A place in London

Despite London is not that kind of place I would like to go, i have to admit there are many interesting attractions proper of a global city, especially the museums and buildings, but something that called my attention was a very special attraction. Looking towards the london skyline appears a strange moving builiding in which you can take a flight and see the city from the air, that's the london eye, a giant and futuristic fortune wheel. You can take a flight in a private glass-shaped capsule in the wheel, make a party there with up to 25 friends looking the lights of the city under your feet. Well, that's an idea of a very fancy and exclusive way to spend a night in this vibrating city and it sounds great, but to be sincere, i prefer to stay around the streets and get loose in the markets and enjoy with the locals, especially because that capsule costs 400 pounds! if someone pay for me I get in the capsule at the moment!, by now i will prefer to get around at the classic and backpacker's way of life.

Pablo Neruda

Many people come to my mind when I think of a great person, musicians, artists, scientists, man and woman, all of them with something that made them special and worth of admiration, so it gets difficult to choose just one, but i think i’ll choose someone who represents in a very poetical way the essence of our conutry, of its landscapes and its beautiful little and big details,

It’s a poet, a very famous one, Pablo neruda, maybe he was’nt the GREATEST chilean, but he is known all around the world for its poetical and political work, two apparently opposite activities, he was even called “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He weas born in 1904 and died in 1973, his first publications were in 1917, but he wrote since he was a child, and he was influenced by gabriela mistral and by the green humid lanscapes of southern chile.

He also did a very important and nomad diplomatic career that started in Birmania and finished in Chile, and from its long journeys around the wrold he accquired inspiration for its poetical work that  worships nature and human being.

Being ambassador in spain he gets in touch with the civil war and he compromises with the republican forces, he brought in the “winnipeg”  2.000 spanish refugees to Chile from France.

In 1949 he is exiled from chile beacuse of being a communist in videla’s government, so he lives in clandestinity through the chileans south and he crosses to argentina by the forests, and then starts a life in europe, where he is received by Picasso. From there, he tralves all around europe and recieves the international prize of Peace. In the fifties he returns to Chile and in 1971 he wins the nobel rpice of literature.

He sadly dies after the coup, 23 sept, of 1973, some people say he died of sadness.

He deserves to be one of the greatests of chile because of his adventourous life, his work as politician, and as a poet, because of winning the admiration of people all around the world and being known as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

A Park Ranger

Hi, today i'll talk about a job I would like to have, it is to be Park Ranger!!!

Imagine that! being 24 hours a day sorrounded by nature, working in nature, with nature, for nature,

I would love it, because i'm in love of nature, actually, for me, nature is the most similar thing to what can be named as 'god'. so working as a park ranger for me could be something like being a tibetan monk in a temple, a sacred job. I think it could be somehow lonely, unless you work with a staff of other peopole related to conservation and ecology, so together we could make management plans for the different areas, make environmental education to visitors, especially the kids, go and check the conditions of the plants, the waters, the animals, all the beings of the forest. Ah..that's something i was missing, i would like to be  a park ranger in a forest, it would be different in a desert, I need water and abundance, nevertheless i like deserts too, but not for living long terms there. Other thing i like about this, is that being in nature for a long time makes you conscious of the cycles around you, you are able to see right in front of you the stations passing by, the trees growing, the animals migrating, all that processes we cannot perceive in the city.

Up to now i haven't met anyone who has worked as a park ranger, but i've read lots of articles and experiences of people around the world who has done it. Conditions of work may be rude, but the possibility of being immerse in nature is the great award of taking the risk; after having the experience i'm sure you are not the same, you keep connected to that sacred spirit that nature is.

visiting santiago

I'm santiaguino, and sometimes it is hard to accept, especially when i share with people from province and it gets so evident that this city is a monster, and its people seem to be monsters too. running so fast, with no respect, always busy, never relaxed, angry because of traffic, because of the noise, sad because of pollution, because of the lack of green open spaces, because of this strange "global city rythm".
But hidden in this mess of concrete and traffic there are some places that i woudl recommend to the tourist that wish to take the risk of visiting santiago. like beautiful old neighborhoods like concha y toro, the natural parks around the mountains like Quebrada de Macul, and the classic San Cristobal hill.
Despite the bad things of a big city, santiago is a confluence of many arts and culture circuits that have to be enjoyed by the visitors.
The top five attractions to be visited in santiago are:
1. Cerro San Cristobal, here you will enjoy nice walks around forests, a panoramic view of the city from the top of the hill, or you can make a bike circuit and finish drinking an iced mote con huesillo, or have a picnic in the botanic garden.
2. Parque Forestal, is a very beautiful park along the mapocho river with many old trees, but the major attraction is the museum of fine arts and the museum of contemporary arts, right in the middle of the park, and in sundays, mostly in summer, there is a beautiful street market where you can find the most strange clothes and accesories.
3. Matuc

The perfect day

Yesterday already was, tomorrow is gonna be, it isn’t yet, so the only real thing is the right now, when I understood that, i mean understood deep in mind and hearth, everything became perfect, because if i have just this present moment to be Me and enjoy life without the phantoms of the past and the anxieties of the future i will make it be the best time, always, completely integrated to that experience, wether it is  a bad or good, because I value it for what it teachs to me, always something to add to the book of life, to reach the death with no fears, no regrets, happy for what i lived, gave and received.  So, for me, every day is a perfect day for something, to know someone, to learn something, to cry for something, to smile for something.

I would spend my perfect day with everyone who want to share a bit of life with me, with an old friend, with a new friend, with my cat, with a relative, with an unknown person, have you ever spend a day with someone you never met before?

In this perfect day i would go where the wind sweeps us,  because many times we plan something and it doesn’t  work as we wanted, and we get dissapointed. Maybe this wind will take me and my partner/s to some party in a park, a sunny sunday afternoon in spring, where everyone brings an instrument to make collective music while the sons and daughters of those who have a child, dance freely.  There is some bread and juice to share in the circle. Maybe this wind will te us to something different, to a day of hard studying in the U, and of course it would be perfect,  a moment to bring out all of my willpower and at the end of the day feel victorious.

Anyway, What I always try to do, (try! Because not always works) is to live every day as if it was the perfect day you wonder, and thus, live the life you would like to live. As doing this exercise many things I used to think that weren’t helping  dissappeared, and the “wind” became the guide, the present moment became conscious, and  after that, synchrony makes its work, and is perfect!

Hugs from the "here and now"

Students' strike in defense of public education

In the last days the students of my faculty and other faculties from the university went into a strike in defnese of public tertiary education, which is seriously threatened by the new politics of financiation proposed by the ministry of education, in line withe the right-winged government spirit.


The situation is, more or less, this: actual direct financiation given to public universities by the government , wich reproduces the responsibility of financing education from the government to the people, is in this way to extintion because of a change from this direct fund to a “performance agreement” wich is a financing instrument in which all universities, public and private, compete for funds according to its performance (for example, infraestructure). So the gov disassociate of its responsability of securing public education, ina very simbolic and material way.

Students are demonstrating, with this strike, their will of mantain a public and state owned education, against the privatization that probably would occur in public universities in their struggle to accquire those “performance agreements” ( is well known that we are in disadvantage in terms of infrastructure compared to private universities). We, in the end, are defending the historic spirit of public education in this country instead of a market-regulated education.

I really agree with this strike, is the only way students can make an impact on public opinion in order to make people conscious of this conflict. Whilst more students are in this demonsttrations, more the people will know about this situation and take part on this. So, let’s the strike have its voice and let’s listen to the demands, because this is an issue of major importance for the future of the education of all of us.

Ashes and Snow

There is something I am sure about, and I can assure you that is true, it’s that all the animals we share with in this earth have the same capacity that we have to feel and communicate, within them and with us. This becomes absolutely clear when you see “Ashes and Snow”.
Ashes and Snow is many things at the same time, is a project, a movie, an exhibition, a book, a nomadic museum turning around the globe. I chose this exhibition for two reasons: i haven’t seen it, and you must know it. What I did see was the movie about it, a short documentary that is part of the exhibition.

I talked about animals and communication because that’s what the exhibition is about: the ilimited possibilities of humans and animals to share, and all the relationships we can establish with them. All that was transformed into immensely beautiful art expressions condensed in this “nomadic museum” as it’s called, that has visited some cities around the world, including Venice, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City and will soon be in Sao Paulo. This exhibition is the result of many years of travels and works made by Gregory Colbert, an artist and cinematographer, who was pushed by the desire of show what his experience told him about animals and humans together. The result of this is a movie, a book, many shortfilms and lots of photographies showing different kind of relations between humans and animals , especially with elephants.
I have not gone to the exhibition, but just the movie i saw was enough to say this is one of the most magnificent art expressions I’ve ever seen. I really really hope the nomadic museum comes to Chile some day and all of you can enjoy this admirable work made with love and poetry.
I leave you some images of this work for you tu see it and make your own opinion about it.

"In exploring the language and poetic sensibilities shared by all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that has no beginning or end, here or there, past or present"

(Gregory Colbert)

"Whales do not sing because they have an answer,

They sing because they have a song"

(Gregory Colbert)

"Ever since my house bourn down I see the moon more clearly"

(Gregory Colbert)

"We and them are the same"