Un Chupito de Cultura

Last day in Chile

2011-01-10T17:03:00.001-08:00

Hello loyal blog readers.
Here we are at the very end of the adventure. And of course, now I almost don't want to go...almost. In the end we have made a lot of really great friends here who I hope I will see again in my life. The beauty of doing an exchange is that now Zach and I can travel to Europe and we have places to stay in Germany, Spain and France. We also have lots of friends here in Chile who want us to come back.
Just before returning to the United States, we got to enjoy a great christmas gift from my dad which was a tour in Torres Del Paine (a.k.a Patagonia) for 6 days. We started out with a 4 day trek through a mountain range called The W. We saw glaciers, llamas, went horse back riding, hiked more than 50 kilometers (>31 miles), camped for four days, while also enjoying the amenities of what must have been a four star resort in the middle-of-nowhere Patagonia.
We had a guided tour through the national park of Torres Del Paine, and our guides were great. Our day of horse riding was also amazing, but after 7 hours in the saddle, we were ready to dismount and relax.
After our exciting outdoor adventures we returned to Concepción, but only for about 2 days. Just enough time to pack, buy pisco and Chilean wine, and say a fond farewell to all our friends here.
Luckily for us we have a friend from Concepción who is now living in Albuquerque for the next 2 years or so. So we have someone to practice Spanish with on a regular basis.
I am pretty sure Zach is going to post some pictures of Torres del Paine once we get back and settled into our house.
Thanks to everyone who followed our journey here.

Christmas En Concepción

2010-12-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

It's christmas, the seagulls and crying and it's 61 degrees outside. It's a very strange change to have beach weather on this holiday. Normally for I am all bundled up in pajamas and a pair of big furry christmas socks. This morning I woke up and put on the warmest pants I have, and the biggest pair of socks, which happen to be some big blue organic cotton socks from Whole Foods, but it's just not the same.
This is also the first year I haven't done the Canyon road Farolito walk, and I miss it dearly. But last night we went to the house of our friend Oscar, and celebrated with his parents, brother, aunts, uncle and cousin. It was really nice to be with a family during that time.
In Chile, families celebrate Christmas on the night of the 24th. Everyone gathers together and eats a big meal then at 12:00 AM they all get to open presents. And that is pretty much what we did last night. We arrived at their house and were offered some great beer, then we all sat down in the living room and snacked on olives and different cheeses, and ginger bread cookies made from the boxed mix Jane ans Skipp sent us. We also drank ponche, which is a very typical drink here made of red or white whine, fruit (in this case strawberry) and a bit of sugar. When we got to the table to eat we had turkey, and beef with a cherry dressing (it was delicious) or pineapple dressing.We also roasted potatoes, corn, tomatoes and more wine. Dessert was ice cream or tiramisu with strawberries, raspberries or cantaloupe. We also got to try some brandy that was older than us, which was really good.
Then at 12 AM, as promised we all went into the living room again and started to open presents. And to my surprise there were presents for Zach and I. Zach got a beautiful chess board and all the pieces are based on the stone figures that are on Easter Island. I got a beautiful earring and necklace set made from a stone called cross stone, because it naturally has a cross set in the middle. And we also got an indio picaro. Which I won't try and describe because it is so funny you just have to see it for yourself.
And that was our christmas eve in Concepción. Different but delightful. Although next year I will be glad to do christmas in snow.

New Column I wrote for the Daily Lobo

2010-12-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

Escribé este para el lobo. Puedes leer akah. Prefiero como yo lo edité.

Like an all-encompassing wave washing over your body and sweeping you off your feet, throwing you on your ass so hard that you feel nauseous -- that is how I would equate moving abroad. You get plunged into an instant identity crisis in every facet of your being. It’s terrible and wonderful at the same time, like too many similes in a paragraph.

If you come from the United States, there isn’t really anywhere in the world that hasn’t had some exposure to western culture. There are, of course, the outliers North Korea, the deep southern states and bits of Africa. But anywhere you go these days there always seems to be Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, and that’s probably the most common perspective of what America is. Sometimes living abroad you feel like it might be the most honest depiction.

But in between that first day and that second to third month, the new and exciting of it all falls away, and the culture shock sets in. Going to a new ethnic restaurant is fun and just outside of your comfort zone for as long as you choose. But deciding to live there and not leave for six months to a year is a whole other story. The fun of not knowing what you’re eating turns to frustration, and always being on the outside of a joke becomes embarrassing. The clothes you think are cool seem even odder than at home.

And this is where the wave comes in: You get knocked down. You know nothing -- not the language, not the culture, not the food. And you’ve decided to live here for the next little chunk of life. It sucks.

Then a funny thing happens. It’s the most surreal feeling; you leave the town you’ve been in, and travel around the country. And when you get back in the bus station or airport tired and haggard you feel like you’ve come home. And like the ocean receding the horizon comes into view again. That wave that just knocked you on your ass doesn’t look like it ever could have. And you maybe don’t crave all the new food you’ve encountered, but maybe a dish or two.

I had been on a bus for nearly eight hours, which in Chile is laughably nothing, and I was super hot, and the one thing I craved more than anything was an ice cold Piscola. It’s a type of grape brandy made only in northern Chile/Southern Peru, mixed with a soft drink. But I remember the moment fondly because I wasn’t craving something from home in a time of hot stress, I was craving something from right now. From Chile.

And this is the Zen-like mantra that moving abroad forces you to accept. You know nothing, you are nothing, you cannot predict anything. You are golden once you’ve accepted this mind-set: strong like stone, smooth like water.

I am at about five months in, and about a month and a half ago I really started getting into the swing of things. Spanish is bueno, I have a good amount of friends, and I know where and when to do things. One of the downsides for studying abroad only a short time like six months is that once you get used to things, you move on.

I come back in early January and start school almost immediately, and while it will be nice to get back to normal, I am going to miss Chile.

Protesting and tear gas seem to be in the air

2010-12-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

Chiloe Photo

2010-12-04T18:53:00.001-08:00

Lago del Volcan

2010-11-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog

2010-11-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

Blog, I feel like we've grown apart. It's been ages since I've seen you for who you really are. But tonight, let's change that. Let's get back to the way things were.

Yes folks, it's been a while since I've written something on this communication portal. And for you all on the upper half on the American continent, it may be sad. But for me, it's more a coming of culture process (like coming of age, but with culture). I have been spending less and less time trying to find connections back to New Mexico. And it's been getting surprisingly enjoyable and easy to integrate in culture here.

One of the main reasons for the change, I believe, is being able to make connections with my friends here. It's easy to have friends, but now we are developing more meaningful relationships and all that gobeldyguk.

I also started rehearsing for my tribal belly dance show that happened this past weekend (Nov. 6 for future readers). That was a really rewarding experience for me because I got to meet 6 or so really nice women who I saw on at least a weekly basis. And although Zach was a little bummed I had rehearsals every Saturday, which inhibited our travelings, it was only for a couple weeks. And now our weekends are free as the seagulls that wake me up every morning.

I think that we are going to go camping this Thursday in a national reserve in a town called Los Angeles. Now is a good time to travel because pretty much all our friends are out of town somewhere. Most of them went up north to the Atacama Desert, but Zach and I actually have to attend our classes for the next week, so we are just doing a weekend trip.

A lot of the other foreign students here don't need to return with actual grades so they can kind of come and go as they please. So in some ways it has been a bummer not to have the same freedom as them. They have gone to Argentina, all sorts of cities and pueblos, and camping galore. But on the other hand, we have been able to make some great friendships with Chileans being here weekend after weekend.

We also had a very special visitor last week: MY MOMMY!!! It was so much fun have my mom here. She arrived on October 30th. And on the 31st, we went to a small town called Talca. It was one of the towns that most effected by the earthquake. There were whole street blocks where all the stores were closed due to reconstruction.

But alas, it was my birthday, so we bought some good wine and had a delicious picnic in the plaza. We ate chicken, artichoke and garlic paste, cheese, hearts of palm, anchovies and bread. It was possibly the best picnic I've ever had. And the next day we went to a vineyard about 30 minutes away form Talca called Él viñedo de San Rafeal. We went out there without calling in advance because we were told by our hostal that it would be easy to do a tour. After walking for about two miles to get to the vineyard. We were told that we in fact could not do a tour without a reservation. But being the thinking lady I am, I asked them if we could at least go buy some wine. And of course, by all means, that was acceptable.

So we got to the store to buy wine and the women at the desk felt bad that we had walked all that way just to buy two bottles of wine and walk back. So she pulled some strings with her friend in the restaurant, and got us an impromptu reservation. And this restaurant, I should add, was located on a lake. We arrived at this extremely classy restaurant and sat on some comfy couches and drank white wine with toast and tempanada. Next we had salads, warm bread, salmon and rice, and of course, more wine!

So it was kind of like a wine fairy tale come true. The no reservationers were treated like royalty. We bought two bottles of wine and were on our way.

My mom left the following friday on Nov. 5. And that was that. We enjoyed her presence so much. It felt really good to be able to show somebody around, and to show our lifestyle here. It took away a bit of that estranged foreigner feeling.

Well that's all for now folks. I am going to go eat some Asian ribs Zach is making for dinner.

SANTO GOLD: The weird gypsy parade that only loosely makes sense

2010-10-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Its been a long long time

2010-10-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, been a while since I posted anything. BUT here is a few photos. Dichato is a pueblo that was heavily damaged by a tidal wave.

What's the story with the protestors

2010-10-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

Restaurants on Plaza Peru in Concepción, Chile were serving beer for lunch, but about 20 feet away almost 15 protesters with face masks were serving molotov cocktails, and tire fires on Monday at about 1 p.m.
The protesters began their demonstration by piling about 20 tires in one of the traffic lanes of Calle Chacabuco, and setting fire to them with a loud crack as a bottle filled with gasoline hit the pavement.
The protesters continued pouring lighter fluid on the fire as well as running up to police tanks and throwing the molotovs in their path.
One of the cocktails missed the police vehicle and hit a pillar of a nearby restaurant. The bottle exploded in front of a kiosk selling newspapers and snacks, and according to a local newspaper, La Estrella, lit the pants and socks of a bystander on fire.
There were about 50 people on Plaza Peru in the surrounding restaurants and walkways. Some were walking to class at the University of Concepción, which is on the other side of Calle Chacabuco, and others were eating lunch.
The demonstration happened outside the doors of the art building on the university campus.
Most people stopped to watch the protesters, and were walking back and forth under the portals of the restaurants trying to avoid any contact with the molotov cocktails.
Shop owners pulled down the metal coverings for their windows and closed their shop doors.
The police tank, which is permanently parked on the corner of Plaza Peru, moved to the side of the plaza to squirt water from a hose attached to its roof to extinguish the fires from the molotove cocktails.
As the police tanks approached Chacabuco a protester ran up to the tank, and threw a flaming bottle at the wire-protected windshield. The tank sprayed the protester and the burning pavement with water.
After about 10 minutes all the protesters dispersed onto the university campus before any of the police could follow them.
The protest is most likely an effort to call attention the Mapuche hunger strike that has spanned the last 85 days.
The hunger strike is in response to a law that was created in 1985 under Augusto Pinochet. The law has jailed about 35 Mapuche political prisoners in different Chilean prisons due to its enforcement.
Many of the Mapuche people have gone to jail because they retaliated against the unfair prosecution of their people, and the misuse of their land with demonstrations, vandalizing and arson. In some cases it was against companies that have built businesses on their land, as well as desecrated sacred cemeteries with deforestation and mining.
The antiterrorist law allows people who commit various crime, such as arson or hijacking of a public transport, to be held in prison for up to two years without a formal charge, and can be sent to prison based on anonymous tips.
The Mapuche have asked the President of Chile, Sebastión Piñera, to change certain articles of the law, such as allowing anonymous tips, but he has not made any efforts to change the law.
While it was not clear that this was the reason for the demonstration it has been a sensitive issue for the almost one million Mapuche people in Chile, as well as Chileans in general.
The hunger strike has drawn international attention from the Human Rights Watch, and people such as Noam Chomsky. Chomsky wrote a letter to a prisoner expressing his sorrow for the suffering of the Mapuche people, and his disapproval that Piñera was unwilling to hold talks and repeal the law.

University Protests

2010-10-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Some crazy shit happened at school today

There are like 5 posts of photos, so keep scrolling!

2010-09-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

Wait? MORE PHOTOS!?!

2010-09-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

MORE PHOTOS!

2010-09-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

2010-09-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

PHOTO MADNESS!!!!!!!

2010-09-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

TOME

A little note from today

2010-09-10T18:57:00.001-07:00

So today is Friday, and neither Zach nor I have classes on Fridays. So that's really nice. Today we went out to lunch with our new German friend Antonia. After a lunch of grilled chicken, french fries, an orange, juice and some cream of asparagus soup, Antonia asked us if we wanted to go to an official Universidad de Concepción basketball game. So we decided that it would be a good thing to do, show some school spirit and whatnot. Anyways, after the end of the first game, womens basketball, I saw something that was so funny, I felt it was blog worthy.
And before I tell you what it was, I need to back up a bit. The customary greeting here when two girls meet, or when a girl and guy meet is for each person to give one kiss on the right cheek.
So at the end of this basketball game, I was pleasantly surprised, and laughed out loud when I saw that instead of the girls from both teams shaking hands or doing that slap-hands-while-walking by each other thing we do in the states, they all gave each other a kiss on the right cheek.
Now that's sportsmanship!

The Soil Whisperer of South America

2010-09-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ok so after a long time waiting for a response from Carlos Crovetto (and I'm still waiting), here is something I whipped up a while ago about him farm.

“The soil must be alive. How can farmers feed people if we don’t feed soil,” says Carlos Crovetto.
Crovetto owns Chequén Farms, 400 hectares of land in Florida county, about 45 kilometers outside Concepción.
On his farm, he practices a method called no-tillage, which means he doesn’t use a plow on the fields after each season. He also doesn’t burn the fields, which is another popular method for Chilean farmers.
His farm is one of many farms in the small county, but his farm is unique from others.
“Sixty percent of the area is planted with pine and eucalyptus tress, and 40 percent of the land is in the hand of poor people. That today is abysmal life because the soil doesn’t produce,” Crovetto said. “And they didn’t listen (to my message) and didn’t understand the message.”
His message to his neighbors was that they needed to change how they treat their soil, otherwise the soil would stop producing.
“My neighbors, they plow and they are not able to produce anymore because the soil doesn’t have any food inside,” he said. “The fertilizers are not a nutrient for the soil. Fertilizers are nutrients for the plants. The soil has a tremendous ability to produce its own nutrients, but in the long term. Not in the near future. Not today, not tomorrow.”
Crovetto said Chilean farmers have used a plow to cultivate agriculture since the 1700’s. And when he inherited the farm from his father, along with his brother Tómas in 1953, he saw the soil couldn’t produce in the same capacity if he continued tilling. That is when his interest in no-till farming began.
“I learned about minimal tillage, but it wasn’t enough for me,” he said.
“In the 80’s I worked with farmers to the North, East and South ¬¬— because in the West is the ocean — in order to understand the problems of my neighbor. The people didn’t understand. It was difficult to try and teach because they didn’t want to change.”
Crovetto said there is a similar sentiment among farmers in the U.S. They know about no-till farming, but they aren’t convinced it’ any better than what they do, so they keep plowing and burning every couple years.
“In my country we don’t have real help for soil conservation,” he said. “We have a program about soil conservation or soil improvement, but the spirit of this law is to put the money in the pocket, not in the soil. In other words, the help to the farmers is ok, but the help doesn’t arrive to the soil.”
Crovetto lives on land that is mostly hills, like much of Chile, so many farmers have to deal with erosion. Erosion happens when fine particles in the soil (organic matter) are washed away with watering or rain. Crovetto said it’s those particles that keep the soil alive, and healthy.
“I have been to Andalucia, Spain several times,” he said. “They have completely destroyed it (the soil). One meter of soil is gone! Do you know what the means? No farmers can rescue all these small soil particles that are going to creeks, rivers and then to the ocean. You cannot put it back where it came from.
I can recover organic matter, but I cannot recover the soil genetics. The pattern material, I cannot do that.”
Crovetto said he hasn’t used a plow since 1959. Since then, he has increased the organic matter in the soil from 0.8 to six percent.
Crovetto raised the organic matter in his soil by making sure it had the proper nutrients, also by adding a mulch (hay) as a top layer to the soil. He has a saying that goes, “The grain is for the farmers, the straw is for the soil.”
“If you take the energy from the soil, the name of the energy is carbon, if you don’t release enough residue to the soil, the micro organisms and mesofauna, you cannot feed them,” he said. “And these animals will disappear. When you plow, there are hundreds of birds coming behind the plow eating the small animals that belong to the soil and not the birds!”
Crovetto has traveled worldwide, including to Argentina over 40 times to promote the no-till revolution. He said it is now popular in Argentina and he feels proud about what the work he done there. He has a phrase he teaches to all the farmers who are interested in replenishing their soil.
“Puedes mirar (You can take a look), which is nothing. Puedes ver (you can see), which is better. Puedes observar (you can observe), which is the best.”

First day of School!!!

2010-08-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh there is nothing like the first day of school. And I haven't been as nervous as I was this morning since my first day of public high school and my first date combined. But that only lasted for about 20 minutes. The first class of the day was Opinion Journalism.
Zach and I had met with the professor before because he is the head of the journalism department. He was really nice and helped us out during our little meeting. But there were surprises in plenty during the first day of classes.
So back to the first class, opinion. It started at 11:00 AM, and we arrived at the university with about 5 minutes to spare. After we found the classroom we went and sat inside, thinking that we were just on time. Wrong. We sat in the class for about 10 minutes before the professor walked in. About 5 minutes after that, the huge group of students sitting outside the classroom smoking cigarettes meandered in and took their seats. I don't know why we didn't expect this, but it was weird for us semi-timely Americans.
The class went as usual for the first day. We went over the syllabus, but only after a mildly embarrassing introduction to the rest of the class, probably about 30 people. Our lovely profe turned to the both of us and told everyone we were the extranjeros from the United States and everyone just looked at us blankly. But hey, I guess it's a good way to meet people. I just wasn't quite expecting that, and was red in the face for the whole introduction process.
Onto our next class after a 2 hour lunch break, an anthropology class called Culture and Language of Mapuche (the Mapuche are the indigenous people of Chile). Despite trying to take different classes, it worked out that the fun classes, and classes that fit best in our schedule were the same. But we only have 3 classes together out of 5.
Anyways.... we went to the Mapuche class at 3 PM and waited outside that class for about 10 minutes. Then a group of obviously not Chilean girls walked up to us and asked in slow foreigner Spanish if this was the Mapuche class. There were 3 German girls and 2 French girls all a little confused as to where the class was, and why upon arrival, the door was locked. It turns out the class doesn't start till next week... a week after all the other classes start. Those silly Anthropologists.
So there it is, our first day of school in Concepción. The first week here is similar to the first week at UNM. Half the classes only last for 30 minutes, and the other half are canceled till the next week.

Video of Valle de Elqui

2010-08-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

This man can sing better than I can record videos, and that's saying something, but here is a little taste of what we saw on our adventure. It starts out with us in the over priced Mistral restaurant. Then walking around the streets of Elqui, outside the church near a fountain. Next we are at the pisco distillery de Los Nichos.
And the song came from a man on our bus from La Serena to Valle de Elqui. He just hopped on, played a tune, asked for change and hopped off.

La Serena

2010-08-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

To see a map of where we went.

Start of the trip with a 6 hour bus to Santiago, slept at a friend's house. Next day up and at them? we jump on another bus to La Serena. Spend all 6 hours completely alone on a big bus watching Stephen Segaul movies sometimes dubbed, sometimes not. Either way it was weird to have to come to Chile to be forced to watch the seagull.

The bus ride was long but the scenery was pretty, lots of cacti big and strong, San Pedros if I'm not mistaken. The kind you eat to start another type of trip, so I felt like it was fitting. Big hills like the ones you see when you drive into central Cali start to appear and then they just get bigger drier and steeper. Ending up in the land of valleys. Finally we get to La Serena and take a cab literally 2 blocks to our hostal-the guy said it was close.

Hostal was cool if not a little weird, the public computer was right outside our window, making it a point of constant traffic. An older Chilean guy working on his thesis sat in the lounge alone under the stars putting his head in his hands. I sat next to him and tried to figure out what we were doing the next day. I started up a conversation, he told me he was working on risk management but one day he hoped to travel to Australia to become an oceanic geographer. I asked him what kind of questions he asked people and what responses they gave. One of them was whether people felt they were prepared more than the average person for a tidal wave. Most people would say yes and then say they didn't know.

After talking to the guy for a little while we went to 900, a restaurant of meat. We ordered the plate of meat and before long 1 sausage, 1 blood sausage, 1 porkchop, 1 steak, one piece of chicken, 1.5 potatoes, 1 Chilean salad(tomatoes and onions), and 1/2 bottle of wine arrived per person. We sat there staring at the big pit of meat, which was suspended over roasting coals on our table. Then we started to eat.

After about 2 hours, drunk with meat and wine we walked back to the hostal and passed out.

We woke up to a lady screaming repeatedly- turned out to be a seagull.

Next day we woke up and ate breakfast. We shared a table with a swiss couple and talked about what they were doing and what we thought we might do. They seemed a little disappointed at the price of it all. So did we.

We decided to leave la Serena and go camping.

2.5 hours later we arrived in pisco elqui. The tiny little town filled with hostals and tourists during the summer. Now it being the winter there was little more than farmers and artisans selling pisco and crafts to the slow traffic of people coming through. On the bus an Australian man, Tom, asked if we knew when to get off for Pisco Elqui. He didn't speak any spanish.

Finally we got off and walked down a little dirt road to a refugio one of the men from the pueblo told me about and we set up camp next to a little river-covered by trees. Across from us lay the pisco fields. Then we walked back up to the mistral restaurant(the more famous high price pisco) where we greeted with heavy prices and weak english. Tom saw some people he knew. We sat with them and after about three minutes we didn't talk to them. We ordered some pisco sours and empanadas and sat back talking a little bit.

Tom said he used to be a business professional and quit his job a few months back-bought a world ticket, something like 20 flights for 3,000 and had been traveling around the world since. Some how he had gotten throughout South America knowing almost no spanish and having a tendency to get drunk everywhere.

He told us a lot of crazy stories about ex pats across South America and mannequins. We finished up and he jumped on a bus. I didn't know whether his stories were lies or not, some seemed pretty crazy. But I guess it doesn't matter, we only knew him for an hour or so and that is probably in all likeliness the extent of our relationship till death. So, who cares? It was a chuckle or two for free.

We decided to walk around town for a little while. We went up the hill popping into little artesanal tiendas. Bee wax face cream, pisco from the nichos pisquería marked up to triple the price.

We ended up in one store that had a hippy from chile and a world wanderer from germany. We talked for a long time about chile and the weirdness that it is. We talked about where to go and what to do. We talked about the goverment and the food, the rodeo and ponchos.

After that we went to a restaurant that claimed to have traditional food and paid double what anything was worth and sat in complete privacy in a big open tiki hut like structure.

This was a tourist town, and we were not in the tourist season. Things were open only as long as they had to be and after we left they locked the doors.

We went back to camp and took a few pictures of the night sky, amazing by the way.

Next morning we woke up to roosters and dogs barking, and decided to go explore. We walked to the nichos pisquería a few miles down the road and took the tour, drank some pisco, and left. It was a very cool little place, making only 4,000 bottles a year. Once again we were the only ones there up until when we left, when a bunch of wealthy older chileans came in confused that they were not at the mistral pisquería. They took the tour anyways.

We left and walked down the road a couple miles, and decided to eat lunch at a hotel/resort thing along the way. Once again we were hit with heavy prices but no english this time.

We had to leave the next day early in the morning so we decided to go back to serena that night. The bus ride passed quickly and was a nice ride, a lot of people from the villages/pueblos along the way hopped on. It was good people watching.

Later we ended up the only ones in a really cool hostel with white sand for floors in part of it and japanese art on the walls. We went out to eat, bought some ice cream, and came back to sleep it all off.

The next day in the morning we hopped on a bus to Santiago. When we got there, no one was home yet so we decided to eat a snack at a restaurant around the corner that just turned out to be some sort of revolutionary school/cultural center.

It was the woman's birthday that we were staying with. So we went for happy hour at a club around the corner. I drank mojitos and Hunter drank her now ever common terremoto. Having paused eating anything substantial because we thought there would be dinner involved with this birthday, we got really buzzed, really quickly. Their happy hour is two drinks for the price of one, and everyone orders their own two drinks. And unlike America where you get a cup full of ice with coke and a splash of rum-in Chile you get a cup full of rum with some ice and a splash of coke.

Feeling quite loopy and hungry we left the club and walked around to find something to eat, and of course the only mexican food around we happened upon was our choice. Which turned out to be a pretty good one. Cheap and not bad considering the location on earth. Although we could tell the guy was getting annoyed when he had to keep giving us more chile/salsa/tomato sauce.

Then we went back to the apartment and stayed awake for 30 minutes having very loose conversations with drunk people before giving up and going to bed.

Next day we woke up and walked around for 7 hours. We ate Indian food and went to a chinese market-finally providing me with some siracha. Then we realized we were locked out and no one was home. After repeated unanswered phone calls we gave up and decided to walk to the plaza brazil around the corner.

There we ordered a pitcher of artisan beer that was some of the better beer I have had since being here-Chile has some pretty awful beer. A platter de España was ordered and we sat watching the drama of the park across the way. Homeless people fighting, dogs trying to steal food, children playing, and drunk teenagers all co-existing just benches apart with out much interaction between them.

We walked back after a few hours and were relieved to find someone home. After that we argued for 30 minutes or so as to whether we really wanted to go to this one restaurant called las tejas because we'd have to go with our luggage and we'd have to take two cabs. We decided to go and it turned out to be closed. So this guy who was sitting outside of a bar next to it said we should go around the corner to a restaurant that was a hide out for revolutionaries back in the pinochet era. You used to have to say a password to get in.

We walked into the little tiny place that had no windows and looked almost like a delicatessen form the street. Once we walked in a little old man wearing a butcher apron with one eye closed looked us up and down and asked if we had a reservation. We said no, and he asked us where we from. We told him and then said that a bunch of people had recommended this place as being the place to go for chilean food. And that if he had a table that'd be great. He said usually he doesn't take people unless they call 18 hours ahead of time, but maybe he'd make an exception. I still think thats a weird time requirement.....I could see 24, but 18?

He decided to let us stay and told us to wait for a table to be cleared.

While we were waiting a drunk guy came up and said, "hey do you mind if we have a conversation?"

We said "no, of course not."

He said he was an english teacher and wanted to practice and then he said that he and everyone else in Chile hated us, well not us personally but the US. Then he introduced us to his friend who he said we wouldn't like because he was a communist and he wanted to overthrow the US government. Which I agreed with but thought was funny that a middle aged man with braces and a pony tail could be capable of such acts.

We got a table and sat down, there were cards on all the walls of people that had come through including some photos of naked people for some reason and revolutionary sayings that were painted in big red and blue bubbles. In the bathroom people added to the sayings, saying sorry to their girlfriends because they were leaving them for the meat platter.

Then the meat arrived, blood sausage, sausage, ribs, a pig leg, chicken....it was ridiculous and not for a lack of trying we barely ate any of it. It was not quite the gigantic or meat filled meal either of us had envisioned and I don't think we were really quite braced for it.

During the meal the old guy got on the loudspeaker and said some stuff about chile's independence and then played a folk song that everyone knew in the restaurant at full volume.

Then the first drunk guy got on and said fuck Bush and the US government-obviously for our benefit, and then told everyone to drink some more white wine.

We went straight from the restaurant to the bus station and made it there just in time. We traveled all night and arrived back in conci very early in the morning. With a new little chinese friend along the way. She didn't know too much english and no spanish and didn't know where concepcion was or when to get off....it seems there would be so many lost tourists with out us.

When I walked out of the bus station a drunk homeless man walked up to me with a horrifically bleeding eye that made me think maybe zombies had finally attacked and I was in Chile for it. All my potential strategies felt suddenly ruined. I asked a waiting taxi for a ride and what happened, he said the guy fell...they always say they just fell right?

We split a cab to our apartment and then showed the chinese girl where to find a hostal, she took our picture and then left.

We took a shower and watched the end of clueless which is called ni idea in spanish. And then went to bed. Woke up went to the feria, got some vegetables, went to the market for chicken, made roasted chicken and mashed potatoes then used the white wine chicken stock left over to make potato and leek soup....it was delicious.

A video of the farm

2010-08-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of la granja de Carlos Crovetto. I am still working on skills with a camcorder, so pardon the shaky camera... I will soon have a little story to publish along with the photos and video about our conversations with Carlos. But as for now, I will give you a tidbit of background info on him. He is a no till farmer in a province 40 minutes outside Concepción. The idea behind no till farming is that you don't plow the soil so all the fungus and bacteria in the soil can survive, which in turn helps the plants thrive.

La Granja De Carlos

2010-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

So I am exhausta after a fun filled day at the granja. Hunter did an entrivista with some length on it, so I am sure she will be writing something soon to add to this, or maybe we'll just send it to the paper.

LA GRANJA

A little tidbit of deliciousness

2010-08-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

here is a link to Anthony Bourdain's shows No Reservations, he came to Chile a little while back. It's a pretty good look into what Chileans eat, and what we are eating now. Thought you guys would enjoy this.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=FRIZFS70

That is all

2010-08-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

The legal drinking age in Chile is 18. Alcohol is sold every day of the year, except during elections.