A postcard from Chile

Being in Chile for the first time, in South America for the first time come to that, I must say that I am really surprised at what I have seen so far. To be honest I did not have a clear picture in my mind what to expect upon arrival but it was certainly not the thriving, booming, super-clean metropolis that Santiago appears to be. I have yet to see a single poncho and no llama has crossed my path.

Unfortunately my camera is lost in the container keeping all of my worldly possessions safe from the elements. I do not have any personal photos to post but will hopefully be able to borrow some from my travelling companions upon arrival back home. Do not get your hopes up however since most of them are taken at the endless meetings we are here to attend – nothing that will do Santiago justice.

I am here with two geo-scientists from Iceland that are incredibly funny. Their workplace, Iceland Geosurvey, seems also to be a great place to work since they are an endless source of funny work stories and when they get e-mail from home base, these all say “You are fired” or “We have decided to lower your wages” in the subject heading. For the first time in my life I regret not having studied geology.

That is it for now – I have a dinner date with two hilarious scientists that are in a rush. Their Spanish is lacking and the beer they purchased in the grocery store on the way back from the day’s last meeting turned out to be alcohol free. No good at all. They have also unsuccessfully attempted to buy bacon for five days now, they have a dozen eggs that they are threatening to take back home if they can't eat them with what they consider a crucial accompanying side. As we fly back tomorrow night the chance of this happening has become almost a given thing. Good luck to us getting though security, even if we devide them up and place into 12 zip-lock bags. 

More to come next week.

Yrsa - Wednesday