Here I Am - Earthquakes, Taxis and Other Stuff

February 27, 2010

EARTHQUAKES

Today we learned there was an 8.8 earthquake in Chile. From what I hear – since I have limited access to internet these days – is that it hit in a minimal populated area, but quakes and damages were experienced for miles. Thus, Santiago experienced some damages which mean their airport has been shut down for at least 24 hours. One of our gals was to fly out today for Washington, but it was canceled with no further routes available at this time. A couple of others made it south to Buenos Aires, so that was good. I'm to fly out on Monday, but we'll see how the re-routing process goes – since when I called my airlines in the U.S. they couldn't help me today. Hopefully tomorrow.
So Tsunami's are predicted in Hawaii earlier today, but I haven't heard anything there either. This is sure difficult when you can't even access news. So far we're safe, even with evidence that Argentina has had some tremors around the country – which, incidentally, is not unusual as we are told.


GRADUATIONS

With all this excitement, we had a celebration with our students for completing their English Village program! It was great fun with a graduation, gifts, pictures and an Asado – a feast of various types of barbeque meat that keeps on coming! As some students gradually left, and after my attempts at communication with my airlines, it was decided to follow through with our afternoon plans and go downtown to the Artisan festival. This is much like our Saturday Market in Portland.


TAXIS

A taxi is needed to do much of our transportation – and with these you can only transport a maximum of four people. We needed two. Taking taxis is actually quite affordable here as they are a popular mode of transportation. For three of us it cost us about 30 pesos, or roughly $7.50 – pretty darn decent! Being a Saturday evening, Heather commented how she rarely sees so many folks out, partly because people come out during the cool of the evening. Siestas are a real part of the culture, so during the afternoon hours it's pretty quiet on the streets. It was great seeing more activity, and yet the night life is quite a mixed bag.


SHOPPING

I enjoyed shopping around the market, but we only stayed an hour or so, as there were still students back at Campos Blancos we wanted to spend time with. Before, we called a taxi to pick us up, this time, Heather Lewis stood on the corner and hailed the cab – downtown is quite busy and we had no trouble getting two cars to take us all home. As we were weaving our way home – remember, lanes appear to be just for looks – we told the driver that the cab ahead of us was part of our party and we joked about "follow that cab!" He sped up and we got behind a mo-ped with a guy and a girl on it – the girl was loaded down with bags and balloons. Not only is the taxi riding on the tail end of that moped to pass, it was shocking that when we did pass we then saw a small blond child sitting between the couple holding balloons and another little tot sitting in front of the man!!! Startled I exclaimed, "That's just illegal!" Heather Lewis laughed and told the driver and he replied in Spanish, "We get away with a lot here."


DOGS

Something else I just can't get used to is the dogs running around – everywhere! There is no leash law, and nothing seems to be done about the strays. They wander onto the campus grounds, they bark all night, they lie on the streets downtown – they're just everywhere! Last week when we picnicked on our tour, a 24 hour veterinarian pulled up on the curb near where we were eating. We watched as he walked over toward to women who were kneeling near a dog. Well, looks like a stray had been injured and they called a vet to come and have a look. Once the vet had a look and evidentially treated the dog, it wandered off. Earlier, while downtown, we were sitting in a center park and a dog walked up and put its head on one of our tutor's laps. Just out of the blue! It wouldn't even 'shoo" when she told it to. As we got up to walk, the dog would bark and men who walked by our tutor. It did that a couple times, and we thought it strange the dog appeared to be protecting her. So sad, as this dog's tail wagged slowly and seemed to be a young dog.


DEPARTURES

So, I made connections with my airlines and I've been rerouted through Buenos Aires on Wednesday. It means I get to be with Heather a couple more days – I get to do some more shopping at WalMart – I get to travel home with others.