Chiloe Island

This past weekend we went to Chiloe Island. It was about a 6 hour bus/ ferry ride from Valdivia, there are several smaller towns on the island, a few of which we visited. Chiloe island is known to very beautiful, and to have a distinct culture from the rest of Chile, and the world. There are many beautiful houses and churches as well as natural parks. Mythology and legends play a big part of the people's lives, though now it's a combination of this and Catholicism. Chiloe Island was the last place in South America to be conquered by the Spanish and so many of their own cultural aspects remain intact. They also have a lot of unique food, including curanto which is a soup cooked in the ground, with everything you can think of in it. Anyways, it was a good weekend.

Pucon

The past weekend I traveled to Pucon, a beautiful touristy town about 3 hours away from Valdivia. There are several lakes around, and a big active volcano (last eruption 1971). Most people travel here to do X-treme things like x-treme snowboarding, x-treme river rafting, and regular volcano climbing. We were on a budget so we didn't do any of those things. Instead, the first day we went walking by the lake and this guy let us go out in his paddle boat for awhile. I definitely gave me arms a lot  of exercise, not that those guns need it or anything. The second day there we rented bikes and explored some really nice trails in the countryside. It was a great time indeed, and the Volcano didn't erupt while we there, allowing us to narrowly escape complete annihilation and lava related deaths. Otherwise, I am doing really well here in Valdivia and everything is going great.

Fiestas Patrias

So today, the 18th of September is Chile's birthday. Chileans celebrate this by having a lots of parties and eating lots and lots of Chilean food, drinking Chilean wine and dancing chilean dances. There is no school today because it's a national holiday, but we had a celebration at school earlier in the week. I took some pictures of some of my students all dressed up in special Chilean clothes and I learned how to dance (horribly) the national chilean dance, la cueca. The students also presented songs and dances, and I videotaped a little.

Valdivia Pictures

Here of some pictures I took of the costanera in Valdivia. There was a submarine and some sea lions out about. yeah.

Chilean Food Post

I know I haven't updated in awhile, and the reason isn't that I have been too busy or anything like that, it's just that nothing much has happened. I've settled into a routine here in Valdivia, which is both good and bad. Teaching has started to feel more like a job and it can be very tiring by the end of the week. I liked it more when I first started, now it's just okay. The weather has been very bad here in Valdivia.  The past few weeks it has rained pretty much everyday, which makes it hard to do things. So I've been kind of homesick lately, but I think it's mostly out of boredom. 3 more months here feels like a very long time. Once the weather starts to get better, hopefully I'll do some cool weekend trips around southern Chile. Anyways, I thought I would make a post about Chilean food too pass the time since it's something people have me asked about. Okay, here it goes:

Mostly, it's not that different from American food, just at little bit more bland. A typical meal is like chicken and rice, or a porkchop and mashed potatoes or things like that. Alright, not very interesting but alright. Seafood is really popular, one meal I had was just a bucket of clams in their shells and a cup of dipping sauce. They tasted pretty good, except for the ones that had sand in them still. There's a dish called ceviche which is fish cooked in limejuice with other seasoning and its served cold, but it's very good.

Fast food is also popular in Chile, but it's a little bit different and generally worse. They really like hot dogs, but they eat them with guacamole, mayo, and tomatoes. This trio of ingredients, known as italiano because of the colors is put on everything, hamburgers, sandwiches, whatever.  They also use the fried egg as topping fairly often, which is good usually.

There is one food item which is unique to Valdivia, German-Chilean in origin only served at a few select restaurants. It's called crudo, and it's basically raw hamburger meat, on a piece of bread, with onions, a horseradish-type sauce and lemon juice. The lemon juice supposedly kills the bacteria and makes it safe to eat. 

It goes against all natural instincts to eat this, but it actually tastes really good. I've eaten it a few times and never gotten so much as a stomach ache. It's a really unique subtle taste, I'm not sure what to compare it. They only serve this at nicer semi-upscale restaurants I'm not sure if I have the guts to attempt to make this back in the U.S.

Finally, Chile is most widely known for its wine. I haven't had any of the really pricey wines here but the cheaper middle range wines are very good. A 2 dollar bottle of wine here tastes like a 15 dollar bottle in CA. I haven't had anything as good as Sculpterra here, but what else is that good anyway? The best beer in Chile, called Kuntsmann, is brewed in Valdivia. This makes sense because of the huge German population/influence here. The one Southern Chile staple that I do plan on bringing with me to the U.S. is Navegado. This name means sailing, and it originated in Southern Chile. It's basically wine, served really hot with sugar, cinnamon and orange added. It's delicious for a cold evening. Anyways, I'm probably forgetting a bunch of good stuff, or that there's more I haven't hear even of.

trip within a trip wrapup

If you are just starting to read this, you can get a better chronologically correct recount of my past 2 and half weeks spent backpacking through Northern Chile and Peru by going back a few posts to the start.

In conclusion... after Iquiqui it was 26 hours in bus to Santiago and then a mere 10 more to Valdivia bring the grand total to 123 hours in buses over 2 and a half weeks. Overall, a great trip, tiring on the body and bank account, but I can say I really made the most of my time here in my vacation from school. I saw many things that most won't see in there life time, but also made time to relax and enjoy new friendships.

Now, I am back "home" in Valdivia and school starts up again next monday, and it's time to buckle down for the next 4 months. I need to: not spend any more money frivolously, do my best to teach and make a difference with my students, practice practice practice the ol' Espanol, and make the most of living in a different culture even though I am starting to miss America. Also, I need to update the blog more regularly. I still haven't posted pictures of Valdivia ( i'm saving up for that one). 

En fin, gracias Chile, gracias Peru.

trip within a trip pt. 11: Iquique, Chile

Now for the getting back home. From Cusco back to Arequipa back to Tacna, cross the border, back to Arica we then went to Iquique another coastal town in Northern Chile to stay for the night after a ton of bus time. (total so far: 87 hours) It was very nice. As you can see I was really tired of taking pictures by this point so you'll have to take my word for it. As far as a beach/resort type city Iquique is the nicest in Chile and the weather was really great. There's a really great wooden boardwalk along the beach that we walked along and rested up before the 26 hour bus back to Santiago. It's usually compared to Miami, but since I dont Miami I will say it's the Chilean San Diego. If you want more pictures of the Iquiqui coastline, google it, I'm tired. This was the last stop before going home.