It’s been some time since I’ve posted and since that time quite a lot has happened. I began working two weeks ago at one English institute where we are teaching pretty much an entire, very large clinic how to speak English , but I resigned today so that I could accept another job that is offering me much better pay and benefits. Despite several complaints with the institute I’ve been at I’ve had a really good experience teaching the students and I’ll be continuing those classes for two more weeks. It’s actually going to suck leaving those students. The institute I’m going to be working at shortly seems to be very good and I really am looking forward to starting there. They’ve promised me a contract which includes some nice benefits such as legal status as a worker and health insurance among other things.

We’ve had a handful of tremors in the last couple of weeks as well, not enough to do much more than shake things around for a few seconds and scare people though. I’ve had two small ones happen while I was in class as well, which provided for some kicks for me and my students.

This observatory is owned by the University of Chile, has to be pretty much useless since it sits at the top of a hill in the middle of las Condes, a large suburb of Santiago. It’s pretty close to where I’ve been teaching English at the clinic.

The observatory is pretty prominent in the view from the tower my classroom is in, and I had been meaning to head up and check it out since I first noticed it when we started classes. The other day I finally made it out to investigate things. The road up to the top of the hill was really pleasant, surprisingly remote and with a large and interesting variety of flora and birds. After so long in the city the change of atmosphere more than welcome. The photos of the Andes behind that dead tree above and the really large yucca plant on the left I took on my walk up that road. These yucca plants are truly huge. The one you see in this photo is quite a lot taller than I am. There’s a similar species here that for part of the year has stocks that are absolutely immense, I would venture to guess more than thirty feel high or so. Add to that the flowers at the top of the stalk and we’ve got a really cool plant. When I got to the top of the hill I was surprised to see a whole complex complete with two smaller observatories aside from the one pictured, a classroom building and a large, very nicely gardened area.

Here’s some of the garden covering the wall of the observatory. The plant with the three stalks coming up in the photo I think is really cool, and I would be really grateful if somebody would be able to send me the name.

These next photos were taken in two of my favorite neighborhoods of Santiago. The first set here is from Barrio Brasil, which is a little west of the downtown.

This is one of those many old buildings that I really love here in Chile that have fallen into a state of beautiful decay. There are many more buildings of this description in Valparaíso than here in Santiago. These buildings are not outstanding to me solely because of their architecture but much more so because they’re in the midst of the slow process of being reclaimed by the earth. Chile is a country, and within that Valparaíso in particular, that historically had been relatively wealthy and with this wealth many amazing buildings had been constructed over time, only later to fall into disrepair during times of economic hardship. As a result structures is this state are common here, unlike in the US or Europe, where the maintenance of old buildings typically is better. Now since the country is doing well economically speaking many of these buildings are being restored, or sadly replaced by rather mundane looking modern structures.

This particular building pictured here in Barrio Brasil of Santiago is la Basí­lica del Salvador, and is currently awaiting a planned restoration. If you look at the photo to the right you can see the decay of the brickwork and the plants growing from the building itself. Many might find it sad to see such buildings in these states but I find a powerful beauty in it, a reflection of the passage of time and an acceptance of the impermanence of human beings and our creations.

This is the same basilica from the back side, made of brick and the are with the most damage. You can see that they are using beams to support the walls of the building. Another touch I find really endearing. It must be said that the damage to this building and others like it here in Chile almost surely was caused by earthquakes rather than solely neglect. The culprit of the majority of the damage to this church has suffered is almost surely the last major Earthquake here back in 1985.

A fairly typical section of Barrio Brasil. My roommates are thinking about moving to a different part of town two months or so from now or so and I’m still haven’t decided whether I’m going to move with them are not. If I do decide not to go with them then this is the neighborhood I want to be in. Just walking through it it’s clear that it’s much more alive and vibrant with culture than other parts of Santiago. I think it’s pretty safe to say in the total of maybe five hours I’ve spent in this neighborhood I’ve had more interesting random encounters and interactions with strangers than in any other part of the city. Surely a good sign.

This is one building that particularly caught my eye, and I particularly like its facade.

This is Parque Quinta Normal in Barrio Brasil, which is a really cool spot. The building you see behind those trees across the lagoon is the National Museum. I still haven’t been inside but it’s something I’ll have to check out sometime.

Before I took the picture above I was sitting on a bench eating an empenada when I saw these two really flaite looking guys walk by searching through this wallet and excitedly pulling out wads US dollars. Must have been from some unlucky gringo they ripped of in the subway. Frankly, I was a little surprised they walked right by me as they were looking through their loot, I guess they must have been too distracted by what they had stolen to notice me. I almost stopped them to tell them they needed to be a little more subtle after stealing from somebody.

These next few photos are taken from Barrio Londres, a small neighborhood of about five or six blocks in the downtown of Santiago. This is where the new institute I’ll be teaching with is located.

For those of you who don’t speak much Spanish, Londres is the Spanish word of London. The habit people have of renaming other people’s cities and countries is something I’ll never understand. Really, London isn’t difficult at all for a Spanish speaker to say as they are several similar sounding words in the language, and neither is it all that difficult at all for English speakers to pronounce the names of so many of the cities we’ve insisted on renaming such as Sevilla, München, and Moskva, just to name a few…

I suppose that it’s apparent that we’ve just stumbled upon a Pet peeve of mine. But this is something I’ve asked a lot of people about from all over the world and I’ve never really managed to stumble upon a satisfactory answer.

People mingling around the corner of Paris and Londres.

This is Plaza Londres, which I guess is pretty obvious if you just look at the picture.

In contrast with a new and modern skyscraper this church, la Iglesia de San Francisco, is the oldest standing building in Chile,a survivor of several large earthquakes. It contains a statuette of the Virgin Mary that the conquistadors who settled this country led by Pedro de Valdivia brought with them and attributed with the survival of the city from attacks by the indigenous Mapuches. The whole of Barrio Londres actually used to be the gardens of the church, which it sold to developers who constructed the new neighborhood after some financial crisis.

This photo was taken from a canal pretty close to where I’m living. I jog along here pretty frequently. A really nice photo, I think.

As usual, I’ve got a lot more photos than what you see here in my blog accumulating in this set of photos from Santiago which you may see here:

So early tomorrow morning I’ll be hopping on a bus and heading over to Mendoza, Argentina. I’ll be adding a post about that hopefully sooner rather than later. Also, I have a few more ambitious posts planned about a few projects I’ve picked up that I expect to add within the next month or so. Be sure to check back for those.