Chile

First impressions of Santiago.

It was in the late evening when I got here, and near midnight when I got to the hostel.  Warm and humid.  The traffic was light and the streets were smooth, with very few speed bumps to slow the taxi down.

Public transit is very nice, but as it was late, and the subway closes down at mid night-ish I took the taxi.

The prices were a bit higher than what I expected, but only a little.  I do not know why I was not expecting there to be any sushi places here, but I have walked past three, one of them was a vegetarian sushi joint. (The area was one with a lot of veggie/vegan places, so fair enough.)

The park that parallels the Mapocho River is very nice.  Well kept and popular.  Miles long, but broken up by a lot of palces for cars to cross.  The river is not very big, and while there is a lot of traffic that runs along the park, the noise never seems to intrude too much into the park.

The park had more than a few statues and a small kidz play area along with this great fountain,

It also featured the National Art Gallery.  I am sure you can track down images from the Gallery online, but a thing that stood out to me was the amount of statuary that was there, a much higher ratio of statues to paintings than in most other art galleries I have gone to.

I really liked this one, and I have mixed feelings about how the pieces are displayed in that they were not roped or partitioned off.  It allowed you to get up close and personal with the pieces, and you can see how people have touched the right arm of the statue.  At times I feel this is a negative thing, a slight damage to the piece with every caress.  On the other hand those interactions also bring the observer closer to the artist and their work.

The gallery is not a massive building, but it does present itself quite well, and is obviously a place of quiet national pride, a place where the whole nation can look in and say, we Chileans, we have done this.

Uyuni part 1

 Sorry for the long delay in posting this.

Part 1 is the pictures I took of the steam locomotive graveyard at Uyuni.  The graveyard started as a scrap yard, and simply grew.  It took a while, and if you look, you can see the sand trapping the wheels, and the interesting way the climate has both worn down and sanded smooth the surfaces of the metal here.

The pictures say a lot, but it is still hard to capture the cool indifference of the dry wind and strong sun.

Faces From Cochabamba

 A few pictures of the friends I have met over the (Canadian) winters I have spent in Cochabamba Bolivia.

  

Many faces are missing, But this gives you a nice sample from this year.

Civic Planning Choices

 Some things in city planning can make you wonder.

Why do some roads twist and turn at random, some times it is east to work out why, avoiding swampy areas, staying away from creeks or crossing the river at the easiest point.

But when a city is laid out in a grid pattern, I have to wonder just who it was that decided that cutting down a tree that is in the middle of the road is NOT part of the plan.

Was it too pretty?

Too large?

A favourite type?

Any way, here it is.

Return after absence.

 Back in Bolivia, and after a long break, here are a few photos of Tarata, a town just outside Cochabamba that has retained the Spanish Colonial style of building throughout the town.

 

The Cathedral, with attached monastery to the left.  Next few are of the courtyard of the monastery.

And now a few pictures in the town.

 

All for now.  Heading to Uyuni soon, hopefully the pictures taken there will be nice.

More pics of the granddaughter

 

She is very strong, and likes to stand up.