Mayonnaise, salt and hot dogs

     When someone says "Chile" is the first thing you think "oh they have fantastic food there?" After spending 2 days here you will know that the food is not fantastic. Don't get me wrong I've had some incredible dishes, but overall the food here is either full of sodium and oil, or bland.  I bet you didn't know that Chile is the second largest consumer in the world behind Germany.  The average Chilean eats 90 kilos of bread per year. That's about 180 loaves of bread a year! The bread isn't thick and hearty bread either, it's plain and simple white bread. Fortunately my family knows that I don't really eat bread and my host mom even bought wheat pitas and whole wheat crackers for me.
      Chileans love......MAYONNAISE! Chile is the third largest consumer per capita of mayo in the world. It became widely accessible in the 1980s and they haven't stopped eating it since. They put this egg yolk-oil-vinager-thick-white stuff on just about everything..... from corn to hot dogs, potatoes to rice. I always give my host dad a hard time when he puts mayo on his artichokes or on his chicken. He says it's normal and similar to americans eating ketchup, but we don't usually put ketchup on our vegetables (except potatoes) or on grains!
    Baking-last week some of my friends and I really wanted to bake cookies.  We went to the Lider (owned by Walmart) thinking they would have every ingredient we needed. After all it is Walmart right?  Well we wandered around for almost an hour trying to figure out what all we needed. We found a tiny bag of chocolate chips that were $5USD so we smashed candy bars instead, the jar of Great Value peanut butter was almost $6USD, brown sugar which wasn't refined and some sort of baking powder or soda. I pulled out a spanish dictionary and asked a worker if they had "baking soda" and he was incredibly confused. Nonetheless we made the cookies after my host mom had baking soda which comes in a circular container. They were delicious and my host family couldn't get enough of them.
     Every morning I walk out my bedroom and there is a bowl of fruit-banana, kiwi, pear, and apple some incredibly liquidy yogurt and brain flakes. I enjoy it every time! We always have so much fruit in our house. I think I eat at least 4 clementines a day even after sharing some with my friends.
    Lunch is the biggest meal in Chile and on weekends is usually enjoyed for hours with multiple courses.  There are microwaves at school so people usually heat up their lunch.
    Completos- a version of a hot dog that is topped with tomatoes, half an inch of mashed avocado and another inch of mayo.  They can't get enough of them here. Every street vendor and restaurant advertises them.
    Empanadas- this weekend in Pomaire the boys each got a kilo empanada which, like the name suggests was a whole kilo worth of meat inside the empanada.  At one point Mark pulled out a whole chicken drumstick. There were eggs, chicken, beef, onions and who knows what else inside. It was like a treasure chest.
     Ensalada- Salad here consists of shredded ice berg lettuce, tomatoes and occasionally a cucumber. No such thing as salad dressing here- only oil and vinegar and salt.
    Instant coffee is a staple here. Put a little Nescafe in your cup with some hot water and you're set. Chileans also really enjoy their tea or Mate.  I personally like none of those, but I do like hot chocolate. It's great to have at home because when you buy it at as restaurant it's $4USD a cup.
    Overall I consider myself fortunate with my food situation...some of my friends have plain pasta with no sauce and a hot dog for dinner or lentils with a hot dog on top. My favorite meal here was tacos with all the fixings, potato chips with guac and ice cream for dessert!

Avocado with egg salad

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough

vegetable soup

chicken, eggs, and potato balls

completo

La Serena

           Last week we didn't have school on Thursday and since we never have classes on Fridays it was a long weekend just tempting us for travel. On Thursday Murphy, Logan, Paul and I decided to buy bus tickets to go to La Serena. We had looked online at purchasing tickets and thought we were doing well until it wouldn't let us complete the purchase. I tried calling the bus company too and that proved to be a good idea that had no promise of an answer. Papa said they're no good at answering phone calls or emails, typical Chile once again.  So we went to the bus terminal and purchased our tickets for the 11:30pm 7 hour bus to La Serena.  We hopped on the bus that night and the boys quickly passed out while I was awake and anxious as there were a bunch of guys eating potato chips, speaking incredibly fast spanish and pointing at us at one point. The boys had a great night sleep and I got to look out the window and enjoy the stars. When we arrived in La Serena we didn't have anything to do. With no hostels, restaurants or shops open we decided there was only one place to go so we grabbed a cab and said "la playa por favor" (the beach please). I can only imagine his thought as he dropped off 4 gringos at the beach at 6:30am on a Friday morning. Eventually we did stay at Hostal El Punto. We enjoyed $4 cups of hot chocolate in a little cafe after being followed for several blocks by at least 10 dogs.  The locals found this hysterical while we definitely did not. We took a nice nap in our hostel and then were refreshed for the night. We were so excited to cook our own food that night so we bought a rotisserie chicken, pasta, salad stuff, bread, carrots and drinks. We were unpleasantly surprised when the kitchen worker at the hostel had other ideas for us than to let us boil a pot of pasta. We feasted on the chicken, carrots and bread and got by all right.  We played Pirates/liars dice and cards for a few hours nestled next to a tiny fireplace while listening to oldies music. That night we treated the locals to one of Paul's favorite Creed songs at karaoke "Higher".  We got a solid round of applause, but maybe that was because they were so excited to have us be finished! Those of you who know my incredibly awful singing ability imagine combining that with 2 boys and a Creed song, ya yikes! After that bar we stumbled upon a Rock n Roll bar and were extremely out of place almost immediately being the only people not dressed completely in black with skulls on our shirts. The idea of Rock n Roll music sounds nice until it is like death metal music videos turned up extremely loud. We left there pretty quickly. The next day we slept in and were told that breakfast went till 11:30 so we woke up before breakfast only to find out that breakfast is only served until 10:30. This hostel really just wanted us to have to go out and support other restaurants I guess. We spent the remainder of the day taking a dirty public bus with 2 drunk men to the nearest port town, Coquimbo.  It was a really cloudy, cold day so we didn't spend much time walking around the fish market and town park.  We revisited the grocery store and bought another rotisserie chicken, cheese and meat, rolls and ingredients for guac....it was a great feast.

Coquimbo port

         This night at the hostel we were all together in what we affectionately called "The Penthouse" because it had 5 beds plus a couch and a little table. This was the perfect setting for the next 9 hours of dinner, cards and dice, singing and quality debates about the legalization of marijuana in the US as countries in South America are considering legalizing it.  Sunday

Elqui Valley

Pisco Factory 

we had to be up at 8am for a tour so we definitely didn't miss breakfast! We went with a tour company to the Elqui Valley. We toured a museum, church, Pisco factory (the drink of the country. it's made from grapes but sort of similar to vodka), and went to the city of Vicuña. The valley reminded me of Western Idaho/Eastern Oregon. Pretty desolate with brown hills and little vegetation, but still beautiful.  Tens of thousands of grape vines covered the sunny valley.  We stayed in Vicuña instead of coming back to La Serena with the tour in hopes of going to the observatory that night. We found the only tour company for the observatory and were there 3 minutes before their schedule said they would return from their lunch break. In true Chilean fashion it was 45 minutes before they returned. We passed the time by flicking a bottle cap to each other across the street and using it like a football. After purchasing our tickets we still had 2 hours to kill. Vicuña is a small town and nothing was open because it was Sunday. We sat on a park bench eating peanuts and pringles and laughed and tried to solve Murphy's complex riddles.  Finally we arrived at Mamalluca Observatory and it was awesome! It's about 1000m above sea level in the Elqui Valley. The four of us had a telescope all to ourselves with our "aficiando" (fan of outer space).  Through the telescope we could see Saturn's rings and moons, Venus and the craters on the moon! It was almost a full moon so the sky was pretty light making it hard to see many stars but it was incredible.  Our aficiando responded without a doubt "YES" when asked "is there extraterrestrial life?" Interesting. He had an awesome green laser pointer that he could use to point out constellations, not available for use in the USA! We had a great time playing with it though.  I absolutely love looking at the stars and night sky in general. You can let your imagination run wild and take you to a completely different place. We made it back to the hostel on a bus and enjoyed a dinner of crackers and peanut butter. We departed La Serena on Monday at noon.  It was such a fun little excursion. These boys are characters who love adventure, quoting movies, and being kids. I'm thankful they'll always be here to protect me and make me laugh (and snort)! 

The moon through the telescope

Las Montañas

      I've spent my whole life living near the mountains. I lived in the same house at the base of the mountains in Sandy, Utah for 18 years, then lived in Denver for 2 for college and now I'm here in Chile. Some of my favorite memories have been in the mountains around the states, Canada and Costa Rica and now adding Chile to that list. I think it's the shrill peace and beauty that encompasses mountains of any kind. They're the closest to God I'll ever physically be without flying.
   Today was incredible!  A group of 20 of us gringos headed to Portillo on the Argentina/Chile boarder at 5:30am with a company called Ski Portillo Viña .  After a couple of hours of travel in the back of a van we were nearly there until......the pass was closed :( In Chile there isn't much urge for time or hurriedness and schedules aren't followed too strictly. That being said we hung out in a line of cars for 90 minutes waiting to go the last 20km to Portillo.  Finally or driver just decided to pass the line of cars and start his ascent toward the resort. We still have no idea how he got past the people guarding the pass, but they let us go. They probably said something like "the pass is really dangerous and it's still icy so use at your own risk." That's exactly what we did and we made it up the 31 switchbacks and arrived a the resort. There are no guard rails on this pass, signs that show cars falling off cliffs, and ice all over. We all got fitted for our gear and started to shred. Everyone had an incredible time and at no point in time did it seem real that we were actually skiing in the Andes.  I loved the snow, friends and the beauty. It was a perfect bluebird day with not a cloud in sight and the sun glistening on the lake at the base of the resort.
   That was the best $90USD I've spent in awhile for a lift ticket, rentals and transportation.

"The mountains were his masters. They rimmed in life. They were the cup of reality, beyond growth, beyond struggle and death. They were his absolute unity in the midst of eternal change."-Thomas Wolfe

lake at the base

Relax, Listen, and Laugh

"Everyone laughs in the same language." It has no boundaries. I've learned a smile really can light up a room and sometimes when nothing else seems to make sense laughter does.  I laugh at the guys and all their immature jokes. I laugh that my sister puts mayonnaise on her rice and corn. Laugh that I have been so lost in a conversation that there's no turning back but no sense in moving forward with it.  I laugh when papa dances to Gangham style in the car. I laugh especially hard while on the phone with mama when I can't follow what she's trying to tell me.  I laugh that we sang Shania Twain at lunch as a family. Laugh when people immediately follow the question "where are you from?" with "Are you mormon?" People have started to figure out that I snort when I laugh and that just seems to bring out more laughter.
    I smile at the beautiful people. Their joy for life. They take time to eat their meals and enjoy conversations. Sundays are "tranquil" days meant to be spent with family not rushing from people to places. I smile during mass when I literally don't understand more than 10 words even though I've gone to mass for 20 years. I smile at the incredibly peaceful sunsets over the ocean that project red hues on the windows of all the buildings. I smile while eating the top 5 best ice creams I have ever had even though I didn't know what kind it was. I smile realizing this really is a dream that has come true. This place is magical.  Yeah sure the language is incredibly difficult, but no one can take away a smile and everyone understands what a smile and a little laughter means.