City and Country

This week I finally left the comfort of home and explored my first meetings and libraries, as well as subjecting myself to excercise-shock-treatment with a 25 km bike ride.
During one of these excursions I visited the historical neighborhood of Bellavista, today a mix of tourist trap, dive bars, and chic restaurants. The neighborhood entrance is guarded by one of Santiago's first bridges across the Mapocho River and the square below, where 4 students were killed in the 1950s during some political mobilizations. My Santiaguina adolescence was spent buying lots of cheap jewlery and incense at this square, today dominated by the massive building you see in the photo. That building belongs to the University San Sebastian, a private for-profit university dominated by the Opus Dei and ex-Pinochet government leaders. They want to replace the trees you see with a 12 meter statue of Pope John Paul II (http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=estauta+juan+pablo+II+bellavista&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1187&bih=577)
Neighbors and architects thankfully dissuaded the Santiago authorities, but its incredible to read about other municipalities begging to have the statue placed in their area (http://www.molivision.cl/content/view/662896/La-comuna-de-San-Clemente-solicito-estatua-gigante-de-Juan-Pablo-II-rechazada-en-Santiago.html). The statue cost about US$4 million to build; who knows if students' tuition fees helped finance part of that. Opposite the massive building of San Sebastian University in the photo is another massive building of another private, for-profit university, Andres Bello U., the object of my paper on the inequity effects of privatizing higher education some of you may have heard me speak of.

Future resting home of 12 meters of Pope John Paul II ?? 

The next photo gives you a glimpse of what is soon to be South America's tallest building, the Titanium Tower, with the snowy Andes behind it. Construction was interrupted two years ago when the developer ran out of money, and again after the earthquake until fear of tall buildings receded (that took about a month). No one knows what will fill the tower.
Lest you think all Chile is steel and copper I've added some images from our bike ride around the Laguna Aculeo, 40 km south of Santiago. Beautiful!!

Titanium tower. Please admire the Andes in the background!

With my friend Rosario on our biking trip in Aculeo.

Chilean countryside at Aculeo, the snowy Andes in the background.