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.