I am in Chile to complete my MBA summer internship. I was sent here by a not-for-profit organzation called Endeavor, whose goal it is to support high impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets, in order to help of grow/boost local economies. My job is helping an IT resource company named Kibernum develop a new business strategy that will help them "grow to the next level".
Since I arrived about 10 days ago, so many things have happened that recounting them all would be impossible, but here are the highlights of what I have learned about Santiago, Chile, the Chileans etc. so far:
Chile
Is at the end of the world. It is strange but it someways it is really noticeable that there is "nowhere else to go from here". The streets of Santiago this past Sunday were showered in an eerie hazy blue light, as the sun was trying to get through the smog and I wandered through several neighbourhoods, that though mentioned in all tourist guides were devoid of people. Coming from tourist mecca SF, it is a bit odd to visit "city highlights" and run into, say, three other people... I speculate that this may be different in the summer but who knows: over lunch I met "Gavin" -- the gay trinidad-tobagan son of an indian engineer & a british homemaker, who comes here regularly for the happening gay district (& with whom I had a log discussing about how bad the smog is for your complexion...) and he claims that it is always like this. While eerie, there is also a certain beauty to it, the same way that Scotland or Vancouver Island are quietly beautiful...Santiago
Was beamed here from nothern Italy. The guide books all say it, and they don't lie: Santiago is a lot like cities in nothern Italy. I sometimes feel like I am in Florence on a December day. But the very best comparison I think is Innsbruck (Austrian Alps) which has a similar mountain setting. That said, Santiago is of course entirely its own, which my next point attests to:"La Contaminacion"
Smog! Is a serious problem here - seriously - just look at the big yellow blanket hanging over the city in this picture. Asked some people last week what the city/country was planning to do about the problem, and the reply was "well, sometimes we take the bus.... Or when it gets really bad, certain cars aren't allowed to drive." Still trying to find out if there is any kind of long term plan to solve the problem, as it really doesn't do much for Santiago's general level of attractiveness, nor for the health of its population which afterall counts 6 of Chile's 15 million people.
Weather
Chilly! 'tis the winter here after all, that said I think my Danish genes are finally coming to my rescue, I actually don't think it is that cold (it fluctuates between 2-10C/35-50F) despite the fact that several Chileans have explained to me how the Chilean cold is the worst in the world... IMHO, the only reason that they could possibly think that, is because they have never experienced wind-chill. Wind-chill is the Chuck Noris of cold -- all you Scandinavians and Canadians know what I am talking about....Food
The Chilean kitchen is not well known around the world. There might be a reason for that. I am eating my way through the local specialties and have so far, for my personal taste, encountered more misses than hits. I will note however that I haven't exactly visited any gourmet establishments or eaten seafood yet, so this opinion is subject to change. There is no imminent risk of starvation however, they have wonderful breads, cakes and ice-cream (to be had everywhere even now in the midst of winter - the mall close to my work has no less than 7 largish ice cream parlors...) and there are plenty of US chains.
Update: since originally writing this I have discovered what I so far believe to be the best thing about the Chilean kitchen: Italian food. I have to say that that have extraordinarily fine Italian cooking here, which should most certainly tide me over the next 8 weeks...
Drinks!
Wine is sublime, cheap and available in large quantities are variety everywhere - yeah!! I confess to not having had a Pisco Sour yet, which probably makes me a looser, but there is something about going out on your own, in a foreign place, to consume a kind of hard liquor you've never had before that just hasn't seemed like a great idea. Thursday however, is our first Endeavor intern happy hour aka Pisco Sour time for me...Update: as obvious from picture to the right, the Pisco Sour enigma has been solved...
Muzak
Long time readers of my blog might remember my entry on "jingles in Tokyo" from last year. No jingles in Santiago, but muzak is omnipresent. In case you ever wondered how artists like Pet Shop Boys or Phil Collins are surving these days, I suspect that their main source of income might be Chilean muzak royalties. The all time winner in this category so far was the pan flute rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Touger than the rest" that I heard in the metro the other night...
Friends
Are few and far between. One of the downsides of doing an internship far from home is that, well, you don't really know anyone... Luckily there are two other Endeavor interns in Santiago, a spanish couple from MIT, Gema and Carlos, who have turned out to be darling and fun people. And of course there are people like "Gavin" who provide random short term entertainment...
Sights
It is almost time to wrap up for today, so without much further ado, I'll leave you with the random Santiago tourist shot. By now I have actually managed to see quite a bit in a few marathon weekend days, such as:
Santiago from above - this time with slightly less smog...
Nobel Prize Winner Pablo Neruda's Santiago House.
The odd shot from the San Francisco church garden - this is where the city was founded.
The presidential palace at La Moneda and with its Salvador Allende statue (Allende was the Chilean president before the Pinochet coup on Sept. 11 (no joke) 1973.)
1 comment:
mmmmh Chile schaut aus wie eine Mischung aus DDR und Voralpenland :)
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