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Chile, photos, captions ... (6)

A beautiful day ... Visiviri (Northern Chile / Altiplano)

(Grocery in puna somewhere between Visviri and Putre)
"From the beginning, I found this work insanely fun! First, we meet lots of great people and above all .... Handle so much money, it's really exciting!
-The other day a gentleman came to 15,000 pesos and play in less than a quarter of an hour he walked away with ten times his bet! .
one who called and expressed Marisol. She is rather pretty with her black miniskirt, white satin blouse and her his little bow tie. For a month, she is a "new" Casino of Arica. At the end of the year, the prestigious building has decided to strike a major blow by hiring a great staff "cruppers" whose task will be to encourage players to venture to the tables "21" and "crap" ....
We will not know most of this small revolution because the article is not full ... and for good reason. It has been roughly carved out of a local newspaper and filed as a toilet paper in the toilets of the "Rancho Ferroviari" canteen adjoining the station Visiviri. A

Visviri everything is poor and desolate. The city, the station, the restaurant, his toilet ... and read such literature in a place as "unglamorous" borders on surrealism.
In fact, all that is to say Visviri is printed on a metal plate screwed to the wall of the station: "Visviri-altitude 4500 meters-1800 inhabitants" Below this information terse, one sentence was added "Drugs destroyed rights ".

the north, less than ten kilometers from the town, begins Peru. To the east, Bolivia is hardly more distant. The place is probably for strategic drug traffickers but reality I wonder if Visviri, the largest city in northern Chile, really exists. It's just a point on an atlas. The perfect illustration of the mapping illusory. Dots and lines symbolizing the villages, roads, railways exist it seems that bridging the gaps concern of a world map that man would reassuringly familiar and conquered. It

curious habit of imagining (or want) a city or a place of interest under the pretext that his situation is at the edge of a map at the geographic center of a country or at the intersection of and a meridian of any tropical. It is certain that Visviri aptly named, although this place name may well have baptized any other village in the Puna-: in Aymara, Visviri means "the land of the wind."
Here, even the toilet squalid station where I am, we are not immune. Precise and scathing gusts infiltrate the smallest imperfections in the roof.
Through the cracks of the door, all I can see is these passers disheveled through the dusty streets with the eagerness of bewildered those seeking shelter before the bombing.
If we are to Visviri is that Manuel Rios, instit 'of Guacoyo, we had recommended the place. There was a friend who said he could let us know and we even stay around for a while. It was the town doctor. But
arrived at his door, one paper showed he was on tour in the surrounding villages and it would not be back until two or three days. Fortunately, Manuel gave us the name of another person who could, if necessary, help us. It was Omar Calderon. Young man of 27 years, newly appointed head of a station where there was no more than once a day, including the International Arica-La Paz. "Man, we had said Manuel, had agreed this position as 160,000 pesos per month was guaranteed. A handsome salary, including isolation pay and a bonus ... .. of "altitude"!

We met Omar at the bar of the railway canteen.
It was a jovial man, and as the teacher of Guacoyo, the idea of sharing a meal with people passing was not displease him.
His glibness and good humor will even pass the tough flesh of the old lama that people came to serve us well as this villainous ice wine, presented as usual in an austere one-liter carton.
As we speak French, the station manager thought it would interest us to have some fresh news from France: "You saw in the newspaper: Yves Montand died yesterday! . To confirm the information already unfolded Omar tabloid. It showed a picture of unexpected "Galan francs" (Playboy French). She was not taken from one of his movies or taking in a concert but during a visit to the artist, a few years ago, in the popular district of Victoria in Santiago. A place notorious for having suffered at the time of Pinochet's bloody atrocities.


"The only place in town a few acceptable for tourists is from the old Lalo. Must be known. It is not even a sign, I'll take you there, Omar dropped by swallowing his last piece of llama. "

The board looked furiously at a general store whose decay was matched only by the toothless old man who ran. There was in this room that resembled a dormitory ten bunk beds with mattresses filled with holes and stained with suspicious spots. The ceiling was made of sheet dilapidated and much of the floor was gone. Probably burned a day of great cold. Washroom came down on her at a well from which we could extract water through a canister attached to a rope.
An unusable because the morning frost made the rope harder still a steel cable! ....

This night will also very strange.

For some unknown physical phenomenon probably due to the altitude and high atmospheric pressure, the air was saturated as static. The slightest movement of the head on the pillow synthetic will cause a real "shock" erecting not only the hair on the head but above nimba face a sort of aura of the unreal.
Maybe he should look on this side to find a plausible explanation for holy halos?



Before you finish this tour through the puna "northern" and return to Arica, we decided on a final stage in the small village of Putre. From Visviri, it does have a hundred of kilometers to the southwest, but the track is bad and the bus driver apparently chose a route-of-fancier.

As the bus comes from Bolivia, he must, before resuming his journey, abide by a set of customs formalities finicky and a thorough search. This, as we suspect, will prove unrewarding, except the discovery (and the immediate confiscation) of some unfortunate forgotten bananas in the luggage of a Bolivian peasant distracted. (Importation into Chile of fresh food is subject to very strict regulation).

That soon after boarding of passengers that travel will take a bizarre turn. Barely a half-dozen miles away, the driver will start a complicated circuit in the web of local slopes on or approximately 'at each crossing, cyclists loaded bundles of the most diverse and are waiting to sign driver to stop. The script is running well: the bus stops a few seconds and the bundles are immediately thrown out of the doors ajar.
Packages are only approved as the bus starts again with a bang. That's when passengers rushed over to open the packets and out of clothes brand new leather jackets, mostly from Argentina-. Each woman would wear two or three, one over the other, then readjust everything on a large poncho alpagua as camouflage. In minutes, these women have taken a sacred waist, but never mind "Operation leather Argentina" has once again worked remarkably well ... the nose and the noses of customs ... ..


The rest of the voyage was uneventful, except for a puncture just before the end of this step.



Putre is a small village located. It is surrounded by mountains and is altiplanesques spared the high winds. Night frosts also seem less intense and the infrastructure is pretty good. There's even a post office and telephone and a branch of the Bank Chile. A brand new building whose architecture is inspired by traditional Aymara buildings with adobe walls and thatched roof.


About five kilometers outside the village by a chaotic path along a ravine can also access a magical place. At the foot of a chalky cliff, men were drawn there are six or eight thousand years before our era a large table with the colors red and ocher depicting a hunting scene undoubtedly memorable. We see llamas or hundreds of vicuña, a quantity of characters in different positions and swarms of strange cabalistic signs ... We look all around you .... and we say that the landscape since then has not can not be changed much.

(Landscapes near Putre)

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Chile, photos, captions ... (5)

A Guagoyo (Northern Chile / Altiplano)


A Heavyweight carrying television has left us at the entrance to Guacoyo, not far from a small recently built: the village school.

When the powerful Scania disappeared from sight, all was calm and quiet.
In this stony plain, the village at the fifty houses as if in despair at the horizon, the noose was tightening the Cordillera every day.

The man standing in front of the small school continued unruffled to assemble steel rods for formwork.

Had he seen the truck? Had he noticed that two foreigners had come out? Nothing presaged. Besides our first contact with him was as thick as bushes quenoa around.
Sow a tent .... Yeah. ... Maybe .... Why not? "For
classroom windows were a few faces of children appeared somewhat stunned.
We were dirty, unkempt and our approach weighed down by the weight of the bags would make us an unusual attraction.
But the curious eyes disappeared almost immediately, probably due to the injunction of a teacher eager to resume his class in hand.

As in all schools in the world would be a break around noon. It would be a good time to meet the teacher and tell him of our intention to stay a day or two to Guacoyo.
Perhaps he could also tell us a location suitable for establish our camp.
As strange as it may seem in a vast and wild, choose a site to pitch a tent is not always easy. First, given the total absence of any relief to protect against the wind, finally, for convenience, we never imagined we appropriated a piece of land, not even one night without notice to owners.

The bell announcing the break of noon came to sound. A dozen students followed their teacher immediately came out of the class already ..
Master advanced and we shook hands. He asked immediately our presence in this place but lost confessing his happiness to meet for the first time in eight years two tourists in "his" village.
He was able to do something for our house but no one wanted to say for now because the timing was inappropriate: Manuel Rios, the teacher, dedicated to this effect at noon during which he lavished the village wishing to learn to read and write. The half-dozen women who followed these courses had not waited to enter the master class. Already, they were sitting in a semicircle on small chairs that children were only to desert. Wearing the traditional bowler hat and covered with a large poncho, they seemed to be embedded in their seats with their feet hidden beneath the heavy fabric alpaca.
Meanwhile the master class gradually began to resonate laughter and happy conversation and funny remarks that those singular students may have had against us. However, nothing in their language to us was familiar or understandable: they all spoke in between Aymara.


"You know, our relationships will always be preferred over those that we have with our brothers from Peru or Bolivia, we say later Clara, an adult student of Manuel "
" With the Chileans, who call themselves the "real" our relations are marked by mistrust, suspicion and sometimes hatred. How to react differently to their racist remarks or mocking towards the color of our skin, our small stature or even of our so-called lack of education. The gringos have no consideration for us and their determination to deny our existence and our culture seems ever more rooted. "

Manuel, stayed a little withdrawal, lost nothing of this unexpected rant and improvised to the attention of two unknown but Clara did it was hardly bothered. Besides the expression of approval that the teacher could not consolidate and perhaps even encourage them to speak further.

Although he was in the city, white and teacher in addition, the integration of Manuel in the village seemed to be a success and the confidence needed to show him his head was apparently granted.

manual will explain that he was assigned to Guacoyo as teacher eight years ago, in 1984. A time when he still had no idea the specifics of the task it was to accomplish so far and probably for much longer. Landing at
Guacoyo for a first assignment, it was not trivial. Like many rural Andean communities, Guacoyo is absent from most maps. It must be said that there is no gas station or hotel not more than trade. As to "modern technology", was known here as the clouds of dust raised convoys loaded with computers or televisions traveling to Bolivia.


Anyway, here, electricity is an energy of luxury that we will not allow himself only with the greatest parsimony.
If a generator is actually operational, it is most often used during major events: the carnival procession and the feast of the Patron Saint ... A
Guacoyo, it does not have to police station or town hall. Finally, it is this small school that is the nerve center of the village, this is where we meet, that important decisions are taken. Manuel, as a teacher, was therefore acts of authority.

By the end of his course for adults, we will return to his office, a small room adjoining the classroom. This place also served as his library and lounge. Handbook will also took all his meals. This afternoon, there was no way and no matter as urgent never called outside, we proposed to let go of our baggage and to sit for a moment while he was preparing his food. Whole universe of Manuel was here: a small kitchen ware utensils, a toilet without running water, room count and the monastic room in which we expect a solution to our housing problems derisory.

The teacher had just come back beaming with a plate filled with a boil most of which was to consist of lenses.
"The breeding of the llama you love so much? he exclaimed, pointing to the books we had chosen in his library in the meantime "
In fact, the books we were allowed of sifting techniques were related to shearing alpacas and others described with force diagrams, chemical formulas and comparative tests, the different modes of the same parasite camelids.
"As you can see, it takes us away much of the teaching of English, grammar or mathematics.
Over the years, I realized that to become part of the community, it was necessary that I'm closer to the traditions and lifestyle of the people of the Altiplano and especially their economies, based on livestock. An economy that is neither more nor less than the cornerstone of a culture that some people in this country would be reduced to folklore obsolete.
"Today, I gained a lot of knowledge on this subject, moreover, it happens over a week without someone comes to me for trying to remedy problems with production or maintenance of the herd! If for some reason I had to change professions, I think I could become a good pastor! "


As outside, took a nice light tan color and the wind grew in intensity, Manuel remembered that it was time to find a place to spend the night. "I see only one possibility, the teacher finally put out: You will sleep in class! Provided that you have left before nine o'clock, when the Classes begin!
solution suited us quite well because the night promised to be icy. As for dinner, Manuel had we propose to take with him. "I returned to Arica once every fortnight and sometimes solitude weighs on me a bit. I'll be happy to have someone to talk to.
-You saw, for the moment, virtually all the village houses are unoccupied. Their owners are left with their herds in search of "pastures" and go long. Sometimes, when they found a suitable place, they built a shelter or a small stone house and often, they may not to return for a special occasion. This is also like that show delivery and new villages that appeared likely Guacoyo "

It is twenty times and it is night. We put our mattress in the classroom and have walked a little village in the desert before we get to our appointment.

In Manuel, it's good now. In the stove, pieces of llareta are currently smolder. The teacher just lit the kerosene lamp and adjusts the height of the flame . Around the table there are already two people who have taken up to share the meal. It yal'ouvrier, who was working this morning before school and a young student
Manuel. He said his name was Victor Hugo. "It's his first name specifies the instit '! As Manuel turns to the stove, we chat a moment with the boy. He said he will have seven years in three weeks, he is somewhat tired because her day starts early, around five o'clock in the morning. Before coming to school, he says, he must help his mother to gather the flock and will lead him where he is a bit of grass near the Rio Cosapilla. The worker looks at the child, nodding, smiling and continuing. "It's like that here, once children know throwing stones and talk to the llama, it's time to make them work!

"Besides many children her age are already own a nice little herd. Often, at the age of one year, parents give their children two female llamas. Thus, if the animals are good breeding, children are left with a beautiful heritage at the age of marriage. "As we said earlier manual, these people have an extraordinary sense of economy and also show an early age a donation for non-standard calculations and mathematics. "The Aymara save forever but never did spend" is said here.

After the meal, always made with lentils and a few pieces of llama, we suggest to enjoy a manual Pisco Sour before bedtime. Fortunately, we had thought to buy everything needed to make this divine drink before we went to the highlands. This seems to have been a good idea. Manuel is happy and asks him to lead even further preparation. "There is a Chilean who can pass a true Pisco Sour, I'll teach you, he says. "
The wind outside has stopped and the sky, the stars have never been greater.
The office of Manuel became the hottest place and the innermost of the planet and no matter if we crush the mountains, the earth began to tremble and it freezes at the point of a herd of llama petrify ....
For the first time that day, Manuel seems to relax and a faint smile comes to his lips. From a cupboard he pulled out a box of treasures. Pell-mell therein piled stones strange and colorful insects dried and above all an amazing collection of small pieces of dried earth representing churches and chapels.
"These are" my "children who confectionnent. If you put them side by side, there is a preview of virtually all styles of religious buildings that are found in the Altiplano, the schoolteacher is amazed. " Among the miniatures: a reproduction of moving the church Guacoyo. ... Manuel prefers that visibly.

There 'was no risk that they do sleep in today and Manuel did not fear that we can release the class before school starts.
At dawn, a rumbling invaded the plain and a large cloud of dust came IRIS daybreak. Fifty llamas come from
leave their pens and go join the Rio. A woman and two children close the convoy. Perhaps the young Victor Hugo made it part of the expedition.
For our part, we start the day by fetching water. We promised the day before to go to Manuel wells to help establish the reserve day.
After a brief toilet, breakfast and a walk around, we see about nine hours to the arrival of students. The beginning of the day is marked by a little ritual somewhat martial. First, some bells announce the rally. Not surprisingly, the students then begin in rows facing the Chilean flag and bust of the Liberator Bernardo O 'Higgins. Students then begin to attention and salute their teacher and then put into position. The voice and the look of Manuel want this time severe. Besides, the illustrious heroes of Independence is figure dreamer with his eyes riveted to the hypnotic Cordillera.
The little party then headed for the dining hall for breakfast. A farmer has swapped poncho and hat for a ball-all-white cap aseptic apron that bears the logo of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Then began the distribution of fruits, breads and yogurt. At ten classes begin. Some schools, the teacher's desk and a brand new portrait of President Aylwin are all school supplies, but everything is numbered and struck a stern "State Property". Including the box of chalk.
The class is composed of fifteen pupils 7 to 14 ans.Tous have run at the same time but Manuel adapts its program based on age and maturity of each.
In the books distributed to students, the drawings illustrating the grammar and spelling are family "models" we see where Chilean mom doing the dishes and dad reading the newspaper or watching television. A strange world where people speak English, the houses are square, clothing seyants, functional furniture and the car in the garage ... .. About

car, there's just one parked outside the school. It an old Chevrolet sixties. At the rear, two llamas were installed, legs shackled. They are waiting to be tagged and taken to the slaughter side Visviri at the Bolivian border. We will make the trip with them ....

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Chile, photos, captions ... (4) Chile

Around Parinacota ....


The perception of landscape in the highlands has something strange: the remarkable transparency of the air voids in the distance effect, compresses the volume and suddenly puts the stars, planets and snowy peaks on a map almost identical. This illusion rather disturbing moreover have prompted more than a casual walker to venture outside the ancient tracks. Ah, that it would be easy to reach the foot of these hills sulfur, climb the piles of basalt, roosting atop these bluffs unusual shapes. ... But above all be exhausted or lost even before reaching the first uprisings! This
bleached carcass that can be seen in the distance would not she the victim of a llama also the same aberration?

Surroundings, the plain fact is warming now vibrating silence.
The silence that probably should prevail on the eve of major eruptions. Here, the ultimate cataclysmic remain whole fields strewn with blocks of hardened lava. Projectiles cyclopean geometries unknown.
Most of these rocks is covered with a thick fleece and voluntary green. A little careful inspection could constitute that vegetation to a parasite or some lichen, yet it is a bush: the llareta. A woody plant growth habit very special. The scarcity of oxygen and long periods of drought because it imposes a system expansion rather than surface height.
order to avoid excessive water loss leaves also remain the most sensitive. The most striking character of this tree, as we must call it that, is its propensity to choose to support the most ungrateful of all: the stone. This persistence
to cover and embrace in every corner of the most imposing megaliths has in fact matched by the extreme slowness with which the llareta develops: a square centimeter per year!
is how, after several centuries of patience, " soft stones "are emerging. Curiously
specialists liken this plant to a species rather commonplace in our latitudes: parsley. But some of the medicinal properties of these two plants would not they common? I learned from my grandmother that one should never abuse the parsley. The latter, used in excessive doses, had the property, she said, to thicken the blood ...
In the altiplano, since time immemorial, the natives use precisely the sap of llareta to apply to wounds and thus promote their healing. A plant whose flowers are also decoction used to treat asthma.
Finally, llareta is also traded in local communities. Indeed, this dense scrub consisting of a multitude of tiny trunks intertwined is a valuable supplementary fuels.
In the coming days, we also believe some strange caravans of llamas loaded and covered with shreds of llareta whole point of turning the famous real workhorses in bushes on legs.

As we watched this strange vegetation, the silence was disrupted several times by the sound of small landslide emerging from a slope of a nearby lagoon.
As could easily access the promontory by a sort of natural dam formed by thick layers of salt, we decided to approach a little more.
Just arrived at the foot of the mound, approached the activity increased. Furtive movements, jerky movements and nervous fauna worried by our unexpected intrusion.
Finally, a tuft of gray hair emerges, or rather, a pair of ears. After a moment, the animal ends up leaving unmasked. It was the size and gait of a rabbit and head could evoke a groundhog. Yet it was his tail that was most intriguing. It was long, thick, velvety and maintained in a spiral. It was the first time we saw what people here call the vizcacha. A variety of chinchilla
widespread in this country and this rocky island proved to be a real haven for many of them.
(based travel diary of November 91)


(Church of Parinacota)

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, photos, captions ... (3)

Arica and the North Chilean Parinacota

Despite a slight improvement in my condition, we broke camp this morning and decide to win Parinacota, a small village situated a little lower, at a dozen miles downstream.
An engineer from Santiago we load quickly enough and we will walk part way with him.
This man seems to devote a real aversion to the far north of Chile, but he has little choice. His boss sent him for months in that country to oversee major repairs of the track. It also finds our holiday project in the altiplano as a real and unnecessary sacrifice. Throughout the journey he never ceased to repeat such a vain lament: "Oh, if you know the South! .
After four or five miles, the engineer stopped his vehicle already headed for a team of laborers waiting for instructions from the day.
The physical and the men's outfit reminiscent of ancient Mongolian warriors. Small and stocky, each of which covers the face with a strange grin no one knows if froze after too long and blissful contemplation of premises or if it is due to a genetic mutation caused by the high brightness and icy winds of the steppes.
An ample sweat and a cap filled with wide flaps to give their complete silhouette a monolithic appearance.
"Only they know how to work here," sighed the engineer. They all come around, they are genuine Aymara. By dint of living at this altitude, they acquired a capacity oversized chest ... Ah, but if you know the South .... "
The vehicle has now resumed its course. In the mirror, we see little group away. He resumed work at the pace slow and measured in a colony of convicts.

Parinacota is a tiny hamlet where only two families and a dozen children. Most houses were deserted, roofs are ripped and many walls are partially destroyed.
A church with a wonderful simplicity confers yet alone all the village's charm.
Finally, only the building of the park warden, a little behind the village is newly built and is the subject of a special maintenance.
We're greeted by a young woman which is the first work week in this part of the reserve. She admits to being still in a period of "acclimatization" and for now his days boil down to long hours spent in bed interspersed with short periods of work in which she tries to put be some order in records left by his predecessor. It allows us to pitch our tent nearby and accept that we use the sanitary water supply for us.
The rest of the afternoon is devoted to the installation of the camp and harvesting of firewood for the evening fire.
Research combustible materials is one of the most thankless tasks for people living in these highlands as the vegetation is sparse and stunted. It is estimated, according to data from the park warden, at least one member of each family sacrifices by seven to eight hours daily for this vital chore.
While we were raising a few thin twigs, a child suddenly emerged from nowhere. Slowly, he approached us then wordlessly began to fill our small reserve of timber. Having been a nice bundle of
size, it came down near the tent and went away smiling.
This child with the employee of the reserve, will be our only meeting in Parinacota. If we understand that from time to time a door creak, the sound of a gate will close, if we guess sometimes a fleeting shadow glide among whitewashed streets, yet no one ever does.
Llamas, crossed the village when we arrived, they did not themselves immediately adopted a more reserved attitude towards us?