Mood:
hungryTopic: Chile
Owing to the conference party last night up at the La Parva ski resort the meeting began a little later today, at 10am. I had decided not to join the party owing to some work I needed to get done, so I slept in a bit. The walk over to the UN site in Vitacura is about 50 minutes from here, much of it along the Presidente Riesco avenue along which autos race in that direction in the morning (it reverses in the afternoons). After one passes the golf course, there are some shops, then the densely built area close to the river begins. I cut through on a small street, Luz, then down Costanera. By the end of the walk, the blisters had begun to make themselves known.
The UN compound consists of low buildings surrounded by gardens; the meetings were in the midst of them. Across the street from the entrance is ESO, on whose grounds the new ALMA building is reaching its second story. The meeting hall was
darkly paneled, with a crescent of national flags at the back and a large circular table with microphones, and additional seating at the back and along the sides. It was an excellent venue. At breaks we congregated in the breezeways where the posters were enjoying coffee and cookies. In the image at right, Tom Wilson is unloading his talk I think.
I had to tend to a telecon midway into the last session and so missed Tom's talk, but Cecile gave an excellent one, as did Bill Dent also. The conference ended with a talk on evolution, noting that Darwin had spent two years in Chile on his epochal voyage. I shared a taxi with Tom back to the apartment to spare my ballooned feet and after washing up a bit headed off to find the grocery store. That was about a ten minute walk--it became clear where it was==I just followed the density gradient of folks carrying bags of food. Alas, I cut wine and beer off my list and determined to carry only lighter items, of which I still ended up with a borderline manageable three bags. Back at the apartment, I decided just to have Edam cheese, the last of my bottle of wine, and the cocktail mix of meats I had bought for dinner. The wine knocked me out for the night.
