Thanks to all!

I realized the other day, that I never finalized the blog postings and though it is unlikely that anyone is looking here much anymore, I just wanted to say thank you to all of our host families and the organizers and most of all to our team leader Maggie who was a great woman to travel with and who did all she could to make it a great exchange for all of us. It was an amazing experience to be welcomed like an extra daughter into all the homes of people we stayed with and to see the country as we would never have seen it.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!
robyn

A few images, since I have access to a new laptop...

I am not going to write a lot today, but I thought I would put up a few images.
Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend in Canada and all the best. Robyn


Our guide at the Museo O`Higgins in period colonial dress. She was great and brought us through each of the themed rooms of the museum with aplomb and lots to say about everything.


Today`s tour of a paper mill with Luis Arraya. It was really quite fascinating to wander around and to chat with him about the market and the challenges and advantages for a Chilean company. It also brought back memories of my youth when we used to tour the paper mill where my dad worked. This mill only uses mechanical processes and peroxide so it just smelled a bit like a wet cat, but nothing worse






The cordillera near to the Cementos Bio Bio minesite. The snow was fresh on the ground, but only a little of it (5-7 cm). We also saw a zorro (fox) up there, but that wasn`t as thrilling as it might have been since the people on site tend to feed them. It was absolutely stunningly beautiful up there are we were about 1 hour by horseback from the valley where the plane crashed with the Uruguayan soccer team in the 1970s. This situation was the one about which the movie and book Alive were created.

Last stop before the end...

The way this exchange works is that you tour around for a month and end up in the city that is hosting the district conference if at all possible. This, for us, is the city of Talca where we are now and this is our last stop. The rotarians here have been great. Last night was the meeting where we did our final presentation and today we headed out to see the hill overlooking the town, to wander around some of Talca`s many universities and to head to the Museo O`Higginsano. The Museo was really fascinating because the guide was dressed in colonial Spanish dress and the museum itself is in a restored colonial house and organized by themes rather than just random rooms with loads of stuff in them.

We are all pretty tired of the traipsing around without a lot of self-determination so it is good that this is the last stop. The Rotary conference starts tomorrow and is exploring the theme of the role of Rotary and the future of Chile in the environmental sphere. The newly created (this March!) ministry of the environment will be represented there by the minister herself and other speakers will be talking as well.

After a month of speaking and hearing Spanish all the time, there is a little more flow in all of our abilities to communicate. It has been an amazing experience for all of us to work together to piece things together and to learn and practice more. I must say thought that I am looking forward to just talking in English when I get home for a bit - the part of my brain that translates and searches for words is tired.

All for the moment!
Robyn

Parks and fall colours

Maggie at the waterfalls

Today we were hosted by the Molina Club. Molina is a town of about 32ooo people just outside of Curico. We headed off to a winery first of all and saw a bit more of the process of wine making and certainly saw a larger scale and more automated production process than we have seen before. It was a bit difficult because usually one person in the group is able to catch most of the Spanish and help the others out, but this morning we were all having a bad-language day and so we stared a little bit blankly at the poor man who was giving us the tour. We asked the man in charge of the tasting what wines were preferred by North Americans and he first said ´no preference´, but then followed that up with ´they like wines they can open and drink immediately´. We are known as discrimating oeniphiles throughout the world it seems....

Some of the seven tazas

After tasting a couple of wines, we headed off to the pre-Cordillera to see the Siete Tazas and the Parque Ingles and to have lunch at a ´refugio´. The tazas are pools that were formed by a combination of volcanic rock and the action of water and they are filled with water that is the most extraordinatry aquamarine blue colour. It was really breathtaking. The fall colours were really lovely and the guarda-parques (park ranger or warden depending on your country of origin) gave us a talk about the purposes of parks and reserves in Chile and about some of the flora and fauna of importance in this region and in other parts of the country. He was very clear and we got a lot out of his talk and slideshow. Afterwards, I went up to talk to him and discovered he was the first Chilean biologist that I have met. There are a few professions here that are dominant amongst the professional circles in which we are mostly travelling and biologist is not one of those. The major professions are : lawyer, doctor, engineer, accountant or businessperson, architect or dentist. When I say major professions, these are the jobs that every parent in Chile wants their child to have so that they can have a good quality of life. I don´t know if this stat is true, but I was told by my host family here that 70% of Chileans do not own their place of residence and that is very hard for other professions to get by in the present economy.

After a lovely, though short, walk in the woods of the fall forest of robles (oaks), we headed off for lunch up in the Parque Ingles, which despite its name is actually a reserve. Reserves have less protection than parks here and it is hoped that this reserve may become a park this year in commemoration of an anniversary for parks.

All for now-Robyn

Brujas y locos

We arrived in Curico on Sunday and had a day to relax, settle in and get to know our new families and then Monday we headed off in convoy to see the coast, eat some food, and tour around a lake very near the coast. The legend has it that the lake was so deep that noone could plumb its depths and that it was a place where the witches (brujas) would meet in years gone by. This has, of course, turned into some serious local marketing with the papaya growers in the area using a neat witch label and many of the road and restaurant signs with witches on them as well. We had a chance to sample the local papayas after a ridiculous lunch where we ate the ocean in its entirety including locos (some type of abalone). The papayas from the area are delicious and quite different from the papayas of Mexico or Brazil.

The witches´wood papaya jam.

We then spent a couple of hours at the lake, went for a boat ride with Angel and Flavio and had onces (teatime). The lake is really lovely and the houses around it are large and clearly it is a place for those with a fair bit of money. We saw some black necked swans and some bird that looked like a coot, but I don´t know what kind so apologies to any birders out there.

The lake nearing sunset

Food, Fun and Lake Vichuquen

Yesterday we left Santiago and took the train to Curico. We were met at the station by a cadre of Rotarians who whisked us off to our respective homes for the next few days. Many of us were invited to Mother´s Day Celebrations and enjoyed everything from quiet family meals to wild parties.

Later in the evening we all gathered together in an old railroad car that one of out hosts had turned into his office. And what an office it is - complete with a full kitchen and a bar. A great time was had by all as we enjoyed barbeque, local wines and making new friends.

Yet another family is aghast that I don´t have a maid at home. It´s the custom here and I must admit it´s nice to come home and find all your dirty clothes clean, pressed and folded waiting at the end of the bed. In the morning breakfast is served either in bed or in the sitting room.

Today we toured the area stopping first at the beach for a two hour lunch with enough food for an army. Appetizers were pisco sours, two kinds of empanadas, cerviche, and little cassoulets of crab. Some of us thought that was lunch and we were quite happy, but then we were ushered into the dining room for loco ( a type of abalone) salad, chilean sea bass, beets, tomatoes and wine. All this was followed by papaya with cream sauce and coffee and tea.

Next we went to Lago Vichuquen - a large lake surrounded by forests. One of the host families has a summer home there and while Marisol was fixing onces (since we hadn´t eaten in the last 90 minutes), Angel took us out in his boat for a ride around the lake. There are many large and very fancy houses around the lake. According to my hosts there are people from Santiago who fly their private planes down for the weekend so you can imagine what some of the houses look like. Angel and Marisol´s house has at least 5 bedrooms and three baths and is beautiful. Marisol is a ceramic artist and the house is filled with her work. In the living room the coffee table top is a large piece with a different fish for each member of the family. We watched the sun set over the beautiful hills surrounding the lake before heading back to Curico.

Tomorrow we get handed off to the Molina Club for touring the Siete Tazas, a series of 7 waterfalls that are said to be the most extraordinary natural phenomena in Chile. All of our hosts have been wonderful about showing us the best of each area. We are also enjoying the opportunity to talk to people for extended periods of time and really get to know these lovely families.

Maggie

Easter Island, to the jail and back, and other stories...

The trip to Easter Island as part of this exchange was a later addition to the program and was graciously funded by the district governor of district 5080. We were all super excited to go to the island and the long, long plane ride over just ocean terminated with us walking down onto the tarmack and being immediately garlanded with lais of island flowers by several members of the Rapa Nui rotary club. From the moment we got there until we (somewhat sadly) stepped back onto a LAN plane, we were really well taken care of by the rotarians and others on the island. We stayed at the Tupa Hotel and we toured around many of the island´s cultural sites courtesy of Richard, a rotarian who is also a guide. We ate many delicious meals courtesy of Monica, the cook, and Hermann, the owner at ´Le Aleman´ restaurant and we also spent some time in the jail!

Rotary headquarters, Rapa Nui

The rotary club of Rapa Nui is 11 members strong, and with a total island population of only about 4000 people, that is as high a percentage as in many other cities or towns. They took on a big project several years ago to restore an old jail of the Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile) and that is where the meeting was held. It is a beautiful stone building right in the center of the main town of the island, Hanga Roa, where 90% of the population lives ( see photo above). The meeting consisted of the business of the club, our presentation, a massive barbeque of delicious meats, a delightful mini-recital by Jason on violin, and much pisco, wine and other drinks. A group of us followed up the meeting by heading out to see a local band called Topa Tanji at the club of the same name. Dancing til dawn is the name of the game if you can last in Chile. The band was excellent and was sort of pop-polynesian style with extra helpings of ukelele and an upbeat sound.

Coastline view on Rapa Nui´s Southeast shore

It is hard to capture the essence of our 4 days on the island. The island life runs at a mellow pace, which was a nice contrast to the big city lifestyle we had been experiencing prior to this trip. Each day we did some touring of the many cultural sites and learned something about the history and the theories of the archaeologists and anthropologists about the fascinating culture that carved and erected the massive moai statues around their island. But we also had some free time on the island, which was great to just wander, peruse the many shops and explore the trails. I was lucky enough to get a chance to do a SCUBA dive on our second last day and Jason and I did a bit of surfing one day as well. It was the friendliest line-up I have ever encountered with locals chatting to us and telling us good places to sit to catch waves. All in all, it was am amazing mix of relaxing time, educational time and time to socialize and learn more about the people who were hosting us.

There are many cars on the island and many motorcycles too, but a lot of the young people also use the many horses that run free over the island to get around with saddles that look like they are made of wood and covered with a bit of leather. In my vocational day, I spoke with a fellow who is working on a sustainable management project for the natural resources of the island and learned from him that the 5000 horses and many cows that roam the island are a major concern because they eat a lot of the native vegetation that they are trying to rehabilitate. However, it is problematic to control the populations as cows and horses are generally seen as a status symbol and the more one owns, the higher the status.

The weather on the island was a major change from the ´continiente´where fall is getting cooler and cooler. There was high humidity, hibiscus blooming and warm air and water. The sea was about 24 degrees and we saw some turtles one day come into the nearshore area to feed. Fantastic.

Jason at one of the unrestored Ahu (platform) sites

I won´t describe much about the theories and history of the moai here since there are many sites that do it better, but I will say that the carving is magnificent and the settings in which the ahu sit are incredibly beautiful and powerful. One example of the many sites with detailed information can be found at: http://www.netaxs.com/trance/rapanui.html.

Moai in the quarry, half buried in eroded volcanic material.

Sorry for the scattered nature of this posting, but I wanted to get something up today since we have been long absent from the world of blog and I am a bit tired. Happy Mother´s Day to all the moms out there!

Robyn

El Teniente

El Teniente is the Spanish word for the lieutenant. It is also the name of the largest underground copper mine in the world. Last Monday, the GSE team had the privilege to go on a VIP tour of this giant underground operation.

The mining company owned by the Republic of Chile, Codelco, operates the mine. El Teniente is one of their biggest operations and includes an underground mine, a concentrator plant, and a smelter. Our tour focused on the underground mine. The mine has more than 2,800 km of tunnels and galleries. About 130,000 tons of ore is extracted from the mine daily, with a yield of about 13 kg of copper per ton.

To get to the mine we drove about 50 km from the city of Rancagua along a winding mountain road known as the Copper Highway to an elevation of 2,500 m. We entered the mine at the lowest level of the underground operation, driving straight into the heart of El Teniente. From there our tour guide showed us how miners extracted ore using manual tools when the mine first opened in 1905. Next we got to see a spectacular quartz cavern. The quartz cavern was discovered accidentally by miners and has been preserved in its original state for future generations to enjoy. Leaving the quartz cavern the team rode the elevator to the next level to see the underground train system used to collect ore from different mining areas. The grande finale to the underground tour was a for the team to take a ride on the ore train out of the mine to the ghost town of Sewell. Sewell was the original mining town where Chilean and North American miners lived. The miners were relocated from Sewell to Rancagua in the 1970s. Codelco is in the process of restoring Sewell for tourists and will be the largest open air museum when complete.

After lunch in Sewell we drove to an area called Colon, the site of the concentrator. There we got to see some modern mining technology in action. Operators were remotely controlling scoop vehicles and rock hammers 15 km from the actual equipment. Most of the machinery for the future mines at El Teniente will be operated remotely from the city of Rancagua.

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