Sí, po

It's time for a little more linguistics.

In Chile,  you are guaranteed to hear the word po.  A LOT.  Officially speaking, it's a contraction of the word pues which is more or less equivalent to the english word well in the sense of "well, I think I can make it."  However, in Chilean Spanish, po seems to have dozens of meanings.  In general, it seems to express some kind of doubt in regards to what the speaker has just heard or said.

Depending on its context, here are a few of the definitions of po I've found:

-well
-why not (would you like swim while it's -9°C out?  sure why not.)
-but, however
-I understand, but I disagree
-of course not
-like, uh (in the sense of a filler word)
-I don't know
-yes but there's more

These are just a few of the meanings I've encountered.  It is one of my favourite words in Chile because it is so versatile.  You can use it in seemingly endless ways in tonnes of contexts.

This has nothing to do with Chilean Spanish, but I thought I'd try and keep it interesting for those who don't care too much about po!  These flowers are very common here.  You can see them along many road sides and highways.  

San Pedro de Atacama III

Beginning of a salt canyon near Valle de La Luna

Valle de La Luna

Valle de Muerte

Some friends and I in front of Valle de Muerte

Small Salt flat in the desert

Salt mountains and canyons in the foreground
In the background, the setting sun illuminates the Andes

Volcano near San Pedro de Atacama

Sunset

San Pedro de Atacama II

The desert in the North of Chile is the driest desert in the world.  It receives less than .01 cm of rain per year.  Oddly enough, I had the chance to swim in the desert 3 times while I was there.  Below, you can see a friend and me in a hot spring.  The outside temperature was -9°C (16°F).  We had to walk across streams of ice to get into the thermal spring.  The water temperature was around 24°C (75°F).  To give you a better idea of how cold it was, after drying off, I set my towel down to dry in direct sunlight before we left and it froze in about 4 minutes.

Geysers del Tatio

Hot Spring in Atacama Desert

¡LLama!

San Pedro de Atacama I

I never thought the desert, of all places, would be so cold.  In the mornings, normal temperatures were between -10°C to -5°C (14°F - 23°F).  During the day, it only got up to around 21°C (70°F).  Combine those temperatures with an average wind speed of 32 kph (20 mph), it was cold.  Real cold. 

View of the night sky in San Pedro de Atacama

Laguna Piedra - Salt lake in the desert
I had the chance to swim there!

Sunset over the Atacama Desert

La Serena y Coquimbo

This past week, I had the opportunity to travel in the North of Chile with some friends of mine.  Over the next few days I'll be posting some photos about our trip.  Here are some from the first cities;  I hope you enjoy!!!!!

Valle de Elquí

Valle de Elquí

Some friends and I in the Archaeological Museum in La Serena 

La Cruz del Tercer Milenio - Coquimbo

View of Coquimbo from the Cross.  On the left, you can see one of the stadiums used for the World Cup in 1962

Beach in Antofagasta

Some Recent Chilean History

Las Fiestas Patrias are quickly approaching here.  It's a week of celebrations in relation to independence (1810 from Spain) and all things Chilean.  So I thought it would be fitting to discuss a little of this history, especially that which has so recently shaped the country.  

Like many other countries in the world, Chile was politically and socially restless in the 1960s.   Chile was not directly involved in the Cold War; however, the country definitely felt its affects in societal and political changes that came about during this time.  

In the presidential elections of 1964, the likely winner looked to be Salvador Allende, a socialist.  The U.S. could have none of this, so Lyndon Johnson, along with U.S. intelligence agencies, flooded a centrist candidate named Eduardo Frei Montalva with campaign funds.  Frei won the election going away.  

Both the CIA and the KGB had their hands all over the campaigns for the next election in 1970.  This Time, the CIA did not fund a specific candidate but worked to influence Chile's media and published anti-Allende propaganda.   The Soviets, were more direct in their funding, giving significant support to Allende during the popular election as well as during the congressional vote to ultimately select the president.  

Allende won the popular election on 4 September 1970.  There were 3 candidates, and he won over 36% of the votes.  Because he did not win an outright majority  (50% + 1 vote), the final decision was sent to congress.  

During the time between the popular vote and the congressional decision, the CIA began to plan a coup to overthrow Allende.  They assassinated the Commander and Chief of the Chilean Military (not the president like in the U.S.) René Schneider, in hopes to destabilize the country.  Schneider was a strong supporter of Allende, and with him in place, there could be no coup.  

The death of Schneider produced the opposite affect the CIA intended.  Congress finally voted in October 1970 to officially select Salvador Allende as president of Chile.  The people rallied around Allende in support and patriotism.  The man who replaced Schneider Carlos Prats was also a pro Allende man.  Like before, no coup could succeed with a pro-Allende military.  After significant pressure form the U.S. as well as growing political tensions in Chile, he resigned from the military in August 1973.  

An infamous name in Chile, Augusto Pinochet became Comandante en Jefe del Ejército de Chile in August 1973.  He was a conservative General and, therefore, opposed to Allende.  Less than a month after his promotion, he led a coup de'tat against the Allende government on 11 September 1973.  The Presidential Palace La Moneda was bombed and attacks by the military occurred throughout the country.  Official reports say Salvador Allende committed suicide, but this has been hotly contested by many leftist political parties; however, today, it's more widely accepted that he did commit suicide shorty after delivering his final speech to the Chilean people.  

11 September 1973 marked the beginning of a long, brutal dictatorship in Chile.  Augusto Pinochet set up concentration camps throughout the country, one of the biggest being Estadio Nacional (the national stadium) in Santiago which today is home to the Chilean National Soccer Team.  Many were executed - some on live TV, many were tortured, many simply disappeared.  

In the days immediately after the coup, the Chilean army went house to house (destroying, and tearing apart homes)  in search of weapons and any kind of dissenting material.  I've heard stories of families burning nearly every book they owned in order to try and save themselves. 

This long, dark dictatorship lasted until 1990, when Pinochet gave power back to a democratically elected government.  

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Soldiers in el Estadio Nacional.  During the Pinochet dictatorship, the stadium was used as a concentration camp.  Scroll down to see the stadium today (photos from the football match).
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Bombing of Presidential Palace La Moneda
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Fútbol

In FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Chile routed Venezuela 3-0 Friday night, securing their place in Brasil next Summer for the World Cup.  I had the chance to be in attendance; here are some photos from the match!

El Estadio Nacional
holds about 50,000 people

Field Trip!

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Santiago again for a field trip.  We went to a couple of museums and also got to visit the oldest church in the city.  Below are some photos from the trip!

All of the exterior walls (the smooth ones without rocks) you see, were made from mud which was then painted over to make the façade of the church.  Construction of this church began around 1560.

La Iglesia de San Fransisco de Asís en Santiago de Chile

El Altar de la Iglesia

Colonial painting of young St. Francis giving food to the poor

Odds and Ins

I have been in Chile a month and a half now.  School is going well.  The weather is warming up as we move into Spring here.  Travel plans are being made for the rest of the semester.  I'm able to stream Volunteer football online each week.  All is right with the world!

I want to use this post to briefly discuss some more of the differences and oddities I have found in my time here so far.

Lines:
Chileans don't like to stand in lines.  In fact, one of my teachers told me that if a line forms, the Chileans ask one another where's the gringo who started it.  Sometimes, this can be terrible frustrating when you walk into a pharmacy, stand there to wait your turn - oblivious to the fact that you need to take a number to 'be in line' - and 4 people pass you because you didn't get that little slip of paper that says A17.

Heat:
The first time I was in a building (of any kind) with central heat in Chile was last weekend.  That building was the ski lodge.  None of the buildings in my area have central heat or air.  I haven't seen any kind of air duct in any of the houses I've been in.  I'm sure these exist somewhere around here, but they are not common at all.

Carpet:
Along the same lines as heat, carpet is nigh impossible to find here.  All the buildings I've been in have always had wooden or tiled floors.  In the same manner, I'm sure this exists here, I just haven't found it.

What time are we eating?!
I've mentioned before how the eating times in Chile differ from in the U.S.  But I never dreamed they'd be this different at times.  The evening I returned home from Santiago at about 11:30pm, my family was just starting to cook.  Even crazier, there were guests over at this time.  We didn't sit down to eat 'dinner' until around 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning.  This wasn't just a one time event either; there have been many weekend where we will go to an asado (cookout) around 9:30pm and begin cooking around 10:30pm.

Bread
Chileans eat A LOT of bread.  And by association, I now do too!  The bread here is almost exclusively white bread.  Wheat bread is nigh impossible to find, and if you do find it, it is very expensive.  But, all the bread we eat is bought fresh from the bakery just down the street ever 2 or 3 days.

Meat
In my experience, we eat a ton of meat on the weekends but not too much during the week.  And the way they prepare and cook beef and pork here is very different from home.  At home, it's common to by a 'steak' or a 'chop' of whatever meet you're going to cook for each guest you will have.  Here, they buy large slabs of meet and grill it all at once.  To give you a comparison for what I mean by large, the cut of meat is at least the size of a 9"x13" baking pan or a laptop computer, often larger.