Oasis

Alter Colca, I headed north, running into my American friend again. We went though Nasca together, didn’t fly over the lines because we wanted to save money but we saw them. They are pretty cool. We went to the Chauchilla cemetery.
After that, I went with him to the Huacachina Oasis outside of Ica. We did sandboarding. You could see me gracefully mastering the slopes.

Colca Canyon

I did 3-day tour of Colca Canyon, in which we hiked down the canyon and then hiked back up…easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

We saw a lot condors.

This is my international tour group. From left to right: Portugal, Portugal, Peru, Argentina, United Kingdom, United States, Chile.

Tiwanaku

I visited Tiwanaku, ruins of the center of a pre-Inca civilization. Seeing the site made me want to read more about the culture. On the way there, I met a guy from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We ended up running into each other a bunch of times more and became friends. When I hung out with him, or watch an American movie, I feel like I was reencountering my own culture, getting back in touch with my roots (from last year)…taking a break from getting in touch with my latino roots.

Return to Cochabamba

After Oruro, I returned to Cochabamba, Bolivia where I started my journey. I hung out with Jorge, the friend I made in August. It was really nice, because this time, I can actually talk. I also went to some Andean parties and met some local comic book artists. We climbed up the hill with the Cristo and saw a local group of singers filming a music video.

Carnaval

Carnaval was really fun and so was the trip over there. I met up with Adina and we danced all night with the Bolivians. I love Bolivia!! Then, I got sick with a fever and we went to a hotel and watched TV. Below is a letter I wrote to my grandfather in Spanish about this experience.

Muy rápido después de que me fui de la Argentina me aburré de los otros gringos y empecé de juntarme con puras latinas. Vine en Oruro con un grupo muy amable de chilenos quienes encontré en San Pedro de Atacama y quienes trabajan haciendo shows y vendiendo artesanías viajando por las plazas de Suramérica. Yo gastaba muy poco guita andando con ellos, pagando menos que US $2 diario para alquilar un lugar en el piso de una residencial para poner mi bolsa de dormir y siempre combinando recursos para morfar.

Lo pasamos muy bien en la ruta a Bolivia y acá en Oruro también, tocando instrumentos andinos (y mi armónica yanqui), charlando sobre un montón de cosas y cagando de risa. Fuimos al Carnaval y bailamos con Bolivianos en la plaza con bandas de trompetas y instrumentos así hasta después de que subió el sol! Pero, como saben, lo costó a mi cuerpo. Me enfermé con fiebre y anoche Adina y yo dormimos en el único lugar en cual pudimos encontrar calefacción, unas de los lugares más lujosos de la ciudad! Tomé mi primer ducha caliente hasta que me fui de la casa de la Argentina y tuvimos la oportunidad (con cable) de disfrutar otro tipo de cultura.

Mientras recuperando, vimos un encuentra entre Chávez y Kirchner. Parece que la canal de tele del Gobierno de Venezuela viene a Bolivia. Para fortalecer conexiones entre los dos países latinos, Chávez leyó algo bueno que dijo Perón cuando se murió el Che sobre él. Quizás tenés razón, zede, cuando decís que los nuevos socialistas son nada más de demagogas en la tradición de Perón. Otro parte de la lección me recordó de Bush. Chávez criticó el presidente de Costa Rica (contra quien él luchó para el banco en el UNO) porque el llamó a Chávez un dictador pero quiere mantener relaciones con el. Me pareció como Chávez quería decir "si no eres con migo, eres contra migo". Igual, en una manera, espero que Chávez y Evo etc. logren en unos de los objetivos que dicen que quieren lograr aunque temo que no son realistas o que el costo del éxito (la concentración del poder en un hombre) los costaría más a los pueblos que el éxito mismo los ayudaría. Pero, no puedo negar que esos socialistas nuevos han movilizado poblaciones ignorados por la historia de sus países. La situación es muy complicada y como siempre, quiero seguir aprendiendo.

La única cosa que tengo que admitir es que usé la corrección de ortografía (spellcheck) para escribir este mensaje. Y, el único otra noticia mala es que mi acento argento esta blandando y mezclando. Me siento como traidor a la patria de mi familia! je, je. Por ser gringo, soy muy influenciable. Abro mi boca y en unas frases salen cosas argentinas, chilenas, bolivianas y, obviamente puras gringas. Pero lo tomo como un complemento cuando, inmediatamente después de conocer alguien me dicen que no pueden creer que soy gringo por el acento y la aparencia.

San Pedro de Atacama

So I went to San Pedro in the North, part of the Atacama desert, the driest in the world. After an enjoyable trip sandboarding, I didn't feel very motivated to do tours. Instead I hung out with a bunch of Chileans working in the town. I met some cool folks and traveling to Oruro, Bolivia with them for the 5th largest Carnaval in the world.
Pictured above is a skull from a San Pedro museum. Various cultures practice deforming the head. If wonder what effect that had on the way the deformed people thought?

Untitled

Different Perspective on the Universe

This is an image of Orion viewed from the Southern Hemisphere.

I remember getting off a bus in Bolivia, back in August and being taken aback by the brilliant sky. I realized that the constellation the Southern Cross is only visible in the Southern Sky and thought 'wow, I am now looking at a whole different perspective on the universe!!' I connected the dots to construct a giant cross spanning the entire sky and wondering if I had found it.

Because the night sky in northern Chile is among the clearest, the region boasts many important observatories. At a tour at one of them, on top of Mount Mamalluca, outside of Vicuña, I learned that the Southern Cross is much smaller than I thought. The guide used a laser pointer to show us various constellations. I also learned that I was misinterpreting my favorite constellation, Orion. I didn't take account for the fact that in the south, everything is reversed so I imposed his head onto his feet and his feet onto his head. Good metaphor for traveling to a new region, eh?

Valparaiso: Pablo Neruda's bathroom

Here I am taking a picture of myself in the mirror in Pablo Neruda's bathroom, part of a museum dedicated to the poet in Valparaiso. After my visit, I went to a café with some guides that work at the museum. I ended up sticking around longer than I had planned. The city reminded me of a mix between San Francisco and Brooklyn. It is a hilly city on a port with colorfully painted houses and interesting people. It also has a grimey, urban edge and several universities. It was my favorite place in Chile.

Comics in Chile

In Santiago, I visited another contact that Cristian gave me. Carlos Reyes met me at the subway station and accompanied me to his house. Carlos is part of Ergocomics. Winning a contest for a government grant, Ergocomics has published yearly non-fiction collections about Chilean comics, among other things.

Carlos shared info from his vast wealth of knowledge on Chilean comics, including self-publishing. Often times, he explained, the money creators make from sales barely serve to publish future works and there is little money to dedicate to PR and business relations. As a result, distribution is the among the largest challenges.

Carlos, who is a writer, and his collegues do not limit their art to comics. They also produce works in graphic design, photography, prose, poetry and other artforms. Pictured above is Carlos with one of a series of pamphlets that serve as an example of how they mix various media. This particular pamphlet illustrates a trip to a comic convention in Bolivia.











After meeting with Carlos, I went to an exhibition of Belgian and Chilean works. Guests of mixed age and gender attended. Some works (see photos) took advantage of the museum setting to experiment with novel formats.

Aregentine Asado in Chile

When I first arrived in Santiago de Chile from Argentina, I found myself much more comfortable with the Argentine tourists. For one thing, I could understand them when they talk and they could understand me. I was dying for a mate and trying to explain to some gringos what makes it so amazing when I was some women drinking mate at the hostel. I asked if I could joing them and I ended up hanging out with them and a bunch of other Argentines for the next few days.

We made an Argentine asado. The blonde and I are the only non-Argentines.



















The buses are part of a set designed as part of a story with a giant marrionette.