Where is Wahab?

Where's Wahab...? What a great question. Currently I am in a Starbucks in Santiago writing this post. The past few days have been nuts. I arrived back in concepcion two days ago as forest fires began to spread across the central region of Chile. My plan was to take a bus to Santiago today to catch my flight to Ecuador, the promptly shut the roads in and out of conce due to the fires. I had to pack my stuff asap and book a plane ticket to fly here otherwise I would have missed my flight to Ecuador!

The worst thing about the fires is that they were started, or at least some of them, intentionally!!! Pine and eucalyptus plantations have long been a source of political debate since they were mostly planted during the dictatorship and are non native species. For that reason, even as the fireman are racing to put out one fire there are people starting new ones. Friends of mine have had to evacuate their houses in areas close to concepcion, several people have died and gone missing.

I was actually in concepcion watching a huge ash cloud engulf the city and ash falling everywhere, I will upload photos when I am back from my trip.

Being stuck in Santiago for a few days, I decided to take advantage and do some research or my year abroad project. I went to the museo de la memoria which aims to keep the memories of the dictatorship and the atrocities that happened during it alive so it may never happen again. There is a lot of powerful stuff in that museum, and it wasn't always easy to face some of the exhibitions and video material but I really recommend a visit if you're here. The Bellavista area that I'm in is a very cool place, on a Friday night there are all sorts of things going on. I went on a pub crawl with some guys and girls from the hostel I stayed in to visit some of the local bars and clubs, just walking down the street there are all kinds of bands, dancers, food. It's a nice part to escape the really urban and greyer sector of Stgo.

I'm off to the airport soon to fly to Peru and then Ecuador. I may update my blog whilst I am there but well have to see. Hopefully ill be too busy paddling all day everyday!!