Motels, Saunas and other “Traveler Bewares”

And you thought you knew your native language!

Image by Jeep Novak! via Flickr

There are plenty of surprises to be discovered on the road, and one that can have funny (or downright weird) consequences is when we discover that the language we grew up with doesn’t quite work the same way in another region or culture.

Take a motel, for example—a “motor hotel” along the highway…A no-frills and inexpensive place to sleep and get back on the road to your real destination the next day—right?
Well, could be… unless you’re in Chile…

Postcard from Chile: Valparaíso & Andes

Chile: land of mountains and sea… but there are few places where you can see both at the same time!

View from Cerro Alegre overlooking the Valparaíso Bay to Viña del Mar and beyond to the Andes Mountains.

Chile: the Sense and Senses of Travel

Ever thought about the senses you use when you travel? No matter what kind of traveler you are—intellectual, cultural, adrenaline seeker, low-budget backpacker, VIP all the way—it’s your senses that make that experience possible.

At the most basic biological level, our senses are what allow our inner-being “real” self to perceive and interact with that which is not contained within our own skin. To be more scientific about it, the human body has five physiological means of obtaining perceptual input: vision, audition, olfaction, gustation, and tactition. But enough of science. What it boils down to is that our senses are the medium of communication between ourselves and the world around us. Of course a lifetime of collected experiences and acquired knowledge allows us to reflect upon and interpret that sensual information, but it all begins with the body’s five basic means of interacting with the world.

When we are within our comfort zones, our senses kick back, relax, doze off in the Barcalounger, but when we travel and encounter much that is new, our internal communications media necessarily snap to attention and go into overdrive receiving and even overloading on all the new data coming in (which is just one of the reasons travel can be exhausting). And the newer the experience, the more we put those senses through the ringer as they do their darnedest to try and help us understand what is going on around us. Our senses are trying to help us “make sense” of all that is new!

So what senses do we use when traveling? Let’s set aside both common and sixth sense (both vital while on the road) for the moment and concentrate on the basic five. Assuming you have all your senses in tact, how would you order your priority levels for sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It would also be interesting to know what takes priority when one or more of those senses is impaired. I would really love to hear some feedback on this!

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…

BYOTP in Chile

I suspect that anyone who has done any amount of traveling outside their comfort zone is familiar with the acronym “BYOTP.” For those who are not, let me spell it out for you, because if you’re a woman in Chile, this is going to become pretty important: Bring Your Own Toilet Paper.

Of course this is an odd—less than delicate, shall we say—topic, but let’s face it, there are things that a traveler just needs to be forewarned about, and the whole idea behind Cachando Chile is to let you in on the things that no one else ever bothers to mention!

And since Eileen kicked it off today with her piece on “The Case of the Hot TP,” I figured it’s time to pass on a bit of advice for newbies that I’ve been planning to haul out at the right time… and it seems there’s no time like the present.

Books, Computers, Cameras: Tools & Tickets

I’ve been pensive this morning. Thinking about stuff. Literally. Material things and what is important, which brings me to issues of experience, travel, photography, and most of all, memory.

It all started with a good read. I saw a short and insightful post over on a great travel blog called Uncornered Market. The piece, “Are you a Stuff Junkie or an Experience Junkie” (yes, yes… go ahead… click, read, you know you want to… it’s short and we can talk about it when you get back) sets the tangible and intangible at odds and hits the personal priority question square on its pointy head.

The wanderlusts among us know their answer (Fly away!).
So do the homebodies (Nest!).

Although I have certainly thought about this issue (and plenty: shall I stay or shall I go? shall I buy or shall I fly?), I had never put it in such a Levi-Straussian binary-oppositional sort of way. And that post set me off on a bit of existential pondering that brings me to this:

I’m in it for the experience.

There’s just too much good stuff going on out there somewhere to stay put, physically or mentally. I am inquieta (one of those great Spanish words that has no real translation into English). I want to know more, see more, do more, drink it in… and then share it. That’s me. That’s who I am and who I have always been.

The fact that I am a voluntary expat (and blog about it) is pretty good evidence of that. And though I’ve been here in Chile a long time, and yes, have accumulated a lot of STUFF in the process, what I just realized is that most of it—the stuff I value most—is experience-related stuff. Not clothes, not fancy furnishings, not much of anything sold in the local department store…

So what are the things I value most? Books, computers, and cameras. They are all tools and tickets to the experiences–past, present, and future–that truly mean so much.

Books, Computers & Cameras

Books. I have a lifelong love of books and magazines. I grew up in the country and they were my lifeline and ticket to anywhere and everywhere.

Computers. No, I am not a geek. Was once, in a former life long ago, but not now. Today my computers are the tools that let me reach out beyond the physical limits of my world. Again, anywhere and everywhere.

Cameras. Ah… now here is where the plot thickens… Photography is another lifelong love, and aside from fulfilling an artistic itch, I have just come to realize this morning, after reading the Uncornered Market post, that part—I think a BIG part—of my love for photography is that it helps me make the experience tangible.To catch and hold that which is fleeting. To make the momentary last forever. It is the “stuff” my inner junkie craves. It allows me to record for all time that which will never be repeated. It makes memory a bit more concrete.

Not everyone gets this. Put the camera down, they say, look around.
I do look around, and I want to keep it forever.

From Experience to Memory

And this is where it all becomes very personal. Today, as I watch my elderly mother’s memory fade away and the details of her life’s story shift, twitch, blink, and disappear, some never to return, I get scared. And when other details miraculously reappear with amazing clarity when we open her photo albums, I know the importance of photography.

Someone—my father usually—thought that a particular moment was worth remembering forever. He, unaware in his young self, was extending her a lifeline that would stretch 60 years into the future, to a time when he would not be there to help her remember. He was fixing a bit of their lives—and her memory—in time. He was handing her a ticket back to her own life.

And today, as I watch her cling to the pieces of her life and wonder what lies ahead for me, I know, with even more conviction, how important my camera is to me.

Chile by Air (and coolest job in the world)

I love my job. I write about wine and food (in that order) in a gorgeous country squooshed between two–yes TWO–mountain ranges (the Andes and the Coastal Range),  double-lined by the Pacific Ocean on one side and Argentine pampa on the other, then capped top and bottom by the Atacama Desert, a sparkly volcano-studded Lake Region, and the wilds of Patagonia, but why stop there? Let’s throw in a slice of Antarctica and a couple Pacific Islands to boot (Juan Fernández, of Robinson Crusoe fame, and Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island in gringo speak).

I love my job—it bears repeating. Sure, there are days when I sit at my desk for 16 hours and move nothing but my fingers over the keyboard (that’s why they call it work), but then there are days like today, when this work takes me to places that even my Chilean husband doesn’t know.

Colchagua based Viña Casa Silva decided to launch its latest wine—Cool Coast Sauvignon Blanc—by inviting a small group of wine writers to visit their young vineyards near the coast of Colchagua. This is a big deal. They literally broke new ground—new terroir—with this project by daring to plant this close to the so-cold-it’s-cool coast in a region where no one has ever grown wine grapes before. As pioneers, they’ve earned their bragging rights… and this was no time to slouch.

So they ordered up an absolutely gorgeous day and put a dozen of us on a little 12-seater and flew us to the Colchagua coast… Here, let me show you… Come on along for the ride:

Central Chilean Andes to the left (Photo © MSnook 2009)

We left the Santiago airport and headed south, with the Andes to the left and the Coastal Mountains to the right. August is still winter in the southern hemisphere, and last week’s heavy rains dusted the Coastal Mountains with snow for a special treat.

Snow-topped Coastal Mountains to the right (Photo © MSnook 2009)

The layers of fog that accumulate between the irregular Coastal Mountains moderate temperatures and provide moisture for an area that is otherwise quite dry. The greenery is the result of winter rains; at other times of the year, the hills are dry and brown.

The Coastal Mountains, with the snow-topped Andes just visible in the distant right. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

When we reached Colchagua 110 miles south of Santiago, we turned west toward the coast, following the tongue-tangling Tinguiririca (Ting-geer-ee-REE-ka) River to the sea for a better-than-birds’-eye view of the valley from the Andes to the Pacific.

Colchagua Valley: Tinguiririca River and Coastal Mountains. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

Colchagua Valley: Tinguiririca River and Coastal Mountains. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

The mountains start to smooth out and the land flattens near the coast.

Flying west over Colchagua Valley approaching the sea. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

It’s hard to imagine a more breathtaking coastline. Just a few miles north is Pichilemu, one of the surfing capitals of the southern hemisphere.

The Colchagua Valley meets the Pacific Ocean. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

Landing at the Vichuquén Airport (that’s it with the orange roof).

Arriving at the Vichuquén Airport. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

Casa Silva’s 4-year-old vineyard near Paredones, just 5.5 mi (9 km) from the sea. 40 hectares (99 acres)–half Sauvignon Blanc and half Pinot Noir–have been planted on the sandy-clay hillsides that ring the reservoir and on the lower-lying lands that surround it. The Sauvignon made its debut today; the Pinot–ever the diva–will hold out another year to make its grand entrance.

Casa Silva's vineyard in the Colchagua Valley's cool coastal region near Paredones. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

Westward (and lunchward) bound, we headed straight to the coast to Buculemu, with a dramatic weather change just a couple of miles up the road from the sea. This fishing village had been clear all morning and the cloud cover rolled in just before we got there.  Though the coastal air was still thick and soupy when we left a few hours later, the sun was still shining just a couple miles away from the coast itself.

The Colchagua coast: Saint Peter and the seagulls in the fishing village of Buculemo. (Photo © MSnook 2009)

So… what’s not to love about a job that let’s me spend the day doing this and calling it work?

To find out more about the wine, go see: Casa Silva puts Colchagua’s Cool Coast on the Map

Good Customer Service- what a novel idea!

Today’s story is a tale of good service—in Chile no less!

Let’s face it, Chile is not known for good customer service. Oh, the stories I could tell—that we ALL could tell—about experiences ranging from frustrating to nightmarish… (For example, Lydia’s experience yesterday). Forget anything you ever heard about the customer always being right, in Chile, the customer—more often than not—is irrelevant.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I want to report a happy experience!

I had booked a flight with Lan Chile on-line and realized a few days later that I had a problem with it. I returned to the website, couldn’t remember my password, went through the normal steps to find the clave olvidada—no luck—it was registered under some long-forgotten email address, and finally I realized with a sinking feeling that I was going to have to speak to a human…
Knot in stomach begins here…

Have you noticed that most websites make it difficult to find a telephone number these days? Recent attempts to make human contact at Entel (a communications company no less) proved laborious (and in the end futile, because the person who finally answered could tell me no more than to come in and take a number), so I really dreaded having to try and go through all this with Lan Chile on a Saturday morning. I was sure that (1) I would never find a number, and that (2) if I did they would put me on hold for hours, and (3) when someone finally did pick up the phone they would tell me that they only provide information every other Thursday between 12:00 and 12:01.

I’m happy to report that this was not the case at all!

First, the telephone number is on the top right-hand side of the Lan Chile website! How logical! How helpful! Why should this be such a novel idea?

I called, and amazingly enough, an incredibly helpful man named Cristián picked up on the first ring, listened patiently to my drawn out story of woe and confusion, and then walked me through every step to correct my email and password situation, update my account information, give me the flight reservation number, show me where to download my itinerary, confirm that yes, I did in fact have frequent flyer kilometers accumulated, and answer every little question in between, and all with a calm, pleasant, and reassuring manner!

In a country known for placing insurmountable roadblocks between customer and service, where the company representatives who attend the public are often  indifferent, snide, and/or ignorant of the service they are supposed to offer, and then treat you as stupid to boot, or—going to the opposite extreme— are annoyingly ingratiating, it was just such a relief to get through a potentially stress-provoking situation and walk away calm and relieved with the problem resolved in less than 15 minutes with just 1 person and 1 phone call!

Kudos to Lan Chile and many thanks to service rep Cristián.