it is not down in any map; true places never are: Santiago/ Valpo Market

I just realized that I only have 14 days left of school ... including my finals. This seems absolutely absurd ... the fact that I have gotten through an entire semester and that I will be done with this experience so soon. Part of what surprises me so much is the fact that I can't believe finals are coming so soon and that I still feel like I haven't accomplished much in most of my classes. In reality I came to Chile to work on spanish and my classes have definitely helped me with the language so that's what I need to take from this.

Saturday we had a program trip to Santiago which focused on human rights and the politics during the era of Pinochet. The trip was really interesting and it took us to the municipal cemetery, through the city and to one of the hundreds of sites of torture through Chile during the 70's - which was converted in 2004 to a park for peace.

Learning about the politics during the era of Pinochet from Chileans and hearing all of the different points of view has been extremely interesting. As it would be in any society there are those that see Pinochet as someone who saved Chile from economic depression and is to thank for the prosperity they have today. Whereas there are many people who see Pinochet as a dictator who is to blame for the thousands of "desaparecidos", those who disapeared, during his regime. At the cemetery general we saw the graves of Salvador Allende who was taken down by Pinochet, as well as the family grave of Pinochet. Our guide mentioned that at times there are fresh flowers on the graves of the Pinochets and other times there are eggs thrown at them. The three following pictures are from the cemetery general in Santiago.

La Villa Grimaldi, currently a park for peace which was converted from a torturing ground for those in opposition of Pinochet. There were probably a dozen different little areas each with their own symbolism or purpose. For example, there was a small rose garden as shown in this picture and each rose bush signified each woman that was lost during the time of Pinochet.

This cube represented that the lives of those trapped inside the camp were off balance. Inside was a small collection of articles found in the camp.

It was definitely a different kind of day. The tour wasn't your typical walk around buying cheap touristy stuff or taking pictures in front of important buildings. It was a very sobering day and it got me to research more of what I had heard and try to better understand the magnitude of it all.

Sunday was a rest and make up for all the time I've been spending lately not doing homework day : ) But I spent a few hours walking around a flea market in Valpo with a friend. It was full of little stands selling things off of big sheets. There was a lot of used clothings and shoes, misc. hardware, toys, pirated movies and cd´s, old books and basically anything else you could imagine ... for example: