Día del Patrimonio Nacional 2010- Chilean National Heritage Day

The last Sunday of May is one of my favorite days in Chile. Since 1999, it is the Día del Patrimonio Nacional—National Heritage Day—in which many buildings, both public and private, many of which are usually closed to the public, open their doors to the public. This is your chance to get a peek into some of those buildings you’ve been wondering about…

Check out the entire list of activities for the entire country at www.monumentos.cl, but the site is a bit cumbersome (and in Spanish, if that’s an issue), so here’s a run-down. Take a quick read, get your walking shoes on, grab you camera, and get out there to enjoy this gorgeous Sunday morning!

A word of warning–if there’s a place you’re particularly interested in, this is your chance because there is no guarantee it will be open again next year!

For a list of places to visit on this special day… or for a route to follow any time of the years, read on…

Valparaíso by Trolley

What’s summer without a bit of travel, exploration, fun, and tourism? “Valparaíso en un Trolley” dishes out a bit of all that and more. Theater troupe Teatro de la Historia fills the seats of a 1950s-era green and yellow “trolebus” and rolls out on a tour that takes delightful jabs at the city’s characters while simultaneously conveying pride in this one-of-a-kind city.

Valparaíso, Chile’s response to Lisbon and San Francisco, has a mystique all its own. While the famous century-old ascensores–funicular cars (oddly called elevators) save residents, tourists, and even local dogs the huffing and puffing of getting to the funky residential top of its many hills, those who need to get around old town in the lower part of the city—the business district, the port, the market, the principal plazas, and sailor central, may choose to do so via old-time electric trolley cars.

Aspiring "tourism scientist" Filomena finishes her internship on the trolley

Valparaíso en un Trolley pays playful homage to the city’s history, culture, and characters— self-absorbed authorities and social dilettantes, sailors who come and go, the women left behind, the shadier side of the old port, team pride (Go Santiago Wanderers!), night life, local music, pituco high-brow and flaite, young and old.

Bag-snatching "pirate" in front of the Iglesia de la Matriz, Valparaíso's oldest church, founded in 1559

Members of Manona Orquesta in the Port (yes, that's a donkey in the background!)

Returning sailor facing the wrath of one of his many "women in every port"

Having a handle on Chilean Spanish would definitely be helpful for getting the full effect of the show (¿cachái?), but even if you don’t speak Chilensis (the Glossary is a good place to test your ability) the action is fast paced and physical-visual enough that all are sure to have a great time. A delightful way to pass a couple hours on a Friday or Saturday evening during January and February.

Manona Orquesta in Tertulia Bar (Esmeralda 1083, Valpo)

Passengers on the trolley

Dates: Fridays & Saturdays in January & February, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM
Price: $10,000 / person (includes sandwich,  drink & entertainment at Tertulia Bar)
Language: Colloquial Chilean Spanish (chilensis)
Reservations: 9-8-487-2958
Meeting Point: Trolley Station, Av. Argentina & Chacabuco, Valparaíso

More info: www.valparaisoenuntrolley.blogspot.com

For more on Chilean trolleys, in continuous operation in Valparaíso since 1952, see: Trolebuses de Chile

Christmas Card Reruns

Sloppy municipal formalities backfire; tax-payer crankiness ensues…

I got a Christmas card from my local concejal (town council member) the other day—on Tuesday, January 5 to be exact. What’s with the hold up you might rightly ask? Certainly not distance traveled—I live about 5 blocks away from his office. The Christmas rush perhaps? Not that either. I checked the postmark. It was mailed Monday, January 4. Go figure.

Now, the only reason the municipality sends me cards in the first place is because I’m a squeaky hinge—and they seem to have 2-week late Christmas cards confused with WD-40. Sorry, but that “cariñoso saludo” and “wishes for the spirit of Peace and Love to remain with me always” are not going to stop me from complaining about whatever it is that’s bugging me enough to google up their contact page (you thought I was actually phoning a municipal office? How much free time do you really think I have?) to give them a coherent and exquisitely composed piece of my mind about things like people blocking our driveway by parking on top of a clearly marked no parking symbol (because the municipality has removed all the parking on my block), dogs running loose and barking under my window at 3 AM (because no one enforces leash laws), kids throwing rocks at the kiosko downstairs (rock against metal and shattering glass are not among my favorite ways to wake up), drunken teens vandalizing cars in the wee hours—normal neighborhood stuff like that.

So my concejal wants to cozy up to my good side and show me that the municipality is thinking of me. Heck, he even signed the card “Afectuosamente” (affectionately), but, ahem, they’ve just hammered home once again that I, a long-time tax-paying member of the community, am an afterthought… Did someone have a forehead-smacking brainstorm moment about getting some late-breaking eternal peace and love into me? Or maybe there were just some cards left over and they decided to send them out to the neighborhood’s second and third-tier complainers? Or maybe they got them at an after-Christmas sale and figured I’d be impressed by how much money they saved by sending the cards out after the rush? Or maybe it was simply a case of realizing post festivities that the cards had been overlooked (a bit too much Cola de Mono at the office holiday party?) and, applying some kind of better late than never logic, decided to toss them into the mail bin after—way after—the fact!

They should have saved the postage.

Hmm… Maybe I should make another complaint…