Arriving at 7 am Monday morning from Pucon, I had a quick freshen-up before class and went straight into Spanish lessons. We kept up the pace this week with a leaving asado for our Australian friend Aidan, a birthday celebration for Hamish, a visit to the New Zealand Embassy and the Pre-Columbian Art Museum, plenty of interesting seminars, and finally, a trip to PATAGONIAAAAAAAA!!!!!
New Zealand Embassy
This was an eye-opening visit where we met the Ambassador for Chile, Peru, and Bolivia from New Zealand, alongside representatives from UC Chile, ENZ (Education New Zealand), MFAT (Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade), and NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise). We greeted each other with a traditional Waiata, after which we adopted a relaxed Kiwi approach to conversation. Topics included the mandates of each agency and the backgrounds of the representatives; we then tailored the discussion by asking questions relevant to our specific interests. For me, the conversation revolved around international tech businesses and joint research opportunities between Chile and NZ. Throughout the whole process, everyone was welcoming, warm, and approachable.
Seminars
As much as it sounds like being in Chile is solely a holiday, we still have a timetable filled with Spanish lessons and seminars. This week’s seminars covered innovative solutions, marketing and sales, and conflict management techniques. I have noticed a lot of the conversation here is about building businesses that use modern approaches to solve problems the population is actually experiencing (i.e., asking the right questions to the right people to get the right answers). This contributes to why Chile is #1 on the innovation index for Latin America. I see a lot of overlap with New Zealand, although it seems the larger market here (both within Chile and broader Latin America) – which is great for pushing boundaries – makes it more competitive than NZ.
Pre-Columbian Art Museum
The Pre-Columbian Art Museum displays some of the oldest mummies in the world, dating back to 5000 BC. It covers the history of Ancient American civilisations dating back long before European contact. What blew me away was the scale at which some of these civilizations built – take, for example, the massive pyramids the Inca constructed. Even so, there was a surprising amount of overlap in artistic styles between Indigenous American civilisations and Māori, dating back thousands of years in textile patterns, pottery designs, and wood carving styles.
PATAGONIAAAAAA
Who thinks: “Let’s just fly as close as humans can get to Antarctica without actually going there, in a weekend?” Answer: US! Hamish, Rochelle, Joseph, Abbey, and I made a weekend excursion to Puerto Natales, exploring the Torres Del Paine National Park. Our trip started at 2:30 am on Saturday: catching a flight, picking up our rental car, going for a quick shop, picking up hiking boots, and checking into our accommodation at 10:30 am. It took us 8 hours to get from Santiago to our accommodation – a testament to Chile being the longest country in the world from North to South.
After that, we started our road trip through the national park, visiting places such as the Grand Mylodon Cave (where civilisations used to seek shelter), Salto Grande, Cascada Río Paine, and many more in between. We got around 20m away from a large herd of Guanaco (Latin America’s equivalent of a Llama)! We headed back to Puerto Natales in the evening for dinner. I just can’t comprehend the scale and majesty of this place – it is simply serene.
Day two was a hike up to Mirador Las Torres – a 20km hike with 1.3km in elevation gain. We got lucky with a “bluebird” day, low winds, and high energy (even with sleep deprivation). Even though the trail had hundreds of tourists, the beauty persisted. We started in the tundra, walked through the bush, began the ascent along more tundra, reached the first crest to get views of the whole valley (insane), joined back onto the river, and headed through a huge natural forest before starting the final ascent on granite boulders (tough, but we all made it). The top is simply insane. Someone even proposed up there – what a spot, congratulations to them!
We finally got back at 10 pm, picked up some big burgers (much needed), refuelled and cleaned the car at 11:30 pm, and went to sleep, ready to fly back on Monday morning to make another afternoon seminar! A successful speedrun.
Closing thoughts
This week was simply awe-inspiring. The embassy set me up with some exciting thoughts for the future, while Patagonia inspired me to return with a whitewater kayak and friends!