Alice and Randy Live in Chile: Work and Play in Valparaiso

We arrived efficiently to Santiago and retrieved our luggage painlessly and obtained a very nice rental car - a Toyota 4 wheel drive RAV 4 SUV. Ready for the roads of Chile! Or, off the roads!

Our plane as seen from the Delta Sky Club during early evening in Atlanta

I woke from my nap on the plane to this amazing bright moon over Peru (my pictures do not do it justice)

The sky was so clear that I could see the moon crescent very sharply and brightly

Sunrise over the Andes in northern Chile - we are almost there!

We stopped midway between Santiago and Valparaiso for Fatih and Randy to get some coffee. We then decided to drive directly to the rental apartment (the same place in Vina del Mar we stayed in last year) and see if we could get in. We did make a stop at my favorite bakery in Vina - American - to pick up a few sweets. I also got some cheese from a nearby cheese shop. This was just before 11 AM and the shops were just opening. Love those Chilean hours! Luckily the apartment was clean and empty and we were able to move our stuff in and get cleaned up.

Fatih enjoys a coffee after flying all night (but he says he slept well on the plane)

We then head for the university - PUCV - Catholic University of Valparaiso - to meet up with the folks there for lunch at a really good Italian place. After lunch we headed back to Vina and went to the big Lider grocery store near us for essentials (including a few bottles of Chilean wine).

At lunch with Jimena

Ricardo and Tim

Fatih with a new adjunct professor at PUCV who handles business outreach classes

Our lunch spot - very nice Italian close to the PUCV city campus

Walking back to the office

I wanted to walk afterwards while Randy napped so I persuaded Fatih to go with me. We ended up walking all the way down to the casino and back (a little over an hour). It felt good to get the muscles working again. We then drove to dinner at our favorite restaurant - Divino Pecado - and met up with our favorite waiter, Mario (who used to wait in New York City). We enjoyed an excellent dinner and our first Pisco Sours (which Fatih did not really like). We headed back for a night's sleep to catch up on that lost on the overnight flight.

Mario explains the menu to Fatih

The machas - giant razor clams with melted Parmesan cheese

Fatih enjoyed his osso bucco with red wine

On Thursday, Randy dropped me off at the university to go with Jimena to an empty container depot at the port of San Antonio, about an hour or so south of Valparaiso. After some difficulties we found the place and met up with her former student, Jonathan, who oversees all such depots for the company, Agunsa. We toured around the place after donning hard hats, vests and bright yellow toe caps (so stylish). We learned a lot (well, Jimena learned a lot as it was all in Spanish but relayed the essentials to me). It was definitely a worthwhile excursion.

Looking stylish in our port visit outfits - we had not yet put on the vests

The Donald Duck shoe covers

This was a large yard but not much activity since the port was on a brief strike. Strikes of all sorts are pretty common in Chile including student strikes.

They were doing some remarshaling while we were there

Three of the managers including Jonathan, in the center

We drove back to campus where Randy, Fatih and I went on the monthly IE faculty lunch. As before, this took place a Dimalow's, an excellent restaurant in the hills of Valparaiso. The food was so good! And, I met a few new faculty and renewed acquaintance with some we met before. Ricardo, the friendly but quiet department chair, hosted everyone.

Really good food in the hills of Valparaiso - and apparently they have a Vina location too

Ricardo and me outside of Dimalow's

The unique character of Valparaiso

Then, I heard our students, Diego and Felipe, present on our container project. They spoke in Spanish but had their slides in English (thank you, guys!). And, I was able to ask questions in English. Rosa, our good friend who had formerly been at PUCV but is now at the University of Los Andes in Santiago, came over for the students' presentation. Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment with Rosa. We relaxed at the apartment and caught up with Rosa.

Felipe and Diego give their master's presentation

We then drove to a nearby Peruvian restaurant (Peruvian food is very popular here). It was a small, neighborhood place. Not fancy but well priced and with good food and really good Pisco Sours. We got the last table luckily. Randy didn't care for his Pisco Sour (too tart and strong) so he drank wine. I finished my Pisco Sour and his and was very happy for that. Rosa spent the night at our large apartment as she was taking the bus in mid-morning on Friday back to Santiago.

Our dinner spot - very nice Peruvian food at good prices

My best Pisco Sour of the trip so far

Always fun to be with Rosa!

Randy and Fatih are in a good mood (they shared beers and desserts earlier by the ocean)

The three types of ceviche

Randy drove Rosa to the bus station on the very rainy Friday (it rained all day and was cold) and then me to campus. Jimena and I along with Diego and Felipe had a meeting at the main empty container depot we are working with. This is in the Placilla area of Valparaiso which is up the hills and inland. We had a productive meeting where the students showed their Simio simulation model. Again, things were in Spanish so I didn't understand a lot but it was all good.

Our team with the Agunsa manager at the Placilla facility

We met Randy and Fatih along with Tim Mattis back at campus and head for the closest restaurant (Las Brasas Portenas) as the rain was unrelenting. Tim is at Texas Tech but comes to PUCV each year to teach and spent eight months here as a Fulbright Scholar a few years ago. He also did missionary work in Chile as a young man when he was a Mormon (he is no longer Mormon). So, he speaks fluent Spanish - I am envious. The restaurant had been remodeled so it looked better but Randy and I thought the food was not as good. Fatih enjoyed his beef ribs though - they cook the meat over an open fire.

I took this picture for Nick - the Breaded Horse Meat - yum! I had a salad :-)

We had a Skype for our project with Erhan after lunch to share our findings from the two visits to the empty container depots. After chilling at the apartment, we took Fatih to Jimena's where she was going to take him and Tim to the hills of Valparaiso for dinner and drinking. Randy and I were celebrating our 37th (!) wedding anniversary so we went back to Divino Pecado where Mario took good care of us. We went to bed after dinner while Fatih came in late.

Exchanging our anniversary gifts in the apartment before dinner

Mario recommended this well priced carmenere which was very good indeed

At the dinner table

Randy really enjoyed his salmon with gnocchi

Saturday was beautifully sunny after the endless rain of Friday. Randy and I had four apartments to see that day. We are looking at candidates to rent for our three months next year (2017) when we come for my Fulbright with PUCV. We viewed three in Concon - all had their pluses and minuses. We came back to the apartment to eat some leftovers for lunch then viewed an apartment in Vina which was not well located and quite small. Fatih stayed home all day to do some work.

I noticed our washer in the apartment proudly proclaims fuzzy logic and I took this for my class I am teaching at PUCV this month - a short introduction to the subject

A wonderful sunset from our balcony on Saturday evening

A panoramic of the sunset

Saturday evening was a highlight. We started with dinner at Jimena and Pedro's place - with excellent homemade Pisco Sours. We then went to a concert by Quilapayun. We had never heard of this group but they are famous musicians who have been together for 50 years. They were exiled for 17 years during the Pinochet regime for their leftist tendencies and their songs of protest. Jimena had bought us all very good seats (her, Pedro, Fatih, Randy, me and Tim) at the Valparaiso Municipal Theater located near the government center. The building is not heated so everyone left their coats on (they are much more energy conscious in Chile than in the U.S.). It was a packed house with the more affluent patrons on the main level (as we were) and the left leaning students were in the two balcony areas.

Jimena in the kitchen with her helper

Augustin enjoys video games - of course

Amelia with the M&M's and coloring book I brought her

Fatih and Tim chill out

The guys discuss with Pedro over beers

Jimena's homemade Pisco Sours - very nice indeed

Our hostess enjoys a glass with us between cooking duties

The feast - Valencian Rice (or Paella) from a family recipe

The concert was amazing. Using traditional Andean instruments the men sang of revolution but in a historic and appealing way. The first half was the well known "Cantata Santa Maria de Iquique", a tale of love and exploitation of workers during the mining period of saltpeter in the early 20th century. This work was written as a workers rights allegory in the 1960's. I confess I slept through much of this, not because it was boring in anyway, but the Pisco Sour effect. After the intermission, Quilapayun played a long medley of their hits. These were varied but always delivered with passion and finesse. They finished with several encores including the last one - a well known call to activism - People United Cannot Never Be Defeated. We all left wanting to start a revolution!

The metropolitan theater of Valparaiso - the boisterous audience were in the upper balconies - the sign says different times but same battle - referring to the cantata subject from the early 1900's and the current efforts for worker's rights