Getting a Chinese Visa

Also brought to you by the Communist Party of China

China's bureaucracy exudes a terrifyingly efficient coldness from the get-go.    

I sort of dread the idea of going into any country's consulate, to do anything.  It's like going to the DMV, except a little bit more annoying and the stakes can be higher.  Things that come to mind are bureaucracy, long lines and weird hours.

China is no ordinary country though.  The minute you step through the door, something is wrong.  And by wrong, I mean right.  There are separate queues for separate issues.  There's even a numbering system so you can just take your number and patiently wait the grueling 5 minutes it takes for them to process the twenty people ahead of you in line.

The woman looked at my visa application, nodded, and said one word: "tomorrow."  Really?  That easy?  When I came back the next day my visa was ready.  The guy took my credit card, charged it without saying a word, and waved me on.  The entire process took about 30 seconds.

Swiss efficiency in a developing country with over one billion people.  That made me pause and think for a bit.

Go forward!  In an organized and efficient way!

Tying up loose ends

So I realize my blog posts ended way before my trip did.

I made it home safely to the States, and spent a hectic 7 days getting ready for the next part of the trip.  There were lots of last-minute shopping trips, visits to the Chinese consulate and aggressive trip planning.

Eventually I made it to Europe, a civilized break, for just over a month.  Then I headed East, to Mongolia and China to round out the trip.  China and Mongolia couldn't be different, and they were both very impressive in their own ways.

I'll make a real effort to post the rest of the pics over the next few weeks.  The opportunities for photography were still incredible, even if it wasn't from the saddle of a motorbike in South America!

El Che!

Forgot to post this a while back.  I was caught in the middle of a street protest in Bolivia and managed to snap a few pictures.

While the only people with Che t-shirts in the states are hipsters and fringe leftists (I don´t say that to be offensive... but it is only a fringe, isn´t it?), he is still kickin´in Bolivia.  I couldn´t catch the details, but basically a political rally by miners for a more left-wing local government.

Random Pics

Here are a few that missed the regular updates...

Chuquicamata open pit coal mine near Calama, Chile.  The world´s biggest open-pit mine.  It is about as deep as the grand canyon and a few miles across.  Those tiny little dots on the bottom are actually giant Caterpillar trucks.

Hard to grasp the scale here... each of those terraces is between 30 and 80 feet high.  You can just barely make out the construction traffic if you look hard.

Peruvian burger chain, Cuzco, Peru.  Lots of really interesting flavors.

Overwhelming gas station signage, Atacama Desert, Chile.  5 star bathrooms, see-saws, food, indigenous pottery, and they even have a blank box in case they need one more!

McColloso sounds more impressive than ¨waffle cone¨.  Santiago, Chile.

Chile - Wine Country Part II

Cousiño-Macul cellars, Santiago, Chile

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Santiago has a couple of great wineries accessible by public transport, and I had a few days to kill.  It was a match made in heaven.

Chilean wine is good, and its cheap, which makes it good for people without a lot of money to spend but who like something a step up from Franzia or Yellow Tail.

The two wineries I visited were very different - Cousiño-Macul is a medium-sized winery that has been owned by the same family for over a century.  The site is quaint and the corporate culture has that small-company feel.

Concha y Toro, on the other hand, is Chile´s largest winery and South America´s largest exporter.  The Company´s revenues are nearly a billion dollars and it is publicly traded on the NYSE.  The culture is professional and efficient.

Wines at both places were fantastic.  They have some highly rated wines for $20 or less.  Concha´s Marques de Casa Concha label and Cousiño´s Antiguas Reservas label are both very good.  

Cousiño-Macul cellars, Santiago, Chile.  These big oak fermentation tanks were in use until about a decade ago.

The more modern kind of wine production.  Cousiño-Macul, Chile.

This year´s production in stainless steel tanks.  Cousiño-Macul, Chile.

Cousiño-Macul cellars, Chile.

Cousiño-Macul cellars, Chile.  Most of the company´s wine is aged in another, much larger, facility offsite.

Cousiño-Macul cellars, Chile.

Cousiño-Macul family cellars, Chile.  These old bottles are part of the family´s private wine collection.

Cousiño-Macul.  A 1937 cab on display.

Cousiño-Macul showroom, Santiago, Chile

Cousiño-Macul logo, Chile

Cousiño-Macul´s midrange wine. Retails for about $20 in the states.

Enjoying a little wine tasting at the vineyard.

Some Brazilians being fabulous as they wait for their shuttle after the wine tasting.

Concha y Toro - Chile´s biggest winery.  The restaurant and showroom is located on an estate that used to be the family´s summer home!  Here is the main house / mansion.

Concha y Toro varietal garden, Santiago, Chile

Concha y Toro cellars, Santiago, Chile

Concha y Toro uses a combination of French and American oak barrels... apparently French oak is more expensive.  The barrels cost a few thousand dollars, they use them for a few years, and then re-sell them to other 2nd tier wine producers, or port producers. 

Concha y Toro cellars, Santiago, Chile

Concha y Toro cellars, Santiago, Chile. It gets dark down there!  Like Cousiño-Macul, the company moved its main production facilities far outside of Santiago a long time ago and only a few wines spend time here, to give tourists a sense of what the winery used to be like.

Concha y Toro cellars, Santiago, Chile