Far into the Desert

Far into the Desert

Friday, Jan. 27, Ovalle, Chile

Well, I have gotten far from civilization again. I´m in a small city in the dessert that is about 2 1/2 hours from any other place. (Tomorrow, I´ll go to one of those places even more remote.) Ovalle has about 60,000 people. The main reasons to come here are for the pottery museum and the market. Also, there are national parks within driving distance that people with cars visit. Before telling about Ovalle, however, here´s the report on yesterday:

I took the train from Valparaiso to Vina del Mar and spent the day there. On the way, I got to see a sight. Later, I could tell from the newspaper what it was. Valparaiso is the home of the Chilean Navy. Many ships were lined up moving up the cost as we moved northward ourselves in the train. There were 3 submarines, big and medium destroyers, smaller gunner boats, very small landing boats, etc. (There´s no telling what passed ahead of the part I saw.) Every boat had men standing at attention on them. I knew something special was happening, because people were standing on balconies in all the apartment buildings watching. Later, I read that it was a parade to honor the newly elected president of Chile. They just elected their first lady president about two weeks ago, and the president´s summer house is a castle-like building on a point at Vina del Mar. She was there reviewing the seamen, I guess.

There is a lot of difference in Valparaiso and Vina. Think of the former as Galveston and the latter as Corpus Christi with them placed so that there is no gap between them. Neither is elegant or sophisticated, but Vina is newer and nicer looking. But there are gems of architecture and beauty within the genrally bad appearance of Valparaiso.

Anyway, in Vina, I explored the downtown area and found a place for lunch. I had their daily special--soup, chicken and rice, and melon served with cola. It was okay, but nothing special.

I walked to the Vina del Mar Hotel and Casino, an elegant establishment on the waterfront. From there, I walked along the beaches for quite a distance watching the people and looking at the apartment buildings opposite them. I cut back to a major thoroughfare from there where a shopping mall was located. I looked inside; it had the usual international shops--Zara, Reebock, Ralph Lauren Polo, etc. As I walked back to the city, I came across two small museums. One, an anthropology museum was not mentioned in my guidebooks, but it had a nice sculpture from Easter Island out front. The other was an art museum, and I went inside for the exhibit. All the paintings were by an Asian artist from the U.S. and were of Asian subjects. They were beautiful paintings. The exhibit was entitled "Humanity and Love." When I got back to the center of town, I went to a park that used to be part of a private estate. It is known for the exotic plants and trees that have been planted there from all over the world. I wandered through the gardens and hiked to the top of a hill. Then it was time to return to Valparaiso.

I bought items at the food store and stayed in my room last night. I needed to go to bed early to get up for my bus this morning. I just read and relaxed in the room.

It was 6 hours here to Ovalle from Valparaiso. Much of the way, we hugged the coast. It is much like the Pacific coast in North America--rocky with occassional beaches. The further we came, the more deserty the land got. There were dusty farms with fences consisting of candelabra cactai planted side by side. Ocassionally there would be a green oasis where someone had dug a well, I guess.

There are two main things to do here. I did one this afternoon. That was a visit to the local museum which has exhibits of pottery by the native peoples who lived here. The pottery was fascinating. They had wonderful shapes they created--human heads, animal bodies, etc. Many of the large jugs had pointed bottems and were designed to be hung by rope through holes on the lips of the jugs. All of the pottery was made between about 1000 and 1500 A.D. I guess the Spanish wiped out the local civilization when they came through.

http://www.c5.cl/erural/tht/material_th2/dia_1_word/modulo_II/webs/navegar_en_seco/museo_limari_archivos/museolimari.html

The other event is the market which is held here 4 days a week I will go to it tomorrow morning. It is the biggest, most colorful market in northern Chile.

I´m a little worried about tomorrow. I will go to La Serena. It is a popular tourist town. It may be overrun with people. I´ve already heard from one place I wrote that they do not have a room available for me tomorrow night. I will catch my bus tomorrow morning and get there in the early afternoon. Maybe I can find housing somehow. I´ll just keep my fingers crossed I guess. In the meantime, I will go out to explore Ovalle this evening.