Virgin Comparison

Given that I am such a good Catholic *cough cough* I made a trek to visit my lady the virgin today on this holy day. I braved the crowds and hiked up my hill to behold the great virgin. She was very pretty and the gathering was decent for Concepcion but I must say I was a bit disappointed. When I went to Santiago a month ago I went and checked out their Virgin, because she holds quite a place of honor in that city. Check her out...


As you can see their virgin is quite a site to behold. It is classic and beautiful and awe inspiring. She has a well tended colorful terraced garden laying in front of her in which many tourist such as Jill and I like to pose in front of. And the view from the base of the virgin is incredible, arguably the best view of Santiago. Okay, so there is a cell phone tower piercing the view a bit, but hey we are in Chile where commercial progress comes before everything. But this Virgin has a place of honor and everyone knows about her because she is even dramatically lit up at night and visible from many parts of the city. And then there is the Concepcion Virgin, check her out in her day of splendor...

Pretty pathetic huh? Well if you can't tell because I took such beautiful pictures of her, take my word for it, she was pathetic in comparison to the splendor of the Santiago virgin any day. First of all she is hidden on this hill pretty far from the center of the city, and there are no signs or any marketing of her presence, as a matter a fact I live about a 5 minute walk from her and I never even knew she was there and I am a pretty adventuresome person. To even get to her you have to walk down a road that is usually closed to the public and then you have to walk down a slightly shady wooded path and then behold her in the middle of a muddy opening in the trees. There is no view from her, she might have a view from her eye level but shes not even looking out upon the city. Now this may also be my artistic sense but the whole modern virgin thing just doesn't do it for me, I prefer the flowy folds of the classic virgin. Now this may also be because Santiago has not had a huge earthquake in a long time and Concepcion gets hit with them every 10 years. But I must say I felt bad for the Virgin today, she did not get the respect she deserves from the Concepcion people, but luckily Santiago knows how to do it up.

Really to me this is indicative of the difference between Santiago and Concepcion. Concepcion tries to be a modern attractive city but they just don't know how to do it. They hide their sculpture park on the other side of a ghetto from the city, they stick their virgin in the forrest in no man's land and they don't have a map of their transportation system! Sorry this has been building up for a while. Concepcion is a city constructed for longtime residents not tourists, or even transients. Santiago on the other hand is the center of the Chilean world, and they know it and they plan accordingly. Now they have some pollution issues, but at least their Virgin is above that - literally you can see the cloud of pollution below you when you are standing at the base of the Virgin. So nowhere is perfect. But it is always fun to discover more little details about this little city I am calling home right now.