Two days ago an eerie thick shroud of smoke enveloped the city. The scent of ash blotted out the perfume of the butterfly bush in our garden. We seemed to be in a scene from an apocalyptic movie. Even today, the sky is milky white. According to the news, there are 47 sites of forest and grass fires throughout Chile. Vegetation is dry, the earth thirsty after four years of drought.

The news then showed scenes of the storm, dubbed “Hercules”, lashing the northeast of the United States. “The worst storm in 20 years.” We are hearing those words more and more. Are these extremes the new normal? And they laughed at “climate change”....

Santiago has taken on the appearance of a semi-evacuated city, but not due to the smoke. January and February are vacation months here. A mass exodus of vacationers has headed to the coast and cooler points south.

To escape the heat and the smoke, we decided to go to the movies to see the James Gandolfini film “Enough Said”. After a wait in line, the girl behind the glass window informed us that all the copies of the flic had been retained in customs and it wasn’t showing anywhere despite being announced in the newspaper. ?????!!!!