Damn. It is looking like I have to write another blog post. As the last run of my Chile experience is around the corner, I thought I would take the time to reflect on the trip so far, what I have done, and what I have learned. Sometimes cliches are what people want, and right now it is what I want to write about.
Since the last post, the group has gone to San Pedro de Atacama, which is in the north. Atacama has the distinction of being the driest desert on Earth, which seemed to be an accurate description (in the mornings I would wake up like a dry sponge). The desert was beautiful as well. There were a pair of valleys named Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte which I particularly found pleasant. I have always loved the desert, and the trip was great for me as well because it included a surprise birthday drinking binge. The town of San Pedro de Atacama had some cool things to add to the experience. I bought some presents for people in all of the tiendas de artesanía. One day we went biking up in the desert canyons. All in all, 8/10. Comparing it to
Mojave back home though is a bit difficult. I really like going off
into the desert with a few friends, or just by myself. If I am unable to
be isolated in a desert something is wrong. But that is how I felt at
times in Atacama, with the constant tour guide accompaniment and a
schedule. Also in some areas, such as Valle de la Luna, you are unable
to walk off "the path". This was an affront to me, because to
have a path that you are required to take is the antithesis of a fucking desert. But overall the trip was great, great times where had, I met some strange people in dry desert nights, and had a good birthday.
That was about 15 days ago. Funny how fast time slips through. When we got back from Atacama everyone was ready for a little of the norm. A week after that, some of the group went to Machu Picchu while the rest of us hurriedly got together a camping trip to La Campana. Both trips were enjoyed. My only complaint about the camping trip was that we had to fit 5 guys in a 3 person tent. If I turned to the right, there was a guy breathing on my face. If I turned to the left, there were some feet in my face. I only got 2 hours of sleep that night.
As much as I enjoy the trips, I think I might get more out of just walking the streets here in Viña during a normal week. I remember one time I just sat at a busy intersection by the sea for 2 hours, watching people. You can really pick up the character of a place just by watching its busiest intersection for a couple hours. Sometimes I hate what personal computers and the internet is doing to us, never before has it been possible to be so far from home, yet so close to it. The result is that sometimes we are deposited in this limbo-wasteland where we aren't truly in Chile or the US. Whenever I feel that feeling, I usually go out for a walk. It helps a lot, but I fear for the future. With computers relegating our existence, everyone might become, as I used to say in high school of my teachers, half-a-humans.
Ok, let's dive deep. Here is a questions that was brought up yesterday in my literature class: are people in the US more isolated then in other parts of the world? Is our society sick with suspicion and white picket fence seperation? Are we more selfish, and afflicted with unspoken sorrow? I don't know. Sometimes I feel scared, because my answer to those questions is I don't care.
What else can I talk about? My viewpoint in chile has definitely changed from one of a newcomer, like Jack in A Nightmare Before Christmas singing "What's This! What's This!" to one of a veterano. I am still no Chilean, culturally-wise, I think that it would take years to be that. I have noticed that there are two sides to a country, the superficial and the deeper. The superficial is tricky because sometimes it is easier to take it as the deeper. What do I mean by this? For instance, in the US, to take all the commercialism on the streets as the actual culture, and to not look deeper and ask why it is that way would just be looking at the superficial. That is ultimately the hardest part, to see something ugly in another culture and to stop yourself from just assigning it to "them." At the end of the day, we truly are all the same, and the things that manifest these ugly parts of a culture are the things to try and understand.
Aside from all these ruminations, I think the important thing to realize is that the world is homogenating into something strange. The US definitely had a large role to play in this, but what we created I do not think we can control. Globalization is scary and will hurt a lot of people, but there is no stopping it, it has already gestated. The only option is to continue to look towards the future. As we embark on our long sojourn into the unknown, I am reminded of a didactic passage from the Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It occurs at the very beginning of the book, before all the confusing chaos, told by the sympathetic narrator of the future:
"Mankind flung its advance agents ever outward, ever outward. Eventually
it flung them out into space, into the colorless, tasteless, weightless
sea of outwardness without end.
It flung them like stones.
...
The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death."
Sorry, I am really not pessimistic, I just know that humankind's learning curve isn't going to straighten anytime soon. Toodle's! I'll write more later.
PS. Almost forget my word of the day section. Today's phrase is "saltar la cola/saltar la fila." For a long time, every time I would go to the neighborhood "OK Market" there would be this old lady who always tried to cut the line. Here I would be, patiently waiting in line, in Gringo fashion, when in comes Abuelita I-don't-give-a-shit-about-the-rules" and tries to just go straight up to the register. Let me tell you something. Order, Laws, Social Constructs. That is all that separates us from the apes. Long story short how to say cut the line or YOU CUT THE LINE YOU OLD HAG in Spanish is NOT cortar la linea, it is saltar la cola. Man, I miss the desert already...
PSS. That's a llama skull