According to our taxi driver, many, many people come to Santiago to visit the Cafe con Piernas, or Cafe with Legs—the Hooters-style coffee shops—we did not. Nor did we come to drink Chi Chi, the moonshine of Chile. Our driver seemed surprised.
Some of the most fascinating conversations can be had with taxi drivers around the world. I think it is the nature of the taxi ride itself. Strangers together in a confined space for a limited time can foster a brief intimacy in which you and the driver can explore topics you might never discuss with friends. Once in a while, though, you get a real Looney Tunes—like our driver yesterday.
It begs the question, though: why did we come to Chile if not for the women serving coffee in lingerie and for drinking ourselves blind on Chi Chi? Well, simply because the pencil width of a country on the Pacific Ring of Fire has held our collective imagination for a long time. Stretching half the length of South America, Chile is home to the driest place on the planet, has some 50 active volcanoes and dozens of glacial fields, and then here are the mythical Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego.
Squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific, Chile has remained somewhat off the beaten path for the average traveler. Because of its geography, it is difficult to travel from the north to the south of the country without flying or going overland into Argentina and back. While the economy is growing, there is still an enormous disparity between the rich and the poor. Santiago is close to the top of the world’s most polluted cities list.
In addition to its spectacular geography, Chile is also captivating for the same social/political reasons that all of Latin America is fascinating: the genocide and enslavement of indigenous peoples, the complex and tragic history of colonial rule, the revolts and revolutions, the tenuous beginnings of land reform and democratic rule, the crushing and brutal USA backed dictatorships, and now movement once again to the far left.
Chile leapt onto the world’s theater in the 1970s when the social reform-minded Marxist, yet democratically elected President Allende, committed “suicide”. A barely known General Pinochet had stormed the Capital in a coup, plunging Chile into 15 years of brutal dictatorship. Remember Missing with Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon? It is reported that over 35,000 people were tortured by the Pinochet government, and another 3,000 disappeared. Like Argentina, Chileans are still coming to terms with their recent history. I suppose so are we. Clinton released files during his presidency detailing our 30-year involvement in undermining democratic reform in Chile, leading to the ultimate overthrow of Allende’s government.
On a brighter note, there is, of course, the magic of Isabel Allende (President Allende’s niece) and the poetry of Pablo Neruda, which makes one love the idea of Chile.
We are here to explore as much of the landscape as we can in three weeks. We will hike through the spectacular Torres del Paine National Park, sail through the fjords off the southern coast on the Navimag ferry, tour the mist-shrouded island of Chiloe, and wind our way through the Lake District high in the Andes. While we both wanted to get to the very north of Chile and the very southern tip of South America, the Atacama desert and Ushuaia will both have to wait for another time, another journey, and a heck of a lot more money.
