Final Day in Santiago

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day in Santiago - perfect for a day of exploring on our own. We checked out of the hotel at 10, and after taking a few photos on the street my new friend Jaime met me to take me to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. It's a fairly new museum documenting the human rights abuses of the Pinochet era, from 1973 to 1990. It is a beautiful space with incredibly moving exhibits, which I'm sure would have had even more of an impact if I had a better grasp of Spanish. Jaime helped explain a few things, though. It was a great experience which I would recommend to anyone visiting Santiago.

Next we went to the Cultural Center at la Moneda, the presidential palace. This is an underground collection of galleries, the national cinema, and restaurants. We had lunch there and looked at a Chilean craft exhibit a gallery before Jaime had to leave. On my own I explored the temporary exhibit of Art of the Americas. There was some great stuff there, including a Keith Haring "Free South Africa" piece.

When I left the cultural center I had about an hour for shopping before we needed to reconvene at the hotel. I finally went into the Santa Lucia craft market, and I discovered it was very big and really good. I ran out of time before seeing everything.

Everyone showed up on time at the hotel. We packed up our last-minute purchases and loaded the bus for the airport. Upon arrival we encountered a ridiculously long line for check-in. When my turn came, I had a very flirty Delta agent. Apparently he liked me - he gave me 5 free drink vouchers! Unfortunately, I couldn't use them on this trip. Well - I really _could_ have used them, but I wasn't allowed due to the fact I was working. Now I will have to fly somewhere else on Delta this year just to get the free drinks!

We made it to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare, where many of us used the rest of our Pesos to load up on Duncan Donuts.

I counted everyone from the group get on the plane, then counted again once we were on. I didn't want to leave anyone behind - but it was difficult to count because we were spread all over the plane. Indeed, everyone was accounted for, and we finally took off over the brilliantly lit city of 5.5 million people.

The rest of the trip is kind of a blur... There was an airplane meal of chicken, an uncomfortable, fitful sleep, an unappetizing breakfast sandwich around 4:00, a really, really long immigration and customs process, an uneventful layover, and another short flight. Now we're on the bus about 15 miles from Bloomington. Part of me wishes I were still in Sunny warm Santiago, but I will be glad to see Barry, Gromit, and Lefty again very soon.

Stay tuned for a recap of my Chilean gastronomical experience, a couple of short videos, and links to Facebook photo galleries. I may also add links to some of the places I visited.

No Worries - I'm Still alive!

Apologies for the lack of updates! We just got to be so busy with the trip that I couldn't possibly keep up with blogging AND get sleep.

To summarize, we had three business visits on Tuesday, followed by dinner with an IU alumna. Lots of taxi and metro travel that day. The dinner was awesome - more about that sometime in the future.

Wednesday we had an interesting visit with Coca-Cola. We took the metro to the area and had a bit of a walk to their office, so we were a few minutes late. Following Coke we had a bit of a break to eat lunch and shop at a big fancy mall nearby. Then we had to walk about 1.5 km to the next business - near a busy, loud road at the hottest time of day. We were fried. Following the visit we had to walk more than 2 km back to the metro and ride the thing through rush-hour traffic to the hotel.

Thursday we had a totally awesome visit to the Economics and Business faculty at Universidad de Chile. The Kelley staff met with faculty and admin to discuss potential partnerships while our students participated in an International Business class, making new friends through the small group exercise. Later that afternoon we had our final Santiago business visit which was, thankfully, practically next door to the hotel.

Thursday night we went out to celebrate Katelyn's birthday and St. Patrick's Day. The pub was packed, but our new best friend Fernando (founder and president of Recycla) met us there to buy a round of drinks.

Friday was a cool day. We left way too early for Valparaiso, a major port on the Pacific. After visiting a shipping company, we headed to the waterfront for brief harbor tours on a pilot boat. The weather and the views of the city were amazing! While we waited, a gull took a great big poop on Andrew. As disgusting as it was, he kept a good attitude about it and a local told us it was a sign of good luck. Not long after he got cleaned up (as well as he could), a duck took a great big poop on Jeff and Darryl! They kind of got it on the head, so they weren't too pleased.

We did a little shopping at the waterfront before walking into the city for a quick lunch of empinadas. Next we took one of Valpo's many ascensors to a hilltop for a great view of the city and harbor. There was more shopping. (The ascensors are incline railways, or funiculars, or elevators - think the 4th street elevator in Dubuque, which I'm no longer sure is the "shortest, steepest incline railway in the world.")

Next we took taxis to La Sebastian, the home of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Naruda. We toured the quirky home and enjoyed the great views. While there, I discovered I left my souvenirs in the taxi, but no matter - I got them back when I called the taxi for the return trip. Following dinner, we took a tiny ascensor down the hill to meet our bus - the steepest funicular I've ever ridden!

We had a really pretty drive back to Santiago, with dramatic ocean views, and a full moon rising over the mountains and vineyards.

Back in Santiago I went out for a glass of wine (and razor clams) with the other chaperons. We found a really cool neighborhood just a short walk from the hotel. (Wish I had discovered that sooner!)

Later I went over to the Bella Vista neighborhood - the hub of Santiago night life, where we had been out for dinner a couple times before. I went to check out the gay nightlife. In Bar 105 I met a guy named Jaime (what a coincidence!) who enjoyed the opportunity to practice his English with me. We had another drink at Patio Bella Vista (a mult-level happening spot with shops, restaurants, and live music), then headed to a big, crowded dance club. I could have danced a lot longer, but it was already pretty late following a long day of sightseeing.

Yesterday we got to sleep in a bit (finally!), but still had to get up to check out of the hotel. They held our bags while we explored the city throughout the day.

They're calling us to board the flight to IND, so I've got to wrap this up. More later!

Proof I'm Here

I had great intentions of adding some photos, adding more details about my first lunch here and last night's excursion to San Cristobal, and writing about today's events, but it's just too late. Tomorrow is our busiest day while we're here, so I've got to get to bed. We had a good day, though, and a fun dinner.
This picture was taken on top of Santa Lucia Hill across from our hotel. We felt accomplished when we climbed to the top, but this hill is tiny compared to San Cristobal.

More About Yesterday

I was too tired last night to give a full recap of the day's activities. I've got a couple minutes now to add some detail. Our city tour took us to a private horse racing club; Santa Lucia hill, a park where the city was founded more than 500 years ago (which happens to be across from our hotel); Plaza de Armas, where was stepped inside the Sanitago Cathedral and saw the city hall, post office, and Natural History Museum (all from the outside); la Moneda, the Presidental Palace where President Salvador Allende was killed in the 1973 coups d'etat; and the newer business district, Provedencia.

The city has some beautiful boulevards and is filled with universities - 61 private and 12 public. There seem to be university buildings everywhere. Another thing we noticed was the very large number of stray dogs. They seem very well behaved and don't look particularly malnourished or mangy, but they are everywhere (along with a few cats). As we walk in groups, they tend to follow us. The students have started naming them all. And sometimes the dogs just sleep on the sidewalks undistrubed by all the foot traffic.

Last night's journey was something else. More on that later, but for now I'll just say we had to walk down a 300 meter mountain in the dark, which took more than an hour. We ended up walking 3.92 miles to get to a metro station (after walking 1.4 miles to get too the park in the first place).

Crazy Day!

I slept off and on during the flight - never too comfortably. Woke up for good around 6:00, I think. I was in the middle, so I could only catch glimpses of the gorgeous sunrise over the Andes.

When we landed in Santiago, we were very confused about the time. I had obsessed over the time zones and the Daylight Savings Time before we left... according to my research, the U.S. went on Daylight Savings time while we were in flight, and Chile went off Daylight savings Time while we were in flight. This meant that when we sprung forward one hour, Santiago would fall back one hour and we'd end up on the same time. I could never get my outlook calendar to figure it out, though. We were supposed to arrive at 7:00, but we landed at 8:10. The flight crew said we were only a few minutes late and our smart phones indicated different times so we didn't know what time it was. When we finally got through immigration and customs I asked our tour guide what time it was. He said we really landed at 8:10 - more than one hour late according to what Delta told us on our itinerary. As it turns out, due to a water shortage Chile has postponed the end of Daylight Savings Time to April 1st. (Can you figure out why?) Looks like the early April Fool's joke was on us.

But back up - before going through Immigration, we had to pay a reciprocity fee of $140 US each. Nobody could guarantee in advance that there would be working credit card machines (there were), so we went prepared with $3080 cash. They were kind enough to let us pay as one group, but when the woman started counting the cash she began rejecting any bill with a tear or mark on it. By the time she had tossed aside $500, our fluent chaperone told her we didn't have an extra $500 in cash.  By some miracle, they suddenly decided to accept all of our bills.

We had a nice but lengthy city tour (it was an absolutely beautiful day) before a slightly chaotic hotel check-in. We split up for a late lunch. I went with Darryl and Michael to Mercado Central and had a nice meal, a small Pisco Sour (the national drink), and a very nice serenade. It was a bit of a walk over there, but more or less worth it. Didn't have much time for a shower before meeting up with the group and heading out to San Cristobal. Our plan was to walk there, take the Funicular up the mountain, view the sunset, then split up for dinner. (I planned to skip dinner and return to the hotel to rest and work.) Five hours later, I FINALLY made it back to the room. I could write out all the sordid details here, but it's after Midnight and I figure I have to get up at 6:00. Maybe I'll write about it tomrrow - unless I repress the memory that quickly.

On the Plane Now

We've boarded the plane for Santiago, and we leave in about 20 minutes (supposedly). I've been accused of putting us on a "ghetto" plane - as if I had anything to do with it! Unfortunately. We do not have the cool personal touch screen entertainment system. In fact, no personal entertainment system. We actually have to watch whatever movies they decide to show on ceiling-mounted monitors. Can you believe it?

This will be my last real-time blog update. Data usage in Chile is just too expensive.

A Stressful Beginning

I thought everything was going well this morning... I finished packing and some house cleaning, then took the recycling before arriving on campus 25 minutes before we were all supposed to meet for the bus. I drove Gywen's car, since she was on campus working and I didn't want to leave my car on campus for a week.

I went to my office to retrieve a few items and the 21 passports in my file cabinet along with $3080 we need to get into Chile. Only then did I realize how problematic it was for me to leave my keys at home. I made it back home in record time! The dogs were pleased I came back so soon, but one minute later I was back in the car. I made it to the bus at 10:15 - right when it was supposed to arrive - and joined everyone else who was already on the bus. As trip leader, I set a fine example for the students!

We actually left town 6 minutes early. We had a beautiful sunny drive to the airport, where we found our flight is delayed by 1:17. Still plenty of time to catch our connection in Atlanta, though. Now it's time to get some lunch...

Getting Ready to Go!

Only a day and a half until we leave for Chile! I'm still not ready, but at least now I have a "to-do" list and am making progress on it.

The Official Trip Blog has now been created, although there won't be anything posted there until later today. I'll include the link along the right side of this blog. -->

Next Up: Santiago de Chile!

 One week from now, I will be in the air between Atlanta and Santiago, Chile. Similar to our Ghana trip in 2008 and my trip to China in 2010, I will be accompanying students from Kelley's Emerging Economies class on a spring break tour to take a closer look at business practices in less developed but rapidly expanding economies.

This time I am the trip leader. My Spanish is poor, so I'm glad we are traveling with some people who have much better language skills than I do. I will be accompanied by 18 undergraduate business students, a faculty member, another staff member (a former Spanish teacher), and a graduate student from the Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies. On Wednesday evenings this semester the graduate student, Michael, has been teaching our class about the history, politics, economics, and culture of Chile. Chile's economy is generally considered to be the most stable in Latin America. While the 17-year reign of dictator Agusto Pinochet is marred by human rights abuses, the country entered a period of economic growth during that era which continues today.

We will travel from March 12-20, spending most of the time in Santiago although we will take a day trip to Valparaiso on March 18. Unlike my previous trips to Oxford and China, I will not be writing the Kelley blog for the trip. However, there will be an official trip blog, and I will pot that address here when I get it.

It's been just more than one year since the "big" earthquake in Chile. I'm hoping not to experience one, but just to be safe, I did inquire the other day at Red Cross training about earthquake safety tips. :-)

9 Months Later: One more video from South Africa

I realize this isn't exactly a current event, but I've had this final video from South Africa sitting on my desktop. Time to post it, because I leave next week for the next big trip!

This was taken in the northern part of the country on our drive from Kruger Park back to Johannesburg. The area is a former homeland, and I felt like I really knew I was in Africa as we passed these homes.

A few final thoughts about our trip - before I forget them. I may have blogged before about how the entire country seemed to be behind the World Cup. Everyone wore soccer jerseys, street vendors sold World Cup souvenirs and vuvuzelas, museum displays and theatre events featured soccer, all the store displays referenced soccer, soccer coverage on the radio, on TV, in the newspapers, soccer billboards everywhere... I don't think I've mentioned that there was even soccer-related road-side art. I don't even remember the specifics now, but it did strike me at the time. It was a pretty cool atmosphere.

I hope the country is doing well. I know there was a lot of controvery surrounding the expense of the stadiums and other infrastructure. People argue that not all South Africans benefited from the influx of foreign money. Others say that FIFA reaped the rewards, but the people of South Africa did not. Economists claim a country can never reclaim it's investment in such an event.

I believe the country and the people of South Africa were excellent hosts. They pulled off the World Cup in spectacular fashion. I loved it, and it seemd to me that the South Africans had a lot of pride in their accomplishment. Nine months later, I hope that pride remains.

Meanwhile, my parents are preparing to return to South Africa. I am jealous. But they've been given very specific orders to return bearing Crunchyvites!!