Spectacular Views

While Chile is not a very "big" country, it is incredibly long. It's length gives it a unique claim to various different geographic features with varying climates. The northern part consists mostly of desert, with few towns. Central Chile occupies most of the county's population - 7 of the 13 million live in Santiago, which is the center of Chile in just about every way. As you head down further south (where we spent most of our time) the towns become smaller, the mountains bigger and more jagged, and the lakes multiply. Most of the bodies of water we were around were lakes, not the ocean. From the traditional map view, there does not look like there is room for many lakes, but from the ground it appears surprisingly similar to Alaska with lakes and ponds scattered throughout the terrain...the most beautiful, as in Alaska, are fed by glaciers.


This one is my brochure picture for the travel agency ;).

Southern Chile is also the site of the world famous Patagonia. We had the "privelage" of experiencing it from both the air and the ground. Erin posted the picture already of our plane, and I have posted a short video clip from the plane. Here are a few more pictures from the air.





What you may not have heard yet, is the story of our famed bus ride. Allow me to entertain you with circumstances of my sufferings:
A few years ago, on my journey to Ecuador, I was blessed with the experience of what it means to be "car sick" for the first time in my life. It came in the middle of our 9 hour bus ride down a mountain from Quito to Guyaquil (which is only a 25 minute flight). On that tilt-a-whirl ride I was blessed with a view down into a gorge filled with running white water at the bottom, the sounds of Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger (dubbed in Spanish), and frequent trips to the bus lavatory...the trip ended with us stopping at a "convenient" store where I was greeted by a child with a goat on a leash. I know, it sounds like a plot for a bad movie - but it is the honest truth.


This trip started out much the same - we got off of a plane, spent the night, and were awakened to board the bus early in the morning. Once we boarded the bus I could tell it was not going to be a good day. For starters, most of the guys had gone out to "socialize" the night before and did not have time to shower this morning when they returned. The other obvious problem that jumped out to all of us was the fact that none of the windows opened...our desperate hope for a working air conditioner was also quickly shot down. About 30 minutes into the ride, in 80 degree heat, the majority of the guys were stripping clothes trying to cool off. Whether due to exhaustion or despair from no other way to escape the heat, everyone started falling asleep.

As we rode along the dirt road, in our oven, I was able to take in some breathtaking views and capture some beautiful pictures:



Just to make sure we didn't suffocate, overheat (the bus), or suffer from heat stroke, we made occasional stops where everyone bailed out of the bus for a breath of fresh air. It was during one of those stops I was able to capture the footage below...which I know none of you would believe if I just told you. Here is the setting:

Our bus on the dirt road. Everyone walking around topless (no women within 200 miles), sorry. There is a river running about 40 yards to the right of the bus. When it rains it supposedly overflows its banks and covers this road (made me feel at peace about the heat :). Thus, there is standing water in both of the ditches alongside the road. After observing this, one of the guys riding along with us - who I later found out is an electrician - runs back onto the bus and emerges with his "fishing gear."



If you cannot tell what he is holding, it is a coffee can with a wodden handle screwed into the middle. He has punched a hole in the side of the can and tied the fishing line to the handle. The rest of the line is wrapped around the outside of the can, like a reel. I must give him credit for resourcefulness, but I am also a little concerned. I would love to see what he could do with an actual pole! The most interesting part of this whole ordeal is that the 3 or 4 fish we saw in the ditch were not much bigger than an anchovy. Anyway, he did not catch anything (surprise), but it defintely provided a much needed diversion from the bus ride.
We continued along the road until we finally reached the thriving metropolis of:

Don't let the sign fool you...this place is no Hollywood. In fact, once we reached the town center we had to unload our bags and put them in the back of pick-up trucks so we could get to our various "hotels" for the night...did I mention this was part of the "exhibition" part of the trip?

Our trip was two-pronged. One aspect was the competitive basketball and the attempt to earn contracts with the teams. The other was to travel throughout the country playing local teams in attempt to raise their level of excitement about basketball, and in the long run, help raise the level of basketball in the country...it was the latter part that brought us to towns such as Cochrane. You can find more on this part under the blog to come - "Basketball Lessons."