Hello South America

South America
I have wanted to come here for so long!

Santiago

We arrived in Santiago and from the first day the transition was the easiest so far. I don't know if its speaking the language or all the Central America travel we have done but it has been pretty smooth. It feels like slightly European Mexico. I had heard very mediocre things about Santiago. The area we stayed in was not supposed to be the safest. But it was no different than a US big city. It was far less intimidating than Bangkok and no one tried to scam us. We were here four nights at one of the best lodging we have had. They call it a hostel but really its more like a B and B or guest house with excellent service and a good location.

One of many murals around Santigao

I have read every Isabelle Allende novel and a lot of Pablo Neruda. Now I am in their country. The words and images they have left in my mind are coming alive in a new way. I had the same feeling in England, like you are walking through the novel, movie, poem or TV show that you have a memory or image of in your mind. It adds layer to your experience of the story on top of what was already there. I did not expect this and it is very cool.

Street art on the way to Neruda's house

We took a walking tour with an excellent guide one day that covered Chilean history and culture. There we met Jeane from LA, our first fellow Californian we have met. She joined us the next day and we went to Pablo Neruda's house and got another dose of history and culture. It left me feeling sad because his life ended as it did. But also thinking about the complex history of Chile that is still not resolved and developing. 

Pabol's house in Santiago

From there we went up the Cerro (Hill) San Cristobol in the tram, climbed to the top for views and lunch and started to walk to one of two public pool in this huge municipal park. Santiago looks a lot like southern CA and even LA. Dry brown hills surround you in a valley. Did I write hills? What am I doing calling the Andes hills, they have snow on top even now in summer! Okay, so we are walking and we finally get there. I am expecting a run down, not well maintained pool. I mean this is a developing country, right? No its beautiful, clean, landscaped, has views and is packed with people. In fact its closed to any more people. They direct us to the second pool which is supposed to be even more beautiful with a 360 view of the Andes. We are too hot and tired so we get a cab and redirect our adventure. We go out to Los Condes a fancy neighborhood closer to the foothills of the Andes, to a big Arts and crafts fair. Lots of beautiful stuff and great variety. And after Asia the relief of no pushy sales people. We also wandered around the neighborhood with tree lined streets and single family homes, mountains looming in the background.

Dave and view of Santiago from the hill top

The pool in the park

A couple more things we noticed in Santiago. There is great street art, much left behind from this years of student protests and unrest. You could take photos of it all day. Someone has to have done a book. There are also lots of galleries and used book stores. Books are very expensive here and yet  there is a very high literacy rate. We also noticed may theaters and art spaces. There was a big festival going on and we tried to get tickets but it was sold out for the shows we were interested in while we were here. In the same big arts complex there were several free galleries we visited. And the second good performance art piece of the trip (the first was in the equally free museum in Bangkok). This one was a glass booth, lite inside, surrounded by bales of hay. Spectators sat on the hay and watched as any one who wanted went in the booth and hugged. Just hugged. It was surprisingly calming to watch. Really lovely.

Garbriella Minstral Art Center

There is trash and dog poop around. The river that runs though the city is very polluted, a disgusting color. But the street dogs are a whole different story. They are well cared for and friendly, even mellow. Many look like breeds, particularly German Sheppard, but there are mutts. There are dog houses around in parks and in front of buildings. People give them bones, water and food. At least in the downtown and touristy areas they seems to have a good life.

Valpario
We spent four nights here as well. How to describe this unusual city? It a UNESCO world heritage site. Steep, house covered hills on one side, the port and ocean on the other. The multi colored houses climb up the hills and tumble down at the same time. There is color every where, some bright and lively, some faded and tired. Crumbling, rusting, decaying yet full of life, heart and spirit. Dogs and cats all over the place. The street art is even more abundant than in Santiago. We take so many photos we worry our batteries will die. The only other place I took this many photos was Japan. 

View from our room

We visited Pablo Neruda's house here, "La Sebastiana" which has amazing views of the city. He came here for New Years when ever he could to watch the fire works. We took a day trip to his most famous house in Isla Negra. It is right on the coast in a spot that looks like it could be in Carmel CA. We feel like we really got to know a bit about him and his life here in Chile through our visits to his 3 homes.

Pabol's house "La Sebastiana"

Dave and Pablo

One of Pabol's many collecsions. this one is at Isla Negra

We wandered around the hills taking photos of street art and views. We took our second "free" walking tour where you pay what you want as a tip at the end . It was  not quite as good as in Santiago but still well worth it.

Street Art

Street art

And more street art

We left here at 11:00pm on our first night bus. We had primo seats which recline in to beds and come with blankets and pillows. The next morning another bus and a taxi ride later and we arrive at Los Morros where we will be for the next week relaxing by the beach in a very small fishing village. More on that next blog.

Street art about art

Nelson, Anahata, and Last Days in New Zealand

Nelson

We spent most of our time on the South Island in Nelson. Nelson is supposed to be the sunniest place in NZ and very Santa Cruz like. It lived up to both of these descriptions. We had ten straight days of warmth and sun. We got there right after they had the most rain they had ever had in recorded history which caused flooding and mud slides, people lost their homes. We were there 12 days and the last two were rainy. We rented a small apartment in a beautifully restored house from the 1800s. Our landlords were Deidre and Wally, who lived in the main part of the house. They were wonderful giving us a Christmas tree, advice about what to do around town and including us in their family Christmas day celebrations. The house is right across from the river which is bordered on both sides by a park. On one side is a path for walking and bike riding.

Dierdre and Wally in front of their house

Anika and our cute tree

We really relaxed in Nelson. It did not feel like we ran around seeing things although we did get out and about. The house was walking distance to everything, grocery store, library (Dierdre lent us her card), pretty walks along the river and through town. We joined a gym/pool across the river, 5min. walk away, for 25$ for a week. One of the most pleasant events we participated in was the Christmas eve caroling. The whole town, and all the visitors it seemed like, gather in front of the cathedral to sing carols. The town organizes this and gives out song sheets with the words and candles. The town band and choir preform. It was a nice community event.

View from the bride of the river in front of the house

Our biggest excursion and one of the reasons we came to this part of the island was to go to Abel Tasman Park. We spent our last day without rain kayaking and hiking through the park. It was beautiful and fun.

Dave and Anika kayaking

One of the views from the Abel Tasman trail

Dave after a day of kayaking and hiking

Anahata

For New Years we drove from Nelson to the Anahata Retreat, a yoga ashram high on a mountain at the North end of Abel Tasman park. The road had washed out in several places during the first big rain and we drove up during the second big rain. It was a hairy ride in our little rent a car. But the road was in better condition than some we have driven in Costa Rica over our years of travel there. We stayed up there for three nights, eating good simple vegetarian food, meditating, chanting and generally following the life of the yoga community. It was more of a spiritual religious community than a yoga only retreat. The yoga physical itself was quite gentle compared to what we do at home. One of the best things about this experience was the people. Both the people who lived there (I think there are about 15) and the guests like us were very mellow and down to earth. No one had an attitude like I am more enlightened than you. Nor did it feel like anyone was pushing their dogma on us. We met some great people I hope to stay in touch with. The group was mostly from NZ, Europe and the US.

The yoga class meeting room

The mountain side itself was beautiful. Sheep grazed around us. The buildings were hidden in the forest on one side. From the sheep pastures there were amazing views of the bays and park. Unfortunately it was raining much of the time so we did not get to do much walking and exploring.

Beautiful view on one of the few clear days

Anika had a really good time here. I realized that she needs to have more people to socialize with. Their age really doesn't matter. Some how I am going to look for these opportunities in the countries to come. When we left the energy between us as a family was qualitatively different. I guess we were all more at peace with ourselves. It didn't last forever but it was a good feeling.

Sheep and Sky

Last Days in NZ

From Anahata we spent a string of one nights at places working our way back to Auckland and the airport. We only passed through Takaka and had lunch but it left a big impression with its artsy shops and hippie atmosphere. We stopped that night in Picton where we had to get the ferry back to the North island, another nice small town. Then we stopped on the way to Whanganui to visit with Jasmin and her husband Clark. Jasmin is Anika's home school teacher and through a fluke she and Clark were staying at a friend's house north of Wellington for winter break. We had a great day with them clamming and playing on the beach. They made us an amazing dinner and then we had to leave. It was hard to go. But really fun to see friends from home while on the road!

Jasmin and Clark

Us clamming

We spent that night in Wanganui, a town on a river. It was very cute and we would have stayed longer if we could. From there we were off to Waitamo and the glowworm caves. Happily there was no rain and we drove through pretty countryside. Our first evening at the cave area we did a short hike first in day light and then a shorter walk at night in the same area. The day hike showed us what the “bush”, as they like to call it here, looked like and gave us a peek into some caves. The vegetation was very prehistoric feeling with all the tree ferns and unfamiliar plants. At night we went back to see the glow worms. It was very magical and surreal. They glow and seem to have a veil of something between you and them.

The family reflected in a sculpture

Early the next morning. (Anika would say too early) we went on a black water raft trip through the caves. This seemed like such a NZ thing. They have to keep thinking up fun stuff to do because they are so far away from every thing and everyone else. So you put on super thick wet suits, super thick damp wet suits I should point out, booties, boots, and a helmet with a lamp. You are driven to the cave area where you get instructions. They have you practice jumping backwards into your raft which is an inner tube. Then you go to the cave entrance which is a small opening in the ground. The river is rushing through the opening. Once inside there is a bigger open area where you get more information about the cave and how to behave. The rest is hard to describe. You walk , float, slide, jump and shiver your way on the river through the cave. The water is rushing and from ankle deep to to deep for me to tell. Besides stalactites and rock formations there are of course glow worms, millions of them like stars at certain points. It is an other worldly experience. The best point to me was floating through one tunnel, its pitch black and quiet and you are looking up at what could be the sky but its glow worms on the roof of the cave. The only bad part was the cold water. And I didn't love jumping backwards off a water fall but I got used to it quick.

That was our last great adventure. From there we headed to the airport after a night to rest. Of course we had to stop and send a package of the things we had accumulated in NZ. Not as big as those from Asia, this was package # five, but still important stuff. This one is supposed to take only 10-25 days. Everything goes by air from NZ, no slow boats like our other stuff went on. So far two packages have made it. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

More sheep and sky

Final Thoughts on NZ

The color of New Zealand is green in every shade and hue.

Forest in the Northland

We all loved NZ . Dave and I really want to go back. We just did not get enough of the South Island. The best part for me was the people we met who I would like to stay in touch with. The people are very laid back and there is very little arrogance. Some women do have a strange fashion sense, kind of 80s miss mashed together with other ideas, but what we noticed could have been women visitng from Australia. We also noticed men working outside wearing what for us would be 70's style sport shorts in black or navy with work boots as a fasion statement we found amusing. Over all though everything felt so unpretensoius.

We did a lot fo driving, not my favorite way to get around actually but it worked. We had wanted to do the whole camper van thing everyone seems to do when they come here. But renting a car, paying for gas and staying at various types of lodging was cheaper. And with all the rain we had it prevented us from killing each other inside a small self contained space on wheels. There were some themes in what we saw as we drove. Nautrue, lots of open space and not a lot of people. Farms with sheep number one but then cows too, horses, lamas and deer. And art studios or galleries. As you drive there are signs for people's studios and galleries all over the place, ceramics, jewlery, paiting, sculpture. Small towns have art centers and commuity theaters. Everywhere seems to have a library. There is a sense of community that is comforting.

The dogs are all well cared for and trained. We saw no strays. No dog poop on the streets. Many of them are working dogs. There also seemed to be a few favored breeds like sheep dogs of course. There was not much trash and no trash cans but also not a lot of recycling. We heard and found that NZ has this reputation from the past of being very green and eco oriented but that the reality is they are cutting down their forests and using resources in a way that is not unlike the US. There are just a lot less people so the destruction is taking longer.

It is amazing to me to think that this was the last place humans found about 800 years ago, a blip in geologic time. The Polynisian Maoris are another reason I would like to go back to learn more about their culture. The differences and similarities to our Native americans are interesting. They have preserved more of their culture in some ways but they are all one group ( althoug they did not think of themselves that way before Europeans came) with a shared language. We heard people speaking it on the street on the North Island. There are Maori language TV and radio stations. They are guaranteed a certain amount of spots in parliament. All signs are in both languges. But they are the poorest people with many of the same social issues of native people all over the world. NZ reminded me of BC Canada in some ways. There is the nature and big open space and the British influence too. It was very easy to travel here. I really hope we can come back.

Dave and Anika Rabbit Island Boxing Day 2011