cimetières. Ils mettent des couronnes sur les croix des tombes et ils boivent, sans doute du whisky bolivien, auprès des tombes. C’est sans doute un mélange entre la religion catholique et leur croyance.

Au bout de 2 heures nous avons quand même rencontré des mineurs. Ils mâchent tous des feuilles de coca. Ils étaient en train de charger un chariot pour le remonter à la surface.  On leur offre des feuilles de coca et deux litres de jus de fruit qu’on avait acheté avant de partir. C’est un univers à la Germinal. Ils sont quatre mineurs à soit tirer où pousser le chariot. Les mineurs creusent avec de la dynamite et puis après ils ouvrent la roche avec des pics. Un ouvrier gagne environ 2500 bolivianos par mois (environ 290 euros) avec ça il doit acheter la dynamite, le matériel et payer quelque chose à la coopérative. Nous suivons le chariot jusqu’à sa sortie. Enfin on est à l’air libre !

Je ne regrette pas d’avoir visité la mine mais dire qu’il a encore des Boliviens qui travaillent comme au XVIIIe siècle c’est assez effarant !

Monday mornings

We left La Paz on Sunday morning towards the south of Bolivia, Potosi , Sucre and the salt pans of Uyuni. After checking thoroughly the maps, we decided to skip the Jesuit missions in the East of the country: too far, too many kilometres on unpaved roads. The camper is doing great these days, let’s keep it that way. The 500 kilometres plus drive from La Paz to Potosi is amazing. The road is excellent and hovers between 3’500 and 4’300 meters along snow capped mountains, magnificent canyons and rural hamlets; llamas, cows, and sheep are grazing on whatever meagre grass they can find.

As it was getting dark, we decided to stop a bit before Potosi in a spot called “El ojo del Inca”, the eye of the Inca. It is a small lake surrounded by mountains, a beautiful spot. It is actually a hot springs coming from the depth of the earth with allegedly curative powers. So this Monday morning, after breakfast I decided to take a dip. The water is hot, even bubbling like a jacuzzi in some spots. It was definitely a very pleasant way to spend a Monday morning. Because I had not read our travel guide beforehand, I did not know this little lake is not as placid as it looks: locals say that people can be sometimes swallowed to the bottom. Anyway, the owner of the place had told me when we arrived that  we could go into the lake provided we can swim properly. I was surrounded by plenty of locals who were doing their weekly or monthly laundry or washing themselves in the little stream coming out of the lake; it is indeed better to wash clothes in hot water and most people in rural areas do not seem to have even cold running water in their houses, let alone electricity.

After this, we packed up and drove the remaining twenty kilometres to Potosi, the highest city in the world at, according to the travel guide, 4’100 meters. According to our GPS we are “just” at 3’950 meters.

Internet is a bit sketchy here so unfortunately we have not been able to upload any pictures. We will do that as soon as we can, but probably only when we reach Chile…

Death Road and misc.

Yesterday we booked a bike tour on the Death Road, allegedly the world most dangerous road. This road used to be the main link between La Paz and Coroico and further to the Bolivian Amazon basin. A new safer road has been opened in 2009, so the Death Road is now mainly used by tourists. It stretches over more than thirty kilometres, carved on a flank of a steep mountain with the abyss on the side; unpaved and quite narrow, it rushes down at times vertiginously from an elevation of about 3’500 meters to 1’200 meters at the bottom end. The scenery is absolutely stunning. I wish I could have driven my old Toyota Landcruiser on it, this would have been fantastic. Because this road is so narrow, vehicles have to drive on the left hand side, so drivers have a better view of the abyss and their wheels when crossing another vehicle. There used to be a vehicle crashing down the abyss every fortnight on average when the road was in use. Good that there is a new road now. I cannot imagine how it can be during the rainy season with the mud and water falling from the mountain. 

So we started our tour at an elevation of 4’700 meters, the first 22 kilometres on a paved road so we could get acquainted with our mountain bikes. As I am not a mountain biker by nature, I was riding quite carefully and soon was trailing behind. There was quite some traffic on that curvy road, trucks and buses and I did not want to have a stupid accident. Then one of the “guides” told me I should ride faster because we had a long journey ahead of us. This, after having delivered an elaborate speech on how their agency was the safest in town with the best bikes in the world, going on and on on the allegedly lousy safety standards of their competitors. That was enough for me, so I handed over the bike, helmet and gloves and hopped into the accompanying bus. In a way, it was great, because I could fully enjoy the amazing scenery without having to keep my eyes constantly on the road. However, I do not get messed up with so easily, so I was deliberately obnoxious to the “guides” for the rest of the day. They call themselves “guides” but they are just a bunch of jerks. On the way back, two of them were drunk in the bus while the third was sleeping and the bus driver was talking on his cell phone while managing the curves. If they are really the best in town, I am wondering what others are like. Happy that we made it back safely. Next time, I will go on my own.

Today, we are resting in the campground deciding where we are going to go next. Roads can be challenging in Bolivia, so we need to plan carefully in order not to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. We heard from other travellers that it can be difficult to get gas in some places. We have actually seen long lines of vehicles at gas stations in La Paz. La Paz is an amazing city, nestled in a rift of the Altiplano at an elevation of 3’500 meters, built among geological formations. Contrary to what everyone thinks, it is NOT the capital of Bolivia. Sucre is, but only by name. With 850’000 inhabitants, La Paz is de facto capital, with all government institutions located here. It is dominated by the city of El Alto perched higher on the rift, a huge shantytown of more than a million people having migrated from the rural areas. Its architecture is nothing spectacular, but its amazing set up is definitely worth a visit.