Visit Valparaiso

You are about to travel to Chile and plan to visit Valparaiso and Vina del Mar? I propose guided tours of both cities and the coastal range, in English, French or Spanish. The activity is just starting so I can propose one of the lowest prices in the market.

For more informations you can write to me at:
visiter.valparaiso@gmail.com

Should we be happy about modernity?

Santiago’s buses just made a big step into modernity. From now on, all the passengers will pay with an electronic card, instead of old tickets. The Transsantiago is a great thing, as it should resolve some pollution problems in Santiago, and create a more coherent net of connexions with the subway.

But it threats the existence of thousands people whose job consisted in selling any kind of things (ice creams, cookies, matches…) inside the buses. Until now, the drivers used to let them get in and out for free, but with the new system, no way to get in without a card. All the people who made little money all their life will suddenly be without resources, and I doubt they will be able to adapt and find another job.

This is symptomatic of the way Chile develops its econolmy. It’s spectacular, but it doesn’t benefit to a big part of the population. In that particular case, as many others (the universities’ fees, for instance), it increases inequalities, despite of president Michelle Bachelet’s numerous social measures. Liberalism rules in Chile.

The only good news is that the government agreed that the musicians who use to play in the buses would get a card for free. But I personnaly would agree to pay a little bit more, in order to let the street sellers getting in, so that I could eat an ice cream in the bus.

Don't drink Caca Cola!

You enjoy a big glass of C*** Cola with ice? Have you any idea what kind of bomb it is for your organs? No? Then check this out. These datas are taken from a resarch of the university of Washington, comparing water with C*** Cola. Guess what is healthier…

• C*** Cola is a powerful detergent. If you need to clean the inside of your toilets, drop a can of coke (opened, obviously!), let it there a few hours and flush: your toilets shoud be perfectly white. The citrical acid contained in the drink can also make disappear any kind of dirtyness on your dishes. And if you need to remove spots of fat on your clothes, adding a can of coke in the washing machine is something efficient.

• C*** Cola cleans motors. In the USA, all trucks that transport coke are identified with a DANGEROUS MATERIAL stamp. The drivers use coke tu clean the engines of the oldest trucks. It also works for cleaning up the windshield of your car, especially traces left by the snow, or spots of rust on metals…

• C*** Cola cleans blood and dissolve bones. In many States of the US, the police road patrols bring two galons (~ 7,5 liters) of coke with them in case they need to clean the ground after a car accident. If one puts a bone inside a container of coke, it disappears in only two days! Why is that? Because C*** Cola contains phosphoric acid. Its PH is 2.8, which is quite acid: enough to dissolve a nail in four days! Phosphoric acid also dissolve calcium from the bones and is the main cause of osteoporosis, a disease that reduces the weight of bones and make the entire skeleton more fragile.

• Diet coke is more dangerous. Doctors and scientists warn that Diet coke is even more dangerous because of the interacion between cola and aspartame. This mixture could be responsible for causing lupus and, also, the degeneration of the human nervous system.

So my advice to you is that you only offers C*** or Pep** or any cola to people you really don't like.

Choose the new 7 wonders of the world!

Could you tell by heart all the 7 wonders of the world? Maybe not, as the list was set 2.200 years ago, and never updated since! That's why monuments such as the Great Wall of China or the Eiffel Tower are not in it. But this is gonna change: on 07/07/07 in Lisbon will be announced the new 7 wonders of the world. Who's gonna decide? YOU!!! All the people of the world can vote and choose 7 monuments between the 21 finalists on http://www.new7wonders.com And it's free! So check it out and vote!

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Clichés about Chile

I've asked many people around me (family, friends, colleagues from France...) what they know about Chile. Or maybe I should say: what they think they know. Cause most of them have a wrong idea about this country. Let's correct the most common clichés I've heard about Chile:

• Chile IS NOT an exotic country: The climate is very different all across the country: in the north, the Atacama is the dryest desert in the world. In the center, where half of the Chilean population lives (Santiago, Valparaiso, Viña del Mar: my region), there is a mediterranean climate. More in the south it gets colder and rainy (oceanic climate), and in the far south of Patagonia, it's almost a polar climate. Of course, there are exotic fruits such as papaya or mango, as well as cactus and palms, but nor jungles neither tropical landscapes. Because Chile is stuck betweem the high Andes and the cold Humboldt's stream in the Pacific ocean, that provide a climate quite different from the rest of South America.
  
  
• Chile IS NOT a Third-world country: It's a developing country, the richest in South America. Chilean people are, for instance, more involved in new technologies than French people (in my opinion). Whereas it's one of the country in the world with the biggest deferencies between the rich (quite few but really rich and powerful) and the poor (about 20% of the population, according to oficial datas).
  
  
• Chile IS NOT a dictature: Although Pinochet just died one month ago, I bet many people still think there is no stability in this country. This is absolutely wrong. Pinochet lost the elections in 1989, and since then a left-center coalition rules Chile through a stable and free democratic system.
  
  
• Chile IS NOT a coffee producer: Many people think it is, because most of south-american countries (Brasil, Colombia, Venezuela...) are very imporant producers. But it seems that the very specific chilean climate doesn't allow the production of coffee.
  
  
• Chile IS NOT the godfather of chili con carne: This very famous dish is even hard to find here: it comes from the south of the USA, mainly Texas and New Mexico. Chili is the name of the spice, it's not related to the country.