Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Me and the police
The day before the inauguration... they were actually really tolerant of all our picture taking with them. Gracias, carabineros chilenos Long entry… but exciting weekend with the inauguration… so here goes!
Valparaíso Second weekend here, and Chile inaugurated it’s first woman president. What lucky timing we have! On Friday, despite some slight wavering because we had been told by several of our reputable sources that we wouldn’t be able to see anything special, 5 friends and I caught a bus to Valparaíso (Valpo) for 2,900 pesos or about $6. It was about an hour and a half, and on the way my friend Michelle and I planned out a 6 day trip down to the south of Chile, Punta Arenas, to see a penguin colony and a national park, Torres del Paine. Anyway, we arrived in Valpo in the afternoon and began to get a feel for the city. We found a hostel only about 2 blocks from the Congress building (El Congreso)! As Michelle Bachelet was going to be coming to El Congreso the next day, we went there first to check out what was going on. The building entrance was huge and majestic, with many steps leading to the main entrance and gigantic pillars out front. A red carpet was being rolled out down the steps
when we got there, but the environment was very relaxed. Several people in uniform were lined up single file as they were assembling the rug, but they weren’t at attention so we could talk with them and they were really friendly, allowing us to all take pictures with them! (My camera is broken but as soon as I get other people’s pictures I’ll put some up here).
Let me describe Valpo for a moment- it is one of Chile’s largest port cities, with the city curled around the harbor. Surrounding the city, the houses are all packed next to each other in the hillsides, an amazing assortment of colors, shapes and sizes that you can see from any point in town. To get up the very steep hills to these homes, streets, hostels and restaurants you can pay 150 pesos, about 30 cents, to take one of Valpo’s “ascensores,” or elevators up about 100 feet. Just before the sun was setting, after we had walked around the city a bit, and took more than enough pictures on and around the Bernardo O’Higgins statue in one of the plazas (Bolivia’s first president who we now refer to as Bernie) we
took one of these elevators up for an amazing view. From the cobble-y little side street that we were on, surrounded by this colorful little homes, we could look out over the port, the yellow lights coming from the hills on the opposite side of the city, and the setting sun. It was so perfect and I felt like it could have been 1906 instead of 2006. Even the walk down, down little windy steps and pathways, was perfect. Dinner didn’t quite fit into our picturesque evening, as we ate at Telepizza… but it was good/fun nonetheless so I’ll let it slide.
Saturday morning 8:30am- After not much sleep, Mike and Thomas secure some front-row standing room behind the gates that blocked everyone from the streets where Bachelet, ex-President Ricardo Lagos, and several other leaders would be going by, including Condoleeza Rice, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, and Peru’s President. Michelle, Jack, Kelsey and I weren’t too far behind them and still had a pretty decent view, considering most people had given us the impression we’d be watching the festivities from a distant mountainside.
10:30am-It's packed, and everyone was all smooshed together, which wasn’t too bad except for when people
next too you (ie, 12 inches away) would start smoking. No but it was fun, and people would break into Bachelet cheers or the national anthem, and there were all different sorts of flags, promoting Chile, Bachelet, socialism, or all 3.
11:30am- Entertained by helicopters flying overhead, cars pulling up to El Congreso and trying to figure out who it was, senators walking by, journalists, other people we weren’t sure who they were. We could see the steps of El Congreso, we were about a block away, but it was still hard to make some things out. The army, airforce, and navy bands also paraded out and were playing along the street right in front of us.
12:00pm- Outgoing President Lagos drove by, about 20 feet from me, and was standing up in his car and waving to people. It was really exciting to be so close, smooshed in with all the Chileans cheering for him. He left office with an impressive 70%!a(MISSING)pproval rating. Inside El Congreso, Lagos officially handed over the presidency to Bachelet.
1:00pm- Bachelet exits El Congreso and walks down the street right where we had seen Lagos, minutes after officially becoming Chile's first woman president.
(Now) Ex-President Ricardo Lagos
Approaching El Congreso.. his last hour as president! He leaves the presidency with an approval rating over 70% Back to Santiago Michelle, Mike, Thomas and I came back Sat. night, and today (after walking to the top of a huge hill and looking over all of Santiago, smog and all), I went to this huge celebration in the center of Santiago where a bunch of bands played in the plaza before Bachelet spoke in front of everyone. There were some 2500 people, and I wasn’t more than 200 feet from her, with a great view of everything. Mike and Michelle were there too, but a bit behind me and when I found my spot after pushing through the crowd (a miracle in itself, there were so many ppl!!) for so long, I just decided to stay put. It was great and I jumped along with the crowd and sang what I could (mostly just the Bob Marley cover of No Woman No Cry). The 3 of us met up afterward to watch the commotion and chat with the characters who introduced themselves to us. It was great to see everyone so enthused and excited about Bachelet’s presidency, especially all the young guys. It’s also exciting to know that she’ll be president when Chile brings in their 200th
Showing our Chilean pride
Paco, me, Thomas, Michelle anniversary of Independence, in 2010.
It’s interesting that more men than women voted for B. I think it is because the women are generally more tied to the Catholic Church here and are more conservative, thus not as inclined to vote for this atheist, socialist president.
Ah, a very exciting weekend.. just happy I could be here at such an important moment of Chile’s history!
Buenas noches y que se duerman con los angelitos,
Clara
Advertisement
Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.07s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb