More Photos

I finally got around to editing the rest of my Chile pictures and putting them online. Next project is picking the best 100 or so and putting them up on facebook.

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/Goodbyechile2#

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/LeavingWeek1#

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/BuenosAiresandSpringDC#

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/Travelingwgringos#

Weekend In Iquique

I spent this past weekend in Iquique. Its a city six hours to the north of Antofagtasta. Its a lot like the city of Antofagasta except prettier, warmer and cheaper. The ride up to Iquique was somewhat monotonous; desert mountains on one side rocky ocean coastline on the other side, greenery nowhere to be seen. It was a really good weekend. I went paragliding and spent a lot of time at the beach. Paragliding was a lot of fun and I got a great view of the city of Iquique. You don't really jump off the cliff to get going .. rather the wind fills up under the parachute and lifts you up and back so its not at all scary.

This past weekend was a big weekend for Chile. Chile beat Columbia in soccer and officially qualified for the 2010 World Cup. We watched the game at a bar and the crowd got real into the game cursing the players out for every missed goal and the refs out for every call that went against them. After the game, everyone went out into the streets, cars drove around honking their horns with people in them waving Chilean flags and at the town square a good size crowd of people gathered chanting and singing the Chilean national anthem. One of the volunteers said that her family all got in their car and drove around for an hour honking their horn with rest of the traffic. At one intersection a man got out of the car and did an impromptu Cueca dance with the Chilean flag playing the role of the handkerchief.

This past weekend daylight savings went into effect for Chile. This now means I'm one hour ahead of those of you in Washington DC. When the United States time change goes into effect I think I'll be two hours ahead.

Compulsory Voting Research

So far through my preliminary research on the debate topic I've discovered that Chile has a voting system that seems to combine the worst aspects of a voluntary and compulsory voting systems. The system is as follows: registering to vote is optional ... however once you are registered to vote you are required to vote and you can't unregister yourself. As a result a decent percentage population of Chile is not registered to vote (especially the young)and have no plans on registering because they don't want to have to vote in every election. The voting system raises the cost of registering to vote without increasing any benefits or registering. As a result, people not registered to vote here probably pay less attention to politics here then unregistered people in the United States do.

Set Up

Hi,

I've decided to create this blog in order to keep in touch with everybody when I go to Chile. I know from past experiences that I am both fairly bad at staying in touch with people who don't live in my geographic area and fairly bad at remembering and relating the stories that happen to me. I hope that this blog will help with both. I will be able to write down my stories here, allowing me to remember them and also telling my friends and family about what I am experiencing. 

When I am abroad, I am sure I am going to miss everyone here in the States horribly so I highly encourage you to post comments here or to email me at welcher.paul@gmail.com. Because of the wide range of audiences that could be viewing this blog, I do ask that you keep any comments relatively pc ... (hence why the email is also provided ;P). Finally, this whole blog operates under the assumption that I will have access to internet in Chile. While, I believe this to be the case please be patient while I get myself set-up over there.