Ah. so little time, so much land

This will have to be a quick post – I am in Pine Creek Northern Territory – the middle of nowhere. There’s absolutely no phone service, and the public library is the only place with internet, which I only get for 5 more minutes (and counting). I just came from Liechfield National Park, and am in the process of driving (yes, driving. I have a car!) to Kakadu National Park. I love road trips. Although, there’s absolutely no music to listen to (I don’t want to buy 25$ old CDs. sorry, alanis moriset. you’re not that good). But the Top End (as they call the Northern Territory) is great! Hot, but wonderful. Liechfield was also great – it sees 300K people a year, but most come to swim in the natural waterfalls. which are amazing and refreshing. assuming there aren’t crocodiles…

2 minutes!

the trouble with lichfield, and there are many are this.

they have 10 park guards for a massive area. no surprise.

-the local farmers use gamba grass which grows like crazy and is taking over the park.

– there are 4 tribes in the Park, all of whom don’t recognize each other, so any prospect of joint management is completely futile at this point.

But the park has some amazing features besides the waterfalls, including a massive amount of giant termite mounds, which are great!

1 minute! Must go! Back in Darwin on Monday, probably won’t talk till then.

The Reef, tourists, a lesson learned, and the biggest surprise yet.

Ah. Tomorrow is my last day on the Easter Seaboard of Australia!  I’m in Cairns, one of the biggest hop-off points for the Great Barrier Reef, and it is definitely a tourist type of town.  Not that it doesn’t have its own charm.  All the towns I’ve stopped in have been unique, just like the reef itself, and there’s a difference up and down the coast, almost palpable that distinguishes a town from belonging to the tourists or to the locals.  Not that there aren’t tourists everywhere, but, in some of the smaller, less visited villages (read: Town of 177 & Agnes Water), you won’t find some of the night (or should I say ‘nite’ ) clubs and similar establishments that cater to a younger, decidedly foreign crowd.  Too often, the seediest and most ‘touristy’ (I know I use that in a bad way, when the word has gotten an entirely bad name,  but about which I will talk later) are the ones that have the best reefs or the best attractions.  Like national Parks, the best ones are almost inevitably the most developed and see the most visitors, which also inevitably takes away a lot of the charm.  Which makes sense.  Cusco was great, but it was so tiring to be offered tours and trinkets and massages every ten feet.  Touristy things don’t have the charm and adventure of unexplored places, and it’s very interesting to see that happen with one single National Park (okay, in some senses, the Great Barrier Reef isn’t technically a national park, although most of the day to day operations is coordinated by the Park Service, and it basically is a true National Park, being federally managed, as opposed to most National Parks in Australia which are only state managed, but often with federal funding.  whew. sorry)

Anyway, the Reef, being 2300 km long, is completely unlike any other protected area in the world, when it comes to the management of it, and considering that it is a multi-billion dollar tourist enterprise, it’s a crazy crazy thing to see.  The managers of the Park have certainly poured most of their efforts into areas like Cairns and Townsville (magnetic island, my last stop) where the majority of tourists go – but recently, following a trend that is manifesting everywhere I think, a trend towards more undeveloped (read: touristy.  that word again!) places, there has been a push from tourist companies and individuals for a larger Park presence on the Southern Reef (near Agnes Water, a few stops ago).  Like the symbiotic relationships of the fish and coral of the Reef, the Park Service and the Tourist industry are mutually benefited by an increased Park presence on the Reef.  The tourist companies get, basically, free moorings and infrastructure for their business, the Park Service gets the tourist companies to use environmentally friendly infrastructure that doesn’t damage the Reef, and also collects a little money (not much at all though. 10 $ a person, but only on commercial ventures.  Private individuals don’t pay).  fortunately, the Park Service has begun to shift some focus towards distant parts of the Reef, but the tourist companies definitely get the lion’s share of the profit.  But who am I to judge?

Moving on!  I am afraid I won’t get to the tourists in this post, but I will next time – it’s been a while since a substantial post, so I want to actually SAY something, but I don’t want to bore anybody.  But, again, I digress.

Today was the first day I actually set foot in the Pacific Ocean (I did in Chile and Peru, but it’s decidedly different when it’s to the east)!  I had a Sunday to kill, and as no one is open on a Sunday, I thought I should actually visit the Reef itself – it was easy to convince myself that such a visit was imperative to my research.  The tour agent did not try to disabuse me of this idea.

I had planned on doing a day trip off of the Falla, a beautiful two masted sailboat.  I say HAD planned, because the Falla hit a reef and sank last week with 20 passengers aboard.  So, needless to say that option wasn’t available.  I DID however, choose to go with the Ocean Freedom, the boat that ended up rescuing those poor, scared  (but completely fine) 20 passengers from their watery fate.  I thought it was good sign.  Anyway, the weather wasn’t the best, some clouds and wind, but it ended up being an amazing way to spend a day!  The Reef itself is amazing, and I could go on for pages extolling everything I did, but I have bigger plans for you.  The Ocean Freedom is a specialist in scuba diving, and being on the Reef, I thought it would be the greatest of mistakes to not try diving.  Now, my parents only loved two of their children enough to get them certified to dive (I’m sure you can guess which), but lo! I was in luck.  Ally, the tiny, but effervescent Italian instructor assured me that no certification was necessary and that I was crazy for not having dived already in my time in Australia.

But, like the Falla, which was so ill-fated to go down before me, I hadn’t escaped the fickle, capricious winds of fate.  I consider myself a most upstanding gentleman, and abhor any kind of lying, so while filling out my medical forms (which I find, being in quite good shape, completely unnecessary), I informed the crew of my very mild asthma, which I almost exclusively brought on by allergies.  Never has checking a tiny box so vexed me!  Ally approached me with the melancholy step of one burdened by some great sadness, and directly informed me that I was physically unfit to dive, considering my (apparently) weak constitution.

Madames and monsieurs, I was devastated.  The whole affair had barely started before I seemed destined to wallow in squalor while the others plumped the depths of the Wonder Wall (an aptly named section of the reef to which we were soon to be anchored to).  Nevertheless, possessing a spirit of a much stronger nature than my pathetic and failing mortal body, I refused to give into my despair, and thoroughly enjoyed an entire day of adventure snorkeling (a name that is less aptly named than the Wonder Wall for, despite strong winds and a fast current, there was little adventure).  A more agreeable title is quite beyond me at this hour (perhaps pleasure snorkeling?), but it was a great day nonetheless.

But the whole affair reminded me of something that the Park Ranger in 1770 said to me, and which reminds me of one of the unfortunate obstacles facing National Parks.  I am 99% sure (there is always some doubt) that I was perfectly fit to do the dive (it not being strenuous anyway), and would have been better served by just lying, or if the company had just ignored the report (which, they, for very good reasons, were completely right not to do).  In 1770’s case and in other Parks, rangers must deal with the most hated thing of all: bureaucracy.  Sometimes, rules and regulations, no matter how well intentioned, are just obstacles for the true objective – fairly often, I would imagine, Park employees do what they think is right and ignore the top down management.  After all, they don’t have the funding (I’ve yet to find a park that does) to actually fulfill their complete set of duties,  so they’d fail anyway.  In my plight, I see that of the park employee who often knows what is right, but must follow a protocol sent from headquarters that often are no where near the Park itself.

But, to be fair, I should say the employee who THINKs he knows what’s right or the stupid American student who THINKS he’s fit to dive.  Protocols, rules, and regulations have their place.  I just don’t know when it’s necessary to bend or break them.  Edward Abbey would say almost always (at least the rules I faced), but I’m not so sure.

And now, since it’s late, and you’ve read an astounding 1300 words, I leave you with the biggest surprise yet, which surely is the reason you read this long, but is also almost sure to disappoint you after all that effort.  Hopefully, my own excitement over this discovery will make up for everyone else’s lack of enthusiasm.

As you might not be aware (I cannot remember if I have whined about it yet), almost all food in Australia is much more expensive than in the US.  Candy bars, cokes, mentos (they don’t even have the right flavor) are all double their costs in the States.  Fast food like McDonalds (yes, I’ve eaten fast food since I left) is almost always two to three times more expensive (read: the dollar menu McChicken costs $3.20!).

But I said almost!  I said almost, because , for some unknown reason, you can get a medium sized ice cream cone for $0.40.  That’s half the price in the States!  Unbelievable!  If I’ve lost any weight so far, I plan on putting it all back on tomorrow before I fly to Darwin.  I’d ask you to wish me luck, but I assure you it’s unnecessary.  My love of ice cream is more than enough to sustain me.

And one last thought, as I break through 1500 words with abandon.  You might be wondering why the language of this post is radically different from the others (most likely in a bad way), and I assure you it is an anomaly.  I just finished reading The Three Musketeers, and was so taken by Mr. Dumas’ style of writing that I tried to copy it.  It’s also well after midnight, I’m delirious from traveling so much (not really, but I am tired), and lacking a good book to read, I needed a way to entertain myself.  I hope you don’t mind it being at your expense, because I had a lovely time writing it!

Till next time, adieu!

Magnetic Island

Hi everyone from Magnetic Island! I don’t have long – internet costs a whopping 5$ for 45 minutes. Magnetic Island is lovely – it gets 320 days of sunshine a year, and it hasn’t disappointed yet. It’s a beautiful island – very relaxing, not a lot to do. I am near Townsville which is the home of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. I had an unpleasant surprise when I went and asked for an interview (on the fly) when they said, tersely, not without an appointment. So hopefully, I will get one tomorrow. I met with some Park Rangers on the island, and have been riding my bicycle around – which is tough because there are so many hills. But the beaches are beautiful, the ocean is blue, and I’m having a great time still! My trip is almost half-way over, it’s unbelievable! I don’t know where all the time went. Will try to post more details later.

Brumby’s, the family name, and an apology

When I was in South America, I was eating a lot of bread – mainly because that’s what they do, and it’s fairly benign. Now, in Mackay, I’m still eating a lot of bread, but mostly because it’s absolutely delicious.

My greyhound the other day got in early in the morning (5:10 AM), and almost nothing was open at the time, so I had to kill some time before the hostels opened. One of the few things that was open was Brumby’s bakery, where they bake fresh bread every day. The smells were absolutely intoxicating. One juice and a bruffin (breakfast muffin? I’ll forgive them the name) later, I was hooked. It’s delicious. I ended up buying an entire loaf of bread, which I proceeded to eat plain (it was still hot) until I found some nutella in the local super market. I cooked dinner last night – first time I’ve had to do that, but things are so much more expensive here in Australia than in S. America. Except beer. Beer is always cheap.

Anyway, another cool thing happened. I went to the local art gallery (ArtSpace) to kill some time in between interviews yesterday and I was so surprised, but the name of the gallery was the McAleese Gallery. I don’t often see my name come up, spelled correctly at least, and it was a treat. Apparently, the McAleese family is a local transport magnate that generous supports the arts in rural Queensland. Who would have known? I saw their trucks building a bridge right afterward, which was also fun.

Anyway, the apology! I haven’t been able to upload any pictures since I’ve been in Australia! I’m sorry! I assure you, I’ve taken many, but for some reason, I can’t find wireless internet, and am forced to use public ones. This also has led to a certain rushed quality about the emails, and for that I apologize as well. Travelling so much so quickly doesn’t give you a lot of time to relax and explore and find cafes. I will get pictures up as soon as I can!

The Wheels on the Bus…

do, in fact, go round and round, but here in Australia they do it so often and over what turns out to be not great roads that traveling by Greyhound is worse than singing repetitive children’s songs.

Whew.  Sorry. Past two days I’ve done 17 hours of bus travel, most of it overnight, and I’m barely half-way up the coast!  This country is huge.  I am now in Mackay (Mack-AYE. like a pirate).  I was in Agnes Water and the town of 1770 yesterday (named after the year Captain Cooke landed there – the first place in Queensland, maybe the entire east coast. I’m not sure).  Tiny towns – no more than 100 people each.

They are just on the southern tip of the Barrier Reef, and most of the tourism has stayed far to the north (where I’m heading to eventually).   The area has actually had some extremely good luck in terms of its preservation, but that could all change as the cities grow (and they are at an alarming rate) and put pressure on the near by resources (the local Park Service representatives says that the biggest threat they have is population pressure.  and the towns have less than a 1000 people!)  One, the reef in this area is far enough south that the temperature hasn’t risen significantly. and there has been less coral bleaching.  Then, it’s farther from the coast, so tourism has been slower to develop.  There isn’t as much agriculture in the area, so that isn’t a big problem.  Basically, these two hamlets (I always wanted to use that word) are perfectly situated to have a sustainable tourism industry here.  The Reef Authority has done a pretty good job in not allowing many business to pop up (permitting is hard to come by).

But, then again, the problems might just be too global for anything local to affect it.  I got to talk with a wonderful couple who just bought a tour operator eight months ago and has been doing snorkeling and dive trips out to a reef nearby.  They are one of the few tourism operators (granted, I haven’t seen many) that has a really strong commitment to educating their clients about environmental sustainability -they were great.  She’s from Melbourne, he’s from Germany, and they met at the University of Minnesota, where they were both studying agriculture.  Eventually, they got into a debate about the extent of the damage to the reef, and it got way too technical and scientific for me to understand.  But fun to listen to.

Anyway, it’s looking like the first cloudy day I’ve had all week and I have some sights to see before I get back on my bus (ugh. more greyhounds.  We at least watched Independence Day last night.  So much less scary than when I saw it as a kid.

Which reminds me of another movie I watched recently – the International.  It has some lessons I could relate to my project, but it’s also Clive Owen kicking butt in the Guggenheim.  Very fun movie.  Anyway, there were two kind of themes in the movie that stood out to me.  For one, the bad guy asks his son how you escape an inescapable situation – the kid deliberates, and then says, if there’s no way out, you have to find a deeper way in.  Basically, stay the course, or put even more effort into your chosen path.  Clive Owen on the other hand, is trying to catch said bad guy, but always gets stopped by the corruption and the influence of the bad guys organization (even into the police and everything).  So his wise mentor (this time, a typically old gentleman) says that, if the system has failed, you have to go outside the system.  Basically, he’s encouraging Clive (an Interpol agent) to become a vigilante and take justice into his own hands.

All in all, the two ideas are very very different, and I thought it was extremely interesting to see them both played out in the movie.  It’s Hollywood, so I think you know what happens in the end, which for my little microcosm, means maybe I’ve been wrong all this time to insist that people don’t give up on national parks – maybe we should just scrap the whole thing and create a new system.  If it works for Clive, it should work for me.

But, this isn’t Hollywood, so I don’t think that would work, as nice as it would be.  In Chile, a big opponent to creating a new Ministry of the Environment (a good thing) is the current managers of the Park, the forest service!  so it’s more complicated than that.

But, if it was Hollywood, I’d let Clive Owen play me in a heartbeat.  I think we share a certain rugged, unshaven quality that’d make him perfect for the part.

American National Parks

My host family had a dinner party tonight, which they were nice enough to invite me to.  I had a wonderful last evening in Brisbane.  Today, I spent the entire day wondering around downtown Brisbane, going to the American Impressionist and Realism exhibition at the Brisbane museum (which is beautiful).  Very cool paintings.  Reminds me why I like impressionist pictures.

But anyway, dinner – had dinner with some wonderful Australian people – who were kind and told me all about the trips they had taken to the United States, especially to the National Parks throughout the country.  They really are a huge draw for America, and I’m proud that our country has something that good to give to the world.

I had an interesting experience today walking around, which I don’t think is unique (I’ve certainly had it before).  You’re walking around watching the other people around you – for me, I was in the open air Queen St. which is pedestrian only – lots of shops, and there was even a symphony at noon that played some songs for a half an hour.  But I was sitting there, and I was watching people take pictures, and I couldn’t help but think about all of the pictures that I was in – random pictures that no one would think about my presecence, but pictures where I was more than just a few pixels in the background.  Pictures where I actually was discernable.  And I couldn’t help but wonder how many pictures I am actually in – as if maybe ther was a directory somewhere that compiled all of the pictures of me, how cool would that be?  I’d enjoy looking through it at least – get a different perspective of me, or at the very least get to play Where’s Waldo? (or Where’s Sam?).   Anyway, I was just wondering about the mark we leave on the world, and how it’s much bigger than we actually think.  Which is technically an environmental microcosm for our impact on the world, but to be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it at the time – just how cool it is to be in someone’s pictures.  I’m off to Agnes Water tomorrow – got to get to bed early so I can go on a last minute run before I leave.

A dream city & Schizophrenia

Brisbane is an amazing city!  I love my Chicago, but on the list of big cities I’ve visited, Brisbane is definitely up there – it’s very clean, it’s new, but also has some history, great public transportation, and there’s tons to do and see.  We went to the Brisbane Forest National Park yesterday – it’s a great example of what Parks should be and can be if you have a good regional gov’t and a good staff that cares and is innovate in their approach to managing their areas.  The Park is actually pretty big (largest Park within 15km of an urban center in Australia, for whatever that means), and they have some really good infrastructure.  They have lots of trails (the only resistance from the locals has been the recent ban on horse riding in the Park).  It’s destructive, but so far, people have grumblingly accepted this.  We went to the wildlife center, which is doing a lot of successful things.  For one, they have installed solar planels and rainwater tanks that have reduced the impact of the center – this serves as a model for the local community (they have material about how to do the same in your home) and also just cuts costs so more of the budget can go to actual work of the park service.  Then they have a small zoo of the local animals, which is tons of fun and pretty educational for kids.  And they run a lot of environmental education programs with the local schools, which is great.

But in what way is it successful, you ask?  I just gave a few different answers, all which are true, kind of.  This summer, I’ve been asking what the fundamental function of Parks are.  This is because my paper is looking at how the success of parks is tied to local engagement, but you have to know by what standards you’re judging the success should be judged by.

Parks have what I call, and what a lot of my interviewees have reiterated, a schizophrenia of identity.  They have one of the broadest mandates of any protected area, and it shows.  Cultural reserves have a set function – preserve culture.  Forest preserves have a set function – protect forests.  But Parks have always been a jack-of-all-trades.  They are supposed to support tourism, protect biodiversity, educate the community, preserve the cultural heritage of the country, preserve the natural heritage of the country (different form the above), and provide econmic benefits for local communties.  So, they really do have a schizophrenia of identity – becuase there is no way, even the best parks could ever possibly fulfill all of those goals completely.  But sometimes, they have to try.  A lot of which “identity” the parks take up depends on the location, the amount of biodiversity, the number of people nearby.     The beauty of the scenery.  A lot of the problem comes I think when Parks try to be too much – there isn’t enough funding, manpower, or qualified individuals (Sorry, but true) to do everything.

I am going to leave you with my new favorite thing, something that I think America should import right away.  In the supermarket,  the carts (trolleys here) – all four wheels are free to move in any direction.  So you can push the cart sideways and diagonally and all ways.  It honestly is so much fun!  I wanted to shop more just so I could push the cart more.

I’m heading up the coast tomorrow – I’ve got a flight next Monday  in Carins, a short 1000 miles away.  So a lot of ground to cover, lots of Parks to visit.  Should be fun!

In Australia

Hello from the other side of the world!

I am now one day younger! I need to circumnavigate the globe more often.  I had an interest plane ride.  First, they canceled my flight, which made for an interesting few minutes.  Eventually, I got onto a flight from Auckland, with a connection to Sydney, and then my original flight to Brisbane (where I am currently).  Within a few minutes of the flight, the woman next to me turned and asked if I wanted to switch seats with her mother, who was sick (and who I think just wanted to sit by her daughter).  Now, I had an aisle seat, and the mother had a middle seat (always worse) right next to a , for the moment, quiet baby.  So, being the witty gentleman that I am, I casually said, “well, I don’t want to switch, but I don’t mind switching. ”  Which, I honestly didn’t.  I planned on sleeping most of the flight anyway.  But I think my joke was lost on her – she didn’t speak great English.  So, there I am, sitting in my new seat, relaxing, reading the in-flight entertainment magazine, when the woman next to me turns and asks if she can ask an embarrassing question.  Ready for anything, she surprises me by asking if, since I had already switched seats once, I would mind doing it again – this time with her brother in law, who was there to help her with her baby.  So, 15 minutes into the flight, having sat in three completely different seats, I finally got settled down to what turned out to be a very long, but uneventful flight.

I also got a New Zealand stamp in my passport!  I wasn’t planning on staying in the island nation (it’s unfortunately not in my itinerary).  But, for some odd reason, they couldn’t print off my boarding pass in Santiago, and so I had to go through customs in Auckland, enter the country legally, and then leave right again.  I had a laugh with the customs agent, over my address of residence for my stay in NZ.  I had left it blank, which he was puzzled at (what did I mean, I wasn’t staying anywhere? to which I replied, unless you want me to write the address of the benches in the international terminal, where I was going to nap before my next flight, I didn’t have an address.  I must get funny when I’m tired).

And I missed my connection in Sydney!  I consider myself a fast guy, but I doubt even Roger Bannister could debark, go through customs, pick up your bag, check in again, go through customs AGAIN, and make it to a plane in 1.5 hours.  It’s impossible.  But, I got on a flight an hour later, and then at 12:35 Thursday, 2 days after leaving South America, I finally arrived in Brisbane, where I am staying with a Circumnavigator and his wife, two amazing people that have opened their home up to me.

And, 3 hours after arriving, I had an interview!  Whew. Long day.  But, it was with the former and current director of the Queensland National Park Services (they have a different name, but the job is the same).  Great interviews!  And I must say, it’s absolutely lovely to be back in a country where English is the primary language.  IT just gets extremely tiring concentrating all the time to understand to to try to communicate.

But I am going to a Park 20 minutes from Brisbane right now, so I cannot stay, but I am looking forward to an amazing three weeks here in Australia!  It should be lots of fun!

In the Library

I know my pictures make it look like this trip has been all jungle-treks and mountain climbing, but I assure you, I’ve been hitting thet books as well.  Granted, over the past few days, I’ve had an interview with the local english newspaper, who gave me a general idea of conservation in Chile and the political situation.  And I visted Cerro Santa Lucia, which is a hill in the middle of the city with great views.

But for the most part, I’ve been in the basement of the CONAF (Forest Service of Chile) building, going through Master Plans of Parks, Design Projects, and other things.

And they’re all in Spanish.  So it’s been fun – but the workers here seem to have a thing for Elvis, so I haven’t been lacking for good music.  Fun times.

La Campana

I spent all day Saturday in La Campana National Park, about 100 km away from Santiago.  It’s a stunning park, with a great climb up the mountain, and views from the top that include both the sea AND Santiago.  It’s also famous because Darwin climbed the mountain on the Voyage of the Beagle and said it was amazing, and wrote about it in his book. Plus, it is home to a very endangered Chilean palm tree.  It’s a great Park, and being so close to big urban centers (Santiago, Vina del Mar, Valparaiso), it’s a perfect location.

But no one goes!  Granted, these statistics are from 15 years ago, but if visitation is anything like the US, it’s gone down or stayed the same.  But in 1995, there were only 26,000 visitors, or about 60 per day.  To put it in perspective, this is as many people as visited Yellowstone in January 2009 (a very slow month, but still Yellowstone).  It’s winter, so there won’t be as much visitation, but we saw at most 10 people all day.  It’s nice having the Park to yourself, but it’s sad that such a wonderful Park gets unused (and it’s so close!  8 million people or so within 2 hours!)

The Park has faced some outside pressures – there was really bad deforestation in the 19th century that threatened the aforementioned palm tree, but it’s most been stopped.  There is actually a mine in the park, and right on the famous trail (that Darwin hiked) that was used until the early 1990s, which is extremely recent, but not surprising.  In Cajon del Maipo, there was a mine as well, and mining is one of the biggest industries in Chile.  Too often parks seem to be sidelined when the economy is at stake.

But I don’t think the biggest problem was the mine, even though it’s still kind of a blight on the mountain (it’s fun to explore a little though).  The problem is the park service itself. For one, the trail.  It’s a nice trail, but every switchback is fraught with shortcut trails and extra trails made by hikers to explore and expedite the trail or for whatever reason.  These are bad!  I know it’s kind of boring to stay on the trail, but they’re designed to be used so that you don’t erode the land around the path, which happens a lot with parks with a lot of visitors.  at the MLC in Peru, we wore rubber boots so we could walk right down the middle of the path (even though it was 6 inches of mud) because if you expand the trail, it undermines the point of a trail in a first place.  This problem is only solved by two things – education and regulation (both should be priorities of the park service).  You have to have rangers to tell people not to do it and to erase the side trails as much as possible.  But this doesn’t happen in La Campana!

The biggest problem I saw was there is absolutely no interpretive material in the entire park.  The guard station at the beginning gives you a map, and tells you the risks, but there isn’t anyone to tell you about the flora, the fauna, the birds, Darwin’s hike, or anything.   You can get a pamphlet from the CONAF office here in Santiago, but even that is 10 years old and not very informative.  I don’t blame people for not visiting here, to some extent, because if you don’t know what’s going on, it’s not nearly as much fun.  We were lucky to have a good day, so we just enjoyed the views, but it’s a much better experience when you learn something!  And that is what national Parks are supposed to do anyway, to teach.  So I was extremely disappointed with the infrastructure of the park, even if the views are amazing.  Definitely something that Chile’s Parks (although others could be different) need to work on.