Directions

here is a link to the driving directions

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Caruth+Blvd,+Dallas,+TX+75225&daddr=7550+Kirby+Dr,+Houston,+TX+77030&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.737461,59.765625&ie=UTF8&z=7

These directions are to my apartment, but you pretty much follow the same ones to Rice campus. It gets different after you get on 59.

Basically, you come in to Houston on 45 and take the exit for 288 South and then very quickly again for 59 South. It should be well signed. Once on 59 South, take the Greenbriar exit and turn left after exiting the highway. There may also be a sign for Rice. Once on Greenbriar, give me a call, but you are going to continue until you hit Rice Blvd, where you will make a left. Rice campus will be on your right, use the third entrance on your right after turning on Rice Blvd.

Call me when you exit 59 or if you need any help. My meeting is going to be in the morning, so don't worry about that.

Daniel

Across the Andes

Hello All,

Spring has arrived in earnest here, and the temperature is a delightful 28C (83F). I dont envy those of you who are donning sweaters and jackets. I have an interview at the National Congress in Valparaiso on Wednesday, and I'm going to see if I can manage a trip to the beach while I'm there. The Pacific is calling me.

The past weekend was a long one because my dad's birthday is already a national holiday here. They call it Dia de los Muertos, but I know whats really being celebrated with all the references to supreme Evil. A couple friends and I took the opportunity to head over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. The ride through the mountains was really amazing, and I got some great views of Aconcagua, South America's tallest mountain.

Mendoza itself was also a lot of fun. It is a very pretty city with lots of trees lining the streets and quaint little cafés (a very Argentine thing) everywhere. Argentina is also a fairly inexpensive country because their economy crashed about seven years ago when they stopped pegging their currency to the dollar. Mendoza in particular is popular with Chilean tourists because of the low prices and proximity.

The Argentine pampas are some of the best cattle-grazing country in the world, which translates into delicious, cheap steaks and lots of leather products. I had steak whenever possible, and it was fantastic. It also helps that Mendoza is right in the middle of Argentine wine country, and the local cabernet sauvignon complemented the beef perfectly. (Actually I know very little about wine, but always wanted to say something like that.)

Our main activity, other than eating well and walking around the city, was a bike tour of the wine country. We went from vineyard to vineyard touring and tasting. We happened on this little restaurant on our way and ended up eating amazing spinach stuffed pasta and sampling gourmet spreads, the restaurant's specialty. Afterwards, we walked through their gardens whilst sipping a splendid malbec. The bike ride back was a bit of an adventure after the days activities, but it only added to the experience.

Our bus ride back was also an event. Remember how Mendoza is popular with Chilean tourists? Well over 100 buses made the trip back on Sunday, which translated to a 6 hour wait at the overwhelmed customs point. The silver lining was that customs is in the middle of a high Andean valley, and we got to walk around outside for awhile and managed to climb up to a waterfall. In the end, our bus left at 1:30 in the afternoon and pulled into the Santiago terminal at 1:45 in the morning. Long day.

Unfortunately, I also forgot my camera in Santiago. I'm going to get pictures from a friend, but I probably won't post them for another few days, maybe not until the end of the week. I miss all of you tremendously and while I am excited for my remaining month here, I also can't wait to be home.

Hello All,

Sorry for the longer than normal time between blog posts, things have gotten a little busier here. I am now in my last few weeks of the first phase of the program. Our classes are wrapping up and everyone is preparing for their upcoming independent study project. The ISP is a month-long project on a theme and in a location of our choice. Basically, all of November will be spent doing interviews and research, and then writing, the ISP paper. I am about 90% sure that I will be studying different ways that Chile and Bolivia can cooperate on energy policy for my ISP. Basically, Bolivia has a lot of natural gas that Chile really needs, but because of certain historical grievances, Bolivia will not export the gas to Chile. Bolivia could also use a gas pipeline to the Chilean port cities to export its gas to other lucrative markets, like California, but Chile wont let Bolivia build the pipeline unless they export gas to Chile. What I want to do is talk to politicians and energy experts about different solutions to this problem and what kind measures, political or otherwise, it would take to achieve a mutually beneficial resolution. The paper is supposed to be primarily based on interviews, so hopefully my developing Spanish will be up to it.
The other really cool thing that has happened since I last posted was a fantastic trip that our group took to northern Chile. The purpose of the trip was to study the copper mining industry, as copper is Chile’s most important export product. Chile has over a third of the world’s copper reserves, and with copper demand for building projects in China and India driving up the price at the moment, it is an extremely lucrative business for Chile. While the gigantic copper mines in the middle of the barren Atacama desert were very cool, the highlight of the trip was the time we spent in the small oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama.
San Pedro de Atacama looks much the same as has for a hundred years, with dirt streets and adobe buildings. However, its location in an area of unique natural wonders has turned it into an international tourist destination. On the edge of the Andes but still located in the driest desert on earth, San Pedro also sits on area of intense geothermal activity. While there, I mountain biked through the desert to a couple of hot spring fed, turquoise-colored lagoons. The top foot-and-a-half of water was pretty cold, but below that the water got warmer to the point that I couldn’t extend my feet all the way down or they would have been scalded. We also took a day trip from San Pedro into Bolivia to visit some gorgeous green lakes tucked between active volcanoes, at an altitude of about 15,000 feet. The only creatures we saw in the super-salty lakes were small, pink flamingos, which I was surprised to learn are native to the area.
The other two memorable moments from the trip were a sunset and a sunrise. The sunset was in the Valley of the Moon, a spectacular desert canyon that looks like another planet, hence the name. The rock outcrops amid the sand dunes have been carved into alien shapes by years of wind and erosion. Just a gorgeous place to watch a sunset. The sunrise was in a little bowl valley in the Andes that also happens to be the world’s highest geyser field, El Tatio. Just the sound of the hundreds of geysers hissing and spitting and bubbling with steam and water made the trip worth it. The first rays of sunshine filtering through the mist made the trip unforgettable. We also had a chance to bathe in a hot spring in the middle of the geyser field, an excellent way to combat the sub-freezing temperatures of the early morning. To top it off, on the way back we drove through pristine Andean valleys filled with llamas, alpaca, deer, flamingos, chinchillas and other animals I have never heard of.
All together, a pretty sweet trip. You can see photos (over 200) by clicking on the links in the following post.

Pictures from my trip to Northern Chile

Hello All,

Here are some pictures from my recent trip up to the Atacama desert in Northern Chile. Simply fantastic experience that I will write more about when I have a little more time. There are over 200 pictures in these four albums, all are good but I would especially suggest the second album (Sunset at the Valley of the Moon!) and the third album (Sunrise over Andean geysers!) if you are pressed for time.

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033778&l=1e8ee&id=3004624

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033782&l=447ef&id=3004624

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033784&l=b2976&id=3004624

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033785&l=76f75&id=3004624

Picture links

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033180&l=d1704&id=3004624

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033179&l=69646&id=3004624

Please let me know if you cant see these for any reason. You shouldn't need to have Facebook.

Life in the Valley

Howdy All,

I spent the past week on a fantastic excursion to several cities in the mid-south of Chile. If you haven't looked at a map of Chile yet, first of all, shame on you, second of all, it is a very, very, long country. Our group spent time in and around Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, which is roughly 6 hours south of Santiago and nowhere near the bottom of Chile. The entire area is dominated by huge forests of pine and eucalyptus trees, neither of which are native to Chile. Why, you might ask, do they cover millions of acres of hills and valleys in the area? The reason is that Chile is one of the world's principle exporters of wood and celulose. During our visit, we toured a huge celulose plant run by Arauco, a Chilean transnational corporation, where the trees are processed into large sheets of celulose, which is then exported to other countries where it ismade into paper. I was astounded at the size and technical sophistication of the celulose plant. Chile has been cultivating a forestry industry since the 70s and has planted vast forests of fast growing trees that it harvests and then replants.

Just outside Concepcion is the city of Lota, former center of the region's previous important industry, coal mining. We toured an old coal mine (restored for tourists, of course) called Chifron del Diablo. As you might imagine, coal mining around the turn of last century involved a certain amount of risk. If the gas explosions or cave-ins didn't get you, you could look forward to dying of the black lung in your early 40s.

The unquestionable highlight of the trip, however, was the four days we spent in the Valley of Elikura with the indigenous Mapuche people. The Valley is a secluded strip of fertile land surrounded on three sides by steep hills and on the fourth by a huge, pristine lake. A small stream flows through the valley and the Mapuche have farmed the land on either side for over 500 years. I stayed with a middle-aged Mapuche women named Rosa, her parents and her 22 year-old nephew. Every day her father farms the land from dawn until dusk, growing potatoes, peppers, lettuce, wheat or fruit, depending on the season. His wife takes the sheep out to graze and feeds the chickens. Rosa knits the sheeps wool into clothing and other handicrafts that she sells out of the house or at fairs in other towns. The food I ate, almost exclusively produced in the Valley, was some of the best that I have had during my trip thus far.

The Mapuche, like indigenous peoples around the world, have been pushed off almost all of the land they once owned. They actually hold the record for longest sustained resistance to European conquerers of any Native American peoples, having fought first the Spanish and then the army of independent Chile consistently for over 300 years. After being slowly pushed southwards during that time, they lost much of their remaining lands to the forestry industry during Chile's military dictatorship. The return of democracy came with a promise from the elected government to return some lands, a promise that still goes unfulfilled. Most of the hills surrounding the Valley are covered with forest industry planted Pine and Eucalyptus. Unfortunately, these non-native trees suck up water that used to flow into the valley and sustain Mapuche crops.

Even more disconcerting is the future of the Mapuche culture and community. The Valley has few young people, most having moved to the cities to find work. Rosa's nephew was in the army for awhile and is now a temporary laborer for, you guessed it, the forestry industry. I am pretty sure he wont continue farming his family's dwindling parcel of land as his ancestors have done for centuries. He doesn't speak the Mapuche language, either.

My stay with the Mapuche family in their gorgeous valley is something I will never forgot. It was extremely interesting to study how the Mapuche have adapted over time and how they plan to maintain their identity in a changing world. New government funding for infrastucture development and education offers some hope. The prospect of increasing tourism does as well. Part of me wishes that Rosa and her relatives could remain in their valley forever, unchanged and unbothered. Sadly, it is 500 years to late for such hopes and I can only wish that the future will be better for the Mapuche.

I took tons of pictures during my trip and will try again to post some on the blog site. I will post all of them on Facebook and post the link as soon as I am done.

Love and miss all of you,

Daniel

Pictures

I am having trouble posting pictures to the blog page right now. I have a bunch of new pictures, but as of now you will need to click the link below the post (or copy and paste it into your browser) in order to see them.