http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lump/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Lump en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:18:33 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:18:33 +0000 It arrived about a week ago. The thin sleek black envelope was covered in orange mulberry and rose colored stamps of the queen of Englandrsquos head. On the back a black 8 ball with white stenciled pointing uncle sam giving that accusatory lsquoyour turnrsquo finger and the words lsquoamerican mettlersquo.Some days later carly asked ldquoIs it goodrdquoHow the hell should I kno http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-461238.html You may have heard that Charles Darwin sailed on a boat called the HMS Beagle and wound up writing a somewhat controversial book called On the Origin of Species. I once tried reading it and would not recommend it unless you yourself are stuck on a very slow boat sailing across the Atlantic through the Straits of Magellan up the coast of South America and then across the Pacific. What is perhap http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/La-Campana-National-Park/blog-459981.html I totally stole the title and most of the pictures from my friend Ben. All credit is due to him. I am pretty sure my exceedingly dull descriptions of mountains and my effort to get up them will not be missed. Instead here are some pictures of a Sunday day hike in November to the summit of Pintor 4180m. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Valle-Nevado/blog-454000.html First of all brother Evan had a baby boy on Friday at 5 am an hour Evan has rarely seen. They named the boy Waylon. My attempts to get Montgomery and Ulysses into the mix were quickly rebuffed. This disappointment came on the heels of another Broc crumpled at the 9th hour and failed to name his boy Thor. Nevertheless nice work to all of those who have successfully reproduced. In Chile I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Providencia/blog-452104.html Although now November as far as keeping up with things I am still back in September a month long gone but one full of significance for Chile. On Sept 11th 1973 President Allende was deposed by the military coup. Somewhat ironically just around the corner on the 18th is Fiestas Patrias Chilean Independence Day. The 19th is Armed Forces Day which for most is a day spent recovering from the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/Pucon/blog-451230.html Disclaimer I have again failed miserably to write anything about the culture of Chile. This is my fault rather than Chilersquos. Instead I have yet again written about going camping in the Andes. I imagine this is stultifyingly boring for those who have enough sense to sleep indoors. cheers cIn the olden days some crazy oneeyed warty old lady could find the portents of doom in the inn http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/blog-429833.html Morning arrived. Then afternoon. The metro. A cab. Sitting in the airport is followed by sitting on a plane. Near dusk we walk down the ladder onto the runway of the Calama airport. Around us the soft blurred reddish magenta tones of sunset color the smooth dunes of the Atacama Desert. Night comes quickly and a blanket of starpierced black is pulled up and around us as we taxi south towa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Antofagasta-Region/San-Pedro-de-Atacama/blog-395712.html Perhaps it was for my sake. Or hers. Or his. But whatever the reason Tia put Antoine on a plane in NYC and sent him to Santiago. This is remarkable because of Anas age 2 and change and Nomie 8 months or so. In my experience no one willing sends their genetically obligated caretaking partner on vacation to see me. So due to Tia fabulawesomous I walked back from class Thursday mornin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-395722.html Whereas the head crusher the hereticsrsquo fork the rack etc. represent a few of the rather nasty things inspired by religion Carnaval is an altogether more pleasant manifestation of lsquoreligiousrsquo fervor. Although Carnaval may have been coopted from heretical Roman festivals such as Saturnalia and Bacchanalia the Catholic Church thankfully decided to incorporate a little pagan hed http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Barranquilla/blog-382610.html The red eye out of Santiago stopped in Lima continued to Bogota and finally arrived in Cartagena de los Indios on the Caribbean Sea. Cartagena is an old Spanish port city with a history of violence. After the overtures of peaceful cohabitation the natives had to go. Shortly thereafter it became the Spanish port for transporting the wealth sucked out of South America. Given that Spain is mu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-382596.html Whereas Santiago summer is a predictable 90 degrees with no precipitation the south is decidedly less so. Though shine is always more photogenic inevitably there is rain. Hail in the middle of summer however was not anticipated. In pursuit of the more attainable of my lsquo2 Goals in Chilersquo the other is the much less successful learning of Spanish enthusiasm was generated plan http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/blog-373683.html Todayrsquos AP headline informs that Obama is in Indiana stumping for a stimulus plan that the letrsquosnotapprovea spendingbillforthefirsttimein8yearsRepublicans are bemoaning in WA. Seems money for rebuilding schools early childhood education programs meeting state budgets unemployment benefits food stamps improving infrastructure etc. is lsquowasteful big government spen http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-372648.html Horror. Despair. Waves of nausea. Real fear. Different from the three day bender fear that can be fixed with a gallon of water an icy diet coke serious sweating or the white flag of surrender return to bed. I stared again at the message. One terrible sentence fragment with an excessive amount of punctuation meant to convey or perhaps engender enthusiasm ldquoPlomo Next Weekrdquo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Biobio/Laguna-del-Laja-National-Park/blog-354437.html A lot of people have and will write about the US election in 2008. The vast majority of them will do it better. Here are a few disjointed thoughts from watching this thing unfold from a few thousand miles away. Somewhat surprisingly Obama won Iowa. Then he kept winning. The democratic establishment was blown away. Perhaps it was because the black guy from Illinois was selling a different br http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-353724.html There is a KFC around one corner and McDonalds around the other. In the park 4 year olds are regularly seen chugging two liters of CocaCola. Black Iron Maiden tshirts are ubiquitous. There is Budweiser and Doritos in the supermarket. Moreover the dominant economic philosophy of the country was imported wholesale from the University of Chicagorsquos School of Economics and Milton Freedman http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-342710.html Wednesday is not usually altogether much different than any other day of the week. Sometime around 7 carly gets up. She is understandably not happy about this so I am considerate and stay in bed til 8ish so as not to get in her way. Often I wake to the sound of cellfon bull frogs. On occasion I discover a freshly ground and brewed french press of strong dark coffee which is surely a sign of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-337677.html It is Monday in august in Santiago. Friday was a holiday in honor of the Virgin. I would assume that would be the Immaculate Conception one but I canrsquot claim to know the Catholic pantheon that makes a regular habit of mercifully intervening into the lsquoworkrsquo week. Microsoft Word apparently is more religiously sensitive. The green line has appeared under lsquoimmaculate conc http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-315426.html La SerenaMidway through the rain we decided to flee to the desert to the north. Six hours up the PanAmerican Highway is the coastal town of La Serena. La Serena has the distinction of being one of the oldest cities in Chile and has a slew of churches that show off hundreds of years of architectural style. The older ones are squatty fortresses that bear witness to the localsrsquo historical http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Coquimbo-Region/La-Serena/blog-282510.html After 6 months without even a hint of rain fall showed up in mid May. They say it always arrives in May but being from the Northern Hemisphere this still seems ridiculous. Nevertheless fall arrived drizzling then dumping cold wet rain. For six days there was a genuine attempt to right the summerrsquos deficiency of rain. The muddy smelly Mapocho running down from the Andes grew turgid http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-282506.html If I were to write a book about living overseas which i won't because enough people have done it well and many more have done it poorly I think disabusing people of their grotesque misconceptions would be a priority. Living in a foreign country is not the same as visiting. Rather it is the 'onceinalifetime opportunity' to feel like a complete idiot almost every waking moment. Sure there http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-263730.html