Week 29
Viva Chile!! 🇨🇱
Day 205 / September 18, 2026
The 18th of September 1810 marked the First Government Junta in Santiago. A meeting that would start the conversation of a route to Chilean independence (which was officially recognized on the 12th February 1818). For a better understanding of this history, read the following translation from Memoria Chile below:
“In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain and took King Ferdinand VII captive, installing his brother Joseph Bonaparte, known as "Pepe Botella," in his place. To resist the French, a Central Junta based in Seville was organized in Spain, later replaced by the "Council of Regency," which held among its duties the governance of the American colonies.
The immediate reaction of the Chilean population to the news from the metropolis was one of absolute loyalty toward the imprisoned monarch. However, around 1809, the dilemma regarding the legitimacy of the Spanish people's government over a territory directly tied to the person of the king had found two distinct responses among the inhabitants of Chile. On one side were the Royalists, who recognized the sovereignty of Spanish institutions in the king's absence and condemned any attempt to form an autonomous government, even if done in his name. On the other side were the Patriots, who, while still loyal to the monarch, believed in the retroversion of royal sovereignty to the people, acknowledging the necessity of establishing their own junta of government. This tension reached a boiling point during the rule of the despotic governor García Carrasco, who ordered the unjust arrest and exile of three prominent citizens. The atmosphere was growing increasingly restless, and the publication of a pamphlet titled Catecismo Político-Cristiano (Political-Christian Catechism), which called on the creoles to take control of their own destiny given the absence of the King, further inflamed the spirits of the local aristocracy.
The efforts of the Santiago Cabildo (city council) and the intervention of the Royal Audiencia—desperate to prevent the fulfillment of the Cabildo's junta plans—secured in July 1810 the resignation of García Carrasco in favor of the highest-ranking military officer at the time, Mateo de Toro y Zambrano. Before a new governor could arrive, the Santiago Cabildo obtained authorization from its president to hold an open cabildo (cabildo abierto), sending out formal invitations to local citizens.
On September 18, 1810, at nine in the morning, the open cabildo commenced with approximately four hundred citizens in attendance. Every speech and gesture throughout the day was marked by the council members' loyalty to Ferdinand VII, as reflected in the addresses by José Gregorio Argomedo and José Miguel Infante. The prospective members of the junta had been carefully selected by the Santiago Cabildo to represent every sector of society, thereby ensuring a delicate balance. All candidates were accepted by acclamation by the assembled citizens. Mateo de Toro y Zambrano,serving as President, represented the King; José Antonio Martínez de Aldunate, Vice President of the junta and Bishop of Santiago, represented the Church; Fernando Márquez de la Plata, Councilor of the Indies and First Vocal of the junta, represented European junta supporters; Juan Martínez de Rozas, Second Vocal, represented the aristocracy of Concepción; and Ignacio de la Carrera, Third Vocal, represented the Santiago aristocracy.
The blend of tradition and reform was present in this first Cabildo, the event that launched the process of Chilean Independence—even while the desire to preserve the King's sovereignty remained paramount among the citizens. The Cabildo of 1810 marked the first time the creole aristocracy took control of their own country, an experience that would gradually evolve into a firm assertion of their own rights against the Spanish monarchy. In that sense, it was not long before resolute patriotic calls were voiced, inciting a radicalization of the process and a definitive break with the Spanish metropolis. The call for elections to a National Congress, the creation of the first national newspaper, La Aurora de Chile, and the support of other junta movements, such as the Argentine one, set in motion a movement that would culminate a decade later in the formation of an independent and sovereign national entity.”
The Fiestas Patrias celebrations differ from place to place with some cities hosting parades and fondas while others host smaller family asados and gatherings. Cynthia had very kindly invited me to join her, Alex, and her mum for their dieciocho lunch. It was a beautiful day out with blue skies, so I decided to enjoy the warm weather walk over.
When I arrived Cynthia’s mum was still assembling the empanadas; empanadas de pino, featuring ground beef alongside the signature hard boiled egg with a single olive inside. I watched as she carefully folded over the dough and warmed up oil in a pan to fry them. We chatted in the meantime about their favorite dieciocho memories as well as recent travel highlights. Cynthia had been to the Dominican Republic the year before for a conference and explored a cenote all by herself. Then as for her mom, she has travelled all over Chile. She had recently been to patagonia and shared all of the photos from her trip including kayaking by the marble caves, Capillas de Mármol, on the edge of Lago General Carrera and further south sipping a glass of whiskey on ice from the glacier. Awesome stuff!
By 3:30pm, the table was set and we were sitting down to eat. The empanadas were SO GOOD!! I was stuffed after two and only then did I realize there was a whole array of meats that had been baking in the oven as well. There were four racks of pork ribs that had been deliciously marinated and cooked to perfection with the meat falling off the bone.
We got to chatting about food, and they mentioned Ulpo, a concoction I had never heard of. Ulpo is often consumed in the campe, Chilean countryside, and consists of toasted flour diluted with either water or milk. This combination is super sustenant providing a lot of energy for the huasos, Chilean cowboys/farmers to go about their day. Even though I was already stuffed from the delicious asado, Cynthia’s mum prepared me a glass of Ulpo. It was yummy with a starchy flavor similar to sweetened oatmeal. However it was soooo rich and I could only manage a few bites.
It was 5:00pm at that point and time for me to head home for a bit. I said my good bye and thank you's then started the lovely sunset walk back.
Later that evening Cristobal and Kari invited me to go to the fonda down by Rio Claro. I was excited to see the official dieciocho stands and happily accepted! They picked me up at 11:00pm, and we made the short drive over to the river. There was SO much traffic! Families and friends walking on the street, tons of cars parked in the road and on the sidewalks. Cristobal managed to get a spot right near the bridge, parked up, and we crossed the road over to the entrance. There were all kinds of tents lining the walkway entrance to the park. We perused stalls with food, clothing, jewelry, incense, plants, sunglasses, toys and more.
Once we got inside the park, there was even more stuff to do! Inflatables for kids to play on, mini rides, and at the back a huge tent with 20 different food and drink stalls under it. We watched as people lost their money playing El Avioncito, the plane, which features a miniature airplane mounted on a spinning central arm. Players place small cash bets on a specific color segment then the operator spins the plane, and whichever segment the nose of the airplane stops at wins the round. The rounds happened quickly! And the cash was moving even quicker.
Looking for a guaranteed win, we headed over to one stall where you would drop six balls down an uneven wooden surface into collection slots. Each slot had a point value associated with it and those points were added up to determine your prize. Every player came away with some kind of stuffed animal. We all scored in the lowest category but came away with a two teddies and a lizard plush.
Feeling rather thirsty, it was time for a michelada. After that we played just one quick round of “Quebrazon” a word meaning loud, or breaking sounds of glass. For just $2.000 CLP, ($2 USD) we were given five pellets to use in an air rifle to break empty glass bottles.
At 1:00am, it was clear that it was closing time. On our way out, we stopped to grab a quick sandwich at one of the vendors and made it just in time to get the final order. Cristobal and I split a bacon cheeseburger while Kari had a completo and some fries.
It was 2:00am when I got home and I went straight to bed.
Day 206 / September 19, 2026
While the 18th of September celebrated the first Junta, the 19th is also recognized as part of the Fiestas Patrias as the Day of the Glories of the Army (Día de las Glorias del Ejército). There is usually a huge military parade in Santiago and this year was no different! Videos online went viral of the 26 new puppies joining the tactical canine unit. The lil guys were very sleepy after their big debut. (See photo below from Pubity)
In Talca, the streets were quiet and most people seemed to be at home, sheltering from the heavy gray clouds outside. I went out for a jog at 3:00pm and managed to find one store open to buy toilet paper. I had neglected to stock up on prior to the major holiday shut down, so you can imagine my relief when I finally found some.
After showering and doing some quick cleaning at home, I headed out to meet Catha at the Rio Claro fondas. She had been at her uncle’s house to celebrate the day before and wanted to see the stands while they were still available. First we stopped for a refreshing mote con huesillo at the storefront by the river.
We then went over and split a 3 x $5.000 CLP promotion of beer from Cerveza Rio Sur. They had all kinds of bright fruity flavors and I went for the mango beer which tasted more like juice than anything else. Continuing on, we tried our luck at Tiro a los Tarros which involved throwing a ball to knock over a tower of cans. I whiffed completely on two of my three throws. No, I don’t want to talk about it haha.
We tried our luck at the avioncitos game. After I whiffed on the first two bets, Catha suggested we go on the blue square and we won. She won again a second time too!
Wanting to leave while we were ahead, we took our change and headed to get some churros. Our churros filled us right up! With the newfound energy, we headed to play the tilting box game, and the quebrazon again too.
At that point it started raining a bit so we opted to go under the big tent for some anticuchos. What started as a slight drizzles very quickly progressed into an intense downpour. We had found two seats at a table and were dry and happy with our pork sticks.
An hour later and the rain still wasn’t letting up. Catha called her dad who kindly agreed to come and pick us up. We waited for a slight gap in the weather and bolted to the road hopping over puddles and dodging muddy sections.
When I got home, I dried off and went straight to bed.
Day 207 / September 20, 2026
On Sunday the weather was still a bit treacherous with rain and thunderstorms (Talca living up to it’s name, meaning Thunder in Mapuche). I spent the morning cooking and baking, then went to Gravity for some climbing with friends in the afternoon including David, Cristobal, Elias, Charlie and more! Charlie was especially psyched! With his new job far away, he can only get to the gym on Sundays so was getting after it!
After returning home, I finally tried to swap the old LED driver with the replacements that had arrived in the mail. I shut off the breaker, unscrewed the light fixture, disconnected the light from the LED driver, then disconnected the driver from the wiring in the ceiling whilst making sure I remember which wire corresponded to the new driver’s wires. I attached the new driver, sealed everything with electrical tape, and reassembled the light. Much to my disappointment, when I flipped on the breaker and turned on the light switch, there was a brief flash of light then nothing. A total of ten drivers arrived in the kit, so I tried again with another one and had the same result. Ugh.
I accepted defeat, enjoyed a bowl of buffalo chickpea salad and called it a night.
Day 208 / September 21, 2026
The morning was a bit slower on Monday. I worked on the blog and got to chatting with Estibaly in the office. While talking about our dieciocho celebrations, she mentioned horno de tarro/lata. Many people converting the wheel well of old tires, cans, other metal waste into a makeshift stove! This all made sense and I thought back to the contraption that the Club Andino team had brought, it was a more common method then I had realized. Estibaly was convinced empanadas, bread, cake, and even meat tasted better this way!
After lunch, I headed to the lab where Shrabana kindly showed me her HANNA Multiparameter photometer. Though mostly used to characterize water samples, we were planning on diluting my dirt samples to assess the chemical properties across the seven distinct sites. You load a small glass vial with 10mL of your sample (in this case, dirt diluted in water) then add reagents from prepared kits for the specific metric you wish to test. For example, to test chlorine levels, I would take a small sachet from the HANNA chlorine kit and add it into the vial. The vial is briefly mixed then left to settle for two minutes, enough time for the desired reaction to take place. Then, the vial is loaded into the photometer which shines a specific wavelength of light which is detected by a sensor and translated into a measure of absorbance to estimate the concentration of the target molecule. Though Shrabana already had a number of kits, it seemed more kits were needed to complete a full assessment. I made a list based on the characteristics I was hoping to highlight to show Martian parallels (iron levels, sulfate, nitrate etc.)
After meeting with Aparna, we narrowed down the list and she placed the order. Huge thank you to the lab and FONDECYT 1231917 for supporting these additional purchases!
After work I headed to Pared for some climbing then had a lovely long phone call with Val.
Day 209 / September 22, 2026
Microbiology class today focused on intestinal infections. After getting deep into the world of Vibrio Cholerae, Escherichia Coli, and Helicobacter Pylori, I still had an appetite for some of the blueberry and raspberry cookies I had baked.
In the afternoon Shrabana and I did a test run on the HANNA Photometer using the Ultra Low Phosphorous reagent that she already had. At just a 1:10 dilution of the dirt sample, the reading was undetermined as the absorbance was above the 200 ug/L maximum. Though we didn’t get a clear result, I learned how to use the equipment and realized we could run the tests on higher dilutions, a critical factor that would help us to use as little sample as possible.
Before heading home, Cathe helped me find the stains needed to perform confocal microscopy on my samples the next day. Universidad Catolica Maule has a microscope available alongside a skilled technician to perform the imaging so Cynthia and I were going to head there the next day. I carried a styrofoam cooler home full of my samples and the stains.
After a quick rest (and another cookie!), I headed out for a late night jog at 9:00pm. When I got home I showered, and went to bed.
Day 210 / September 23, 2026
On Wednesday morning as I was waking up and having my breakfast, I saw a strange post on Strava. My grandad David in Wales had gone for a jog that morning but uploaded a title that simply read “sorry fell over had a lift home by a kind postman”. It turns out he did have a fall! Luckily he was okay but spent the rest of the day at various clinics getting lots of tests. Writing this over a month later, I am happy to say he is back out running again now!
I arrived at UCM at 9:20am and met Cynthia near the entrance. We headed upstairs and stood outside a metal door. Isabel, the microscopy technician, opened the door with a big smile and invited us inside.
She and Cynthia spent some time catching up, talking about the ‘tías’ working at the nearby kindergarten and childcare. It was clear to see that Isabel was a pro! Her workspace was incredibly organized and had the samples prepared for imaging in no time.
Seeing that everything was under control, Cynthia headed back to Autónoma at around 12:00pm. By 1:00pm there was one last round of staining to do, but Isabel and I were feeling ready for lunch. She kindly invited me to join her and her coworkers, and I happily accepted. First we headed around the corner to Dolape to buy lunch. I got the pastel de choclo with a side salad and then walked with Isabel to the UCM cafeteria to eat with her friends.
Most of the people at the table had been Isabel’s friends and classmates in university and had all since started working or studying at UCM. So sweet the crew was still together!! She introduced me to Seba (who coincidentally did a three month research stay in UMASS Amherst..small world!), Ale a masters student at UCM who works in a lab with spiders (loves Pokémon), Nati, Maria from Iquique, Fernanda and Pedro. I received all kinds of recommendations and Chilean facts including Observatorio Mamalluca, Huilo Huilo hotel, Laguna Mula near Concepcion, and to look out for coipo rodents. Everyone was so kind and it was so nice to see what a day in their lives was like. After finishing up, Isabel and I grabbed a hot chocolate for the road and returned to finish imaging. We realized at some point along the way that we both liked electronic music and proceeded to queue up a 5 hour Tomorrow Land set to watch.
At 5:45pm we had wrapped up and I headed home. It was the first day of the X Encuentro Científico Biología Vegetal y Biotecnología at the University of Talca and Javiera and Paty both had presentations! Though I was unable to go because the conference ended at 5:00pm, the photos looked awesome!
After quickly changing, I went to Pared and chatted with visiting Italian masters student Michelle and French undergrad student Manon. The international presence in Talca is booming! Back at home, I had a call with Val then went to bed.
Day 211 / September 24, 2026
It was a lovely Thursday morning, and the whole lab team started the day by attending the 10:00am presentation by Dra. Emilia Escalona. She is recently completed a study on the social impact and efficacy of personalized kinesthetic therapy to treat urinary incontinence in female senior home patients. As well as being an interesting and pressing topic, the patients in her study were in attendance. So awesome to see the direct impact of science research in the community.
After a brief coffee break, we headed back to the lab. I attempted yet another DNA extraction with a new kit, Presto Soil DNA extraction by Geneaid.
After wrapping up, I headed with Cynthia to collect purified water from the reverse osmosis filter in the chemistry lab. By 4:00pm we headed outside and hopped in the car to head to the UTalca campus.
While Eiber and Catha got set up by their posters, I walked around with Cathe to read the others on display. At around 4:50pm I received a very exciting email containing an offer to work as a Co-op at Adimab. In the email they asked if they could call to confirm details so I stepped outside and had a quick conversation with the hiring manager. It was pretty hard to stop smiling after that! So much relief and excitement!! The conference wrapped up at 7:00pm or so. Ismael and I headed back together on the bus and I got home shortly after 7:30pm.
At that point I had a lovely two hour call with Amber to catch up about her upcoming cycling trips, new swimming friends, and work! She is crushing it down under!!
Chau for now!! :)
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