Living and travelling in South America from our base in Chile since 1997. I have personally experienced the extremes here, living in a shed without a bathroom in a poor dangerous part of town to the other extreme of having an elegant dinner with the President at the palace. This blog is about things that I have done or that have caught my attention here as well as travel information that may be useful.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Chilean Presidential Election Street Celebrations
Sebastián Piñera, the guy that owns most of Chile, was elected as the country's next president (2010-2014) after the results of the second decisive round of the election came through on Sunday.
The Left has finally succumbed to the Right after holding power over the last 20 years so of course there was a lot of celebrating in the street. The following video was taken from the middle of the main street of Pucón (South of Chile).
Notice the beeping of horns (typical of any Chilean celebration) and people hanging out of car windows while the carabineros (police) look out without doing anything (probably want to avoid getting lynched by the euphoric crowd).
What do you think about the result of this election?
These videos are part of the fireworks display you will see if you go to celebrate New Year's in Valparaiso, Chile. I videoed the entire show which lasted just over 20 minutes. Have in mind that the video doesn't do the display justice and that I only shot three of the seventeen launch sites. So, without further ado... here is the complete fireworks display divided into two parts:
Part One:
Part Two with the grand finale:
P.S. If you sit through the entire two videos, I think you need to get out of the house a little more. :)
Our new version of the panoramic view of Punta Arenas as seen from the hill overlooking the city.
This time it was done with a video recorder instead of just the normal camera so the quality of the image is a lot better. Also the panning from one side to the other is a lot slower so you have more time to look at the details.
The lookout from where this was taken is around 7 blocks up the hill from the main square.
Una vista Panorámica de Punta Arenas desde el mirador a 7 cuadras de la Plaza de Armas.
This is a video I took at the Airport of Punta Arenas in the South of Chile. It is the view from the second floor overlooking the main parts of the airport including what to expect when you go through the exit door after picking up your luggage (if it arrives!).
What makes the airport interesting are its flying whales. Well, they aren't actually flying, they are hanging from the ceiling above everyone. These artistic creations are quite impressive since the whales are made of many individual 'slices' of clear acrylic. See if you can find them in the general overview in the video before I zoom in on them. One of the whales even has a smaller baby whale inside of it. Pretty cool!
As we were wandering around the streets of La Boca, a traditional part (or should I say touristy part) of Buenos Aires in Argentina, we came across this guy playing tango music on his accordian. The little stage he was playing on was hidden away in one of the many alleyways that frequent the neighbourhood.
Take a look at all the Tango memorabilia around him, cool stuff.
Everyone seems to get drawn to the lighthouse at Colonia del Sacramento like a magnet. Built 1857 over the ruins of the San Francisco convent, it has some amazing views if you don't mind trekking up the 118 narrow steps.
One of the latest icons of Buenos Aires is the gigantic steel flower called Floralis Generica. Created in 2002 and weighing in at 18 tonnes its petals are open during the day and then close again at night. Since this work of art now appears on many postcards to do with the city, you may want to put it on your Must Visit List while in the city.
For photos and more information about Floralis Generica, including the 4 special nights its petals are open, check out: The Steel Flower of Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile here is the video I took as we walked around the entire sculpture to give you an idea of the size of it and also the surrounding areas in the background.
Haven’t posted the last days since I have been in and out of doctors’ offices and getting all types of exams and jabs done. I think I’ll have to do a post about the health system in Chile some time soon.
Anyway, here’s a video that earned the shakiest-bad image award in this weeks world’s worst video oscars. I took it with my normal (photo) camera as I walked through a natural arch in a rock formation just out of Constitución heading towards the beach. You can probably count the steps I took by the continual up and down movement of the camera. And as for the lighting... it was either a shade of dark or bright.
Well, at least I captured the moment when I walked towards the light at the end of the tunnel (ok, it’s not much of a tunnel but it sounded good) and even returned to tell the story. You'll never guess what I found on the other side… you’ll just have to watch it see.
This is another area we visited while we were roaming around the region around Talca in January. I still of loads more photos and videos from that week so stay tuned.
If you are interesting in learning about the typical architecture of houses in Chile, then you may just want to look at the following video I took near San Javier in the South of Chile.
The video is a little bouncy since it was taken from a normal camera as I was walking along the road, hence the up and down movement of every step. At least it shows you the real Chile.
You will notice that adobe walls and tiled roofs are a common characteristic of houses, especially in rural areas.
These houses are just before the San Javier off-ramp to the left as you are heading south along Route 5 (Pan-American Highway). San Javier is about 275kms south of Santiago.
The first video is a couple of Gargoyles that overlook Santiago from the Funicular building on Cerro San Cristobal Hill. This video is divided into two parts; the first is taken from below where I zoom in on one of the gargoyles to see the details of it. The second part is from a different angle with a view of the city.
The second video is a panoramic view of Santiago in Summer (without snow on the Andes Mountains) as taken from the top of Cerro San Cristobal Hill. I’ll go up again in the middle of winter (after a day of rain) to capture the Andes Mountains in all their snow-capped glory.
On Sunday we visited Cerro San Cristobal, the iconic hill that overlooks Santiago with the statue of the Virgin Mary on top. We took the video below as we slowly drove up the road that takes you to the top of the hill. The first minute is really shaky though it gets better from there on in. The video is below:
Notice all of the 'healthy' people walking, running and cycling up to the top - not easy in the summer heat. This is quite a common activity on the weekend (we took this on a Sunday) and it can be interesting watching all the different types of people and characters that are going up or coming down the hill. Check out some of the panoramic views of the northern part of Santiago from half way up.
We had to start the video from just after going through the gates at the bottom of the hill so that it would fit into the maximum 10 minutes allowed on YouTube but at least you get an idea of how it is.
In order to take your car up the hill, you have to pay $2.000 Chilean Pesos (February 2009). The best time to go up Cerro San Cristobal is after a day of rain since the rain clears away the smog and you have an amazing view of the entire city (instead of a haze in the distance). Also when it rains in winter it leaves a lot of snow on the Andes Mountains down to a low level.
Tomorrow I’ll try and put up the panoramic video of Santiago that I took from the top.
Does anyone here regularly run or cycle up this hill on the weekend?
Last Sunday my wife and I went aimlessly roaming around the streets of El Golf with our kids in tow and we stumbled upon Plaza Perú. It’s a nice patch of green in the heart of the financial district of El Golf but there is nothing impressive about the Plaza itself. It has a car park underneath it (you can’t really tell) which is handy for those that visit the numerous restaurants around there. But what is really worth mentioning is that every Sunday there is an Antiques fair there. You will find stands lined up displaying an assortment of interestingly old relics from a day gone by that someone inherited and then sold off to these antique dealers to earn some quick cash. It a fascinating place to nose around unfortunately this Sunday there wasn’t anyone since they were probably all on vacation with the other half of Santiago. (In February Santiago is empty, which is great!)
Meanwhile we took a panoramic video of the Park so that you have an idea what it is like. We’ll take another video when the antique guys are back in town.
For some more information about this park in the middle of El Golf, check out: Plaza Peru
The following photo was taken only one block from Plaza Peru. I love the design and how it totally contrasts the seriousness of that financial part of the city.
It was a pleasant evening tonight and we had a picturesque view of a full moon as it slowly rose from behind the Andes mountains. I have seen it bigger and yellower on other occasions though tonight's performance was still inspiring. I love this time of night!
Of course I took to opportunity to film the moment since it was only this weekend that I finally found a way to make semi-decent videos. The ones that I have taken until now come from my normal digital camera (which is as old as the hills) and with a low quality of image. The boring details of what I did can be found below.
The boring details... The problem with my normal camera is that you can only record a couple of minutes at any one time before the memory gets filled up. Not the best thing to happen when you are in the middle of nowhere unless you are lugging your laptop around to download them.
So how could I take better videos of the places we visit AND get them on my computer? The solution was actually simple. We have a Sony Handycam DCR-HC48 that has been sitting around for the last year doing nothing much other than taking shots of our kids every now and then. Since it uses a Tape (or MiniDV or whatever they call it), I naturally assumed that you couldn't transfer the videos to the computer. Looking up via google I found there is a special cable that connects to the battery charger of the handycam (not the thing itself) to your computer. It's called a Sony i-link cable and when the handycam is sitting in the charger, you can download the videos to your computer. (The reason I write the this with the boring technical names is to help anyone else that may be in the same predicament.)
Today I have been experimenting with videos I have taken on our trips through Chile, with youtube and also with our South America website. The result after some frustration, is not a mess but the following short clip of a panoramic view of Punta Arenas.
So you think, is that it? Well, I must say that I'm not at all a computer whiz. Everything I have learnt about making websites and playing around with them, I have learnt myself from scratch and experimenting. I'm totally self-taught, if that really still exists nowadays with the advent of (and great help of) the internet, so this is of great satisfaction for me, even if its something obvious and easy to do for others.
The hardest part of the entire process was not actually uploading the video (even I could do that), but fiddling with the original video itself with the Window Movie Maker program that came with this laptop, one that hadn't been used until today. I almost deleted that program on the first day for thinking it was another piece of MS crap taking up space on my harddrive, luckly I didn't.
Oh, if you are wondering where the sound is to the Punta Arenas clip, I took it off since the sound of the wind battering the camera's microphone in the background was quite annoying.
Anyway, the point of all this dribble is to let you know that you can expect more videos appearing on our website of the places we have visited, and also that we will try to avoid the shaky hand in the future. I'll publish them here as we get them done.
If you'd like to learn more about Punta Arenas, check it out here.
Is there anything you'd like to see on video of here in Santiago or Chile? Let us know, we might be able to make it!
