Archive for December, 2006
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
Staying in Quemchi
View from above Quemchi
Upon arriving in Quemchi, Cristian and I spent the afternoon at an upstairs seaside bar/restaurant called Miramar, which on a good day would have a decent view of the islands out to sea, instead today it would have been better named Miraropa, “ropa” meaning clothes hung out to dry on the balcony overlooking the bay. An alternate name might have been Mirabaño, “baño” refferring to the two bathrooms at the end of the balcony where we sat to avoid the clothes, watching the boats come and go, and at one point startled to see a fisherman smack the water with a ten or twelve foot pole, reach down and pull out a freshly nabbed arm-length salmon. A beer and a conversation later, we were ready to sort out our accomodations at Residencial Colona where, as Cristian swore up and down, they treat him like family.
No Comments » - Posted in Travel by Damon
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
Hotel Gladys
I spent the last week sleeping in the shack at the rear of the Santiago Times because it had two of the best advantages that a hostal has to offer: cheap and convenient. Getting to work in the morning was a matter of getting out of bed, stepping through the very delicate grape arbor and through the glass doors into the office. And I couldn’t beat the price: free.
Still, I spent last night at Puerto Montt’s Hotel Gladys, after a late-night flight directly from Santiago, it was the first of two places in the the tiny town’s hotel district that had their lights on at 2am, and at US$10, a relative bargain.
No Comments » - Posted in Travel by Damon
Sunday, December 10th, 2006
The General is Gone
I got back from a late lunch to find the Santiago Times newsroom a blur of activity. While Charlie and I were peacefully enjoying the delicacies of Peruvian cuisine, Chile’s former dictator General Augusto Pinochet passed away at the age of 91.
Local Chilean television already began twin simulcasts of the days unfolding events, one half of the screen tuned to the Plaza Italia, where a the initial group of hundreds of Pinochet detractors began to gather, the other half of the screen focused on the swelling of supporters around the military hospital where the former general spent his final days.
