SOUTH AMERICA WEST COAST ADVENTURE PART 1

Santiago, Chile to Puerto Montt, Chile

November, 27 to December 28, 2001

Start 35507 miles (57270 km), End 36,301 miles (58,550 km) cumulative

Teasers:

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An Interlude Of Work

"There's a reason they call it 'work.'" Brian says to me as we walk downhill past the nondescript, three and four story, box shaped office buildings. Our destination was one of these buildings at the bottom of the hill. In this case, the building was all too familiar, a red brick L shape 3 story structure with large windows outlined in garish pink, eight tall palm trees and petunia flower beds line the the walkway leading to the tall smoked glass front double doors. We entered the rather bland looking foyer, passed between the two hideous rock sculptures standing like stiff sentinels guarding the entrance to the twin, silver fronted elevators. On the second floor our offices awaited complete with computers, desks, tables, chairs, and a window overlooking the building across the street. Everything we'd need for the the day's tasks lay at our finger tips. We flicked on the computers, fetched cups of tea and coffee, and settled in for one last day clicking on the keyboard and pushing the mouse around its pad. For five months we'd been working at our old engineering professions. Now we just needed to complete a two reports, clean out our desks, and once again we'd hit the road.

We'd returned from Argentina at the end of April to find a most unusual email waiting. It was an invitation from Caryl's former boss and long time friend, Mary. "How'd you like to come to work?" the message queried, "We're extremely busy and have been having trouble finding qualified candidates." Now this was perhaps one of the most unexpected messages we could have received and, I must admit, we did not exactly jump at the opportunity. You see, we had been planning a summer excursion throughout Alaska, the Yukon, and northern B.C. We wanted to take the camper so we could explore regions we'd missed when biking through this region. We'd been looking forward to this summer's adventure all the while we toiled through the oppressive heat and humidity and jungles of Argentina. Going to work for the summer would mean postponing this journey, something we were not entirely anxious to do.

Yet, here was an opportunity quite literally dropped in our lap, an opportunity to learn the latest modeling and analysis software, to get back into something technical, to renew old acquaintances, to settle in one place for a while, and to get many tasks done that are extremely difficult to do while living on the road. Besides, we would also add a nice shot in the arm to our financial portfolio. There were a lot of issues to consider, taxes, places to live, overtime, travel, training, etc. For every question we raised, Mary came back with an answer making the transition all too easy. Finally, we just couldn't resist any longer. The opportunity was just too good to pass up. So in late May we left Evanston, WY, turned the nose of the truck south, and headed toward San Diego. Alaska would just have to wait one more year.

How does it feel to return to the workaday world after 6 years? In some ways it felt different and novel. Yet, eerily, it felt far too familiar, for me at least. I was returning to the same building I'd entered every day for over 6 years before quitting. I sat in an office next to the one I had occupied, overlooked the same street and lot now occupied by a large building, used the same shower facilities, the same kitchen with the same old refrigerator, even many of the faces were the same. The basic engineering activities were the same. After all, engineering concepts don't change, only the tools. I was amazed at how easily I slipped back into the routine and how quickly I felt as if I'd never even been away. Yet things were different. Many of the people I'd left behind all those years ago had left and scattered to other places. New, much younger, faces had taken their places. The building had been rearranged, walls added, doors removed, rooms changed, locks put in place. Even the company itself had changed. SDRC Western Region Office was now an independent ATA-Engineering, Inc. Even during the short time we were present major company changes were implemented. SDRC was purchased by EDS, Ross Perot's original creation, and ceased to exist as an independent entity. Another local software company was purchased and squeezed into the same building adding another influx of new, unfamiliar faces. Everything was different, yet everything was the same.

All in all, we had a good time. Learning the new software was particularly rewarding. I can compare it to climbing a mountain pass on our bikes. You push hard, feeling your leg muscles tingle as they push against the weight of the bike. Your breath comes hard and regular. Sweat drips off your face and chest. You don't dare stop as you may not have the strength to get going again. Gradually the peak grows closer and closer. As you reach the top you can feel the change in the bikes resistance. It grows easier. You shift up, pedal faster, shift up once again. Finally you're at the top. From here all goes much easier. OK, so maybe this is a bit over dramatic. However, once over the hump of learning the new programs work life becomes a series of short spurts of frustration and challenge with longer periods of just normal activity. It's the rolling hills that come between major mountain passes.

We worked full time for 10 weeks and then half time for the remainder. Finally, in October the itch to go somewhere was just too much. Our flight to Chile was scheduled for November 27th and we needed to get our biking muscles back in shape. We packed up our camper, said our good-byes, and headed to southern Utah for some serious training. Would we work again? Sure. Just not next summer. Next summer we definitely are going to Alaska and northwest Canada.

Chilean Background

Chile is that long, string bean of a country that runs the southern length of the west coast of the South American continent. The eastern border of the country runs mostly along the high ridges of the Andean mountains. The highest peaks, reaching upwards of 20,000 ft, are found in the north. Peaks become significantly lower the further south you go finally reaching sea level at the Strait's of Magellan. The west boarder of the country is a long Pacific Ocean coastline the southern 1/3 of which is a ragged series of fiords, islands, and bays making the string bean look like it had been attacked by some voracious bean eating bug. Not too far off the coast lies the great pacific ocean rift, a huge underwater canyon made where the Pacific continental plate is sliding under the South American plate. I understand depths in the rift can be up to 30,000 ft making for a total vertical drop of somewhere around 50,000 ft occurring over just a couple hundred mile horizontal distance. The northern tip of Chile is bordered by Peru and Bolivia while the majority of the west is bordered by Argentina. Even Tierra del Fuego, the most southern island, is split giving Half to Argentina and half to Chile.

Chile has an enormous mix of environments. In the north it shares one of the world's driest places with the country of Peru. The Atacama desert is so dry there are locations where it is said there has never been a recorded rainfall. It has virtually no vegetation whatsoever. Only the valleys carved by the few rivers that flow from the mountains carrying with them glacier and snow runoff yield any sort of greenery to break the continual brown landscape. Further south along the coast, around the Santiago area, is a region that looks a lot like California's northern coast. Lush, fertile valleys filled with huge farmer's fields yield up crops ranging from maiz, tomatoes, and onions to grapes. This is Chile's breadbasket. Hills surrounding the fields are covered in brown grasses speckled with small green shrubs looking virtually identical to California's hills. We had strange deja vu of riding through Napa Valley.

The further south you go, the wetter and lusher the environment gets. Tales of continuous rain along the Caraterra Austral are quite common among the biking community. Tierra del Fuego, on the other hand, is a cold, windswept country that seldom sees temperatures much higher than 70 degrees F, 50 is more the normal high. And then there is are the high Andean altiplano regions. We'd experienced this high, cold, desolate land just briefly on our train ride out of Salta in Argentina. It'll be interesting to see how the lowlands make the same transition on the west side of the mountains.

Chile has an interesting history in that since the declaration independence it has managed to maintain a civilian government structure for a fairly substantial portion of its existence. Getting back to the beginning, however, the first European to visit what is now Chile was the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan who visited the island of Chiloe just after passing through what is now called the Straits of Magellen. At this time the northern half of Chile, north of the Rapel River, had been subjugated by the Incan Empire, more on the Empire later. The southern portion was occupied by a fierce and independent group of natives known as the Araucanians. These people were so resilient that they were not entirely subjugated for another 400 years and only after the then Chilean government forced them onto reservations.

The first attempt to conquer Chile was by one of Pizzaro's aides, Diego de Almagro in 1535. After 3 years wandering around, he returned to Peru empty handed. It was up to Pedro de Valdivia to actually create lasting settlements, including Santiago in 1541, Concepcion in 1550, and Valdivia in 1552. Most towns were subsequently destroyed by an Araucanian uprising in 1553 and had to be rebuilt. Chile soon settled into the typical routine common among all the other Spanish acquisitions. It's development was a bit slower as it had neither the mineral wealth nor labor as found further north. Gold and silver deposits were scarce. Instead Chile seemed to become the bread basket for the richer regions.

Chileans seemed to have been swept into the independence trend without having really yearned for it. They were not overly disgruntled with Spanish rule, having been a true backwater region left to their own devices for centuries. But when the rest of Latin American countries joined to oppose French rule in 1810, Chile went along. On September 18 of that year a town council held in Santiago deposed the Spanish governor. Yet skirmishes continued on for another 15 years until a royalist army was decisively trounced in Chacabuco on February 12, 1817. A revolutionary leader with the unlikely name of Bernardo O'Higgins, yes his father was an Irish immigrant, declared complete independence in 1818. Nevertheless, royalists were not entirely ousted from the country until 1826.

From 1818 to the early 1900s, Chile's government swayed from being highly conservative to highly liberal. In this case 'conservative' meant having more central authority in the Federal government. Liberals gave more control to the provinces. O'Higgins governed as the first dictatorial president until 1826 when he was ousted by general public discontent. He spent his final years in exile in Peru. Although today he is regarded as a national hero. For a while the government was in turmoil until in 1831 when General Joaquín Prieto organized a coup and seized control. The true man yielding the power was a Diego Portales who managed to be the man behind the scenes of all presidents until 1859. It was he who put into place a constitution in 1833 vesting vast powers in the executive branch of government. The conservative terms were marked by major commercial and agricultural development, railroad construction, mineral exploitation, immigration, and school construction. Portales also narrowly averted hostilities with Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina over borders. The problem with Argentina was solved in 1881 when a treaty split Tierra del Fuego between Argentina and Chile.

In 1861 it was the liberals turn. They reduced the church's strength in government, increased spending on social issues, added to the railroads, and immensely increased exploitation of the large nitrate resources in the Atacama desert. Many of the nitrate mines were owned or controlled by British companies. Theoretically Bolivia and Chile had an agreement to share the mineral wealth of the Atacama. Both would own the region, both could exploit the minerals, and both would share in profits. As can be expected, this arrangement was short lived. In 1879 the Chilean army occupied the port of Antofagasta. Peru and Bolivia joined forces to try to expel the Chilean army. However, the Chilean army was better trained, better equipped, and less politicized than either Peru's or Bolivia's. Battles raged until 1883 during which time Bolivia lost essentially all its coastal access and Peru lost much territory as well. The final fate of the Atacama was settled in 1928 by negotiation. Peru took Tacna, Chile got Arica, and Bolivia became land-locked.

In 1891 the forces allied with the Roman Catholic clergy organized a revolt against the then liberal administration of President José Manuel Balmaceda. The new conservatives under Captain Jorge Montt beat the liberals in a battle at Valpariaso. Montt became president, Balmaceda committed suicide, and the country began a long period of reconstruction. Montt also gained a port city in his name, Puerto Montt. 1906 saw a major earthquake that destroyed Valpariaso, leveled much of Santiago, killed over 3000, and left some 100,000 homeless. Naturally everything was rapidly rebuilt.

Chile remained neutral throughout WWI and through most of WWII. Although it did eventually side with the allies of WWII in 1944. However, during this time the political scene was in great turmoil. Elections swung back and forth between liberal and conservative factions. Even a short term military dictatorship was overthrown by another military coup. At the end of the war the communist party came out as one of the strongest and soon gained a political foothold.

This wasn't to last, however. In 1946 a fellow named Gonzalez Videla got himself elected president with the help of communist ties. Once in office he promptly did an about face and made the communist party illegal. Some speculate he was pressured by the U.S. which was in the throws of the Cold War. He claimed it was because he wanted to prevent a communist plot to overthrow his government. He also wanted to appease landowners by halting peasant unionization and weaken the labor unions. Due to inflation and a bad economy, social and labor unrest were common throughout 1951. Economic problems did not seem to be curbed throughout the 1950s.

Jorge Allessandri Rodriguez at the head of a Conservative-Liberal coalition was elected in 1958 by an extremely thin majority of 31% to Salvador Allende's 29%. He relegalized the communist party, broke off relations with Cuba, resumed ties with the USSR, and proposed a series of building projects, agrarian reforms, and tax reforms. He also tried to attract foreign investment without throwing the doors completely open. Allessandri was followed by Eduardo Frei Montalva whose main accomplishment was the "Chileanization" of the copper mines. The government took 51% control leaving the minor share to U.S. Kennecott and Anaconda companies. Inflation remained high and economic growth sluggish, but the economy was reasonably stable. Relations also remained friendly with the U.S. and many multilateral organizations such as the U.N.

As the 1970 elections approached it appeared that there would be a 3 way race between Frei, Allende, and a large group of "also rans." Allende nosed out Frei with just 36.2% of the vote compared to 35%. He was inaugurated later that year in spite of suggested but never entirely validated efforts on the part of the U.S. to prevent it, including a woefully botched kidnapping attempt on the part of the CIA. Allende was an extreme leftist Marxists and made no bones about it. He immediately went about nationalizing everything including the copper mines and encouraging farm laborers and factory workers to peacefully or even violently take over management. His socialist experiment worked for about a year and then went into a free fall from which it never recovered.

With so many military dictatorships throughout Latin America it's not surprising that Chile was unable to avoid one of its own. On September 11, 1973 the military, under General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, took control. Allende committed suicide in the ensuing struggle. In the next few years Pinochet basically dismantled the entire Chilean system and reassembled it under a fully open free market economy. He did manage to bring about sweeping changes and stability that reversed the economic downward spiral of Allende's regime, but it was at the cost of a very harsh often violent rule. Pinochet lasted until 1989 when a democratic loving Chilean populace voted him out. In the 1990s Pinochet became the center of a battle between Spain and Chile. Spain held Pinochet for trial on crimes committed against some of the "disappeared" Spanish citizens. Chile wanted Pinochet extradited for trial in Spain. Spain, naturally, figured he'd get off too easy in a country where the military still holds significant power. They were right. Pinochet was extradited and in the year 2000 the court found he was "mentally unfit" to stand trial despite interrogations that would seem to mount more evidence against him. I suppose Chileans are just wanting to put the past behind once and for all. A trial would do nothing but drag out old memories.

Since 1990 Chile has returned to civilian rule with a fairly heavy military influence. How long the military continues in that mode remains to be seen. Elections are held regularly and competition is fierce. In fact, we happened to arrive just in time for new congressional elections. The number of parties competing was staggering, all of which promised "change" and "a better future", the usual rhetoric. At least as far as we can see the economy seems to be reasonably stable.

Copyright © 1995-2011 by Caryl L. Bergeron - Distribution for personal use permitted. Distribution for other uses with written permission.

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