May 16, 2012
Actually, I’m lost. I don’t know what day these pictures are from. I’ve blogged everything so out of order for this trip though, that it doesn’t even matter anymore.
Every morning Johnny climbed to the roof and loaded our backpacks up there with the help of some very large Germans in our group. We only brought our little day bags and our snacks in the car.
The funny thing is that when we went to book this trip, the lady who we talked to was SO insistent that we bring “lots of snacks or you’re going to be SO hungry.” She repeated it so many times that she completely had us convinced we were going to die of starvation over the four day ride.
I brought a ton of stuff and all I ended up eating were some cookies! I think she must go crazy warning tourists, especially fat American tourists, because one of the tripadvisor reviews said that they were hungry the entire time.
Anyways, one of the days, we drove past a small rock formation. Someone in our jeep asked if we could stop to take pictures. Johnny looked at us like we were crazy, but acquiesced.
Then we got to this weird field of volcanic rocks and we understood why he had been like, “REALLY? You want a picture of this tiny little solitary rock when we have all this coming up.” But to our credit, we didn’t know we had all this coming up.
Every day we spent a lot of time walking around and exploring, but we did it all at a snail’s pace because of the altitude. It was hard! 
I believe these photos are of a place called Lago Hediondo.
That translates into “Stinky Lake” in English. All the different lakes we stopped at had different mineral properties that gave them different colored waters, or in this case, made them stinky. Lago Hediondo supposedly has a lot of sulfur, but it didn’t smell too bad on the day we went there.
We were all relieved that we had better weather on our second day. It wasn’t nearly as windy. 
The first day we’d had to cancel one of our stops and go to the refugio early because the wind was blowing so hard Johnny was afraid it was going to crack our windshield. He said it happens. Since I was the one sitting in the front seat, I was kind of worried for my pretty little face 
More in this series:
A Trip Across the Bolivian Altiplano
Dancing in the Streets (???) of Bolivia
Crossing the Border From Chile to Bolivia
El Altiplano de Bolivia | Day 1
May 14, 2012
First things first…for the next couple of weeks I am going to be sticking to a Mon/Wed/Fri posting schedule because I’ll be traveling more than usual. So that will start next week. For this week, you can expect another post on Thursday and that’s all she wrote!
Now back to the topic at hand.
I had some things weighing on my mind before I left Chile and by the time this trip to Bolivia rolled around, I was so ready to get out of dodge.
The temps were chilling but the angry storm clouds kind of went with my mood so I didn’t mind.
Our guide, Johnny, kept typical Bolivian music playing in the car the whole time on the first day. We’d later switch over to Rihanna and have a dance party in the middle of the Altiplano. If you haven’t watched that video yet, do yourself a favor and go have a laugh 
The music relaxed me and the scenery helped soothe my soul.
I am completely drawing a blank on what those little guys above are called, but aren’t they adorable?
This “tour” was basically one really long road trip. We’d drive a few hours and then stop at somewhere marvelous to take pictures and check out the scenery. Most of the time it was too cold to get out for longer than a half an hour. This beautiful red lake (Laguna Colorada I believe) was one of my favorite stops.
We were all freezing, but happy to be there.
Most of the altiplano that we had been driving over, while stunning, was very uninhabited so it was refreshing to see some signs of life in the form of flamingos!
The sun finally peaked out for a little bit and all of us tourists enjoyed harassing photographing the flamingos.
I really think Laguna Colorada is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in all my travels. The textures and colors were just mind boggling. Sadly, travel photography is not one of my specialities, but I did what I could.
And did I mention there were llamas everywhere? We were all confused as to why they had colorful bows in their hair. Our uneducated guess was that they must have been tagged or something so the owners could keep track of them. Though that didn’t make much sense either because where would the owners live in the altiplano, its not like there were any towns around!
So I asked all-knowing Johnny. He said that the locals “decorate” the llamas for certain festivals and holidays throughout the year. That’s a way better answer than tagging them.
After about a half an hour the storm clouds came back out and the wind started biting again. We all scurried back up to the jeeps, but I’m not going to lie, the altitude was killer! Just walking slowly up that hill I don’t think I’ve ever been so out of breath in my life!
I wasn’t alone though. Everybody trudged along slowly to make it to the top.
We were traveling in 3 separate jeeps, with 6 tourists in each, plus 1 guide. Aun asi, the whole trip had a very solitary feel to it. I spent a long time in the front seat looking out the window and thinking, thinking, thinking.
Finally we arrived at our “refugio.” If you could hear how loud the wind was howling you’d realize that this structure was woefully inadequate for the elements. Sure, it looks cozy enough. But our group got the room with the windows and it felt like the cold air just passed right through them!
I spent the night burrowed in a sleeping bag under the thick wool blankets on the bed of the refugio. When they woke us up for breakfast at 5am, I did NOT want to get out bed. The whole trip was early to bed, early to rise, in part because electricity got turned off at 8pm I think it was.
While I shivered myself to sleep I couldn’t help but wonder how it was possible that just the day before I’d been staying in luxury (and warmth!) at the Tierra Atacama Hotel!
Not quite the same…
But off we went at that ungodly hour.
I’m not a morning person at all, but more flamingos made it worth it. We stopped at this lake to eat lunch sitting at a lovely rock tabletop.
After lunch, some people laid in the sun and some of us wandered around a little bit more. I loved these rocks that someone laid out. To be happy. That’s what we all want.
More in this series:
A Trip Across the Bolivian Altiplano
Dancing in the Streets (???) of Bolivia
Crossing the Border From Chile to Bolivia
May 13, 2012
In English below the Spanish version.
Esta es una carta abierta a todos los banqueteros en Chile:
Ayúdame a ayudarte.
Mira, sé que piensas que estás siendo súper inteligente por ahorrarte 25.000 pesos en comida al darle al fotógrafo y videógrafos una colación que probablemente te costó 1.000 pesos por persona en vez de un plato principal.
Pero estás equivocado. Yo diría que un 80% de mis clientes me contratan antes de siquiera empezar a buscar banquetero. ¿Y a quién crees que acuden cuando quieren recomendaciones de a quién dar sus 10.000.000 de pesos que van a gastar en comida? Acuden a alguien que ha ido a más matrimonios en el último año de lo que ellos irán es sus vidas. Te voy a dar una pista….esa persona soy YO. El pequeño fotógrafo que tú crees no merece un plato caliente de comida.
¿De verdad crees que recomendaría a un banquetero rasca que da una mierda de sandwich frío que ni siquiera le darías a tu perro? Ah, seguro.
¿Quiénes son los banqueteros top en Santiago? Mis favoritos son Paulo Russo, Francesca Margozzini,Marta Correa y Sofia Jottar.
Te apuesto que alguno de los banqueteros que sirven horrendas colaciones se cortarían un coco por tener la mitad del éxito que tienen los banqueteros nombrados más arriba
Bueno, acá les tengo un pequeño secreto – Paulo, Francesca, Marta y Sofía tratan a todos… incluso la gente trabajando para el matrimonio… muy bien.
En mi experiencia con ellos cuatro, ellos han tenido alguien de su equipo que se ha acercado a nosotros y nos ha preguntado cuándo nos gustaría que nos sirvieran nuestra comida. Esto también es diferente de lo acostumbrado. Normalmente el banquetero dice: “No, tienen que esperar hasta que los 400 invitados terminen de comer y después les servimos”. Lo siento mucho, amigo, pero cuando todo el mundo termine de comer, nosotros tenemos que trabajar. Cuando todo el mundo termine de comer, eso significa que van a estar bailando y te apuesto que la novia y el novio no van a estar muy contentos contigo si sus fotógrafos están o cansados y hambrientos, o en algún lugar escondidos tratando de devorar un sándwich en 2 minutos cuando empieza la fiesta.
Y mi experiencia con Paulo, Francesca, Marta y Sofia, ellos también nos han servido la misma comida deliciosa que están comiendo los invitados y nos han dado un lugar donde sentarnos.
Así que saquemos la cuenta. Lo que le cuesta a Paulo Russo servirnos dos platos de comida = ¿25.000 pesos quizás? Dudo que sus costos sean tan altos. Pero la ganancia para Paulo Russo, cuando una novia está decidiendo entre él y algún otro banquetero y yo le digo que Paulo es absolutamente increíble, que si me fuese a casar mañana no le confiaría mi baquetearía a nadie más y esa novia lo contrata basado en mi recomendación = entre 10.000.000 y 25.000.000. Haz tú el cálculo.
Incluso si eres un imbécil, y no quieres tener un negocio exitoso de banquetería en Chile, entonces hablemos de otra cosa – ser una persona decente. ¿Tú sabes que los fotógrafos han estado de pie probablemente 4 o 5 horas para el momento en que se sirve la comida y que aún tienen que estar de pie por otras 5 o 6 horas? Si fueras tú, ¿no te gustaría una rica comida?
Como nota extra, y mientras estamos en el tema, debería dirigir esto a novias y novios también.
Nosotros hemos sido lo suficientemente afortunados de que casi nunca nos han servido estas colaciones, ¡toco madera! Nuestros novios son los mejores y siempre se han preocupado de que nosotros comamos bien.
Pero lo voy a decir de todas formas… ¿quién crees que va a trabajar más duro y a tomar mejores fotos, ir mas allá y en general tener más energía en tu matrimonio? ¿El fotógrafo que se comió un sándwich indecente que era demasiado asqueroso para incluso comer, o el que pudo tomar un descanso de 15 minutos para sentarse y comer una comida de verdad?
¡NO ES UN CONCEPTO DIFÍCIL DE CACHAR!
ES SIMPLEMENTE DECENCIA
La moraleja de la historia, banqueteros, no sean cagados y tendrán un mejor negocio. Novios, no sean cagados y tendrán mejores fotos.
Fin.
These are other photographers’ pictures of some of the meals they’ve been served at weddings. I have nothing against subway if it’s at least fresh, but I’m sure this had been sitting around for ages before it got eaten.
Estas son algunas fotos de otros fotógrafos de las comidas que les han servido durante matrimonios. No tengo nada en contra de Subway cuando está por lo menos fresco, pero seguro que llevaba un buen rato antes de que lo comieran.
Seriously banqueteros? You’re disgusting.
¿En serio, banqueteros? Son asquerosos.
Ok, a dried out piece of chicken and some french fries…it could definitely be worse.
Bueno, un pedazo de pollo seco con algunas papitas fritas… podría ser peor.
But even in the case of the last meal, which doesn’t look totally disgusting, I know for a fact that the bride and groom are usually charged at least 10,000 pesos for the vendor. That’s about 20 USD…and that’s what they serve for that price? What a rip off! The bride and groom are not the ones at fault, I’d say most of the time they probably have no idea what their caterer is serving their photographers/videographers.
Pero incluso en el caso de la última comida, que no se ve totalmente asquerosa, yo sé que les cobran por lo menos 10,000 pesos a los novios por este plato. Eso son más o menos 20 dólares… ¿y eso es lo que sirven por ese precio? ¡Qué estafa! Los novios no son los que tienen la culpa, yo diría que la mayoría de las veces probablemente no tienen idea lo que su banquetero les sirve a los fotógrafos/ videógrafos.
This is an open letter to all the caterers in Chile:
Help me to help you.
Listen, I know you think you’re being really clever by saving yourself $50 worth of food by giving the photographers and videographers a vendor meal that probably cost you $2 dollars a head instead of a main plate.
But you’re not. I’d say 80% of my clients hire me before they ever even begin looking for a caterer. And who do you think they go to when they want recommendations as for who to give their $20,000 that they’re going to spend on food to? They come to someone who has been to more weddings in the past year than they’ll go to in their entire lives. I’ll give you a hint…that person is ME. The lowly photographer that you think doesn’t deserve a hot plate.
Do you really think I’d ever recommend some shitty caterer who give some shitty limp cold sandwich that you wouldn’t even feed your dog? Ha. Yeah right.
Who are the top caterers in Santiago? I’d go with my personal favorite, Paulo Russo, along with Francesca Margosini and Sofia Jottar.
I’d bet you that some of the caterers that serve these horrendous vendor “meals” would cut off their left nut to be even half as successful as those I named above.
Well here’s a little secret — Paulo, Francesca and Sofia treat everybody…even the people working at the wedding…very well.
In my experiences with all three of them they’ve had staff approach us and ask us when we’d like our food served. That’s also a different experience from the norm. A typical caterer says, “No, you have to wait until all 400 guests are done eating, then we’ll serve you.” Sorry buddy, when everybody is done eating, we have to work. When everybody is done eating, that means they’re dancing and I’d bet that the bride and groom won’t be very happy with you if their photographer is either tired and starving by that point, or off somewhere trying to wolf down a sandwich when the action starts.
And in my experience with Paulo, Francesca and Sofia, they’ve also given us the same delicious food the guests are eating, a place to sit and a waiter who brought us drinks.
So let’s do the math. Cost to Paulo Russo to serve us two hot meals =$50? Maybe? I doubt his costs are even that high. But earnings to Paulo Russo when a bride is going between him and somebody else and I tell said bride that Paulo is absolutely amazing and if I were getting married tomorrow I wouldn’t trust my catering to anybody else and she hires him based off of my recommendation = $20,000-50,000? You do the math.
Even if you’re an idiot and you don’t want a successful catering business in Chile, then let’s talk about something else — be a decent human being. You know that the photographers have been on their feet for probably at least 4-5 hours by the time dinner is even served and that they’ll still be there for another 5-6 hours. If it were you, wouldn’t you want a nice meal?
As a side note, while we’re on the subject, I should direct some of this to brides and grooms. We have been fortunate enough that we are almost never served vendor meals, knock on wood!
But I’ll say it anyways…who do you think is going to work harder to take better pictures, go the extra mile and just generally have more energy at your wedding? The photographer who picked at a crappy sandwich that was too disgusting to eat, or the one who got a 15 minute break to sit down and eat a real meal?
IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE PEOPLE.
It’s common decency.
Moral of the story. Caterers, don’t be shitheads and you’ll get more business. Novios, don’t be shitheads and your pictures will be better.
The end.
-
- I would love if you'd
help support my
blog and buy through
these links!
