This morning at around 8am I was woken up by my bed shaking from side to side and the wardrobes rattling. There had been an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale which had its epicentre in the centre of Argentina deep underground and the tremors had reached Santiago. I later saw it on the news, which once the Chilean staff in the hostel had excitedly tuned into to find out what had happened they lost all interest when they heard it had taken place in Argentina, whereas I was very curious and concerned about all those lovely Argentinian people who at 8 in the morning would just be getting ready for bed after a night of partying. At the time of the earthquake there was a Chilean guy in the dorm who had been staying ... read more

THE DOWNFALL OF SALVADOR ALLENDE The small number of rich families (30% of the population) had an enormous amount of money and influence in Chile. Pinochet, the leader of the military therefore didn’t have to do much to get into power. With the help of the CIA? he stopped paying the truck drivers (who have a lot of power in Chile) so they no longer brought food to the people in Chile. This gave rise to the black market and riots began to break out over food. There were apparently 50% Allende supporters and 50% Pinochet supporters in Chile at the time and riots began to break out between the two groups. When social unrest broke out President Allende was about to call a referendum to see if the people still wanted him in power as ... read more

There is a part of the cemetery which is dedicated to the burial of children, it is common for mothers to come to the grave every week (especially for still born babies), usually on a Sunday to lay fresh flowers and speak to the dead baby, telling the baby all that is happening in the family as if they were still part of it. It is typical for the family to have specific rituals for keeping the dead alive with them, and its common for families to tend graves every Sunday. One example I saw was a grave of a wife who’d husband had died. As her husband liked to drink beer every Sunday, she would come to his grave with a beer every Sunday, drink it and talk to him. In the end his grave ... read more

In Santiago when you pass over to the other side of the river Mapocho, you go to La Chimba, which in Quechuan means the other side. The river separated two class divisions in the colonical area – the upper class lived on one side and the lower class lived on the other. The richer side was the part colonised by the Spanish and on which all the government buildings were built and all the jails, cemeteries, mental institutions and anything that people felt uncomfortable with were built on the Chimba. BUILDING BRIDGES TO BREAK DOWN CLASS DIVISIONS A man called Zanartu who became well known for his breaking down of class divisions organised the building of the bridge across the river so people could cross. He recruited prisoners to build the bridge as part of their ... read more

As I mentioned earlier Chileans love sweet drinks, they have loads of different coloured fizzy drinks, fresh juices made in the street and most alcoholic drinks are served with either coca cola or ice cream. Nobody likes bitter drinks, they are unheard of here. For that reason and for the fact that Chile is not a coffee producer real coffee is quite rare. Instead they serve every type of tea and herbal tea you can think of and they always leave about 5 sachets of sugar on the table to put in the tea. For a cup of coffee here you tend to have to go to Starbucks, most cafes and restaurants sell Nescafe and instant coffee or you can go to cafes known as ‘cafes with legs.’ Back in the day in Chile coffee was ... read more