Perspectives of a Wandering Geographer

After packing up my bags for the long trip home, I faced up to the depressing task of writing emails cancelling my plans for the following week.   One went to Javier Heusserd, the coordinator and national secretary for SERVAS in Chile.   I was due to arrive at his home west of Santiago by bus later that afternoon.   Javier had invited me to spend two days with him and his wife, Christine.   The other email went to Katterina Cuesta Lepe , head of the Huara Spanish School in Pichilemu where I was to spend five days of intensive study of Chilean Spanish.   (Emails to two other SERVAS members who had offered me accommodations in the Valparaíso area later in my trip followed a few days later). One of the clerks at the hotel front desk called the police station and got the case number I needed in order to obtain a copy of the police report I had filed the previous day for the stolen camera.   They got the necessary number and called me a cab.   The imposin...

After breakfast, I took a short walk over to bus terminal where I found an electronics store.   I needed a Chilean SIM card for my phone.   It was fine using wifi in hotels for my computer for emails and the news but, out on the street, I especially needed Google Maps to navigate, find restaurants, bus stations, etc.   Verizon had wanted an extra $10 a day to use my phone (including calls, texts, and internet) outside the US.   Unless I was going to be using the phone most of the day for business purposes that was a big rip-off.   A tech-savvy friend had suggested an e-SIM card app, Airalo, which offered reasonably-priced country plans without physically changing the little SIM card in the phone.   Great idea but I learned that my Samsung Galaxy A10e phone is too old to be able to use this app.   My phone is maybe five years old, and I guess you’re now expected to buy a new phone every couple of years – grrrrr.   For about $11, the store clerk s...

Bright and early on Wednesday morning, I started packing for my return trip to Chile.   I was itchy to get on the road again and hoped to have a couple hours to write up another blog post.   My bus wasn’t leaving Mendoza until 1:00 PM. I had split up my cash, two credit cards, two debit cards, driver’s license, and Medicare I.D. card among a money belt with hidden zipper, a travel wallet worn around my neck (where I also carried my passport), an ankle wallet worn under my left sock, and a regular wallet where I carried a few bucks as a decoy in case I was robbed.   While verifying that everything was where it should be, I opened up the small zippered pocket of the neck wallet.   There was supposed to be a Capital One credit card and a Schwab debit card in there but the debit card was missing.   I had only used it once – at an ATM in the Santiago airport terminal upon my arrival.   Certainly, I wouldn’t have left it in the ATM machine – I’ve never done tha...

Most of the SERVAS conference participants left by Tuesday morning.   However, I had scheduled my return bus trip from Mendoza to Santiago, Chile on Wednesday.   I learned that five of the conference participants were driving to the Villavicencio Thermal Baths an hour northwest of Mendoza on Tuesday.   They had a full car of five but on Monday, I spoke with Roxana Novoa from Peru who was also staying an extra day.   She agreed that sharing a cab up to the baths and spending the day there was a great idea.   The thermal baths at Villavicencio, Argentina would have been a relaxing setting for the day following the conference. I was bummed that the trip to the baths didn’t work out.  Bad planning on my part, I suppose.     Photo source:  https://www.tripadvisor.es/Attraction_Review-g3364428-d2695261-Reviews-Reserva_Natural_Villavicencio-Las_Heras_Province_of_Mendoza_Cuyo.html#/media-atf/2695261/714917160:p/?albumid=-160&type=0&categ...

At the final morning of the SERVAS Latin America meeting in Mendoza, International President, Radha Radhakrishna, proposed an idea for a new youth scholarship program.   Every years, two students would be chosen from a worldwide pool of applicants.   They would get an expense-paid, one-month trip to South America and would be provided housing with a local SERVAS family.   During their visit, they would study Spanish and would write up and submit a report about their experiences to SERVAS upon returning to their home countries. My guess is that Radha’s proposed scholarship program or something like it will happen.  SERVAS has done a great job carrying out programs like this and Radha’s enthusiasm and fresh ideas will no doubt prove fruitful.  I am impressed at how SERVAS is able to function so successfully as an all-volunteer-run organization.  As an American, my dues are only $33 per year and I suspect that membership is even cheaper in less-developed count...

After yoga and breakfast on Sunday, the SERVAS morning schedule called for a workshop on “comunicación amorosa” (loving communication).   Sounded a bit too touchy-feely for me and I had writing to catch up on.   So I skipped the workshop and immersed myself in downloading photos and writing a blog post.   I showed up for group yoga every morning of the SERVAS meeting.  Turns out I was always the only guy in attendance.  That’s me in the blue shirt, right of center.  Photo courtesy of SERVAS.   There was a picnic in the park scheduled after the workshop.   By the time I emerged from my room, the group had already left for the picnic.   The hotel staff said I could find them near the entrance to the Parque San Martín.   We had driven through the park the previous day on the way to and from our tree planting.   It was a large park and I figured that finding the group amidst the Sunday afternoon crowds would be a challenge.   But I...

After breakfast in the hotel, we boarded buses and headed for the Cerro de la Gloria (Mountain of Glory) to visit the Monument to the Army of the Andes on the edge of Mendoza.   The highest of this imposing group of metal statues is an allegorical Liberty breaking chains symbolizing the successful struggle for independence from Spanish rule.   The monument also includes a statue of José de San Martín on horseback.   In the austral summer of 1817, San Martín lead an army of 4000 from Mendoza across the same pass which I had crossed by bus on Thursday.   His army triumphed in battles in what became Chile, and he later successfully took the independence cause to Peru.   He is revered in Argentina, Chile, and Peru as “El Libertador” (the liberator) for his major role in freeing South America from Spanish rule.   It is tragic that the independent nations of South America were subsequently led by men who did not embrace the rule of law and democratic values that ...