Blogs from Santiago Region, Chile, South America - page 150

Me Nikki, jenny and rachel and the ozzie boys departed Pucon to make our way to Mendozza in Argentina via Santiago the day after the volcano climb. Jack bus company which was great as the bus waiter even tucked us in!! We arrived in Santiago at 7am and bought tickets to Mendozza straight away. Our bus left at 8am for Mendozza and after driving for 3 hours we got stopped as we had to wait for the Chile and Argentina armies to clear the snow from the andes. We jumped off the bus and our mates bow max dave and mickey were all stopped 2. After a 4 hour wait we find the roads can not be cleared and we have to drive all the way back to Santiago!!! Nigtmare!!! Typical south american disorganisation and no ... read more

A l’arrivée dans l’AIS, Agnès est chargée d’aider a lancer le projet “Centres d’apprentissage Unilever”. Il s’agit de construire et de faire fonctionner 4 centres pré-scolaires pour des enfants entre 3 et 6 ans, dans un premier temps, puis 6 autres par la suite. Tout ceci en impliquant les volontaires d’Unilever qui sponsorise le projet. Premiere etape : la construction des 4 centres. Agnes participe a la « formation » des volontaires Unilever et organise la repartition des differents « jefes de cuadrillas » qui vont conduire les operations. Un certain jeudi d’avril, sous un beau soleil nous rejoignons Colina, au nord de Santiago. Avec l’aide des huit volontaires de l’entreprise nous nous attaquons à quelque chose que nous n’avions pas encore entrepris, enterrer 25 pilotes dans la journée. Traditionnellement les mediaguas que nous avions construites ... read more

L’autre activité qui a occupe une grande partie de notre temps ces dernières semaines est la Première pierre de Renca. Renca est une commune située au Nord Ouest de Santiago qui abrite plusieurs campamentos. Quatre d’entre eux ont décidé il y a maintenant plus de trois ans de s’engager dans le long et fastidieux processus d’accès au logement définitif. Les communautés sont passées par des moments très difficiles, en effet l’entrée des familles dans le processus d’accès a la subvention d’état permettant la construction est conditionne a un apport de 400 000 pesos soit près de 800 US$. Or dans la phase de recollection de l’argent s’est présente un charlatan qui a «vendu» aux familles un projet beaucoup alléchant que celui du Techo et un tiers des 170 familles lui ont donne leur argent. Le fourbe ... read more

Hi everybody, Oh my gosh, I hear most of you say - 'you mean they are still alive and didn't disappear in the deepest darkest corners of Chile where we last heard from them....' Well yes, we are still alive and kicking (yay we hear you all say) and have ashamedly been avoiding the blog like a plague due to first being too busy to update it, then it felt like such a big job we kept saying that we needed to allocate a big amount of time to it... and then we didn't have a home computer... etc - you get the drift, we're lazy. Anyone who knows us well, would know that we are the kind of people who always leave things to the last minute - so here goes - our travels in ... read more

Despite leaving everything to the last minute, there was a relaxing calmness that set in, a calmness that can only be achieved through travelling experience. As any well travelled person would know: from the moment you leave the safe confines and creature comforts of home, you are subject to the typicals of travel lore- where plans fly out the window, itineries are non existent, lost baggage, thieves, crazy taxi drivers and nasty check in staff; things that are completely out of your control. For awhile there everything was going smoothly- mum and dad were safely away on their flight to New Zealand via Sydney and there I was, in the murderously long check in queue- praying all the while that the mean looking woman on counter 10 wasn’t my check-in lady. “Ding Ding- Next Please- Counter ... read more