By way of introduction it is very interesting to allude to this coincidence: The open skies of the Atacama Desert allow astronomers from around the world to gather to observe the stars and thus unravel the origin of the universe. Meanwhile, other scientists look to the ground; due to the extreme dryness of the desert soil mummified human remains are preserved intact guarding valuable information about our ancestors. Coincidence or not, these ideal environmental conditions are conducive to the making of a retrospective window, which allows us to form a relationship between the ancient past of the mummies and the past of millions of light years of our universe. A mistake that is often often made is to think that the mummies of San Pedro de Atacama (SPA) were subjected to artificial mummification process as was the case with the mummies of ancient Egypt. In fact, the process of SPA mummification occurred in quite a natural way, due to the extreme aridity and soil salinity in the Atacama desert, and high temperatures in the area. After this clarification, we can say that all the ancient inhabitants of SPA were mummified.

The importance of nicotine and hallucinogens in prehispanic society

The use of nicotine-rich natural sources, mainly species of Nicotiana (Tobacco), have been reported for the large majority of the pre-Columbian American cultures since prehistoric times. The use of tobacco by ancestral Amerindian cultures is deeply rooted in their culture and thinking, functioning as a source of psychotropic substances used for magico-religious ceremonies, medicinal and healing practices, and recreational purposes. Tobacco is thought to have originated on the lower slopes of the central Andes and the South and was spread throughout America. It is important to note that the first Amerindian settlements coincide with the place of origin for wild species of the genus Nicotiana, and prehistoric interest for this plant is based exclusively on its main alkaloid, nicotine. Among the species with high nicotine content are N. rustica and N. tabacum, coincidentally the most predominant species on the continent. There are reasons to believe that the cultivation of tobacco for religious and healing purposes, including its use for shamanic trance, started at the same time as agriculture emerged in South America. Another interesting fact is that wild species of tobacco grow naturally on land that has been disturbed, such as trails, roads and also on land used as burial sites. Perhaps for the latter reason it was thought of as a gift from the spiritual world to the descendants of the people buried.

Shamanic practices

Particularly in Andean cultures, the use of psychotropic substances was principally used in ceremonies and rites of a collective and social nature, for example the ceremony of Pachamama, where tobacco was the nexus between human beings and the spirit world, and was used as an offering to Mother Earth. It was also used, with the participation of the shaman, in curative medicinal therapies. It should be pointed out that there is a close functional relationship between tobacco and shamanism, because ritual tobacco use places the shaman as the central figure, seeking access, through acute nicotine intoxication, to altered states of consciousness and contact with the spirits and the supernatural.In this way, more than the frequency and form of administration, the importance focused on high doses causing intoxication. The dosage used depended on the type of effect that one wished to achieve: low dose nicotine has a sedative effect, while at high doses it has a narcotic and hallucinogenic effect. Thus with varying dosages, one can modulate the effects on the organism.

Local flora

There is archaeological information on the use of other psychoactive substances in the area of northern Chile. They have found seeds in some of the tombs in San Pedro de Atacama of a plant species that does not grow in Chile called cebil (Anadenanthera colubrina). Also plant species of wild tobacco and cebil remains have been found in pipes from the Northwest of Argentina. In this way our efforts focused on analysing the major alkaloids and their derivatives of these two types of natural sources; 5-OH-DMT, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT on the one hand, and nicotine and its metabolic derivatives on the other. Recently, we have published a review of the alkaloids of the native flora of Chile, where we found that only 29 percent of the species potentially rich in alkaloids have been studied. This gives an idea of the enormous phytochemical work pending in Chile, particularly in the flora of the northern part of our country. With respect to whether it’s known that local plant sources were used for psychoactive purposes, there is a branch of archaeology called archaeobotany, studying the micro-remains of plants found in residues of archaeological artefacts allowing the identification of the species to which they correspond. Our group will soon begin work on chemical and archaeobotanical analysis of residues from archaeological pipes found in the area with the aim of discovering what plant source was being used for these purposes, which will complement the information obtained from the hair analysis.

Social class and public health

With particular reference to the consumption of nicotine, we analysed the paraphernalia associated with the tombs where they mummies were found and assign an index, which we call a diversity index, which is a proxy for the wealth of the grave and therefore the social status of the individual. In this case the results indicated that the consumption of nicotine was independent of the social status of those who consumed it. Chewing coca leaves is still an integral practice of many of the Andean peoples. This ritual has a sacred and ceremonial nature associated with its medicinal properties as an analgesic, rather than its use as a narcotic. The ancient use of coca leaf contrasts with the current use of its major alkaloid, cocaine, by contemporary societies, which considers it a stimulant drug of the central nervous system. My feeling is that the consumption of nicotine did not cause major changes in public health in prehispanic times although it is unknown if these people suffered from illnesses associated with the consumption of nicotine, for example with lung cancer, emphysema or other pulmonary or cardiovascular pathologies. Life expectancy at that time was much lower than today and so probably these pathologies were not in evidence [by the time of death]. I think that it is an interesting topic to address in the future.

Future research directions

This research began as a multidisciplinary project that sought to study the interactions and human mobility among prehispanic populations of the north and centre of Chile, using biomedical, genetic, chemical, and mineralogical markers. Within the chemical markers it was envisaged to analyse bioanthropological remains, particularly hair of the mummies, and archaeological remains such as residues from pipes and ‘tablets’ for the inhalation of hallucinogens. I am currently developing a postdoctoral project funded by FONDECYT that seeks to explore the psychoactive potential of the flora of northern Chile and their potential use by prehistoric peoples.

Echeverría, J., Niemeyer, H.M., Nicotine in the hair of mummies from San Pedro de Atacama (Northern Chile), Journal of Archaeological Science (2013), doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2013.04.030.

SPANISH

A modo de introducción resulta muy interesante hacer alusión a esta coincidencia: La transparencia de los cielos del desierto de Atacama permite que astrónomos de todo el mundo se reúnan para observar las estrellas y de esta forma desentrañar el origen del universo. A su vez, otros científicos miramos hacia el suelo, debido a la extrema sequedad del suelo desértico los restos humanos momificados se preservan intactos guardando consigo valiosa información de nuestros antepasados. Casualidad o no, estas condiciones ambientales ideales propician la generación de una ventana retrospectiva, que permite  establecer una relación entre el pasado milenario de las momias con el pasado de millones de años luz de nuestro universo. Un error que se suele cometer frecuentemente es pensar que las momias de San Pedro de Atacama (SPA) fueron sometidas a un proceso de momificación artificial tal como ocurría con las momias del Antiguo Egipto. En realidad, en SPA el proceso de momificación ocurrió de forma absolutamente natural, debido a la extrema aridez y a la salinidad del suelo del desierto de Atacama, y las altas temperaturas de la zona. Luego de esta aclaración, puede decirse que todos los antiguos habitantes de SPA fueron momificados.

La importancia de la nicotina y alucinógenos en la sociedad prehispánica

El uso de fuentes naturales ricas en nicotina, principalmente especies del género Nicotiana (Tabaco), han sido reportadas para gran parte de las culturas precolombinas americanas desde tiempos prehistóricos. El uso ancestral del tabaco por culturas amerindias está muy arraigado en su cultura y pensamiento,  funcionando como una fuente de sustancias psicotrópicas empleada con propósitos ceremoniales mágico-religiosos, prácticas medicinales y curativas, y también con fines recreacionales. El tabaco se cree que se originó en las laderas bajas de los Andes centrales y del Sur y se diseminó a toda América. Cabe señalar que los primeros asentamientos amerindios coinciden con los lugares originarios de las especies silvestres del género Nicotiana, y que el interés prehistórico por esta planta se basa exclusivamente en su principal alcaloide, la nicotina.  Dentro de las especies con alto contenido de nicotina están N. rustica y N. tabacum, coincidentemente las especies con una mayor predominancia continental. Hay motivos para pensar que el cultivo del tabaco con fines religiosos y curativos, incluyendo el uso para el trance shamánico, se inició por el mismo tiempo que la agricultura en América del Sur. Otro dato interesante es que las especies de tabaco silvestre crecen espontáneamente en terrenos perturbados, tales como senderos, caminos y también entre la tierra revuelta de los sitios usados como cementerios. Quizás por esta última razón fuera asociada como un regalo del mundo espiritual para los descendientes de la persona enterrada.

Shamanismo

Particularmente en las culturas andinas el uso de sustancias psicotrópicas era principalmente utilizado en ceremonias y ritos de carácter colectivo y social, como por ejemplo la ceremonia de la Pachamama, donde el tabaco era el nexo entre los seres humanos y el mundo espiritual, y era empleado como ofrenda para agradecer y retribuir a la madre Tierra. También era utilizado, con la participación del shamán, en terapias medicinales curativas. Es conveniente precisar que existe una estrecha relación funcional entre el tabaco y el shamanismo, por lo que el consumo ritual de tabaco sitúa al shamán como la figura principal, que pretende acceder, a través de la intoxicación aguda con nicotina, a estados alterados de conciencia y contactarse con los espíritus y lo sobrenatural. De esta forma, más que la frecuencia y forma de administración, la importancia se centraba en una alta dosis que provocara la intoxicación. La dosis empleada dependía del tipo de efecto que se quisiera lograr: a bajas dosis la nicotina tiene un efecto sedante, mientras que a dosis altas posee un efecto narcótico y alucinógeno. De esta forma se puede modular con la dosis sus efectos en el organismo.

Flora local

Existe información arqueológica sobre el uso de otras sustancias psicoactivas en la zona de norte de Chile. Se han encontrado en algunas tumbas en San Pedro de Atacama semillas de una especie vegetal que no crece en Chile llamada cebil (Anadenanthera colubrina). También se han encontrado restos vegetales de especies de tabaco silvestre y cebil en pipas del Noroeste de Argentina. De esta forma nuestros esfuerzos se concentraron en analizar los principales alcaloides y sus derivados de estos dos tipos de fuentes naturales, 5-OH-DMT, DMT,  5-MeO-DMT por una parte, y nicotina y sus derivados metabólicos por otra. Recientemente hemos publicado una revisión de los alcaloides de la flora nativa de Chile, donde comprobamos que solo el 29% de las especies potencialmente ricas en alcaloides han sido estudiadas. Esto da una idea del enorme trabajo fitoquímico pendiente en Chile, particularmente en la flora de la zona norte de nuestro país. Con respecto a conocer si se usaron fuentes vegetales locales con fines psicoactivos, existe una rama de la arqueología llamada arqueobotánica, que estudia los microrestos vegetales encontrados en residuos de artefactos arqueológicos permitiendo identificar las especie a que corresponden. Nuestro grupo de trabajo pronto trabajará en el análisis químico y arqueobotánico de residuos de pipas arqueológicas encontradas en la zona con el fin de saber qué fuente vegetal era la que se estaba utilizando con estos fines, lo que complementará la información obtenida del análisis del pelo.

La clase social y la salud pública

En lo que respecta particularmente al consumo de nicotina, nosotros analizamos la parafernalia funeraria asociada a las tumbas de donde provenían las momias y asignamos un índice, que denominamos índice de diversidad, que indicó indirectamente la riqueza de las tumba y por ende la condición social del individuo. En este caso los resultados indicaron que el consumo de nicotina era independiente de la condición social de quien lo consumía. La masticación de hojas de coca es todavía  una práctica integral de muchas de las poblaciones andinas. Este ritual  tiene un carácter sagrado y ceremonial asociado a sus propiedades medicinales como analgésico, más que a su uso como estupefaciente. El uso ancestral de la hoja de coca contrasta con el uso actual de su alcaloide mayoritario, la cocaína, por parte de las sociedades contemporáneas, que lo considera una droga estimulante del sistema nervioso central. Mi sensación es que el consumo de nicotina no provocó grandes cambios en la salud pública en épocas prehispánicas Aunque se desconoce si esas personas padecían de enfermedades asociadas al consumo de nicotina, como por ejemplo cáncer de pulmón, enfisema u otras patologías pulmonares o cardiovasculares, la expectativa de vida en esa época era tanto menor que la actual, que probablemente esas patologías no llegaban a evidenciarse. Creo que es un interesante tema para abordar en el futuro.

Líneas de investigación futuras

Esta investigación surgió enmarcada en un proyecto multidisciplinario que buscaba estudiar las interacciones y movilidad humana entre poblaciones prehispánicas del norte y centro de Chile, utilizando marcadores biomédicos, genéticos, químicos y mineralógicos. Dentro de los marcadores químicos se contemplaba en análisis de restos bioantropológicos, particularmente pelo de las momias, y restos arqueológicos tales como residuos de pipas y tabletas de inhalación de sustancias alucinógenas. Actualmente me encuentro desarrollando un proyecto postdoctoral financiado por FONDECYT que busca explorar el potencial psicoactivo de la flora del norte de Chile y su uso potencial por pueblos prehispánicos.

Echeverría, J., Niemeyer, H.M., Nicotine in the hair of mummies from San Pedro de Atacama (Northern Chile), Journal of Archaeological Science (2013), doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2013.04.030.

Centre-left coalition leader and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet looks for a second Presidential term, focusing on themes of inequality, universal education and tax reform. But have lessons been learned from the previous coalition terms?

Former President Michelle Bachelet, now official centre-left coalition Concertación candidate for the 2014 presidential elections has sketched out a campaign strategy based on the reduction in income inequality, “those who earn more, contribute more” and educational reform, which she has recently suggested would be funded by an overhaul of the tax system.

In her formal acceptance of the Concertación nomination Bachelet said, “Combating inequality is what gives us a purpose to be here. It's the fine print that affects millions of consumers who are in debt. It's the salary gap between men and women and the inability of workers to negotiate collectively.”

Daughter of the Fuerza Aérea General Alberto Bachelet, who was tortured to death by the Pinochet regime for supporting the democratically elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, Michelle Bachelet went on to become the first female President in the country’s history. Her term (2006-2010) was successful in many ways as evidenced by a December 2010 Adimark public opinion poll showing that her approval rating stood at an unprecedented 81%. Although running for a second, consecutive term is strictly prohibited under Chilean consitutional law, it is likely that her huge popularity would have propelled her into a second term of office.

The peripety in the Chilean saga, however, came in March of that year when the country took a sharp turn to the political right after the electorate essentially became weary of 20 years of Concertación governments. Although the causes of the demise of the coalition are myriad, a widely held conviction asserts that defeat was in large part due to a poorly received, lacklustre candidate in the form of Eduardo Frei. However, several significant events were influential in the slide in popularity including the fated transformation of the public transport system in the capital, Transantiago in 2007 (scornfully known at the time as ‘transanfiasco’ by miffed Santiaguinos) and the so-called Penguin revolution in 2006 (with reference to black and white school uniforms), which at its peak saw some 700, 000 high school students out on strike and occupying schools. The latter had hinted at the fact that, even as early as 2006, the coalition had become somewhat removed from the electorate as a whole and perhaps particularly from its core base of socialist support; was the Concertación moving perilously close to the centre? Perhaps. At any rate it was a clear portent of later years as the movimiento estundiantil developed into a puissant force against the deep-rooted inequalities in Chile, which are felt particularly in the education system. It is interesting to note that there we are witnessing some history-in-the-making in the dynamic of the Chilean student movement. Traditionally the political and social movements in Chile have been housed within the political parties, the action played out within this party framework. Today, however, some sections of society with grievances to protest against are turning their backs on political parties and making their voice heard independently, as well as through new avenues opened up with blogging and social media. This represents a seachange for Chilean democractic processes and it will be interesting to see how the parties react to it. Ultimately the Concertación was defeated in the 2010 election by current President Sebastían Piñera, whose government has since suffered consistently in the polls, arguably making him Chile’s least popular leader since Dictator Augusto Pinochet. The latest poll by Adimark showing only a 38% level of approval for the forelorn President. Fundamentally his unpopularity coupled with several key aspects has made him impotent; unable to govern in the more neo-liberal way that he would have wanted to. The continuation of social programmes outlined by Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet have lead many to liken the Piñera term more to a Concertación fifth government.

Meanwhile a survey by Universidad Diego Portales shows that Bachelet is a clear favourite at this stage to win the primaries (73%) and results also indicate that she is even a strong favourite for the Presidency in 2014 (43%). Piñera of course is unable under the constitution to run for a consecutive term, even if he had greater support.

In the wake of the Chilean student protests then, which are still continuing today, Bachelet is currently backing the popular vote. In her acceptance speech she said, “We must guarantee everyone a public education system that integrates them at all levels, ends profit and advances toward universal gratuity…It’s the desire of most Chileans.” Whether her assertion that most chileans desire a free and fair public education system is politically expedient or a profound realisation of the nature of public Will, there is some truth in it as shown by the recent Diego Portales survey that indicates 19 % of those canvassed saying that education is the single most important issue in Chile today, second only to delinquency.

Nevertheless the enduring perception of the Concertación years is that on balance they have had a beneficial impact on the country. One of the enduring myths of the Concertación is that poverty has been reduced over the Concertación governments and the mechanism of action has been spending, through social programmes.

The inequality felt in all quarters in Chile is often expressed in the country but it is important to point out that it is not merely subjective, a range of studies have demonstrated the point. For example, the OECD, which Chile recently joined, published data on inequality measures for all member states. The results make interesting, if not confirmatory reading: Chile is the most unequal country in the OECD. Figure 1 illustrates the situation using the Gini coefficient (ranging from 0 to 1, with higher scores indicating more inequality) and shows the worst offenders.

Figure 1.

Source: OECD 2012. Data represent the Gini coefficient (0-1) where higher values represent more inequality. A value of 0 indicates a country where all the wealth is shared equally; a value of 1 represents a country where a single individual owns all the wealth.

One of the problems of evaluating any government or series of governments is in the type of indices used to measure a given phenomenon. In the case of the reduction of poverty over the coalition years, there is evidence to challenge the myth.  As demonstrated by Kirsten Sehnbruch and colleagues, the veracity of the claim may well depend on how one defines poverty. Chile currently uses an absolute poverty index which in essence calculates the wages necessary to buy a standard basket of goods. This index is lagged in time, updated every 10 years or so. However, this measure does not take into account any relative poverty. This makes little sense especially given the rapid economic growth of Chile that has recently seen, for example, a pouring in of foreign investment.

This period of rapid economic growth in Chile that has far surpassed that of her Latin American neighbours, or the so-called “miracle of Chile” as Friedman put it, has meant more net wealth in the country as a whole and so, expectations should naturally rise for each individual; while the country is getting rich (particularly buoyed by copper sales) it is odd at best to define poverty in terms of ability to purchase basic necessities for life. The generation of wealth can and does lead to an unequal distribution. Figure 2 shows the growth in foreign investment ploughed into Chile over the years.

Figure 2.

Source: World Bank 2013. Foreign direct investment shows total net, that is, net FDI in the reporting economy from foreign sources less net FDI by the reporting economy to the rest of the world. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

So is absolute or relative poverty reducing?

Figure 3.

Source: Kirsten Sehnbruch. Extreme poverty, poverty and relative poverty based on 60% of the median level in Chile from 1990 to 2009. Social spending is plotted through the poverty indexes.

The data from Sehnbruch et al. show that while poverty in absolute terms, including extreme poverty, made a significant reduction over time, when poverty is defined as an index relative to the average in the population very little has actually changed over the Concertación years. Relative poverty stood at 27.9% in 1990, rose over the years, peaking in 2000 and was stubbornly held at 25.9% in 2009. Even if we accept the definition of poverty reduction based on absolute terms, the proposed mechanism of action, social spending relative to GDP, has barely risen over the period. In the first eight years, which witnessed the greatest reducion in absolute poverty, social spending was virtually flat-lined. The real cause of the reduction of poverty in absolute terms of course, is likely to be the liberal economic policies implemented in the period. As Figure 2 shows, there has been steady investment in Chile for some time now. A recent example includes the Google announcement of the first Latin American data centre in Chile that is purported to be worth $150M USD in investment. Nevertheless, as can be seen in the OECD figures, the crude introduction of neo-liberal policies and relaxation of state control has done nothing to tackle inequalities in the country. Indeed the relative levels of poverty, left untouched by free-market reform is testament to this fact.

Michelle Bachelet, if re-elected, has the opportunity to redress the balance in the country where the chasm between rich and poor is only growing wider; adding insult to injury, the poorest have been becoming poorer while the rich have been getting richer. All this will depend on a sizeable mandate from which to govern as Piñera discovered to his cost. Although Bacheket herself admits that her term left “much left undone”, she may indeed have an opportunity in 2014 to tackle the inequality that plagues the nation.

A version of this article originally appeared at Upsidedownworld.org

Chris Moss is a freelance travel writer and former editor at Time Out (2008-2012). He has won several awards including being included as one of the top 50 travel writers in the UK. Chris writes for a number of outlets including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Time Out, Wanderlust among many others. He is also the author of Patagonia: A Cultural History (Signal, 2008).

Website:www.chris-moss.net

Twitter:@traveloguer

Chris Moss visits some of southern Patagonia’s most pastoral corners - and fits in a little cruise en route.

The moment you cross the border at Rio Turbio you know you’ve left behind a rain shadow. Not, mind you, that it was raining when we crossed over. The sky was a soft light blue and the wispy clouds seemed always to remain on the far horizons.

But the grass was green. Where Argentine Patagonia – east of Turbio – is mainly steppe, ravine, desert and dry scrub, on the Chilean side of the Andes, at the same latitude, it is bosky and gentle on the eye. With Puerto Natales at its heart, and fjords, Andean mountains, the southern ice-field and the Torres del Paine along its edges, it’s an enticing part of the world and a sort of topographic finale at the bottom of a land of many latitudes.

I first visited Puerto Natales almost twenty years ago. Back then it looked like a frontier town. I remember corrugated iron panels on the walls of houses and hotels, a grey sky looming over Last Hope Sound, and snack bars. I’d come down from Puerto Montt on the Navimag Puerto Eden, a container ship converted to carry passengers through the long channels.

Now the town is full of boutique hotels and smart bars and restaurants, with the grand new Singular at Puerto Bories on its northern edge  - a former cold storage depot and wool factory turned into a spectacular luxury hotel. If the dwindling of the factory in the 1960s was a symbol of a troubled past, its reopening in the summer of 2011-12 was a symbol of the new Chile – ambitious, cool, design-conscious.

There are three directions you can take from Natales. One is south to Punta Arenas, a gritty place and the closest thing southern Patagonia has to a city. Rich in maritime history, it’s the port that the Panama Canal turned into a near-ghost town, and something of that loss of status no doubt hangs over “Sandy Point". But it has a cemetery full of foreign surnames, a penguin colony, the cold winds of the Magellan Strait and lots of little cafes to hide from it. If you’re ever in Chile’s XII region, drop in.

But I was heading off, for the moment, in the second direction, towards Torres del Paine. I’d passed through before, but this time I was doing - in just 12 days, if I could manage it – the whole 100km circuit around Paine Grande.

For two days, me and trusty co-walker, Bob, had to camp out in the cool drizzle. We couldn’t bring ourselves to set off in the rain after a lifetime of English country walks. The hiatus gave me time to read a bit – Chilean Patagonia has a big library, and I was enjoying the stories of John Byron, whose ship foundered in the area.

Then, the sun came out in a sky of wispy cirrus clouds and we were soon hiking, gently at first, towards Lago Dickson. This took us through flower-filled grasslands, along the banks of the Paine and the Los Perros rivers, with some slightly tougher walking through nothofagus forest. At Laguna Los Perros, we shared a pasta dinner with a Chilean family and shared our first tetrapak of super-cheap wine.

A very literal high point came next, as we forded a 1300-metre-high pass en route to Lago Grey. A blizzard met us at the top, but when it cleared – summer snowstorms are short – we had views of the immense Grey glacier, a long, white tongue of the southern ice field. It was this immense body of ancient white rock that was stirring up the weather, and we camped that night in winter-gear.

Cerro Paine Grande, the central peak of the park, is  around 2880 metres above sea-level (mountaineers dispute its height).  All the time, this snow-capped beauty teases you as you walk. Often there are clouds swirling around the craggy, ice-shattered walls at the summit, but when they clear, the views – like the warmth – are deeply satisfying. The great thing about the circuit of the park is that you experience, on terra firma and with your eyes, a huge range of environments: meadows, temperate and rain-forest woodlands, scrub, patches of steppe, mountain traverses, scree, and every ecotone between all these.

Beside Lago Grey, which was full of drifting bergy bits, there was a good campsite and even a restaurant. I prefer home cooking when I am doing the backpacker thing so Bob and I decided to forgo the stews on offer in the heated cabin and cooked up our last bowl of polenta and tomato sauce – pretty delicious, but mainly because we were feeling fit as well as fatigued after the pass.

Many of the glacier-fed lakes in Patagonia are turquoise, but Lago Pehoe might just be the most surreal.

Chris Moss

The next section was easier, but if anything more wondrous. Many of the glacier-fed lakes in Patagonia are turquoise, but Lago Pehoe might just be the most surreal. It has a sort of milky, blue-green colour, and when a southern wind blasts across the surface, white ridges form making it look like a sea from a sci-fi fantasy. After crossing the southeast corner of Cerro Paine, towards Rio Frances, I could take in one of the best views of the massif.  The pink-granite “towers” that give the national park its name are the remnants of a cirque sheared away over millennia and the cuernos, or horns, are hulking mountains of grey granite with black shale summits, and perhaps even more striking.  The trail took in lagos Nordenskjöld and Torres, and a herd of russet-coloured guanacos grazing on a riverbank, and then we were back, as dawn fell, at our original base. We set up the tent, but this time we dined in a restaurant: Patagonian micro-brewery beers, Patagonian wine, Patagonian lamb, deep sleep.

The following day, I left Natales in the third direction – the fjords – aboard a 100-birth adventure cruiser. It was a three-day trip up towards the central part of the southern ice field, by way of several glaciers and inlets. The channels of Patagonian Chile are narrow, labyrinthine and truly wild – there has not been settlement here for more than a century and the long-gone indigenous Halakwalup inhabitants were canoe Indians who only populated the shores.

The Andes are submerged here, and the ship was often walled in by bare mountains. Steamer ducks and dolphins could be seen off the bow, and I saw a condor wheeling over a hanging glacier. There are puma in these parts, and I spent hours on deck scouring the greyish section above the tree line, but to no avail. Dense forests provide perfect cover for the shy cat, and also for the rare huemul deer.

On excursions to the shore we did a few gentle walks, which stopped my Paine-worked legs from seizing up. And we were able to get right up to the walls of the glaciers, feeling the chill they emanated and listening to the growing noise of calving and the deep, invisible ruptures that occur all the time.

But the fjord cruise is a very gentle mini-Antarctic affair. You are in one of the loneliest and in some ways harshest settings in South America, but you have your boat, your ceviches and stews, your cabin. It was a relaxing wind-down after a longish trip through the two Patagonias – the dry, arid emptiness of Argentina and the more varied, more verdant and more walkable climes of southern Chile.

Chris Moss is the author of Patagonia: A Cultural history (Signal Books, 2008). He travelled to Chile witb Air France and Audley Travel.

Center-left coalition leader and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet looks for a second Presidential term, focusing on themes of inequality, universal education, and tax reform. But have lessons been learned from the previous coalition terms?

 

Former President Michelle Bachelet, now official center-left coalition Concertación candidate for the 2014 presidential elections has sketched out a campaign strategy based on the reduction in income inequality, “those who earn more, contribute more”, and educational reform, which she has recently suggested would be funded by an overhaul of the tax system.

 

In her formal acceptance of the Concertación nomination Bachelet said, “Combating inequality is what gives us a purpose to be here. It's the fine print that affects millions of consumers who are in debt. It's the salary gap between men and women and the inability of workers to negotiate collectively.”

Matthew Owens

Read more at upsidedownworld.org

We had a chat with Cristobal Torres, the hands behind the Chilean electronic music that is Minimental, who took time out to speak to chileno about what he's up to at the moment. Cristobal is from Santiago and his style is a

chileno:       So, what have you been up to recently Cristobal?

Well,  I`ve been releasing music on a new label based in Chile for progressive and psychedelic trance `Digital Yonkis Records`, an EP and a compilation album have been released with good feedback from everyone, so I'm really happy about it!

chileno:       How would you describe your sound and what are some of your main influences?

It's kinda difficult to define, because it's a mix of styles; progressive, deep, techno psychedelic…even experimental. It's something that flows, I can`t push myself to create a style that I don't fit in. My main influences came from the time when i produced psytrance, lots of the old school wave of the psychedelic techno sounds and of course new sounds too, to name a few: Atmos, Behind Blue Eyes, Sun Control Species, Perfect Stranger, X-Dream, Saiko pod, Kox Box, Penta, Ocelot, Iboga Records, Spiral Trax, Digital Structures, Flow, Echoes, etc.

chileno:      Are there any British sounds that you like? Boards of Canada or Aphex Twin for example?

Well, Simon Posford, Twisted Records, Tip Records, Prometheus, Eat Static, Shpongle, ManwithnoName, TRISTAN, NaNo,Dick Trevor,AMD, etc,etc,etc.

chileno:       What’s your philosophy in making music?

Just flow and create something new, not a copy, not thinking about a hit…just create.

chileno:       When did you first get into music?

At 10, when my dad gave me a drum, then I played a bit of bass til 14. After that, nothing til 2004, when I introduced myself into psychedelic trance. That´s when I met people involved and started DJing and since 2007 producing.

chileno:       Do you play in clubs a lot?

Well, there have been two years with not much music activity, playing just a few times a year, but now I'm focusing on music again, releasing and producing in my new studio.

chileno:       What’s the electronica scene like in Chile today?

Techno scene is quite big, good artists coming every month and good parties, psychedelic is serious, with some consolidated festivals and parties in the city often. Very good artists are coming up, good music and very professional in what they do, so it´s good for everyone.

chileno:       What other Chilean groups do you like?

Well, of course most of my friends producers/DJs from the label and others, they are producing massive tunes! Moaiact, Zlott, Electryxeed, Zoologic, Soldier, Sumerian Droids, Solar, Magnizm and more.

chileno:      Have you got any live gigs coming up?

Yes, but no official date to confirm.

chileno:   When you are not playing music what do you like doing?

I`m with my little daughter Rafaella a lot, but after work I train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 3 times a week, and after being with Rafa i try to go cycling whenever possible, be with family, friends, outdoors, sports, cool stuff you know.

chileno:   What are you most excited about at the moment

Being a father. :)

chileno:   What are your plans for 2013?

Release a lot of music, play lots, have fun and of course, enjoy!

Keep up with Minimental via facebook.

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer who lives in California. She was born in Colombia and has traveled all over South America, experiencing regional and national Spanish dialects. She loves writing about travel and languages of all types. Marcela is an online marketing professional with expertise in social networking, search marketing, and web analytics in the Los Angeles area. She has written on everything from health & wellness, marketing and technology.

It is often remarked upon how the English spoken by Americans isn’t really “English,” but within the small area of the United Kingdom—or even just England—a diverse range of accents and slang can make one person almost unintelligible to their neighbour.

This language barrier becomes even more pronounced when time and vast oceans separate the native tongue from the soil to which it was transplanted. Any Spanish speaker from Spain will tell you that the same language spoken in South American countries may be called “Spanish,” but they would be hard pressed to understand exactly what their Southern brethren are saying, unless they learned the country’s particular dialect.

Chilean Spanish stands apart from other Latin American dialects, due partly to the blend of indigenous languages from the original natives. As regional dialects vary from country to country, even those who speak fluent Latin American Spanish can run into miscommunication while in Chile, sometimes leading to funny results.

Background

Chilean Spanish is part of the “American Spanish group” (in contrast to the Old World varieties), alongside Mexican, Caribbean (Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama, and northern Colombia), Central American, Plata River (Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) and Andean-Pacific (Peru, Ecuador, western Bolivia, Colombia and western Venezuela). Chilean Spanish is in a group by itself, unlike most other countries, which are grouped together in distinct regions.

Of the 16 million Chileans, over 90% speak Spanish as their primary language. Similar to Andalusian Spanish, it is a dialect that can be challenging for speakers of the Castilian version (from Spain) to understand.

Many indigenous groups lived in the region prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, however, only 11 percent of the population is indigenous today. Many languages have become extinct or borderline extinct as the native population waned.

After the Spanish, who began intermarrying with indigenous peoples, populated Chile, the connection and reinforcement of the original Castilian Spanish began to fall away, leading to the development of this new dialect.

Differences from other Spanish dialects

Chilean Spanish has a great deal of distinctive vocabulary and slang. Many words are borrowed from neighbouring Amerindian language, Quechua. Chilenismos also borrow heavily from the native language, Mapudungun, primarily for names of plants and animals.

There are few regional divisions within the country, with the Spanish spoken in the Northern, Central, and Southern areas being relatively consistent throughout. Areas like Aysén, Magallanes, Chiloé, or Arica have greater differences, especially in the accent. There is remarkable variation in the Spanish spoken by different social classes, as well, centering on the usage of “voseo,” amongst other grammatical quirks.