Old Town Alexandria

January 16, 2011

Yesterday was a cold sunny mid-January Sunday – a perfect day to stretch our legs, have a bit of lunch and see Old Town Alexandria. It's been years since I roamed Alexandria; and even then it was only a quick bike ride down Duke Street on my way to Mount Vernon. I've never visited the Torpedo Factory – after so many years I’m not sure how I’ve avoided it.

It was a choice between Eastern Market, Annapolis, and Old Town Alexandria. Annapolis was too far for my mood, and I’ve visited Eastern Market more times than I care to remember, so Old Town Alexandria was the choice. Alexandria is on the Potomac River just south of National Airport (officially Reagan National Airport but since I am not a fan of the Reagan presidency I still refer to it as National Airport).

Old Town is manufactured quaint - period architecture, quaint (read expensive) shops, restaurants, a river side boardwalk, and art to boot. I may sound a bit sarcastic; it’s nice, clean, safe, modular, and relaxing on a Sunday afternoon stroll. Nothing exciting about the walk; we roamed and had brunch and toured the Torpedo Factory. Old Town is laid out in a grid with names like King Street, Duke Street, Prince Street, and Washington Street as homage to our first president. Straight down Washington Street for 11 miles is Mount Vernon.

The Torpedo Factory is a cooperative of artist studios and galleries. As you might guess the name comes from its history – it was originally a torpedo factory. I’ll avoid the history and just leave you with a link (http://www.torpedofactory.org/history.htm).

Just about all the galleries and studios were displaying beautiful works but ….

It is not a place for deep or innovated work. Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice place to visit, but it is more of a place for tourist, natives strolling on a quiet afternoon and maybe corporate art buyers looking for art with class but nothing controversial. That said there is nothing wrong with derivative art, or even imitation art; hell, I love when song are covered, sometimes even better than the original version. What they created is better than rows of sports bars, pawn shops, or tattoo parlors (let’s put a hold on the tattoo parlor - they can be interesting). Old town is nothing original; many cities have similar areas – the Inner Harbor in Baltimore to name one. If you are looking for a unique experience keep looking, but if you want to spend a relaxing afternoon, get a bit to eat, or just stretch your legs it just might be the ticket.

A disclaimer to avoid hypocrisy:

It you go to my photo site (www.flickr.com/billshields) or my video site (www.youtube.com/sheds1127) I doubt if you will find anything there that is innovative, but give it a look anyway.

Love those Hippies at Lonely Planet

A few years ago when I first started traveling, I bought my first Travel book – Fodor’s Guatemala. It came in handy, it made my trip much easier. At the time I knew almost nothing about Guatemala; it told me where to go. A few months later, as a Christmas present my family gave me Fodor’s South America – a big thick and heavy book. A few months later on a trip to Santiago Chile, I lugged it along, once again it proved helpful; I know that if I didn’t have it I wouldn’t have visited Viña del Mar. Viña, rememeber it from Missing, the the home base for the CIA and Chilean military as they plotted the coup against Allende.

After Chile, travel books and I were off and running. Now travel books are expensive but I was lucky. I few blocks away is the Wheaton Regional Library which housed the Friends of the Library – the used book donation and selling arm of the library. And what do you know they had a great travel section – one of the advantages of living in the Washington DC area. The Friends of the Library had shelves and shelves of travel books. Fodros’, Moons’, Rick Stevens’, and Lonely Planets’. I knew I’d be traveling a bit in the next few years so I started to keep my eye out for countries of interest. I got Fodor’s Spain and France – I bought those because I wanted to follow La Vuelta de España and Le Tour de France. Hell, they were only a dollar or two a piece; how could I go wrong. I started looking for a country here or a country there; you know, places I thought there was a chance that I might travel. I mostly collected books on developing countries; the developed world was not much of an interest to me , nor was classic tourism – Paris and London were of little interest, but Africa, Central America, and India were exciting, and with my work possible destinations.

And again, the area proved to be a boom – the Friend’s bookstore was brimming with books on the developing world, but they weren’t Fodor’s or Moon’s – they were published by Lonely Planet, so I picked-up a few. Around the same time I came across a program on PBS – Globe Trekker. If you haven’t seen it, it’s one of the many travel shows on television these days, but with a twist; they’re trekkers, they go by bus, they stay in hostels, they eat in the local markets. In short, they avoid the tourist hotels, the guided tours, the places that generally sponsor the travel shows. The host are youngish, not, “Hey, man, this is so cool!’ early twenties, but rather a little wore thirtyish; the woman are attractive but certainly not model want-a-bees. The one man host, Ian Wright, has a face for radio, and a voice that should never be recorded; but they all have personality, and they all can speak without clichés. They give a bit of the feel of aging hippies, but in the good sense, not the flower child stereotype.

The Globe Trekker series was originally called Lonely Planet and inspired by the Lonely Planet travel book series, but I think that’s the extent of the connection. Today they are both independent. The TV series has become more commercial – it has a ten minute segment on shopping at the end of each show, but it is easily avoided.

Over time I began to collect more and more books, I started going to the store just to see if they had new Lonely Plant guides available. It became a minor obsession. Today I have over 50 different countries. I have my obsession under control, yet I still go to the library outlet looking for new ones. I’m more selective; I’m back to only collecting editions of countries that I think I might travel to at some point in the future, nevertheless if you see a newly slim bald guy in the travel section of the Friends of the Library Store in Wheaton, get out of his way; he is still a man obsessed.

I Remember Franco

I haven’t been to Spain since June of 1972, and who knows if I will ever get back. I don’t remember every day, or even most of them, but I remember enough. Franco still had a few years left in him. His police regularly raided the University, mostly the Medical School. I attended the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras at the Universidad de Complutense de Madrid. The secret police patrolled the Facudad, not that they were very secret, they were big heavy-set guys with crew cuts, tight shinny suits with the tell-tale bulge under their left arm. I’m not sure if students ever dressed in tight shinny suits but in those days the students in Franco’s Spain had adopted the haute couture of the hippie culture of the times.

Our literary criticism professor, Carlos Bustamente, assigned a student to keep an eye at the door to listen for the heavy footsteps of Franco’s minders. We were young we couldn’t take them very seriously, we only knew of Franco’s crimes from stories – we hadn’t really seen any of it. Most of us were from liberal democracies we thought most the ideas were tame.

I love Spain, I miss it. It was intense, relaxed, happy and sad all rolled up in one. But I remember Franco.

Photo Courtesy of the following site:
www.educared.net

So Much Trouble in this World

'So Much Trouble in this world' - Street Musician at the Dupont Circle Farmers' Market in early August 2007.

My apologies to the musician - I did not get his name. If anyone knows his name please let me know.

Enjoy his sound and art.



Left: Chess in the Circle

Below: Soap Lady at the Market








Take a look at my latest uploads on Flickr.com

Violin Girl - Takoma Park Farmers' Market

A young street musician performs at the Takoma Park Farmers' Market on a sunny September morning.

Banjo Man - Takoma Park Farmers' Market

Entertainment at the Takoma Park Farmers' Market on a sunny Saturday in September

Learning Spanish - Podcast & Notes in Spanish

After Destinos along came podcasts; to be honest they were around for a few years before I discovered them. I started out recording them onto CDs before I got an iPod. The first one I found was ‘Trying to Learn Spanish.’ It was produced by a guy from Colorado. His focus was on how to help you learn Spanish rather than learning Spanish. It was delivered in a deadpan voice – the guy voice seemed to say – I’m the most boring person alive, but the information was interesting despite the voice. Actually, I kind of admired the guy, he was doing something; in its own kind of way it was encouraging –he wasn’t letting his limitations stop him. I liked it; it appealed to my ‘power to the people’ inclinations. It hasn’t published in about a year; I wished it was still going.

Next I found Notes in Spanish, published by Ben Curtis and Marina Diez – the Curtis and Diez language and travel empire. I’m not sure how it all began, but what I know of it is an interesting story, and inspiring. Ben Curtis is a writer, he moved to Spain about nine years ago, met Marina – through an intercambios I believe. They fell in love and got married. Marina worked in the computer industry. Ben and Marina started a podcast on teaching the real Spanish – the Spanish that is not taught in book. The idea was simple Ben and Marina would talk about a subject for about ten minutes. The subjects were all over the place, it was easy and relaxed. No language tape regimentation, no language instructors speaking to you like a kid – it was a real conversation between two adults. Don’t get me wrong, it only appeared casual, I am sure that they spend a great deal of time preparing for each podcast -I am sure it is not as easy to do as it sounded – what is? But that’s the beauty of it, it sounds natural and relaxed and it helps you learn Spanish, Spanish culture, and anything else that popped into their heads. As time when on they have branched out, diversified you might say. Currently they publish the following podcasts:

Notes in Spanish Intermediate

Notes in Spanish Advanced

Notes from Madrid

Notes from Spain

Notes in Spanish TV

Learn Spanish: Notes in Spanish Inspired Beginners

They also have a web site, Notes in Spanish; it includes a lively forum that covers language, travel to Spain, living Spain, various threads of interest to the Spanish learner or traveler. Ben also does an occasional podcast for Lonely Planet. One last note before I sound like a complete shill for Ben and Marina; Ben has written a book about his experiences in Spain, entitled Errant in Iberia. I haven’t been sufficient motivated to fork out the money to purchase it but someday I might, it sounds interesting.

Next time, I'll talk about my adventurers i n the world of intercambios.

Language Translation Tool

After several attempts, I believe I finally have it working properly. Courtesy of Google and an unknown author of the code, Bill Shields’ Online Travel Notebook now has the ability to translate my post into other languages. It will be interesting to see how accurate machine language translation can be. I’ll try and occasional check the Spanish translation. Until next time, Buenos Días!

Learning Spanish

Over thirty years ago I spent a year at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid – my junior year abroad. Over the years I lost most of what I had learned. I made attempts to keep up, but mostly to no avail. When my children began to take Spanish lessons in middle school; I decided to bring it back, and actually get good at Spanish this time. That was almost nine years ago. Since then I’ve been working on improving my Spanish, mostly half-heartedly. I could get by; I could almost understand ‘las noticias de la televisión.’

It became a minor focus of my life. I’d pickup a throw-away newspaper, some of them good like “Tiempos del Mundo,” others dreadful. Occasionally I’d pick-up El Pais, or read ABC online. I’d watch Telemundo y Univisión; but that didn’t last too long, the news was at an inconvenient time, the soaps were over the top, and confusing to boot. I learned later that many of them are produced in Brazil in Portuguese and dubbed, which explained my confusion - the lips didn’t match the sounds; my ear and eyes went into over-drive trying to resolve the discrepancy. The variety shows were pre-Ed Sullivan.

I was too unfocused to pull out the grammar books. I had 501 Verbs in Spanish, a few good dictionaries spread around the house, and a Franklin electronic dictionary I kept in my bag. At various times I’d concentrate on reading, phases, listening; it was all an unorganized jumble, and for the most part unproductive. I did make progress, my reading improved, even my listening abilities improved; but it wasn’t quite enough. It was slow. I guess I assumed that I’d learn through osmosis.

Next I discovered Destinos, a beginner’s language course in the format of a telenovela (Spanish soap opera). It’s a great series; click the Destinos link to learn more. It was advanced beginners so I didn’t learn much, but I could understand it; it was a big boost. I began to understand with what I was struggling. I knew about my problems with grammar; it was the struggle to understanding that was frustrating. I guess I understood intellectually that I was trying to learning Spanish by listening and reading from all the different countries of the Spanish speaking world, but when I could understand Destinos clearly I knew there was hope. Simply put it helped, I watched it for a while just for the pleasure of understanding everything.

This is only the beginning of the story of my adventures learning Spanish, next time I'll tell you ablout exploring podcasts and intercambios.

Logo Courtesy of Universidad Completense de Madrid
http://www.ucm.es/

Destinos Photo courtesy of Annenberg Media
http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html

For Jeannie

Thoughts of Pittsburgh

I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh since the late seventies; and I’ve never gone back more than three or four times a year, yet it still feels like home. The neighborhoods, the markets, the roads and bridges may change but not the people. It’s an easy town; the food is not very distinctive unless a Polish, Italian, Irish mix has been raised to the level of cuisine while I wasn’t looking. What the food lacks in subtlety is made up for in quantity. These days my stomach aches just at the thought of the belt loosing portions served in the typical diner. If it’s coffee it’s Maxwell house, if it’s strong it’s burnt, and if it’s right you can see the bottom of the cup.

They use to call it a shot and a beer town, but that’s only true in spirit. Like most places, nobody drinks the way their parents did, or they did years ago. It’s a mill town brimming with world class universities, and now without the mills. The coke plant down the river is the only remnant of the glory days of US Steel. The mill have been torn down, malls, townhouses and sports complexes have slowly taken their place.

These days Pittsburgh is a business center, a medical power house; it’s clean, it’s safe, and it’s old, but it sure has character. The mayor is still in his twenties. There is the Southside on the flat next to the Monongahela and below Mount Washington. When I was growing up Carson Street was bustling with Five & Dimes, Polish deli’s, and seedy mill bars; it was the home to US Steel. Nobody went there, unless you worked in the mills, and most of the mill workers lived there. It was a typical western Pennsylvania river town in the heart of the city.

Pittsburgh’s history is rife with the hero’s and demons of the industrial age Carnegie, Mellon, Frick. They all left an indelible stamp on the city for good and bad. They exploited the labor, polluted the rivers and air, and left art treasures and the first public library system in the country.

Today Pittsburgh is still cloudy, but it’s clean. Allegheny County passed the first air pollution ordinances in the country. The Allegheny and Monongahela still form the mighty Ohio, and the cityscape as you emerge from the Fort Pitt Tunnel is one of the best in the world; even on a cloudy day

Top Photograph: Bridge span over the Allegheny River

Middle Photograph: The Strip District

Bottom Photograph: Downtown

Kensington Meets Norman Rockwell

Once again the summer comes to an end in Kensington, Maryland with the Labor Day Parade - the perfect way to end the summer. Find a shady spot because Labor Day in Kensington is always hot. It all begins with the parade of politicians; all with fake smiles and the obligatory wife. If they’re not there they’re not running. After the local poles come the civil groups, clubs, local merchants, Boy Scout, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, marching bands, the high school cheer leading squads. The art council has the art car, the circus club has the unicycles, the Folkloric Boliviano has the dancers, even the local storage rental company parades their truck and hand out plastic key chains.

This may not be what America is, but it sure is what it wants to be.

Enjoy the sights and sounds of the Labor Day Parade in Kensington, Maryland.


Blair High School Cheer Squad Victory Chant!























Top Photograph: Kensington Meets Norman Rockwell

Top Left: Gaithersburg Marching Band

Top Right: Congressman Chris Van Hollen

Bottom Left: Parade Scene

The Circus Club on parade for Labor Day

Wooley's Fish Market

Wooley's Fish Market in the Strip District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Satire: ‘Money Honey’ Signs with Murdock for New WJS Feature

Maria Bartiromo signs with Murdock to be first Wall Street Journal Girl. When asked to comment the ‘Money Honey’ said that she was motivated by rumors that the girls for the new feature would be flat-chested and have a big butt. Maria appeared with Murdock in a news conference to launch the new feature. Maria said in her statement that the feature should not be compared to the Page Six girls in the New York Post. Rather the Wall Street Journal girls will always wear glasses and will represent the raising sexual power of the aggressive woman in a global economy. When asked directly if that meant that a blond flat chested woman with a big butt from Connecticut would never appear in the new feature, Murdock was quick to assure the blond big butted CNN news bunny that there would be no discrimination based on body type. Any woman would be consider for inclusion in the feature as long as she had slept with a married CEO of a fortune 500 company, worn glasses, and represented the high ideals of the commercial markets of the world.

Murdock went on to say that this would represent a unique perspective on woman and Wall Street. Bartiromo added that she was tired of the women of the financial world being ignored.

"I’m tired of seeing sexy soccer moms and plastic bimbos. Sexually is about power and who better epitomizes power and sex that than the newly liberated woman of the world of global commerce. We have waited a long time to be free of the chains of liberalism.’

When I was growing up it was assumed that if you were a woman you were compassionate and caring and loved children. My mother pleaded with me to be nice. She begged me to join her protesting the plight of the children of poverty. Well let assure you, I hate children. I would no more breast feed a child than I would protest against Kellogg Root. We are woman all over the globe who has dedicated our lives to money and power. M & A’s turn us on. And we’re proud of it."

Neil Cavuto clearly uncomfortable with Bartiromo’s forceful and sexually charged statement prefaced his question to Murdock by reminding the audience that the men of
Wall Street were also powerful and sexually charged. He challenged Murdock to occasionally spot light the Wall Street man. As a FOX employee he was a long time and member of the Murdock family; he went on to say he considers Murdock a force for good in the world.

Cavuto when on to ask Murdock whether there would be any famous mistresses gracing the pages of the WSJ. Murdock said that although there had been rumors of a new feature on Wall Street mistresses he preferred to focus his early efforts on trophy wives. He felt that at least for the time being he had an obligation to honor his commitment to the Bancroft family. Murdock reportedly promised the Bancroft family that he would not make any changes to WSJ that would be considered degrading for a period of two weeks. Murdock at the same time reiterated his commitment to non-discrimination. We will feature mistresses of all types, famous and non-famous alike throughout WSJ.

Murdock congratulated Cavuto on his suggestion and assured him that the idea would be considered, he also however, assured the audience that Cavuto would never be considered; "We will have not ass licking lackeys in the new WSJ!" Murdock flatly stated. Cavuto was seen leaving the auditorium with either tears or hair oil streaking down his face.

Just as the news conference was about to break-up the nattily dressed David Gregory of NBC news strove onto the stage.

“Bonjour Monsieur and Bonsoir Mademoiselle, I’m here to ask the tough questions, but before I do I have a short announcement to make. Don Imus has been hired as the new executive editor of the Wall Street Journal. I just wanted to assure the public and let Don know I have his back, as I did with the ‘nappy-headed hoe’ thing.”

Who better to head the most prestigious journal of greed in the world than the man that had just succeeded in squeezing 20 million dollars out of CBS by calling a team of young woman basketball players ‘nappy-headed hoes?’

At that point Murdock annoyed that Gregory had scooped his own newspapers by the Imus announcement ended the news conference and escorted Bartiromo off the stage.

Image of Bartiromo courtesy of Gothem City Insider

Image of Murdock courtesy of The Center for American Progress

Audio Test Clip

I am testing embedding audio clips into my blog. This is a test of the archive.org service.

Please bear with me. I will notice a notice when the tests are complete.

Bill Shields

New Photos Cenotes & Chichen Itza

I'm finally getting to edit the photos from Mexico and my trip to the middle of the Yucatan and the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.

Cenote Ikil de Chichén Itzá

A cenote is a quarry used to mine the limestone for the structures of Chichén Itzá

New Bulletin!!!! Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team Disbands

Tailwind Sports announced the disbanding of The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Director Sportif of Discovery, Johan Bruyneel, also announced his retirement. Discovery is owned by Tailwind Sports which in turn is co-owned by Lance Armstrong. Discrovery is the only American team on the Pro Cycling Tour. Team CSC is sponsored by the Belgium subsidiary of Computer Science Corporation but that as close as it gets.

Discovery Channel announced in February that it was not going to renew its contract with Tailwind Sports. Since that time Bruyneel has been searching for a sponsor, but to no avail. Bill Stapleton, Tailwind’s General Manger said that they were in talks with several companies and expected a deal shortly, but decided to pull out of negotiations.

What’s going on? Tailwind was asking for $45 million for a three year deal, a stiff price, particularly in the climate of drugs. Any company that takes on a professional cycling team is going to spend many sleepless nights worrying about being sucked into a doping scandal. I expect that they could get a deal, but not at a price that would allow them to compete to win. It’s expensive to run a pro tour team. Time was running out; George Hincapie was rumored to be close to finalizing a contract with T-Mobile. Without a sponsor for next year and the season winding down, the team probably could not hold on to its riders any longer anyway. And that is the simple explanation and the simple reason is usually the correct one.

Of course, there is another possibility. Announcing the disbanding of the team minimizes the effects of a new drug scandal; At the same time of the announcement, Alberto Condador was holding a press conference in Madrid to deny his involvement in drugging or Operación Puerto. He met the same day with the Spanish Minister of Sports. The UCI cleared him of involvement in Operación Puerto months ago – that’s why he was permitted to ride in the Tour. To the best of my knowledge he has not tested positive for blood doping or performance enhancing drugs. But…

The but is caused by Bill Stapleton’s strange statement.

"We were in talks with a number of companies about the opportunity and were confident a new sponsor was imminent. We have chosen, however, to end those discussions."

I’m not sure I know what to make of that statement. If he had said that they had some willing sponsors, but no one willing to support the high cost of a winning pro cycling team in this environment, that would have been it, at least, as far as I was concerned. But to say that a deal was imminent and they chose to close negotiations sounds suspicious. Sounds like there is much more to this than is public knowledge; stay tuned we still have three weeks before the Vuelta de España, the final grand tour of the season. The press will beat on this drum until they get distracted by the Vuelta.

For the last news link to www.cyclingnews.com.

Photo courtesy of cyclingnews.com

Dos Equis on the Beach

I’ve only posted two entries for my trip to Mexico. I wasn’t feeling well, the weather was bad, but mostly I was tired – the heat and my diabetes took its toll. As I pointed out in my previous entry I’m not a beach person, but the water was beautiful, a sparkling cyan. The meeting was good, and I took a trip the Chichen Itza in the center of the Yucatan. I walked on the beach; I relaxed under the shade of a cabaña and enjoyed a couple of Dos Equis while watching the surf on the beach. I was hoping for a cabaña girl, but ended up with a cabaña boy.

La Isla de Cancún is on the south eastern tip of the Yucatan peninsula; right where the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico. It is a tourist resort, designed to separate Norte Americanos from their dolares. As a side note, US citizen are the only ones referred to as North Americans, even though Canada and Mexico are both part of North America. Americans is another word only associated with US citizens. Mexicans and Canadians want to avoid association with the United States as much as possible. Maybe it’s not the Mexicans or the Canadians maybe its American culture stamping ‘North American’ and ‘Americans’ with such a strong US identity that there is no room in the words for anyone other than US residents.

But back to the subject at hand, Cancún has only existed as a resort since 1970. And now it is 14 miles of large hotels on the beach. Despite the crass commercialism, Cancún has created jobs – fairly good, well paying jobs and has brought dollars into the Mexican economy.

Isla de Cancún is hotels on sand dunes bidding their time before the next hurricane rolls across the Caribbean and the Mayan Riviera returns to its original state, as Wilma almost did in 2005. Yet, it is a success, at least temporarily, It has created jobs – fairly good, well paying jobs and has brought dollars into the Mexican economy.

From an environmental point of views it’s a wasteland. Cancún is, after all, just a sand bar a few hundred yards off the coast. Now it is 21 miles of hotels on the sand bar a few hundred yards off the coast. Who knows how long it will last, but I wouldn’t bet on hotel conglomerates over Mother Nature. It seems inevitable that a ‘global warming’ driven hurricane will roll over Cancún one day as Katrina rolled over New Orleans in 2005.

Aside from altering the natural shifting of the sand bars and dunes of the coast I don’t think it is a environmental disaster, it’s not polluting, it’s not an oil rig, but who knows maybe I do not understand the importance of the sand bars and their role in the coastal ecology. What I am sure of is that it is a cultural disaster. Come to Cancún, it’s Las Vegas on the beach, or maybe more accurately Las Vegas is the goal. Yet people come, Associations book conferences, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold meetings in Cancún. What’s not to like. Came and sit in the sun, play in the surf, enjoy the swim-up bars. The food is great, just don’t drink the water. But in the end, or even the beginning for that matter it is all artificial, an artifice designed to satisfy your every needs – for a price. The perfect place to veg-out

Next time my trip to the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.

William in the Southern Cone

Since the main subject of this notebook is travel I thought that I would write a little about my son, William, and his junior semester abroad. He will be leaving in a few days to spend four months in Santiago, Chile at University Diego Portales. UDP is a private university located in central Santiago. The Program, Andes to Rainforest, is run by American University and taught by professors of UDP; but why brother trying to re-write a description that the University has already provided.

This program explores the contrasts between ancient traditions and modern civilizations. Through intensive classes/seminars, hands-on internships, and field observation in the region, students will examine the inherent tensions and interrelationships that exist within South America.

“The home base for the semester is Chile, a country that provides a stimulating environment in which to study the emerging political and social realities in Latin America. Students are exposed to the creative strategies that the country's leaders are developing to keep their economy stable and healthy, in the midst of a region undergoing serious economic and political upheaval. They live in Santiago, the capital, a city of five million which is bordered by the spectacular snow-capped Andes Mountains to the east and the nearby Pacific Ocean to the west.

A team of staff with vast knowledge of and experience in South America and the US supervises the program. Beginning with a language and cultural orientation program, Andes to the Rainforests participants spend their first few days becoming acquainted with the host culture in Chile and reviewing survival Spanish.

Each environment that students study and visit reflects a diversity of cultures from traditional and indigenous to modern and cosmopolitan. With a rich blend of influences from ancient populations, such as the Incas, to European and beyond, contemporary Chile, Peru, and Brazil represent a mosaic of cultures. Although the semester is based in Santiago, students participate in academic field trips to sites in Chile, Peru, and Brazil. These site visits complement course work and provide interaction with local leaders who influence the very issues which the students study.”

http://auabroad.american.edu/enclave/andes.cfm

They refer to these programs as enclaves – sounds a bit pompous, but I guess the word accurately describes the program. After reading the description I decided that I should go. I’ve only been in Chile once – in 2005 to attend a meeting of the Pan American Ophthalmology Association. I was only there for five or six days, and it was mostly business, but I did get to explore the city for a few hours and I did have a day to take a trip to Viña del Mara – a beach town about 50 miles from the City.

Santiago is a large city in the foot hills of the Andes. Smog permitting you can see the snow capped peaks of the Andes from most roof tops. I had a problem photographing them because the optics of the camera could barely penetrate the smog.

William has grown up in the close suburbs of Washington, DC so he is accustomed to the demands of a large city. He has had 7 years of Spanish – can’t speak well but has mastered the grammar, and can write adequately. He just needs some exposure to the sounds of Spanish and a larger vocabulary.

He is in for a shock, of course, it will be his first time outside of an English dominated culture, but he’ll adapt. It always stuck me how so many things are the same, and yet how so many things are different when I travel. A big city is a big city, but the rhythm is different. I remember when I went to New York the first time, and I finally understood John Coltrane, all of a sudden the sounds and noise in his music made sense. The music was New York. It was chaotic, busy, interrupting, I closed my eyes and I saw New York.

I guess most cities have there own sound; maybe not Washington, but I can think of sounds for Paris, Madrid, Havana, even Cleveland, none more so than Nashville and Memphis. Buenos Aires is the rhythm of the tango. William will have to find the sound of Santiago de Chile, the Andes and the rainforest.

You can find the photos of my trip in 2005 to Santiago de Chile on the Photography Channel located midway down the right hand column. I’ll try and keep everyone up-to-date on William’s adventures in the southern cone.