Footprints...Closure of CSC Chile 5 In Country Assignments (4th April)

Four weeks of our assignment have flown at an unexpected pace. As #ibmcsc Chile 5 teams make final presentations to the client (after 2 days of nation wide Tsunami alerts), it was filled with mixed feeling, one of being at a logical point along with a feeling that its over this soon. 

Team with members of Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.

On Friday, all client teams were together and so were the teams for closure meeting.for one last time. Yes all will be in touch, including our clients, but not doing the same work. All of us head back to our day jobs, with new experiences and yearning to apply these. Teams would in parallel be eager to track progress on projects each of us were involved in to see how far they go.

As we move on, towards the fag end of our stay in Puerto Montt, am reminder of set of footsteps we saw in the first week, conveying a story of their own. We now head our way, leaving a little behind, which we hope will make some difference.

Back to the business of the day, Final presentations were done and then Mr Aldo (President of Sinergias) took us for a nice Peruvian Lunch. He has been a great support to two of the teams on this assignment all through the four weeks, even staying with us till late along with Marcia when the first Tsunami alert was there. He has a grand vision and passion to get things moving. Sure, he gets all the right support to make a difference not just to Puerto Montt, but to Chile, region and world at large.

Back to lunch, it was a nice Peruvian restaurant, and true to his way Aldo was helping us with Menu and recommending items. Food was very nice. 

This was followed by part of the team heading for a boat ride, while other for shopping etc. Zuzana's birthday is tomorrow and as folks will be leaving out starting in morning, team celebrations kicked off too.

As team retreated with Good Byes, it was time to start our return to bases, some of us will definitely be able to meet with each other, but given the geographical disbursement of team, may not be possible, but will remain connected. Some folks are awaiting to head home tomorrow, while others are on their way to a short vacation. Am heading to Santiago for 5 more days and then back to base. Will update with events in Santiago as well.

Earthquake and Tsunami

This is not what you write in your CSC blog, but that is one of the experience that has been added to our #ibmcsc Chile experience. A strong earthquake, which was earlier put as 8.0 and then upgraded to 8.2 stuck off the Northern coast of Chile. Though it is a few thousand kilometers away, it did trigger a Chile wide Tsunami warning, which we could hear on our cell phones. Hotel too confirmed that though warning is in place for all of the country, its more a precaution here, and this region is on inner bay, not directly on the ocean.

There have been 12 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or above in the earthquake area.

I am once again in ring of fire (last was in Japan). Chile is known for its powerful earthquake, last being 8.8 a few years back. Not only that, the biggest earthquake recorded has been in the region we are presently, way back in 1960 at 9.4. Its been amazing to see how people picked up pieces and moved on learning lessons along the way to avoid damage.




Our client from SINERGIAS and representative from Pyxera joined us post alert in the hotel and were with us till way past midnight to cool nerves. Police cars have been patrolling the street right in front of the hotel ensuring no one goes out to the sea. Our hotel faces the same. As we signoff for the night, our hope is that all those close to the epicenter are safe and there is not much damage of any kind.

Raining Kayaking Weekend

This was the last official weekend we had in Puerto Montt before the close of assignment. The winter chill is setting in (with snow at 700 Meters only) and weather true to its character was so different than the clear week. 

We had two sets of activities planned with different teams going on both (with some overlap). The first was visit to hot springs (which was not very keen on) and then the Sunday trip for Kayaking. Having been to multiple rafting trip and a late minute entry to Kayaking, was of the view that this may be similar, but weather had different tricks up its sleeves.

We were to start rafting in a lake, but winds and slight rains meant the water was not that stable with waves and we moved out to a river downstream which had cover from waves by the way of hills around around, providing a nice place to kayak. Only issue in this area were logs in the river and avoidance of the same. 

With rains pouring every minute, only Masahiro was using his camera. Dave had brought his too, but his and Zuzana's kayak hit a log in river and overturned. Masahiro and myself were in the same Kayak, Masahiro was brave enough to use his phone to click pictures while Kayaking in that rain, which only grew harder by the minute.

By the time we did break for lunch rainfall was so heavy that we could not have eaten food at an open beach, so place selected was between forested area and camp team had a small tent to ensure water did not enter our food.

Overall rain kept getting heavy and we had to cut the trip close to 15 Kms but we got some breathtaking views of the river course, hills around, low clouds and snow at just 700 meters, apart from couple of water falls visible from the river. We now head into our last week of the #ibmcsc Chile assignment and closure on the reports

Week 3 - and Interviews continue

We have ended week 3 of the #ibmcsc Chile assignment. with 75% of time spent we are looking at just about another week to close on the project. Week has seen a set of meetings and also our volunteering activity involving reading companion and Control your Identity pertaining to Internet security in Alerce.

Meetings in the week included those with Valida, Department of Ports, among others. This was followed by a meeting on Aqua Culture at University of Santo Thomas. This last meeting was unique given that it gave us a view of how Salmons are breed in industry and harvested for profit in controlled conditions.

Another key highlight of the week as stated above was our volunteering activity. Masahiro, coming from the land of Manga's and Animation characters was an Instant celeberity and everyone wanted to be clicked with him. It was fun to see the excitement all around the group with this. Students instantly connected with him.

Clear weekend and Calbuco

Am not a morning person and getting up early is not my forte, but when you have to trek you need to be up in the morning and that is what was needed for this Saturday (22nd). The day, in fact the whole weekend is expected to be clear and we headed in the small bus provided by the trekking agency from our hotel early.

The trek started close to 6:30 AM (Phew, thats too early for me to even be awake) amidst darkness and small lights that people had with a torch on head and one from iPhone flash light, but day break was not expected to be far and after the first checkpoint we start seeing the first light of the Sun.

 

Day was clear and expected to remain so throughout the day, and we were cruising along to hit the peak in time, but had a small delay when one member was a bit dehydrated and  we paused for some time. Moving ahead along the branches, where at a place one of the roots I was holding to pull myself up came in my hand and alas twisted ankle badly. That was the end of the summit chase, but not of the trek, continuing up to the location after which one ankle could not help.

Its disappointing when you are done with 85% of trek and still cannot keep up with the group because of an unwanted injury, but then thats how life is, you cannot get everything you want. Got some nice shots close to the rocks before the wall, which one foot would not have allowed me to climb.

 

The way back took equally long and we were walking again in darkness. At times stopping to confirm if we are on right trail as well. We were back at the starting point after over 15 hours, but these 15 hours were definitely fun and we did have first time climbers making it to the summit despite all odds. Kudos to the spirit of the team and proud to be part of such a team. This was followed by a late entry to hotel, bath quick dinner and some soothing music before hitting bed. (Off-course the trekking agency had beers arranged for folks after reaching the starting point to celebrate the climb.)

Sunday again was a lazy day with many folks deciding not to come out of rooms till late. A group did go out for boating and I managed to capture some nice clicks while taking a stroll along with shore. This capping what has been one of the best weekends in Chile (and if I add Riyadh time as well, one of the best weekend I have had in last 1.5 years thanks to #ibmcsc Chile team)

Week 2 18-19 Mar (delayed log)

Once again, this log is delayed and this is more than a week, but anyhow here it is. After the first meeting on Wednesday, we had more meetings scheduled on Thursday and Friday for our project. This time with Directemar (a division within Navy responsible for Environmental impact review of projects) and Navy. Meeting was chaired by the Maritime Governor of the region, with Puerto Montt Leader in attendance and teams from Directemar also present. Meeting went on for over an hour and representative from Chamber was also present in the meeting.

Post the meeting and during our walk towards AngelMo for lunch before the next set of meetings we had a surprise visitor again.

We had two more meetings post this on the same day, one with Minvu, which is Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in the region to go over the plans currently being worked on to support better connectivity in the city and hence provide additional backend integeration support to the proposed port. Meeting was pretty fruitful here too.

Second meeting for #ibmcsc chile 5, we had post this was at Santo Thomas University with Dean of Faculty of Tourism. This is one of the few universities having such courses, but these are not regionally tailored. Our trip was to understand perception of tourism in the region and skilled labor supply that such Universities can provide to the Industry as a whole. Again a good meeting here too.

Next day was reserved for meetings with SEASA (Electrical Supplying agency in the country) followed by another with ESSAL (responsible for Water Discharges). All the meetings are about understanding the underline concerns and feasibility study inputs for the new port / marina.

Even if due to time constraint, we are unable to close on all discussion points, what these visits are doing is that they help get a dialog going between stakeholders. Hopefully we can close all open points next week and progress further on this, but before that we have a weekend with trek planned to Volcano Calbuco, so lets see how that goes

First Part of the week (17 to 19)

First two days of this week were not much different to what was the case in last week. Just that Monday was St Patrik's day as well as Holi. One is celebrated in many parts of the world, with it being a bank holiday in Ireland, while second is a big festival in North India. Dee had even brought Bailey's Irish Creme for this day from her home. Nice team celebrations for the same

 

Tuesday was a Business as usual day, but one thing could not help notice was the color of the sea. Depending on the wind direction color can be from light to very dark blue almost heading towards black at times. Have tried to find reason but no success so far. What we also got on Tuesday was a schedule for first set of meetings with stakeholders that will be crucial for our projects, first one being Empormontt on Wednesday - the port authority for Puerto Montt which also manages Castro Port.

The visit to Port on Wednesday was a good experience, with #ibmcsc Chile teams donning Hard Hats for the site visit which included a walk through passenger terminal when passengers were disembarking from one of the last ships of this summer season, apart from a visit to the Industrial site. We got an inside to the jetty usage for passengers and how and when ships dock right at the port.

This was followed by a short sightseeing at Angelmo, the local artisan market in Puerto Montt, right next to the port which acts as a tourist attraction in the region.

 Post this we had a surprise close visit by a sea lion. First elusive and then apparent as if posing. This was while waiting for the van and before heading out to the office in second half.

Tomorrow we have another set of meetings, starting with representatives of Navy, then with Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs and lastly with a University's Head of Tourism Department (only large university having this curriculum)

Weekend in Chiloe : from Biodiversity to Penguins (15-16 March)

This was the first full weekend on our #ibmcsc Chile assignment and thanks to Collin, Julia and Warran, we had a nice weekend getaway planned for Chiloe Archipelago. This being a bus and a short ferry ride away. Trip planned included a night stay and was to cover a few main areas of Chiloe (namely : Dalcahue, Castro and Ancud) apart from a national park, but there were few items apart from the fun we had in this trip as a team which stood out and am trying to highlight those along with other stuff here.

One thing that definitely created issues along the way on this trip was weather with on and off rains throughout and tides that prevented us from taking the boat trip to Penguinera but then this is the season for rains and this area is known for it. Back to what was observed.

Bio Diversity: Yes, we did go to a national park and covered the flora of the region, but there are few things that we got to know during this trip that stood out. First of them being the fact that even though the area is green and forested, the base of what constitute the regional forest is changing and change is not determined by nature, but picked by humans. Yes there are natural elements that do take part in this entire process and only time will be able to judge if the choices made now make sense in future but these changes are here. 

Changes for instance are in trees that cover the mother earth. Local trees take hundreds of years to grow and cover land. Planting these trees does not restore green cover, it takes years to grow, what can be cut down in minutes. To promote conservation of such trees, govt is providing tax break to land owners who maintain these trees, but then it does not compensate for what has been lost due to whatever reason. To cover losses, trees such has Pine and Eucalyptus have been brought in from North America and people are being encouraged to plant these. These grow fast, but are not part of the local flora and fauna. How these tree selection impacts the food chain, the overall mineral content in soil and other factors will be visible in period of time, not now, not in 10 years.

Moving away from trees, bio diversity on this included lot of birds including but not limited to the endagered black neck swan (could capture an entire group of these), pelicans and offcourse penguins. Though we could not sail on a boat the islands used by Penguins for breeding and setting up colonies due to tidal conditions on the day, we could still capture a few on camera.

In Flight

The Endangered Black Headed Swan

Magallen Penguins

Architecture: This part of the island does have distinct west European touch. Puerto Montt was established and grown by German Immigrants but Chiloe though so close was not the same case. Chiloe was the base of Spanish forces and they had put Castro as their main location. Leaving Dalcahue even though that was a local fishing port, to ensure there is no conflict with local population, a strategy in contrast to the way they were ruling the main land. Same influence was in Ancud their main military base even after Chile's independence.

In-spite of this influence there were a few things that stood out. For instance the color of church in Castro, never seen such bright colors on any church so far.

Main Square - Castro

Colorful Church - Castro

Pilafitos - Saving tax on land and building stilt houses on sea area - Castro

Folklore: Key part of the folklore is driven by Dragons (a la Chinese folklore) and same is captured in local museums. Another key aspect is that of a Trucao spirit among others.

Dragons as per local folklore

Disaster Management: This area was hit by one of the most powerful Earthquakes recorded in human history at 9.8 Richter scale in the year 1960. The only rail line lost and as the image below shows, the only house standing in this picture is actually flown down by the third Tsunami from another village, was not here.

People have worked hard and there is a Tsunami warning system with evacuation routes defined in all areas. Parts of Chiloe are on Pacific coast unlike Puerto Montt, and have a good system in place including warning systems which are tested at noon.

Picture of 1960 devastation - House shown in the pic was flown by water from another village

Tsunami evacuation route in Ancud