Surf and Turf in Chanco and Loanco

January is a most colorful and productive time in the coastal area of central Chile where the two poor but proud villages of Chanco and Loanco by some stroke of fate find themselves. The long beach that runs between the poor fishing vilage of Loanco all the way up to the foot of the Carranza lighthouse can be a seafood gatherers paradise, occasionally giving up to the alert beachcomber edible seaweed called ulte and cochayuyo, large mussels called cholgas, abelone called locos, sea urchins called erizos and delicious remadora crabs. These, combined with fried or grilled filets of sea bass called corvina and hake called merluza, are a seafood lover's dream.

Chanco is a sleepy town just 25 kilometers to the south of Loanco, and though it is right by the sea,is a mostly agriculture town. One small store in town sells the ubiquitous Chanco cheese, although most Chanco cheese sold in Chile comes from somewhere else. Chanco's Sunday farmers market in the streets of town is a show of healthy eating. This area of Maule is known for its onions, garlic, peppers, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, and during certain times of the year huge, flavorful strawberries. Of course they sell lemons, essential for pisco sours.

The best way to describe what both places provide is through pictures, pictures we took a couple of weeks ago during a visit to that lovely part of rural, coastal Chile....enjoy!

.

Posted on February 5, 2012, in Santiago, Chile.

The New Coastal Panorama of Maule

“The New Coastal Panorama of Maule", reads the title of the article in El Mercurio’s Vivienda Y Decoración magazine section that greeted us the day we arrived in Chile. Beautiful pictures of architecturally interesting buildings situated right at water’s edge in the small fishing villages of Boyeruca, Duao, Pellines, Pelluhue, Curanipe and Loanco proudly provided visual testimony of the near completion of this Ruta del Mar project. This is a notable example of one group of Chileans (Grupo Antofagasta Minerals) helping their artisan fishing brothers and sisters recover from the tsunami of February 27, 2010.
The idea was to create a series of structures in the fishing villages that would combine modern and traditional design while providing services to attract tourists and space for the artisan fishermen to store their fishing equipment and carry out the chores of cleaning and marketing their catch. I must admit to having been skeptical when this program was announced over a year ago. It just seemed too innovative, even transformational for these poorest of Chilean villages. So when I saw the pictures in this flashy, mostly “good news” magazine, all so very attractive, I felt a surge of optimism. But upon closer scrutiny of the pictures and the story, I got a different feeling, that things were not yet going as expected.

So, just a week after arriving in Chile, we set off to ill-fated Maule again to observe the earthquake/tsunami recovery process first hand. This time Ximena went along, to visit Ximena’s sister Veronica and her husband Joaquin at their home that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, with El Faro Carranza in view to the north, and my adopted fishing village of Loanco to the south. The Pan American highway, as it heads south from Santiago, cuts straight through beautiful vineyards and orchards, through the central valley towns of Rancagua, San Fernando, Curico, and then Talca. The Rio Claro flows from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean, crossing the highway just south of Talca. The tall two-lane bridge over the Rio Claro became an icon when it was totally destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. For the past two years, the rebuilding of this bridge has had the effect of a tourniquet tied tightly around this north-south transportation artery that runs the entire length of Chile, producing traffic backups and long delays. We passed alongside the collapsed bridge, on a temporary structure, recalling the enormity of the damage caused to Chile’s infrastructure in the 2010 earthquake. But, this is the last of the major road and bridge repairs required along the Pan American highway. Traffic is moving much more smoothly now, and the reconstruction of this 125 meter-long bridge is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012. They claim this one is antiseismic. Let’s hope so.

Just past the Rio Claro we turned west off the highway and took the road that winds through first agriculture and then forested land as it crosses the coastal range and decends into Constitucion, one of the towns most affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Constitucion is still cleaning up the rubble and trying to rebuild. The Celco pulp mill, initially closed due to water damage from the tsunami, is clearly working, belching characteristically ugly, odorous smoke into the clear coastal air, but people are back to work. Rebuilding Constitution is surely one of the greatest challenges the Chileans face. Terribly convoluted issues of sorting out land ownership, approval and application of new building standards, establishing procedures to provide subsidized funding for homes and businesses, all take seemingly endless weeks and months to work out. The area along the river, totally destroyed two years ago is still awaiting resolution of these issues, showing little progress to date. If I were to suggest it would take 8 to 10 years to get Constitucion back on its feet I could be accused of being overly optimistic.

In the face of this challenge, though, there is one encouraging story to be told: the rebirth of “Cabanas Playa El Cable”. Three kilometers down the narrow road that runs south along the coast from the beach area of Constitucion to a fishing pier originally built to service the Celco mill, is where Guillermo and Javiera lost their home and their tourist business (cabins and restaurant) to the tsunami. Their story has been told in part in earlier postings on this blog (See April 26, 2011 posting ). We decided to pay them a visit, before going on to “El Faro”, to see how they were progressing with their rebuilding, and if feasible, arrange to stay overnight the next Sunday on our way back to Santiago.

When we drove down to the parking area, Guillermo and Javiera dropped what they were doing and rushed to great us. Proudly pointing out the now 20 cabins finished and ready for occupancy, the pool area already being used, and the attractive two-story restaurant, they assured us we would have a cabin to stay in Sunday evening, the restaurant would be open for dinner, and they would tell us all about how they were doing.

So, we moved on down the coast, almost jubilant from having seen Guillermo and Javiera so excited about the progress they have made. We bought several merluza filets at a roadside stand and drove to Veronica and Joaquin’s home, called “El Faro”. We unloaded our bags from the car, and immediately joined Marira and George (Veronica and Joaquin’s daughter and Scotch/Chilean husband), who had prepared slices of mild Chanco cheese, spicy salame, and pisco sours for the “El Faro happy Hour”. We sat on the porch and marveled at how pacific the Pacific Ocean was, not a normal condition, and how low the water was around the long rib of rocks protruding into the ocean from the shore near where the Carranza lighthouse is. This group of rocks is inhabited by hundreds of sea lions (called “lobos” locally), and this afternoon, without the normal high winds and rough surf, the lions produced a din so loud (and an occasional whiff of guano so strong) they seemed to be right next to us.

With the dust from our journey from Santiago finally washed from our throats, we drove to the small fishing village of Loanco, to meet Veronica and Joaquin for dinner at another “adopted” place, Restaurante Las Rocas, the rebuilt seaside restaurant owned by Maria and Dago (also the subject of earlier postings in this blog). As we drove down the hill into town, a weird feeling hit me. I knew why immediately, but I didn’t say anything. I was trying to rationalize what I was seeing, but to no avail. There were no boats in Loanco!
No boats, no tractor to pull them out of the water, no flocks of seagulls picking over piles of discarded fish, no dogs running around, no refrigerated trucks loading fish, and most noteworthy..no fishermen. I was shocked to say the least. But not too shocked to have a nice dinner of abalone (“locos”)fried merluza and corvina, and a generous amount of Misiones de Rengo sauvignon blanc


Incredible as it may sound, the artisan fishermen of Loanco, with their new boats and motors made possible by donations received after the tsunami destroyed everything they had, have decided to move their boats out of Loanco, 7 kilometers up the coast, to a spot they claim is more appropriate for launching and landing their boats. No matter, apparently, that the new Ruta del Mar installation has now been finished and is ready to be put into operation. So, Loanco's shores are desolate, and the new restaurant, equipment storage and fish processing facility stands vacant. Unbelievable, but true.


The next day, Ximena and I checked out the new Ruta del Mar facility at Pellines, just a few kilometers up the road from Loanco, also featured in the El Mercurio V&D magazine. .
Here also, the new facility is finished, but closed. Reason? Paperwork for operating the restaurant has not been finalized. So, in the middle of summer, the tourist season, this establishment also just sits and waits for someone to do something. The fate of these much acclaimed facilites in Loanco and Pellines remains uncertain, but while an optimist would suggest everything will eventually work out, I am of the mind that a lot of thought went into the design of the "Ruta del Mar" facilities, but far too little attention to the business and implementation side of the project. It seems like these facilities were just turned over to a group of fishermen and their families with little concern for who would be in charge and how they would operate the business. We




returned to Constitucion to spend the night at Guillermo and Javiera's lovely seaside cabins. Over cold pisco sours, pastel de jaiva,(crabmeat pie) grilled reineta, and some Concha y Toro Sauvinon blanc Reserva, we talked about how they were able to rebuild their business. It seems that their location so close to the sea prohibits insurance that is required for normal business bank loans, so they have had to scratch for capital. But little by little, they are making it. The night we were there the cabins were mostly occupied. They want to hook into tourism agencies with US and European clients, but so far are benefiting mostly from word of mouth to market their place. Soon they will build their new home up on a bluff above the cabins alongside the road. The old one was wiped out by the tsunami, and the new restaurant has been built on that site. It's not easy for Guillermo and Javiera, and it is not clear that they will be able to capture a reliable flow of guests to continue to improve and expand their business, but the energy and persistence with which they are going forward, with very little help from official relief programs, is encouraging.

So there you have it; three post-tsunami projects: Restaurante Las Rocas, Cabanas Playa El Cable and Ruta del Mar. Two moving ahead through the perseverance and hard work of committed entrepreneurs, Maria and Dago, Guillermo and Javiera, and the other stalled due in part to uncertain management responsibilities and capabilities, and ineffective involvement of local public sector agencies and bureaucratic lethargy. After an event like the Chilean tsunami, it is not easy to get businesses back operating and people back to work. But it is essential. Small businesses are the lifeblood of towns like Loanco, Pellines, Chanco, and Constitucion. To get them going again requires access to capital and temporary relief from taxes on small business. Support from government to decrease regulatory hurdles helps, but as these three cases prove, finding your own source of capital and simply moving ahead with the rebuilding process without waiting for public or private assistance seems to work best. In fact that is what Guillermo says he suggests to his small business friends.."just get going! Don't wait for help. If it comes, all the better. But don't wait for it."


Posted on February 5, 2012, in Santiago, Chile

Reading the Tees in Haiti

Before last week, I had been in Haiti twice, each time as a development officer working for USAID. Once I went to visit the agriculture development program, run at the time by my friend Vince, and another time to sort out a food aid problem. During both visits I saw a lot of Haiti, and each time marveled at how utterly desperate and intimidating the urban centers were, but how orderly and welcoming the countryside was. Years of political chaos, civil unrest, and natural disasters have left Haiti a relative anomaly in the western hemisphere…dirt poor and seemingly going nowhere. Donor countries like the US keep pouring money into Haiti, a country that for most of the time since Baby Doc Duvalier left in 1987 has been poorly governed and seemingly working hard to stay poor. Most Haitians were used to being poor even back during the Duvalier years, but life is even more difficult because general insecurity has grown in the absence of the oppressive control of the Duvaliers.

So in January of 2010, when a devastating 7.0 earthquake hit the island of Hispaniola, with special fury on the swarming city of Port au Prince, those who thought the situation couldn’t be worse for millions of Haitians in abject poverty were proven sadly wrong. In a country of over ten million people (over two million Haitians live outside of the country, mostly in the US and Dominican Republic), at least 300,000 homes were destroyed leaving over 1.5 million homeless. Port au Prince was shaken to the ground, the beautiful shining white presidential palace, the stately national cathedral,




and the historic national assembly, all in the center of town, reduced to Roman-like ruins. (Note: Chile’s earthquake that occurred just a few weeks after the Haiti quake was stronger (8.8), but the damage was so much greater in Haiti. I have reported on the Chile quake in several early postings on this blog, but resist making comparisons due to the stark differences in the conditions in the two countries.) In the first few months after the quake, frightened and searching for a place to stay with friends or family, at least 600,000 Haitians who inhabited the capital city left for the countryside and other cities. Hundreds of public and private relief agencies rushed into the country to fill the vacuum of an inoperative government that was incapable of responding to such a large tragedy. They set up at least ten huge tent cities inside of Port au Prince and some outside..



After a couple of months, as the people saw activity and opportunity begin to pick up in Port au Prince mainly due to the resources brought in by the relief agencies, many of the same refugees who had left Port au Prince came back into the city in search of food, medicines, water, shelter, and work that was more available in the capital than outside. And until now this trend has continued, with possibly as many as 2.5 million people in and around the city where it normally, before the quake and before the flood of “relief assistance”, had only 1.5 million inhabitants

Earlier, in 2004, the United Nations sent a peace keeping multinational force to Haiti to help control civil unrest. These forces have been playing an important role in post-earthquake Haiti, positive and negative, the latter highlighted by an outbreak of cholera apparently brought to Haiti and spread by one group of peacekeepers. But now, eight years after these forces arrived in Haiti, and two years after the quake, Haitians and many others believe the political situation now requires that these forces be withdrawn, or at least redeployed in less visible roles. On May 14, 2011, fair and open elections were held and a new President of Haiti installed. He had campaigned on a platform that included a categorical commitment to move the people still in temporary housing in the city to a new, better location. In fact, as many as 700,000 homeless have been settled on barren hillsides just outside of the city, beyond the international airport, but unfortunately this was carried out too spontaneously, before any services like roads, water, sewage removal and electricity could be arranged. And in a perverse example of human nature, people who had been living outside of Port au Prince, seeing a chance to obtain a better situation for themselves, apparently are moving temporarily into the city so they can qualify for the land and shelter being offered in the resettlement program. On top of this unplanned incentive to people to move into Port au Prince instead of out, the word on the “street” is that the northern part of Haiti is now due for a strong earthquake, so people who believe this are heading to Port au Prince, since that quake has already happened!

According to Benito, a very knowledgeable Haitian who accompanied me while I was in Haiti, the effects of the 2010 earthquake were so widespread there was some hope, generalized in the population, that the earthquake would provide a transformational wakeup call to Haitians. The Dominicans, who share the island with Haiti, were exceptionally good neighbors doing all they could to facilitate the delivery of relief supplies immediately after the quake and receiving a large number of Haitian refugees. At least two million Haitians move back and forth between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (a country of only Eight million), providing a source of cheap labor but also putting pressure on services in that country.

Many other countries, the entire world, really, came to Haiti’s rescue, so many that some thought they might finally move forward in recovery, together. Ex US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush joined together to lead a multi-donor effort to rebuild Haiti. The new president of Haiti put forward a clear challenge to the Haitian people: “Let’s do things differently”, an attractive proposal for a population of very discouraged and defeated people, but a people who had some reason to believe that things could begin to improve even from this post-earthquake rock bottom situation.

So, as I waited in the Miami international airport last Monday morning for my plane to Haiti, wondering about the week I was to spend looking at some development projects in the northern part of the country, a group of about 25 to 30 Americans dressed in bright yellow Tee shirts came into the waiting area. .
This evangelical army reminded me that for years non-profit philanthropic and religious missionary groups have pretty much provided the services to the Haitian people that in most other countries are provided by the government, keeping Haiti from slipping even deeper into extreme poverty. This group of yellow shirts was headed to Haiti for about a week to build a school and a health clinic. I have a feeling at least one of these groups is on every plane that flies from Miami to Haiti. I don’t know if this group built the clinic or the school, since I never saw any of them again while I was in Haiti. But as I travelled around Cap Haitien and between that northern city and Port au Prince, I saw signs of every relief, development, and humanitarian agency that exists running up and down Haiti’s terrible secondary roads in new and not-so-new jeeps, and eating in local restaurants catering to foreigners with considerably more money than most Haitians.

I was in Haiti to visit small farmers who are receiving technical assistance and training from US farmers and technicians under a USAID-funded program named “Farmer-to-Farmer”. All of these folks are extremely poor, but they are engaged in bee keeping for honey production, rabbit raising for food, and vegetable gardening to provide more nutritious meals for their families and communities. >>

With my work done on schedule by Friday morning, I arrived very early for my flight back to Chile via Miami and sat pretty much alone in the airport waiting room in Port au Prince. I was taking advantage of the peace and quiet of the moment, trying to sort out my feelings about the likelihood that maybe this time Haiti will, in fact “…do things differently” as the new President has proclaimed. My thinking was interrupted first by a group of 40 or so tired but happy “blue shirts”… "JIHM, Jesus in Haiti Ministries, Bringing the love of Jesus to Haiti”, who seemed to fill the room as they sang happy birthday to Heather, the youngest of the group, who was from somewhere in Minnesota. As soon as they settled in to wait for the plane, another group came into the hall; younger than the “blues”, they were wearing a different shade of blue Tee shirt that said “Run for Haiti; Haiti, Set, Go! 5th Fun Run for Jesus in Haiti Ministries.” Following right on their heels were six brown-shirts, who were “Making a Difference, One life at a Time”. And, about ten Light blue Tees joined, asking “Why Haiti? Why now? 400,000 reasons!! Maybe because it was Friday there were so many of these groups travelling back home, but for whatever reason, they kept coming. A group from Foothills Church, who declared on their beige shirts “I love You”. I sat for a few minutes with David from this last group from Ashville, North Carolina. David is 17, and spent eight days in Haiti helping in a very rural health clinic by handing out medicines for the doctors in the group. He would come back next year if he could. After all, he said, “I am able to, and they need help.” To David it was simple. There is a need, you help. God’s work.

It’s tempting to believe that with the obvious needs in Haiti, and all the good will being sent to Haiti by hundreds of individuals, agencies, and governments, that a well-meaning new president might begin to put Haiti on a track towards more stability and more development. In one of the last conversations I had with Benito before leaving Port au Prince, he admitted that he had been optimistic about Haiti, and that is why he was still living there with his family of four. With his education, skills and connections, he surely could find work outside of Haiti. However, he was beginning to have doubts that this time was going to be any different. The efforts of the President to get children back in school after the earthquake was laudable and his application of new taxes on business transactions are thought to be positive. But his excessive populist holiday gift giving while public employees go unpaid for weeks smacks too much of the past. He even gets the feeling some of the same people who ran Haiti in the 80s are being brought back into the government. Things may be falling apart again. If they are, it will be very hard to keep any educated Haitian in Haiti, and without the most educated Haitians, no Haitian institutions can be built and sustained, and any hope of progress will again be thwarted.

So, how do I come out on this one? The yellow, dark blue, regular blue, light blue, beige, and brown Tee shirts may have the right message for Haiti this time. How can all that love and optimism be wrong? But I can’t seem to get out of my mind the black shirt I saw while having breakfast the last day I was in Haiti. It was being worn by a young man carrying boxes of food from a truck to the restaurant storeroom. In blaring white letters, it said:
“Same Shirt, Different Day.”

Posted on February 5, 2012, in Santiago, Chile