dances with llamas

I finished work yesterday.

So that’s the end of three years as head of a school in Santiago de Chile. I am pretty sure I finished everything. I cleared my desk. I deleted the rubbish from my computer and backed up the rest. I left some notes for my successor (not really notes so much as a huge file of documents, in fact). I locked the door at 7pm, and took a ride to the metro station with my loyal and wonderful secretary Maribel.

There are four days before I leave my apartment and five before I depart Santiago. Starting Wednesday I will be in Patagonia for a few weeks; I will tell you more in a day or two.

The city is slightly cooler today, with temperatures in the twenties not thirties. To the south, numerous wildfires continue burning. More than two hundred families have lost their homes. Some are homeless for a second time in two years, having previously suffered as recently as the earthquake in February 2010. Seven firefighters have died; one was a volunteer aged just nineteen. Many (including some politicians) blame members of the indigenous Mapuche community for starting the fires; if that is true it would not be the first time. Chile’s native population complain at losing ancestral lands and have fought a long campaign against forestry companies.

BBC Report: Mapuche activists responsible for forest fires?

BBC Pictures: Chile battles wildfires

Emol video: Fires in the Bio-Bio region

Now I need to go and pack up my apartment. Before I go, here are four pictures from Santiagio on New Year’s Day.