From Allende And Horse Statues, To Great Sunset Over Mapocho River

Some pictures from our walking history tour in central Santiago.  Airbnb gives local guides the opportunity to offer their tours on the Airbnb website.  They’re reasonably priced and you get a small group - in our case yesterday, three - and a guide.  We were scheduled for 3 hours, but we went longer.

There was a lot of information packed in and I didn’t catch - let alone remember it all.  Our guide was definitely an Allende fan and echoed economic concerns that we heard in Argentina.  He said Argentines think Chile is doing much better than Argentina.  But Argentina has free health care and higher education.  Chile has neither.  And while I thought the prices in Argentina were high (except for local products, like wine, and locally grown food, prices in Chile are higher.  And people, Pablo told us aren’t getting raises to keep up with the prices.

Here’s the entrance to our Airbnb.  It’s the red door in the middle.  It leads to a hallway.   

 

We have a tiny studio.  Entry, kitchen and bath downstairs and a loft upstairs with the bed.  It’s $ 34 a night, which is reasonable.  But for some reason, my iPad isn’t keeping cookies for sites I vis  i t  frequently so  I am constantly logging in.  But Airbnb wanted me to v erify who I was by getting a code from my cell phone.  But I’ve replaced my US sim card with an Argen tine sim card for t he trip so I can’t retrieve the code.  Once they gave me the option of sending it to my email.  But no l onger.  So I was cut off for a day.  Can’t contact my host, can’t make new reservations, can’t book a tour.  I  finally got their attention (leaving notes in the help? Box when I couldn’t use the code  and tweeting them.  And I got back on.  But less than 24 hours later I’m in the same fix.  We have a reservation in  Cordoba, but I don’t know the address and can’t contact the host.  And I can’t contact my host now to see if we can leave our suitcases here after checkout tomorrow so we don’t have to drag them  around town.

Turns out we’re in a district that’s sort of like Venice Beach - lots of murals, free spirits, bars, late night clubs.  But we’re also close to things in central Santiago.  But finding a grocery to get eggs fto make  breakfast yesterday, or even eat breakfast was hard.  We ended up at Fuente Aleman.  German Fountain.  It turned out later on the tour it was just across the street from a large fountain that the  Germans who were given land  in Southern Chile in the mid 19th Century  gave to Santiago (or Chile) at the 100th Anniversary of Chile’s independence.  (I think that’s right.)




It turned out that basically this was a grilled beef sandwich restaurant.  J was game, but the BBQ we had in San Juan was well beyond my annual meat quota.  I got a meat sandwich without the meet, but with avocado and tomato.  It was ok, but cost the same.  It was about $15 for the two sandwiches.  But what was unique was the waitresses who took orders, cooked the orders in the middle - that’s number 11, our waitress, next to the pile of meet for J’s sandwich.  (It could all have been for one sandwich, I don’t imagine.). And then they serve us.  They don’t take the money though, that’s for the cashier whose head you can see in back between the two at the grill.  But our waitress, who seemed a bit dour, did eventually ask where we were from.  Alaska is a great place to be from.  Most people haven’t met anyone from Alaska, but they know it’s cold.  I have to tell them this week that it was about 30˚C in Alaska.  That messes with their stereotypes.

We took the subway a couple of stops, because we were having trouble keeping to the path to where we were supposed to meet the guide.  It was only a little over a mile, but we were making a lot of wrong turns and backtracking, and I didn’t want to be late.    Early on the tour we got to this square in front of the (former?) presidential palace. Allende shot himself near one of the second story windows as the army was closing in.  The guide said to avoid torture and death by the army.  These two young women were out protesting the lack of progress against climate change.   The Trump sign said something about not believing in climate change.

To put these two women in perspective, here’s another view of the plaza.

The two women are on one side and four police are on the other.

The next photo is from where I took the picture above - the statue of President Allende.
And that’s our guide Pablo.  I can’t get into Airbnb to say what a great job he did.

[I don’t want to complain again, but the wifi is slow and cuts out regularly, my iPad problems with blogger continue,  and now I keep getting messages that blogger can’t save this post.  That means if that doesn’t clear up, I can’t post it either in the end.  And everything I’m typing could disappear.  So I’m going to stop now and see if I can fix this and post at least this much.  Each post takes me three or four times as long as it should to get up.].  [I guess it was just an internet interruption]

Here’s our guide Pablo in front of the statue of President Allende.

 Anchorage has three to five thousand foot mountains as a constant backdrop.  Santiago has four thousand meter mountains as a back drop.  That’s about 12,000 feet.  And they’re just as close as the Chugach.  But in Anchorage to get dramatic mountains in the background shots, you need to use a telephoto lens.  Not in Santiago.  Though normally the air is clearer in Anchorage - but from what I hear about forest fires, that’s not the case now.

This photo is of a rather cryptic mural of Gabriela Mistral  who is according to Wikipedia the first Latin American author to win a Nobel Prize. 

Only two more pictures (I’m leaving some out) and this torturous post will be done.  Next is a cultural center and these are some teenagers playing with light sabres.

And finally the sunset over the river Mapocho.

If there are odd spaces here and there, it’s because I need to hit the space key to be able to navigate blogger on my iPad.  Sorry.

Argentina’s Bad-Ass Keys And Other Leftovers

We’re back in Mendoza to get a flight this evening to Santiago.  I was showing Alberto the post I did about his hotel, when I noticed that another post talked about all the missing posts.  So I’ll try to share some pics that haven’t made it up here because of time.


Argentina has some serious keys.  These are the ones we had in San Juan for the eclipse, but we had similar ones in Buenos Aires and Mendoza.  Only the hotel in Port Iquazú had a magnetic card to open the door.
 

 

Eclipse Light - One thing I learned from the eclipse is that the sun is really, really bright.  I thought I’d take pictures of the landscape at different points during the eclipse.  But it wasn’t until the moon was almost completely blocking the sun that there was much difference.

There were se veral pics that looked like the one above.

Eventually it got a little darker.

Then much darker.  The next ones were dark enough that the exposure was so long that they are blurred.  Just take my word for it, the pictures aren’t worth seeing.  Plus, the camera tries to adjust and make it look lighter than it really was.  At times like this I yearn for my old film Pentax camera.

Then the new brightness as the sun came back out.

It was extremely rocky where we watched the eclipse.  Everywhere was like this pic below.

Finally, mate.  Here’s Carlos, our host in San Juan, drinking his mate while we waited for the eclipse.
I showed some mate cups and talked about this Argentine obsession in an earlier post.

SUBE - Argentina’s Universal Bus Card

One of the first things we were told to get when we arrived in Buenos Aires was a SUBE.  This is the card you use for riding a bus and the subway.  Nothing too remarkable - they have these cards in cities across the US and elsewhere in the world.

But there are a couple of things that are special about the SUBE which took us a while to find out.

1.  You can spend more than you have on the card.
When I added 200 pesos the first time, the receipt showed I now had only about 165 on my card.  I asked and he said that I had a 35 peso debit.  So, you don’t get kicked off  the bus if you don’t have enough money on your card.  Someone later pointed out that the card costs 90 pesos, so in a sense, you have that investment still in the card.

2.  You can use card all over Argentina!
We didn’t ride the bus in Mendoza because we knew we needed cards and it never occurred to us that the one we bought in Buenos Aires would be good in Mendoza.  But in San Juan I asked again.  And showed my Buenos Aires card as an example.  Oh yes, that’s the card you need, I was told.  And, indeed, the SUBE card from Buenos Aires worked in San Juan.

For anyone who travels in the US, having to get a card for Seattle, San Francisco, LA, etc.  is a pain.  Those places still take money, but for how long?  It would be nice if there was a universal card you could use in all those places, and everywhere else.


 

3.  You can top off your SUBE card at any shop with a SUBE sign and they are all over.  Here’s one of at least two shops at the bus station in San Juan this morning where you can put more money in your SUBE.

I’m sure you can do it online as well, but I haven’t advanced that far.


I’d note that San Juan, on the second day after the eclipse, was almost completely covered with clouds.

Eclipse Was Transcendental

After the eclipse my body felt like it had been through a terrific yoga session, or meditation, or a long massage.  There was a feeling inside that all was well.  But our host wanted to beat the traffic back so I had to nurse the feeling in the car.   We were in a beautiful desert setting.  Cars scattered here and there along the road with people enjoying the event.

Not nearly as much time for blogging as I need, so here are a few pictures.  Hope I can get more up eventually. (Note:  I decided not to try to compete with those with the equipment and know-how to take pictures of the eclipse itself.  Concentrated more on the event.  You’ve all seen better moon blocking the sun pics than I could offer.).

  

Here’s where we parked.  I took lots of pics of this scene during the eclipse, hoping to show the change in light.  But actually, the sun is reallllllly bright and even with the moon covering more than half, there isn’t much change.  It wasn’t til the very end that it got much darker.  And those pics are blurred because the time the camera took.  I’ll try to show that sequence later.

People just after the eclipse.

J and O with their eclipse glasses.  The glasses make it possible to actually see the moon covering the sun.  Otherwise it is just too bright to see anything - besides they say you’ll damage your eyes without them.  The glasses essentially turn everything black, but the small disk of the sun.

A split second after totality.  (I’m assuming that, because it’s still got a sense of the dark disappearing.)

As we’re driving back, people still out in their viewing spots.

The long line of cars driving back.  There were police standing along the side of the road now and then.  But everything seemed pretty orderly.  Three hours later when we walked over for dinner, there was still a line of cars returning in the dark.

Perfect Cloudless Day For An Eclipse, But It’s Tomorrow

The family arrived here late tonight [one of the grandkids helped me get the keyboard connected to the iPad just now] and slept in late.  I looked at birds in the morning.  Flocks of parrots, pigeons, and various other smaller birds I haven’t identified yet.  I downloaded Aves Argentina on my phone - it’s a free app that is fantastic and you don’t have to be connected to the internet to use it.  I realize most people reading this probably aren’t in Argentina, but I’m sure there are other such apps for other places - after the guide at Iguazú was using it.

   

 

 

Parrots in the first three pictures above, and this is the Great Kiskadee that we saw in Buenos Aires and again at Iguazú.  I’m not sure what this is.  If I find it in Aves Argentina I’ll add it later.

Then we all went to lunch again at the restaurant we ate at yesterday.  Everyone loved what they had. Then we walked around and found out part of why it was so good.  They have an organic garden and a farm.  So we walked around.

 

Yesterday I was marveling at how fresh the various kinds of lettuce in the salad was.  Here’s why.  They pick it just before they serve it.

 Carrots.

 

We met a couple from North Carolina who saw the eclipse in Nebraska a few years back.  And there are three Belgians where we’re staying who are also here for the eclipse.  People are looking at maps of where the total eclipse will be the longest.  From here it should be a little over a minute but there planning to go where it’s 2 minutes long.

We chatted with the owner of this place and we’re having a BBQ here and then we think we’re all going to see the eclipse where it’s two minutes.  But we’ll know tomorrow.  There are questions about how clogged the roads will be at the longest spots.  Some are arguing that there aren’t that many people and cars in the are and plenty of desert where you could pull over and watch.  We’ll find out tomorrow.  Just hoping the sky stays cloudless.  Totality is at 5:39 pm to 5:40pm  (that’s 1:40pm Pacific DLS Time, and 12;40pm in Alaska) or a little longer depending where you are.  The sun goes down around 6:20pm. But I have my granddaughter here for a few days so the eclipse is just frosting.

And let me add - everyone is so nice and helpful and friendly.  The owner really has mastered his smart phone and he’s talking into the phone and letting it speak back to us in English and then has us talk.

Eclipse excitement - Finding The Best Spot To View

Carlos, who runs this ‘resort’, has sent me maps of how long the eclipse will be in totality in different locations. Five kilometers from here it will be one minute and 13 seconds. Sixty kilometers it will be over two minutes.  When I said we could walk that he said to take the dry riverbed and it would only be two km.  He also was talking about all the people who are here or coming. But we’re away from the crowds here.  But there are going to be concerts and other events he said.

Here’s Time and Date’s page for the San Juan eclipse.  Lots of cool stuff there.  Including a countdown clock.  Here’s what it said a minute ago.  Sunset will be pretty close to the end of the eclipse.

Countdown until eclipse begins

1day3hrs42mins40secs


You can see the actual count down at the site.

There’s also a video showing how the moon will go before the sun.

My daughter and family just showed up and I got a long tight hug from my granddaughter whom I haven’t seen for several months. That’s why I have the energy to start this post now.

Here’s from the San Juan paper today

Miles de turistas extranjeros arribaron a San Juan para disfrutar el eclipse solar
30 de Junio de 2019 - 17:30 hs  | Por el fenómeno astronómico, la provincia es en protagonista a nivel mundial. Durante este fin de semana, llegaron visitantes de Europa, Estados Unidos, Japón, entre otros países. 

Which google translate renders as

Thousands of foreign tourists arrived in San Juan to enjoy the solar eclipse

June 30, 2019 - 5:30 p.m. | Because of the astronomical phenomenon, the province is the protagonist worldwide. During this weekend, visitors came from Europe, the United States, Japan, among other countries.

It goes on to list different events in different places.

This article talks about taking photos of a solar eclipse. Looks like I’m just going to watch because you need a solar filter and I don’t have one. But my daughter brought a bunch of eclipse glasses,

Nearing The Eclipse

 Today we took the bus to San Juan, a little more than a two hour ride in asupwr comfortable bus with reclining seats and foot rests through what looked like the cowboy movie West.
[i was starting to. Get the hang of blogging on my iPad but my logitech slim combo keyboard stopped working and the on-screen keyboard just can’t cut it. So things are formatted a bit funny. I can’t see much of the screen.  I can’t scroll.]

There were no taxis waiting at the bus stop. Maps.me ( thanks Brock) said it was a 6.2 mile walk. It also said it wasn’t programmed f.or transit here. But then a couple cabs s howed up. Sergio had no idea where it was and called  someone while I showed him my phone map. I might be tempted to say it’s in the middle of nowhere, but having lived in rural Thailand, i know that everywhere is somewhere. And that proved true. Though the cab driver was worried about leaving us there until he was sure someone was there to help us.  Carlos took us in, and in our limited Spanish and English we communicated.

He asked if we wanted to eat - it was about 2pm - and when we said yes he drove us to a charming little place nearby where a couple of three generation families were having dinner.

It felt so cozy and the food was delicious.  And all these people were somebodies living somewhere,




We walked back the long way, well, longer than how we came.



Some pics

Mendoza and San Juan are both on the Eastern edge of The Andes, which tend to block the ocean moisture, hence the desert landscape.   We,ve been watching the clouds every day and they’ve tended to stay above the mountains. But they did wander further east the day we took the tour up to the snow.

This morning it was cloudy in Mendoza, but sort of thinned out as we came north.  Today at prime eclipse time it was in and out of the clouds, mostly out.  Let’s hope that by Tuesday the clouds stay on the Chile side of the Andes.

And the reason we’re out here . .   There are very few times that starting a sentence with “the reason . . .”  So let’s start it over.  We’re way out of town like this because this area is in the path of totality.  It will be longer further north.


[And i forgot mention a 4.2 jolt while i was working on the post. No biggie but we did feel it. ]

Hotel Bohemia, Mendoza, Argentina

The travel agent in Buenos Aires put us into this hotel.  We lucked out.  It’s an old family house in what our driver from the airport called  a good residential neighborhood.  The owner (I’m assuming he’s the owner), Alberto, is the kind of person who seems to make everyone feel like they are his special friend.  That first night he showed us that he was cutting the seeds out of grapes before

making grape jelly.  He was also making orange marmalade for the guests’ breakfast.  He also bakes the breads and croissants.


Here, you can see the grapes, the grapes that have already been pitted, and the pits.  We spread it on our breakfast bread the next morning.

And below is the dining room where each of the ten rooms has a designated table.

I’m putting up this post because it’s relatively short and I need to go to bed.  But also because this is a great little hotel with incredible service for each guest.  But that still leaves the winery tour yesterday (two wineries and an olive oil ‘factory’), the birding in Iguazu, and today’s trip into the Andes where we went back to December in Anchorage (translation:  it snowed.)