Reflections on Six Weeks in Chile

Greetings!

We left Auckland today and are now in an area of the North Island called the Bay of Islands.  The larger area is known as The Northland.  It's kind of like "up north" in Wisconsin except...maybe a little better?  No offense?

Anyway, more on Auckland and the Bay of Islands in another post, this one is about our time in Chile.

Reflecting on our time in Chile, in general, is hard.  We - all of us, including the boys - are deeply saddened to have left and I'm not sure I've processed it enough to explain how we feel.

It's remarkable how, by the time we did leave, a country and a culture that seemed very foreign to us during our first few days in Santiago and San Pedro de Atacama, became so familiar and comfortable.  I guess the fact that that happened was the very point of our time there, but perhaps what's remarkable - or at least interesting - about it is that I don't remember when it happened.  I didn't even realize that it had happened until we arrived in Auckland, which (obviously?) is a much different place.  Also interesting?  I know that we felt out of place the first few days in Chile; I remember clearly that we felt that way.  But my memories of that time don't hold that feeling.  In my recollection of people burning scarecrows and dancing in the desert on New Year's Eve it is all comfortable and it makes sense even though, at the time, I know we were all a bit shocked.

It certainly helps that we met and developed relationships with amazing people.  If we hadn't, this blog probably would be a lot more boring than it already is; we'd just have been telling you that Chile is beautiful and posting pictures to show you we're not kidding even though you already could have done a Google image search for "Chile" and just skipped this blog.  Some of those people weren't Chilenos, of course, but even they were all living in or spending extended time in Chile, embraced and infected by the people and culture.  And the love that the people have for their own country - or at least for their own part of their country - is infectious as well.  We loved Futaleufú and Puerto Natales and Valparaíso partially because we spent time with people who really loved those places and gave us the opportunity of experiencing all of it through their eyes and hearts.  Those opportunities we had were priceless.

Fabrizio and Sarah

The boys with Matias

Jody and Ged

Christian and some random
dudes in a bus cafe

Miguel and the gang in Puerto Natales

Cam and Wes with Emma and León

Catalina and Diego

Aside from that more profound reflection, Aimee and I thought we would share a few more specific reflections and observations from our time in Chile.  We're going to do this in list form, in no particular order:

Safety:  We felt safe all of the time.  We felt more safe every day.  Aimee felt more safe in Chile than she does in the U.S., at least partially because she didn't worry about any of us getting shot at school or work.  I'm not sure I worry about that at home as much as Aimee does, although I think I intentionally not-worry about it (particularly the school thing) so that I can not-think about it.  Either way, now that I'm not-not-thinking about it, I think I felt more relaxed because I didn't have to not-not-worry about it.  Savvy?

Dogs: So many dogs everywhere.  Apparently, they're not all stray dogs.  Apparently, many of them are pets but everyone in Chile just lets their pet dogs run free all day (and sometimes at night).  That's nice and all except if you're gonna do that, you should train those dogs to return home to go potty instead of just going all over the sidewalk everywhere.

Highway Pedestrians: There are highway pedestrians.  There are also highway bus stops.  I mean, six-lane highways with bus stops on the side and people walking along or across the highway to get to those bus stops (or just to the other side).

Trump: Chilenos are astounded.  I got better at it each time I had to explain in Spanish that maybe they shouldn't be so surprised, if you really think about it.

Water: You can drink it from the faucet (or right out of the river, for that matter) in Patagonia, but probably shouldn't in Santiago, Valparaíso, or San Pedro.

Germans: A lot of Chile - particularly Patagonia - has a strong German influence in the food and architecture.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Germans were recruited to come to Chile to help organize settlements.

Money:  Chile needs to drop some zeros from their currency.  Their bills are in the thousands.  10,000 Chilean pesos is about $15 dollars.  Everything is in the tens or hundreds of thousands.  Cars cost millions.  I can't even figure out how much a house would cost in pesos.  $15 dollars should just be 10 Chilean pesos.

Diet: Chile appears to have a diet and obesity problem right up there with the U.S.  Other than empanadas and their weird bread, which aren't great for the diet either, we mostly saw people buying chips and soda.  Easily a majority of the kids we saw were overweight.

Cost:  Chile is NOT cheap.  Eating out in a restaurant, almost no matter where you are, is at least as expensive as in the U.S.  Hotels, hostels, and campgrounds are all expensive as well.  Any excursion or entrance fee or anything touristy is even more expensive than in the U.S.  There are two things in Chile that are inexpensive: (1) wine and (2) groceries.  Wine is sooo cheap.  You can really only get Chilean wine but the most expensive bottle of wine I saw in a store was $15 (U.S.) and the most expensive bottle I saw on a restaurant menu was $25.  And while restaurants are expensive, you can buy groceries to last a week for the cost of what you'd need to prepare one meal from Metro Market or Whole Foods.

I'm sure there's more we meant to mention, but we'll leave it at that for now.  It's late on Sunday night here in New Zealand.  Don't worry, we won't tell you what happens on Sunday - you can find out for yourselves.  

Enjoy!

Love,

Max, Aimee, Cam & Wes,