I'm sitting comfortably now in a bean bag chair, in the upstairs den of our new home. The double doors are open behind me, to the small balcony; the slightly cooler air comes in. There are two modern couches in front of me facing the tv, an orange one, and one of black leather, without armrests. Our 'matrimonial sweet' (as they call it) is steps away, and it's door and window too are open to the same balcony. Canvassed romantic pictures of Santiago adorn the walls, along with a dartboard, and in the corner sits a fake Charlie Brown sized Christmas tree (?), ornaments and all. The window across from me, above the black leather couch, reveals the open space that is the center of the home, and spans both floors. A wooden staircase spirals squarely along its walls from the first to second floor, around and above the kitchen, which sits on a black and white checkered floor. It floods with orange light in the morning. A big fluffy Alaskan looking dog strolls the first floor--unfortunately he has to leave next month.
We'll be here until mid-July, as you know. It's pretty damn exciting.
I have a couple stories to relay to you, so I'll get to it. I couch-surfed on Thursday night! While I was at the hostel, I received a few unexpected emails from fellow couchsurfers in Santiago, so I emailed them back, and said I'd be down do hang out, and if they have a couch, I'd sleep on it. On Wednesdayish I got a call from one of them named Rod. He invited me over to hang out, and I accepted and asked if it was cool that I stay, and he said of course. (Remember this is all in Spanish! well, maybe spanglish sometimes) I met him at his--nice--apartment in the center of the city, just below Bellavista, the heart of the Santiago club scene. He was absolutely and wholeheartedly welcoming. We talked and he was patient with my Spanish, and truly interested in creating a friendship--one where we learn about eachothers culture, life, etc. So there I was, about 18 floors above Santiago, with Rod and his friends. Oh, and he had a tiny kitten he had rescued from the streets (strays everywhere, remember?), pretty damn cute.
We drove with his friends into Bellavista, where we were gonna meet up with Shay and Corrie and Madison (remember I met Madison at the hostel...and now he's living with us!). I spotted them as we drove through the main drag, and we exchanged waives and yells that were probably awkward to everybody around, and caused a small traffic back up, lol. I went with Rod and friends, but Rod then insisited we go get my friends. He got them into the club with us, so we all danced together. Shay and friends left, and later Rod and I and friends did too. We went back to his house, where he had a mattress and blanket set up for me in the living room--a few hours ago I was a complete stranger; now I have a mattress and blanket in his living room. I slept well, and Rod and I plan to help eachother with language while I'm here, I'll see him again this week.
I have more stories, but right now I gotta get those pictures up. So until next time....chow!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
....and here is where we're gonna live!
Tonight I move into our new place. Its a house of 20 people, all Spanish, all the time. We're headed back into a co-op, but this time its Chilean! Actually, there are international students there too, like any good co-op, but again, we're all gonna speak Spanish. All the time. See why I started a new blog entry, totally outside the comfortable one? The idea is that I come back speaking Spanish, no?
The owner of the place was more than welcoming, as were the other two people living there now. (The others will come back when school starts.) The room is still very comfy, with a big bed, and a little balcony; and the house has a cool feel to it, with art everywhere and an awesome staircase winding up and above the kitchen to our floor.
So now, I gotta wake up a buddy named Madison who Shay and I have met here at the hostel, because he's gonna live there too(I think)! He is studying here too, like Shayla.
Sorry about the pictures, I've been busy! I'll get 'em up asap.
Tonight I move into our new place. Its a house of 20 people, all Spanish, all the time. We're headed back into a co-op, but this time its Chilean! Actually, there are international students there too, like any good co-op, but again, we're all gonna speak Spanish. All the time. See why I started a new blog entry, totally outside the comfortable one? The idea is that I come back speaking Spanish, no?
The owner of the place was more than welcoming, as were the other two people living there now. (The others will come back when school starts.) The room is still very comfy, with a big bed, and a little balcony; and the house has a cool feel to it, with art everywhere and an awesome staircase winding up and above the kitchen to our floor.
So now, I gotta wake up a buddy named Madison who Shay and I have met here at the hostel, because he's gonna live there too(I think)! He is studying here too, like Shayla.
Sorry about the pictures, I've been busy! I'll get 'em up asap.
pretend with me, for a second, that this is my comfort zone, this particular little blog entry. In this comfort zone is a cozy little apartment on a cobblestone street. It has a private bathroom, and double glass door that open to a quiet patio with a mini pool (well, actually, its more like a giant kiddy pool). Two other Americans live here, along with an Italian, and only one speaks Spanish. A comfortable and beautiful place. Maybe too comfortable.
let's step outside this zone.....
let's step outside this zone.....
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
loco, y not so loco
When we first got ourselves into this whole expedition, it seemed a little crazy. And, when a friend in Berkeley said he was gonna go to South America and just travel, it seemed un poco loco too. When I mentioned our trip to anyone, there was always a short pause of, hmmm what the f?? awesome, they might say, but why? Some might say it didn't make much sense.
Now that I'm here, I can say that this makes more sense than anything I can think of.
There is absolutely no price on a little, or a lot, of perspective.
Shayla and I have decided to move here permanently and indefinitely.
JK. lol.
While this makes sense as a whole for us, there are things that don't make sense. Take for example, our dinner. A man obviously goes through great trouble to create the massive 'WANG CHUNG CHOW FUN' or whatever neon sign out front, in those Chinese letters, and inside, you get the full oriental experience. However, the same effort for the orient was not present in the FOOD. The mongolian beef was sliced beef in what could have been instant brown gravy mix. It said spicy on the menu, but if that was spicy, then that poor owners toungue will catch fire if he so much as looks at a red chili or sichuan.
The sushi last night was equally as disappointing. The salmon on the rolls was ok, but otherwise it was like what you'd get at a supermarket.
Maybe these were strokes of bad luck, but I doubt it. I'm gonna use one of my new little travel bottles (for shampoo etc) and fill it with Tapatio....remember how we brought a giant bottle? hehe. We're quite spoiled in California, as far as food goes (in plenty of other ways, too).
I'm excited to cook at home, once we get our place. Also, there are some more exotic foods at and around the central market, a friend at the hostel brought home a baggie of yellow peruvian sauce that looked good. Apparently Peru is an exception to the generally not-so-spicy South America.
ttyl, look for the pictures tomorrow!
Now that I'm here, I can say that this makes more sense than anything I can think of.
There is absolutely no price on a little, or a lot, of perspective.
Shayla and I have decided to move here permanently and indefinitely.
JK. lol.
While this makes sense as a whole for us, there are things that don't make sense. Take for example, our dinner. A man obviously goes through great trouble to create the massive 'WANG CHUNG CHOW FUN' or whatever neon sign out front, in those Chinese letters, and inside, you get the full oriental experience. However, the same effort for the orient was not present in the FOOD. The mongolian beef was sliced beef in what could have been instant brown gravy mix. It said spicy on the menu, but if that was spicy, then that poor owners toungue will catch fire if he so much as looks at a red chili or sichuan.
The sushi last night was equally as disappointing. The salmon on the rolls was ok, but otherwise it was like what you'd get at a supermarket.
Maybe these were strokes of bad luck, but I doubt it. I'm gonna use one of my new little travel bottles (for shampoo etc) and fill it with Tapatio....remember how we brought a giant bottle? hehe. We're quite spoiled in California, as far as food goes (in plenty of other ways, too).
I'm excited to cook at home, once we get our place. Also, there are some more exotic foods at and around the central market, a friend at the hostel brought home a baggie of yellow peruvian sauce that looked good. Apparently Peru is an exception to the generally not-so-spicy South America.
ttyl, look for the pictures tomorrow!
Week Two
Well this is week two. This past week has gone by markedly faster than the first! Last week was pretty mellow; I guess I save I'm saving the blog entries for more interesting stories. Then again, it's all pretty damn interesting. Last week I was on my own every day till 6, then I'd go meet Shay for one thing or another, but always we'd get some dinner.
I've found that with the sleeping snoring sasquatch orchestra I have the pleasure of sharing a dorm with, I get adequate sleep in only if I am thoroughly tired, and sleep in past breakfast, cause they've all left the room around 930am. So, I slept in last week most days. I would then shower, and make myself a good lunch; lunch would inveitable include avocado, tomato, fruit, and bread, and whatever I might have had leftover from dinner the night before. Then I would roam the city for one reason or another, I don't remember which days I did what....One day, I just took my camera and walked. Another day, I went for picnic supplies (Shay and I ended up just having a small dinner with wine on the patio of the hostel, which was very nice). A quick note on the wine. Its all Chilean, mostly bigger reds, chardonnay and sauv blanc, and the price range is from 1 mil pesos to 8ish mil, with quality wine at 2-3mil, and drinkable at 1mil. The 2buck chuck here ain't chuck, and for 5 bucks you get awesome wine.
Another day, I went on a quest for a new beard trimmer, because I left mine in the bathroom the previous Saturday before my Valparaiso trip, and it disappeared. That sucked, because that's 35ish bucks I had to spend; and there's not the variety of budget trimmers you find in the US. I found a really crappy 20 dollar one, or a better expensive one, or a really expensive one, and that was it.
So, at 6 every day, I would go meet Shayla. I have the bus route down to get to Anjelicas--walk out to Av Providencia (the main road in this disctrict with the same name), flag down a bus, and take it to Av Pedro de Valdivia. You have to waive down the buses, like you would a cab, or else they just cruise on by. Sometimes they'll cruise on by anyway. Then, another bus down Valdivia, and then its just a couple blocks to walk. Anjelica's house is in the district Nunoa (with 'enya's' on both n's....I can't put that accent on the blog...)
One night, we headed to 'Fuente Alemana' , which translates to something like German fountain (? or german source?) ....There's a ton of whats called a Fuente de Soda (soda fountain) around here, and they all serve the same type of food. I guess the Fuente Alemana is more of the classic or original, or just best, version. It's funny...some Fuente de Soda's look like what you expect out of Soda Fountain's, innocent, clean, soda and sadwiches, etc. But some have that classic 50's soda fountian window signage, but inside its beer and cigarrettes and futbol. Anyway, Fuente Alemana is where Anthony Bourdain went on his Chilean tour, and it's a local favorite, so naturally we have to go. They serve massive sandwiches that you can order a number of different ways. We didn't really know what was what on the menu, so we ordered the 'lomito completo' con solamente un poco mayo, which was thin sliced pork, saurekraut, and only a little mayo, and something else was on it. Usually, they ladle a massive amount of mayo on, which coagulates to almost look like mozzarella cheese--but its not, obviously. They love mayonnaise here, especially the older generations. It gets a little gross. You can order them with avocado, tomato, both, green beans, or everything. And there's other meat I think, maybe beef. It was a damn good sadwich. It required a knife and fork, and we took some home (I had the rest for lunch the next day).
To tangentalize... Fuente Alemana is just one example of the German influence here, but I think the whole 'completo' hot dog thing is another example. So too is 'schop'. I'm still unsure what exactly schop means. I do know that schop refers to the beer that they have 'on tap'; except, all the taps I've seen are just one, maybe 2, taps. Sometimes its the brand 'Crystal', sometimes its something else. At Fuente Alemana, they had 'blanco or negro' schop. So, I think it just means the beer on tap, which I guess they only have one kind of. But the word 'schop' sure sounds German to me.
http://www.fuentealemanachillan.cl/
Another night after 6, Shay and I met a school group of hers at Catolica, the school where her Spanish language program is held. There were about 8 of us, led by Pablo, the 'Chilean Host' and leader to Shayla and Corrie and Alisa's small group. I wasn't part of the group technically, of course, but I joined anyway. Pablo was to show us around some honest Chilean--Santiagoan--areas of town, and some legit Chilean food. We headed on a crowded bus across town to Barrio Brasil, an area of town (a district?...I'm not sure). He took us to a great restaurant which was, finally, a full departure from the touristy stuff. We all started with an aperitif; Shayla got a Mango Sour, which is like a Pisco Sour but with mango.
Have I mentioned Pisco sours yet? Pisco is a liqour distilled from grapes taken by Chile as their flagship drink (although the Pisco Sour originated in Peru, and Chileans 'borrowed' it....as I'm told). At worst, it tastes like a grocery store pre-bottled margarita; at best, it tastes like a good homemade margarita (no ice, maybe a sugar rim), with a bit of whipped egg white on top. Meh, its ok. I'd rather drink their wine.
For dinner! We had, on Pablo's recommendation, Pastel de Choclo. We split it along with some papas fritas (Shayla loves her papas fritas--french fries). Pastel means cake, and choclo I dont know, lol. It's served in an earthenware bowl, and is a kind of meat and corn pie, with pureed corn crust on top. In it we found many treasures....olives, raisins, hard boiled egg, chicken, beef, and more. It was delicious, and I enjoyed leftovers for lunch too. We also had a (very cute) half-bottle of wine; they didn't serve wine by the glass, but did serve half and quarter bottles. All of it was cheap, as far as wine in restuarants in the US is concerned. A good bottle of wine wasn't more than 10-15 bucks, and our half bottle was around 7. Its a markup from the stores, but still worth smiling about.
Then came Friday!!!! Except for dinners, Shay and I hadn't spent a ton of time together, because she's at the homestay and has class, and I'm at the hostel, and I have my extremely important daily activities of roaming, lunching, fruit and avocado shopping, etc. to attend to.
So, we planned to take a weekend to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar together! Thursday night, while we picnic'd, we found a hostel on Cerro Conception, the hill I told you about in Valparaiso. I was to get the bus tickets early on Friday, and we were to leave at 720.
The timing was already a little tight, Shay had to get from class to Angelicas to the bus station in an hour and 20 min. She was on time and almost to the station when the Metro stopped. It's no fun to be crammed in the train at rush hour when its 85 degrees outside, let alone for 15 minutes, when you cant understand what the hell the guy is saying over the loudspeaker. And then, the streets are blocked for a parade, so there were no cabs. (There's always cabs, everywhere!) Then, back on the metro to the bus station, except we missed our bus. She was a little shook up and upset, but I exchanged the tickets for a later time (which was no problem--like I said, the Tur-Bus thing is well-run). All was fine, just a little postponed. We calmed nerves at the 'Jerry's' above the station. It's like a fast food joint, but only sort-of, because they still cook food, and use whole avocados; and...they serve beer. Imagine Carls Jr servin' up beers with their combos. Except, Jerry's serves, big surprise, completos, mini pizzas, sadwiches like at Fuente Alemana, and a dish of french fries with chopped meat and eggs on top. Like I said, we calmed nerves with papas fritas and schop. Shayla, though, got a 'Fanschop', which is schop with some Fanta in it.
We bussed to Valparaiso, go there at around 1015, walked up Cerro Conception, and found our hostel. It was PERFECT. Just what we needed--our own room with a big bed in a quiet hostel with a welcoming host. We took a short walk, showered, and slept better than ever.
We awoke to a decent breakfast, albeit a standard hostel-ish one; white bread, cheese, a slice of meat stuff (?), juice, instant coffee, and at least we got some yoghurt. When we were ready, Alberto was very kind and gave us a comprehensive verbal tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, complete with a history of the area, and a map highliting where we should go. We spoke in Spanish, so I got about 75 percent of what he said. He used english only to describe the abundance of [butt] 'floss' we were to see on the beaches of Vina, lol.
Our first day, Saturday--off to Vina del Mar, for some beach time. We took the metro along the water into Vina, about 10 minutes. We walked along the ocean until we found a place to lunch. I'll let the photos do the talking for our walk. For lunch we went for the view--a place called Tierra del Fuego, a new and modern place on the beach with only panes of glass seperating us from the sand. We had a great lunch, with a mini pisco sour and a half glass of wine on the house. We started with tres ceviches. A salmon one, a white fish one, and one with both and avocado. They were awesome. Then more fish. Corvina, with a side of mashed potatoes. Its pretty standard to have just the fish on the menu, and you order a side or 'salsa' if you like, the salsas being sauces or additions to the fish, like some shrimps and avo. The fish was fresh. Simply grilled with some lemon juice. The ensalada greiga, however, was a sad, sad attempt at a greek salad. It was iceburg lettuce, some olives, some cubed cheese... Their salads are different. A salad can be anything from our greek thing to, say, palm hearts and avocado, just plain. Lunch was good, and considering we had good fish at a fancy place literally on the sand, it didn't burn our wallets at all. It did, however burn our skin. A couple hours sitting in the sun, with only spf15, and we felt it. This came to Shayla as quite a shock, because she had yet to be sunburned in all of our year and a half-ish time together! And, her safety in the sun hadn't been challenged for years before we met, too.
So naturally, with our tender skin, we re-applied sunscreen and went to lay out on the sand. We had to even out the farmer tan. Fyi, Shayla is allergic to normal sunscreen, so we have this Burt's Bees sunscreen that is stubbornly difficult to rub in. We enjoyed being on the sand, and jumped in the water now and again to cool off. The waves were strong, and the ocean looks essentially like California ocean.
We continued our walk along the beach, and did some shopping along a stretch of little craft booths. Its funny, we've discussed this phenomenon....much of these little artisan crafty booths sell the same crap. Little Chilean leather coin pouches, eg. Little native-looking statue things, etc. Where do they all come from? It gets annoying, that these crafts aren't very crafty. Nevertheless, there's some gems in the mess. Hales-I gotcha a sweet neclace.
We walked more, back to the metro, and back home. We showered and looked for a place to do dinner. Shayla suggested Italian, which is not uncommon in Chile. We walked through a few blocks of our little Cerro Conception, browsed the menus, and settled on the first place we saw, a humble little place a block away.
This was one of the best dining experiences I have ever had. Which, por supuesto, means it was one of the best experiences I've had.
The place served gnocchi, risotto, and pizzas. There were maybe 10 tables the mom and pop place, all creaky heavy wood, and we got the corner bench with pillows. We browsed the menu, and I paused to listen....Queen. They were rocking Queen. We settled on the red pepper and garlic cream sauce gnocchi with green olives, and their house individual pizza with goat cheese, and their best Chard (which was maybe 8mil--15 bucks). We started with the wine and olives. I wasn't sure what to expect with the Chilean Chardonnay, but this one....was good. Big, but with a crispness, minerality and subtle fruit, good finish.
The gnocchi and pizza came. The pizza was awesome. It had a thin crisp crust, tomato sauce was fresh and bright, and the goat cheese was underwhelming, but ok. The gnocchi was perfect, I'm sure they make it there. We ate it all, slowly.
....''fat bottomed girls, you makin the rockin world go round....'' still Queen.
Dessert. Tiramisu, and panna-cotta with raspberry sauce, both house made. Tiramisu often dissapoints me, because its so...empty. But this one was damn good, with some body and texture and discernable flavor layers to the thing. The panna cotta and sauce was equally impressive.
We'd been there for a couple hours now, at least, just talking and enjoying our food and wine, as it should be. The bill was only 20 mil. That's like 40 bucks. That kind of quality at home, with the best wine, and dessert, will run at least 80. Plus a good tip, which here is only ten percent. We walked around the corner, and down a cobblestoned block to our hostel.
The next day, we started with breakfast again. Sunday was a walking tour of Valparaiso. This time, though, it was sunny. Most of my trip alone had been overcast. We walked the Paseo's, which are pathways along the edge of the hill, with vistas of the city. We saw some of what I had seen the weekend before, but mostly, it was all new. And if I had seen it before, it was better, because I had Shay to share it with instead of my camera; or, ie, a staircase had a car stuck on it! You'll see in the pictures...a group of guys were, god knows why, hauling a car up a stairwell, with only inches on either side. We went further...south?...this time too. We trekked the 'killer staircase', called that because its the longest, and because at least a hundred people have died on it. Sailors would, upon leaving the ships, hit the bars between the water and the stairs. Then head up the stairs to their homes, where, should they sway too far backwards, they'd stumble to their death. We also a statue of justice which is unique in the world; its a lady of justice with her scale under her arm, and her blindfold off. You can infer the point, more or less. We ate lunch at a local place down in the flat port area of town; Alberto recommended it. My Pastel de Jaibo (or Jaib..something like that), was good; again Pastel is cake, and Jaibo or whatever is crab. So it traslates to crabcake, but its in that same bowl that the Pastel de Choclo was in, and there must've been like 2 whole crabs in there. Shay got what is often called lomo de pobre (it was called something else there, and is common everywhere), which is french fries, meat, and eggs on top. She would, lol. Unfornately, a cockroach joined us on the table, and after I smushed it, she wasn't hungry enough to eat it all, understandably.
We were fairly tired, and hot, so we wanted iced coffee. We had seen cafes boasting cafe helados, and any number of other coffee drinks, so this didn't seem like an issue, at first. We stopped into this pretty crappy restaurant that looked to serve coffee, most everything was closed, because it was Sunday. Then, we found that cafe helado was listed in the gelato section, so deduced that it wasn't, in fact, referring to iced coffee. So, we asked if they could bring us coffee, but on ice. This proved to be quite confusing. Apparently, for starters, they didn't have just plain coffee, only espresso. And, when we tried to suggest that it be on ice, our waitress just stared at us. So we asked for double espressos, with a bowl of ice. We got just that, so we slowly sipped down the espresso, which was terribly watery anyway, and added ice to it. Gringos locos. We decided that we will be entirely shameless this week and sit in Starbucks and have a damn iced coffee.
We got to the bus station with some time to kill, so we sat in a soda fountain across the street. But, remember what I said about soda fountains? This one was the schop-cigarettes-futbol variety. We headed home on the bus. A quick side story--they're into PDA here, and two rows behind us, you could hear the slopping of a make-out sesh. eew.
A good weekend.
If you read this far, sweet! I'll have pictures up soon. Right now, we have to search for apartments!
E
I've found that with the sleeping snoring sasquatch orchestra I have the pleasure of sharing a dorm with, I get adequate sleep in only if I am thoroughly tired, and sleep in past breakfast, cause they've all left the room around 930am. So, I slept in last week most days. I would then shower, and make myself a good lunch; lunch would inveitable include avocado, tomato, fruit, and bread, and whatever I might have had leftover from dinner the night before. Then I would roam the city for one reason or another, I don't remember which days I did what....One day, I just took my camera and walked. Another day, I went for picnic supplies (Shay and I ended up just having a small dinner with wine on the patio of the hostel, which was very nice). A quick note on the wine. Its all Chilean, mostly bigger reds, chardonnay and sauv blanc, and the price range is from 1 mil pesos to 8ish mil, with quality wine at 2-3mil, and drinkable at 1mil. The 2buck chuck here ain't chuck, and for 5 bucks you get awesome wine.
Another day, I went on a quest for a new beard trimmer, because I left mine in the bathroom the previous Saturday before my Valparaiso trip, and it disappeared. That sucked, because that's 35ish bucks I had to spend; and there's not the variety of budget trimmers you find in the US. I found a really crappy 20 dollar one, or a better expensive one, or a really expensive one, and that was it.
So, at 6 every day, I would go meet Shayla. I have the bus route down to get to Anjelicas--walk out to Av Providencia (the main road in this disctrict with the same name), flag down a bus, and take it to Av Pedro de Valdivia. You have to waive down the buses, like you would a cab, or else they just cruise on by. Sometimes they'll cruise on by anyway. Then, another bus down Valdivia, and then its just a couple blocks to walk. Anjelica's house is in the district Nunoa (with 'enya's' on both n's....I can't put that accent on the blog...)
One night, we headed to 'Fuente Alemana' , which translates to something like German fountain (? or german source?) ....There's a ton of whats called a Fuente de Soda (soda fountain) around here, and they all serve the same type of food. I guess the Fuente Alemana is more of the classic or original, or just best, version. It's funny...some Fuente de Soda's look like what you expect out of Soda Fountain's, innocent, clean, soda and sadwiches, etc. But some have that classic 50's soda fountian window signage, but inside its beer and cigarrettes and futbol. Anyway, Fuente Alemana is where Anthony Bourdain went on his Chilean tour, and it's a local favorite, so naturally we have to go. They serve massive sandwiches that you can order a number of different ways. We didn't really know what was what on the menu, so we ordered the 'lomito completo' con solamente un poco mayo, which was thin sliced pork, saurekraut, and only a little mayo, and something else was on it. Usually, they ladle a massive amount of mayo on, which coagulates to almost look like mozzarella cheese--but its not, obviously. They love mayonnaise here, especially the older generations. It gets a little gross. You can order them with avocado, tomato, both, green beans, or everything. And there's other meat I think, maybe beef. It was a damn good sadwich. It required a knife and fork, and we took some home (I had the rest for lunch the next day).
To tangentalize... Fuente Alemana is just one example of the German influence here, but I think the whole 'completo' hot dog thing is another example. So too is 'schop'. I'm still unsure what exactly schop means. I do know that schop refers to the beer that they have 'on tap'; except, all the taps I've seen are just one, maybe 2, taps. Sometimes its the brand 'Crystal', sometimes its something else. At Fuente Alemana, they had 'blanco or negro' schop. So, I think it just means the beer on tap, which I guess they only have one kind of. But the word 'schop' sure sounds German to me.
http://www.fuentealemanachillan.cl/
Another night after 6, Shay and I met a school group of hers at Catolica, the school where her Spanish language program is held. There were about 8 of us, led by Pablo, the 'Chilean Host' and leader to Shayla and Corrie and Alisa's small group. I wasn't part of the group technically, of course, but I joined anyway. Pablo was to show us around some honest Chilean--Santiagoan--areas of town, and some legit Chilean food. We headed on a crowded bus across town to Barrio Brasil, an area of town (a district?...I'm not sure). He took us to a great restaurant which was, finally, a full departure from the touristy stuff. We all started with an aperitif; Shayla got a Mango Sour, which is like a Pisco Sour but with mango.
Have I mentioned Pisco sours yet? Pisco is a liqour distilled from grapes taken by Chile as their flagship drink (although the Pisco Sour originated in Peru, and Chileans 'borrowed' it....as I'm told). At worst, it tastes like a grocery store pre-bottled margarita; at best, it tastes like a good homemade margarita (no ice, maybe a sugar rim), with a bit of whipped egg white on top. Meh, its ok. I'd rather drink their wine.
For dinner! We had, on Pablo's recommendation, Pastel de Choclo. We split it along with some papas fritas (Shayla loves her papas fritas--french fries). Pastel means cake, and choclo I dont know, lol. It's served in an earthenware bowl, and is a kind of meat and corn pie, with pureed corn crust on top. In it we found many treasures....olives, raisins, hard boiled egg, chicken, beef, and more. It was delicious, and I enjoyed leftovers for lunch too. We also had a (very cute) half-bottle of wine; they didn't serve wine by the glass, but did serve half and quarter bottles. All of it was cheap, as far as wine in restuarants in the US is concerned. A good bottle of wine wasn't more than 10-15 bucks, and our half bottle was around 7. Its a markup from the stores, but still worth smiling about.
Then came Friday!!!! Except for dinners, Shay and I hadn't spent a ton of time together, because she's at the homestay and has class, and I'm at the hostel, and I have my extremely important daily activities of roaming, lunching, fruit and avocado shopping, etc. to attend to.
So, we planned to take a weekend to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar together! Thursday night, while we picnic'd, we found a hostel on Cerro Conception, the hill I told you about in Valparaiso. I was to get the bus tickets early on Friday, and we were to leave at 720.
The timing was already a little tight, Shay had to get from class to Angelicas to the bus station in an hour and 20 min. She was on time and almost to the station when the Metro stopped. It's no fun to be crammed in the train at rush hour when its 85 degrees outside, let alone for 15 minutes, when you cant understand what the hell the guy is saying over the loudspeaker. And then, the streets are blocked for a parade, so there were no cabs. (There's always cabs, everywhere!) Then, back on the metro to the bus station, except we missed our bus. She was a little shook up and upset, but I exchanged the tickets for a later time (which was no problem--like I said, the Tur-Bus thing is well-run). All was fine, just a little postponed. We calmed nerves at the 'Jerry's' above the station. It's like a fast food joint, but only sort-of, because they still cook food, and use whole avocados; and...they serve beer. Imagine Carls Jr servin' up beers with their combos. Except, Jerry's serves, big surprise, completos, mini pizzas, sadwiches like at Fuente Alemana, and a dish of french fries with chopped meat and eggs on top. Like I said, we calmed nerves with papas fritas and schop. Shayla, though, got a 'Fanschop', which is schop with some Fanta in it.
We bussed to Valparaiso, go there at around 1015, walked up Cerro Conception, and found our hostel. It was PERFECT. Just what we needed--our own room with a big bed in a quiet hostel with a welcoming host. We took a short walk, showered, and slept better than ever.
We awoke to a decent breakfast, albeit a standard hostel-ish one; white bread, cheese, a slice of meat stuff (?), juice, instant coffee, and at least we got some yoghurt. When we were ready, Alberto was very kind and gave us a comprehensive verbal tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, complete with a history of the area, and a map highliting where we should go. We spoke in Spanish, so I got about 75 percent of what he said. He used english only to describe the abundance of [butt] 'floss' we were to see on the beaches of Vina, lol.
Our first day, Saturday--off to Vina del Mar, for some beach time. We took the metro along the water into Vina, about 10 minutes. We walked along the ocean until we found a place to lunch. I'll let the photos do the talking for our walk. For lunch we went for the view--a place called Tierra del Fuego, a new and modern place on the beach with only panes of glass seperating us from the sand. We had a great lunch, with a mini pisco sour and a half glass of wine on the house. We started with tres ceviches. A salmon one, a white fish one, and one with both and avocado. They were awesome. Then more fish. Corvina, with a side of mashed potatoes. Its pretty standard to have just the fish on the menu, and you order a side or 'salsa' if you like, the salsas being sauces or additions to the fish, like some shrimps and avo. The fish was fresh. Simply grilled with some lemon juice. The ensalada greiga, however, was a sad, sad attempt at a greek salad. It was iceburg lettuce, some olives, some cubed cheese... Their salads are different. A salad can be anything from our greek thing to, say, palm hearts and avocado, just plain. Lunch was good, and considering we had good fish at a fancy place literally on the sand, it didn't burn our wallets at all. It did, however burn our skin. A couple hours sitting in the sun, with only spf15, and we felt it. This came to Shayla as quite a shock, because she had yet to be sunburned in all of our year and a half-ish time together! And, her safety in the sun hadn't been challenged for years before we met, too.
So naturally, with our tender skin, we re-applied sunscreen and went to lay out on the sand. We had to even out the farmer tan. Fyi, Shayla is allergic to normal sunscreen, so we have this Burt's Bees sunscreen that is stubbornly difficult to rub in. We enjoyed being on the sand, and jumped in the water now and again to cool off. The waves were strong, and the ocean looks essentially like California ocean.
We continued our walk along the beach, and did some shopping along a stretch of little craft booths. Its funny, we've discussed this phenomenon....much of these little artisan crafty booths sell the same crap. Little Chilean leather coin pouches, eg. Little native-looking statue things, etc. Where do they all come from? It gets annoying, that these crafts aren't very crafty. Nevertheless, there's some gems in the mess. Hales-I gotcha a sweet neclace.
We walked more, back to the metro, and back home. We showered and looked for a place to do dinner. Shayla suggested Italian, which is not uncommon in Chile. We walked through a few blocks of our little Cerro Conception, browsed the menus, and settled on the first place we saw, a humble little place a block away.
This was one of the best dining experiences I have ever had. Which, por supuesto, means it was one of the best experiences I've had.
The place served gnocchi, risotto, and pizzas. There were maybe 10 tables the mom and pop place, all creaky heavy wood, and we got the corner bench with pillows. We browsed the menu, and I paused to listen....Queen. They were rocking Queen. We settled on the red pepper and garlic cream sauce gnocchi with green olives, and their house individual pizza with goat cheese, and their best Chard (which was maybe 8mil--15 bucks). We started with the wine and olives. I wasn't sure what to expect with the Chilean Chardonnay, but this one....was good. Big, but with a crispness, minerality and subtle fruit, good finish.
The gnocchi and pizza came. The pizza was awesome. It had a thin crisp crust, tomato sauce was fresh and bright, and the goat cheese was underwhelming, but ok. The gnocchi was perfect, I'm sure they make it there. We ate it all, slowly.
....''fat bottomed girls, you makin the rockin world go round....'' still Queen.
Dessert. Tiramisu, and panna-cotta with raspberry sauce, both house made. Tiramisu often dissapoints me, because its so...empty. But this one was damn good, with some body and texture and discernable flavor layers to the thing. The panna cotta and sauce was equally impressive.
We'd been there for a couple hours now, at least, just talking and enjoying our food and wine, as it should be. The bill was only 20 mil. That's like 40 bucks. That kind of quality at home, with the best wine, and dessert, will run at least 80. Plus a good tip, which here is only ten percent. We walked around the corner, and down a cobblestoned block to our hostel.
The next day, we started with breakfast again. Sunday was a walking tour of Valparaiso. This time, though, it was sunny. Most of my trip alone had been overcast. We walked the Paseo's, which are pathways along the edge of the hill, with vistas of the city. We saw some of what I had seen the weekend before, but mostly, it was all new. And if I had seen it before, it was better, because I had Shay to share it with instead of my camera; or, ie, a staircase had a car stuck on it! You'll see in the pictures...a group of guys were, god knows why, hauling a car up a stairwell, with only inches on either side. We went further...south?...this time too. We trekked the 'killer staircase', called that because its the longest, and because at least a hundred people have died on it. Sailors would, upon leaving the ships, hit the bars between the water and the stairs. Then head up the stairs to their homes, where, should they sway too far backwards, they'd stumble to their death. We also a statue of justice which is unique in the world; its a lady of justice with her scale under her arm, and her blindfold off. You can infer the point, more or less. We ate lunch at a local place down in the flat port area of town; Alberto recommended it. My Pastel de Jaibo (or Jaib..something like that), was good; again Pastel is cake, and Jaibo or whatever is crab. So it traslates to crabcake, but its in that same bowl that the Pastel de Choclo was in, and there must've been like 2 whole crabs in there. Shay got what is often called lomo de pobre (it was called something else there, and is common everywhere), which is french fries, meat, and eggs on top. She would, lol. Unfornately, a cockroach joined us on the table, and after I smushed it, she wasn't hungry enough to eat it all, understandably.
We were fairly tired, and hot, so we wanted iced coffee. We had seen cafes boasting cafe helados, and any number of other coffee drinks, so this didn't seem like an issue, at first. We stopped into this pretty crappy restaurant that looked to serve coffee, most everything was closed, because it was Sunday. Then, we found that cafe helado was listed in the gelato section, so deduced that it wasn't, in fact, referring to iced coffee. So, we asked if they could bring us coffee, but on ice. This proved to be quite confusing. Apparently, for starters, they didn't have just plain coffee, only espresso. And, when we tried to suggest that it be on ice, our waitress just stared at us. So we asked for double espressos, with a bowl of ice. We got just that, so we slowly sipped down the espresso, which was terribly watery anyway, and added ice to it. Gringos locos. We decided that we will be entirely shameless this week and sit in Starbucks and have a damn iced coffee.
We got to the bus station with some time to kill, so we sat in a soda fountain across the street. But, remember what I said about soda fountains? This one was the schop-cigarettes-futbol variety. We headed home on the bus. A quick side story--they're into PDA here, and two rows behind us, you could hear the slopping of a make-out sesh. eew.
A good weekend.
If you read this far, sweet! I'll have pictures up soon. Right now, we have to search for apartments!
E
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