dances with llamas

The final day of 2011. I have not yet added to my blog this month; sorry, things have been a little busy! These have been my final weeks as director of my school. I declined the board’s kind offer to extend, and I shall be occupied differently for the first part of 2012. Watch this space!

My final five days of work will be the first week of January, and after that I fly south to Puerto Montt to join a ship to Puerto Chacabuco, from where I plan to spend most of January and February camping in Patagonia, and hitchhiking the length of the Carretera Austral, from Villa O’Higgins back to Puerto Montt.

In preparation for departure I have been packing up my apartment. I sold my piano, mountain bike and some furniture and have given away a load of other things I no longer need. Soon I will be back in the state I arrived in Chile, in material terms at least, with just one bag and a few things stuffed into my pockets (see: Journey into Chile).

But disregarding what I carry, I am certainly not the same as when I arrived. Chile has given me a lot, and I hope I have contributed a little in return. I have gained new skills in language and school leadership, new depths of understanding of cultures and peoples, a healthy additional helping of self-knowledge too, and a catalogue of memories and experiences from three years in Latin America.

I am frequently asked where I am going next. It seems to freak people out that I don’t yet know (with the exception of the few who respond with envious admiration).  A few weeks ago I contacted by a headhunter regarding a job in Spain, but then didn’t get it! I was also invited to look at a school in Cairo, but chose not to go. And there are currently some opportunities here in Chile and Peru. But all that can wait; for now I will be taking some time for me whist I study the next module of my Masters in Development Management, and sort through the spaghetti I have in my head as a result of living and working five years in West Africa and South America.

Following this recent silence, you and I have a little catching-up to do. On returning from Easter Island in September, Louise and I spent a few days in Caldera, 1000km north of Santiago, at the southern fringe of the Atacama Desert. By coincidence, that places Caldera on almost exactly the latitude of Easter Island, 27 degrees south of the equator.

Follow this link to read the story of our trip to Caldera.

Last weekend (which, you may recall, was Christmas) I travelled again to the coast, this time just 200km north. Here is a short article about Christmas in Pichidangui.

Two years ago I visited the far south of Chile in January, (See: Torres del Paine). This national park is currently closed due to a huge fire, probably started by a careless tourist with a camping stove or even a cigarette.

Here is a BBC Report of the incident.

And here are some dramatic photographs of the fire on the website of the Chilean newsgroup Emol.
(Click <Comenzar> to start the slides).

So that wraps up the year. Over five thousand hits on this blog this year, so thank you for your loyal readership! I will do my best to keep you informed during the months ahead, when I encounter internet connection.

Best wishes for your 2012. I intend to make the most of mine. To finish, here is Robert Frost’s well-known poem that in some ways describes where I currently am at.

Feliz año.

The road not taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost