Video

Dune Buggy Ride: Huacachina, Perú

This is how I got from dune to dune when I went sandboarding.

International Women’s Day March: Santiago, Chile

Amnesty International organized an International Women’s Day march, as they do every year on March 8, in Santiago. Although it was relatively calm, the police had blocked off a lane of traffic on one of Santiago’s main streets for the march. A lot of middle fingers stuck out of car windows as they crept past the march through the congested streets. I can’t say whether this was anger directed against what the march stood for (women’s rights, freedom from violence and discrimination), anger directed at the groups present in the march (i.e. Chile’s communist party, “pro-abortion” groups–rather than “pro-choice), or just frustration at being stuck in traffic.

It seemed that the majority of groups marching were there to promote their own agendas regardless of the what the march was meant to represent. Those that stood out–those that were the largest and most noticeable–were the Communist Youth (JJCC) and the Palestinians chanting “Israel es asesino del pueblo palestino” (“Israel is the murderer of the Palestinian people”).

The concert at the end was an absolute joke. The band was your typical young male rock group that kept calling on the crowd, which they adressed as “mujercitos” (dimunitive of mujer, the word for women) to ” jump! jump!” Maybe I’m just jaded, but the concert seemed to diminish the severity of the issues that the march showcased and was generally inappropriate.

See for yourself:

Here’s a link to Natalia’s article on the march, and here’s a link to the article with which the video was posted.

Inauguration (Cambio de Mando)

I went to an party at the house of an associate of the Santiago Times in Pirque (about 4 minutes from Santiago centro) to celebrate and watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama earlier this week. There were more Chilean media there than guests. Apparently the biggest news of the day was watching a bunch of gringos get drunk on beer and hope.

After Obama’s speech the Chilean media either fled or shed formalities and joined the party. Everyone got thrown in the swimming pool at some point, except for the CNN Chile team, who managed to keep their hair and collars stiffly in place in the back corner for the rest of the day.

I managed to record a few quick interviews from the guests after the media cleared:

(You can see a shorter version published in the Santiago Times here.)

(Watch it on the Vimeo site for HD.)