Going to the APEC Summit
Just a week after coming back from the Industrial Engineering Congress in Argentina I hop back into the plane for another short trip, for another international event, this time in Chile. The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit of 2004 took place in Santiago with some of the events happening in Viña del Mar where in particular, the russian delegation organized a gala concert. At the summit were present all the presidents of the APEC Countries which are basically all the countries that surround the pacific ocean.
From the time I landed in Santiago, the extereme security measures were obvious and immigration control lines were extremely long due to all the reinforced controls. In my case it was not so bad, thanks to the diplomatic visa I managed to obtain for the even I was able to get through extremely fast and got a taste of what it feels to be a diplomat when it regards airport security...and it felt good!
The tarmac was full of presidential aircraft of all brands and colors. Most presidentes arrived not with one but two or three plains and all were parked rigth there surrounded by chilean police and each countries local flavor of security services.
Getting into Santiago and to the hotel was an adventure in itself since half the city center was block with access restricted to only a few avenues with police checkpoints everywhere. Getting to some of the hotels was basically impossible and in particular, the Sheraton where president Bush stayed was completely of limits for all mere mortals.
After spending a day in Santago I moved to Viña del Mar, a resort town two hours away and close to the important port of Valparaiso. It is a nice little town with colorful buildings, american style restaurants and clean streets. At least in the part of it where I stayed. There were a couple of reasonably good restaurants (Chilean food is not that great overall) but right across the hotel was located a curious italian restaurant with photos of Marylin Monroe everywhere. The story goes that the owners granddad met her somehow and got so obsessed he decorated the whole restaurant with her photos. Maybe it is just a touristy myth but it was interesting nontheless to have to go to Viña del Mar to meet a descendant of some Marylin obsessed italian.
Than came the gala concert in the local municipal theater with the presence of a lot of russian diplomats and a show where both local and imported russian talents showed off their skills in classical music, dancing and such. After the concert, the regular public left while all the diplomats, local officials and "people in the know" stayed and slowly a little casual party formed on stage where all the artists mixed up with everybody else who invaded the stage during the last part of the ceremony. After the usual photo ops, exchanges of pleasantries and some cocktails typical to these events everybody left home while we went back to the Marylin themed italian restaurant for some more of its fares.
A fun trip with a direct experience of extreme security measures, cocktail diplomacy and boring chats about stuff most of the involved honestly don´t believe but still have to say publicly. The food left to be desired but I guess I am just to used to the great restaurants we have here in Lima and neither I learned much about Viña del Mar. That would require a whole different kind of trip.
