A brief comment on the weather in Chile---specifically Santiago, as what I am about to say does not apply to the other, less metropolitan regions of this vast country.
Some of you (our good friends and family), upon learning that Sam and I were to embark upon an extended trip to Chile, might have been curious enough to investigate what kinds of weather/climate we travelers could expect to encounter here. Sam's parents, for one, had bookmarked Santiago as one of their "cities of interest" on their smartphones' weather app. They were impressed, and quite possibly jealous, to read a weather report that could only be interpreted as balmy and magnificent: clear skies with temperatures in the low 80's and zero percent chance of rain...EVERY DAY. Take a look at the report from weather.com for this very week, the third week of April:
Endless days of quintessential beach weather! You just want to drink up that sweet sun like some microwaved Tang and simultaneously take a dip. This morning I woke up at dawn (basically) and gazed out my living room window to catch that awesome Santiago sunrise...
...Yeah. Just look at those glorious mountains, the spine of South America, standing starkly in their majesty against the sparkling metropolis. Admire the sun's rays flashing brilliantly across the blue, cloudless sky, reflecting sharply in the windows of the buildings. It's like a postcard.
What you see in the above photo is what I am confronted with every morning, afternoon, and evening...the awful phenomenon known as HEAVY SMOG, and if this morning vista brought a tear to your eye, as it does mine, it must be because the pollutants in the air are thick enough to scoop with a spoon. Here's another photo:
Yes, the sky IS free of clouds on a daily basis, unless you consider the one big cloud that hovers 3 feet off the ground and gives people respiratory illnesses. And the weather websites will likely neglect to inform you that this malignant air condition plagues the city, unless you really dig into the detailed reports, which nobody does.
So naturally it's an unpleasant surprise when you step out of the taxi from the airport and find that the skyline has been literally erased from the landscape because the smog is so dense and low-lying that all you see is grey. The sky is not blue, but grey. The air itself is grey. Also, if you breathe too much of the air, you get sick. People who cycle and run recreationally are seen wearing construction masks because it is unhealthy to be breathing heavily while engaging in cardiovascular activity outdoors. I have even read that as the smog continues to thicken throughout the winter (the next few months), occasionally the city's health officials will close schools and order citizens to stay inside because it is not safe to breathe the air on those particularly bad days. I cannot wait.
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| Here you can see what screening effect the haze has on not only the sky, but on a building mere meters away. |
So the smog is nobody's fault per se...buuuuttttt if hybrid and electric cars were more prevalent on the road, perhaps the problem would not be as grave as it is currently. It is encouraging, however, that there is a significant push to increase the reliance on renewable resources in this city, like solar and wind energy. Also, the public transit system is rather modern, extensive, and efficient, and is used in very high volumes daily by commuters. Hopefully in 30 years one will see a significant improvement in the air quality of Santiago, and the city can become an even lovelier place to visit and/or settle down in, where one doesn't have to taste the air to know it's there.
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