News From Chile: Letter from Tiff
Well now we´ve lived the dream-rafting and hiking in
the Andes. We went to the most beautiful National
Park where there were mountains, lakes, and
waterfalls. We weren´t going to hike but we had all
day and slowly step by step, we went eight miles and
gained almost 3,000 feet which was quite a herroic
effort by Brad--his collapsible cane helped--I´m going
to get one. I think the scenery was just so inspiring
it really got him up the mountain to the higher lakes.
We went with German tourists. Southern Chile has two
languages, German and Spanish. It is funny to see so
many obviously ex-patriot (couple of generations
removed) Germans speaking only Spanish-but of course
they were born here. I even helped a girl that spoke
only German last night. It was fun to use my limited
German again.
Chile is very European--Spottlessly Clean--Good
Food--Excellent Transportation--Reliable Schedules,
etc. Everyone is very polite--but it lacks the
hiarious warmth of the countries I visited with more
indigenous cultures. I think Northern Chile is quite
different but I didn,t go there. There are flowers
planted everywhere here with little German Bavarian
houses. Its really obviously a very loved and
treasured countryside--much like Bavaria. Very much a
cut above Santiago which also is very clean and seems
quite prosperous, but dull. It does have a great
subway system though.
Even the highways here are clean.
Tonight we are going to a place with 9 natural
hotsprings near the river-each with a different
temperature. I think it will be an almost full
moon--but if like last night pouring rain. I never
saw such rain as last night.
Why do all these country,s have better public
transportation than us?
I´m having a blast talking politics. Other people are
sure ready for a change in ours.