Some fotos

A couple of fotos from our trip to Valpo/Viña a couple of weekends ago (I know, I know... sorry for the delay :) ).  Like usual, I have borrowed some pictures from friends; the source is (always) credited at the bottom of the photo.

First, we visited one of Pablo Neruda's houses in Isla Negra (he has three: one in Valpo, Santiago, and Isla Negra).  Gorgeous! The man had good taste in property.  He built his house with the idea of making it a boat on land; it was really a cool thing to see.  I'm definitely ready to move in.

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                          ©Kaitlin King

 Right on the sea.  Gorgeous.

Later, we headed over to Viña, where our hotels were, and had dinner in Valpo.  Some somewhat blurry photos of Valparaíso:

 

at night...

...and during the day:

Valparaíso has flat parts (the picture above), but something like 98% of the population lives on the cerros (hills).  The houses are literally one on top of the other, connected by a bunch of really narrow, sketchy pathways/staircases:

...imagine being faced with this guy on the way back from the bar, yeah?

Here you can kind of see the one-house-on-top-of-the-other thing.

While in Valpo, we saw a performance by a local musician named Pascuala Ilabaca (click the link to go to her Myspace page).  Really cool.  She played the accordion and sang for us (her own songs and covers of more traditional pieces).  If you click here, you can watch her (awesome) version of Chilean folklore legend Violeta Parra's "Puerto Montt está temblando" (the video is not too great, but it's the only one I could find).  The lyrics describe Parra's experience with an earthquake in May of 1960; pretty fitting given our little "experience" at the beginning of the semester, yeah?

Anyways, after some time in Valparaíso, we visited a vineyard on our way home:

Me and my friend Matt, mid-wine-tasting:

Finally, we paid a visit to the sanctuary of Chile's first saint: Teresa de Los Andes.  It was a beautiful sight to see:

Anyways, that's about it for right now.  This week in school is going to be pretty stressful, but afterward I should have some time to relax.  This weekend we're set to go build houses in the south (FINALLY), so I should have some good stories to bring back from there.  Until then, hope everything is going well with you all; ¡que les vaya bien! ♥

Things that are going to make me fat, Part I

For the most part, Chilean food is not that exciting.  Not a whole lot of flavor, NO heat whatsoever (someone send me some hot sauce!), and just generally... I dk, standard.  Lots of corn. Whatever.  What they DO do really well is carbs.  CHILEANS LOVE THEIR CARBS (almost as much as me).  Which is why I am starting a brand new section: "Things that are going to make me fat in Chile."  Enjoy.

1. Manjar

That's right: manjar.  Otherwise known as dulce de leche, manjar is like a sweets-lover's wet dream.  It comes in all forms (soft, hard, spreadable, chewable...), and it's EVERYWHERE. Cookies, cakes, crepes, little rolled-up ice cream cones on the street (barquillos)... there's no escaping it.  Not that you'd WANT to, anyways.

Alfajores: chocolate-covered, manjar-filled cookies.  Very typical.  They're everywhere.

Did I not say that it came in all forms?

2. Pancito

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, avocado, cheese, jam, butter... really, bread goes with everything, at any time.  I don't think the Atkins diet would be REMOTELY possible here.

 The infamous round, holey (holy...?) bread, found in EVERY SINGLE Chilean home.  Not lying.

3.Mote con Huesillos

They sell it everywhere, but I hadn't tried it until yesterday on the cerro.  That's probably a blessing, because if I'd tried it earlier I probably would weigh at least 10 pounds more by now from drinking it every day.

 Nectar of the gods.  Peaches (huesillo) floating in some delicious, sugary, peachy-ish nectar with wheat (mote). Sounds weird, but it is OUT OF CONTROL.  Easily the most refreshing (and sugary) beverage on the planet.  Definitely learning how to make this and bringing it home. It is too good.

4. High abundance of ice cream

 I have never come across anyone who loves ice cream as much as myself, but Chile, as a country, gives me a good run for my money.  It is *literally* everywhere.  My favorite place is a spot called Emporio La Rosa; they make all their own ice creams in crazy flavors like mint raspberry (sooo refreshing), mango green tea (surprisingly subtle), and, my favorite, chocolate con albahaca.  Tried it (even though I didn't know what albahaca was), LOVED it, went home, looked it up in the dictionary, and you know what? Albahaca is "basil."  And it's DELICIOUS. Chocolate and basil ice cream? New favorite.

Haven't done any Chilenismos in a while...

Chilenismo* of the Day

(*only one today)

Olor a rodillas: really, really smelly.  "But Kate, why 'a rodillas'? Knees don't stink!"  Because, my friends, your rodillas (knees) are half-way between feet and ass.  Best of both worlds! Chuta, ¡él tiene olor a rodillas!

Subiendo el cerro

Today I went on a little hike up Cerro San Cristobal with Kelly and her sister (my host tía).  It was quite nice (albeit overcast and a bit windy; así comienza el otoño).  Some fotos:

View of Santiago from part-way up the cerro (what up, smog.)

La Virgen (at the top)

And my favorite:

The two sisters, enjoying themselves on a see-saw :)

♥ -Kate

My beautiful Chilean family

Not the best picture, but here they are:

So here's the break-down:  The two in the back are my host parents, Kelly and Carlos (the best).  Their children (my host siblings) are Javier (in the yellow jersey, the youngest sibling; the pretty girl with him is his polola, Sofia), Coty (the squinty one with the baby; her live-in boyfriend/quasi-husband is Jean Paul, on the far left), and Jose Miguel (in the white on the right, the oldest) with his wife Greta (in the dress).


Anways, the heart-melter:

My host grandmother (Kelly's mom) with Jean Luc (Jean Paul and Coty's first-born).  Kelly calls him her little porotito, which just destroys me (poroto= bean, so porotito is something along the lines of her "little bean," only cuter.   Heart melted.)  He is way too cute for words.

Un poco de Patagonia

Some pictures from our trip this weekend.  I'll probably write more in the next few days, but I have a paper due so I can't spend too much time here at the moment.  

This weekend a bunch of my friends from the CIEE group and I went to Punta Arenas, one of the southernmost cities in the world.  We spent about three days there; we flew in Friday morning early (read: ~4 AM), and flew out Sunday way late (technically Monday morning at 2:30 AM).  We took two tours because we didn't have too much time to spend (trust me, I could've spent two weeks in Torres del Paine alone.  It is gorgeous; a nature-lover's paradise).  The first tour we took showed us around Punta Arenas and the surrounding areas  (Punta Santa Ana, Puerto del Hambre, Fuerte Bulnes).  It was really awesome being right on the Strait of Magellan; we arrived right at dawn so we got to see the icy islands across the Strait right as the sun hit them first thing in the morning.  Some obligatory God-this-beach-is-gorgeous photos (as always, click to make them bigger): 

 Group shot (kids in the CIEE exchange group and me):

After the tour, we took a bus to a town slightly to the north of Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales and stayed the night in a hostel.  The next day (Saturday), we took a tour through Torres del Paine National Park.  It was INCREDIBLE.  Every view could've been a postcard.  I was blown away.  I only wish I could've spent more time there, hiking, camping, canoeing, ice climbing, etc. (as I said, this place was a nature-lover's paradise).  I would've paid big money to canoe or kayak all around the glaciers in the park (or climb the glaciers themselves), if I had only had the time.  See how beautiful it is for yourself:

This lake is 3x as salty as the sea.  Incredible, right?

Fresh glacier run-off.  I can't even describe the color and clarity of this water.  I wanted to bend over and drink it.

 

Would you ever imagine that glaciers would be that blue?  I didn't.  It's like Chihuly glass.

Gorgeous, right? And finally, yours truly on the way to the park:

There are so many more photos (as I said, every view was like a postcard; I couldn't help but take tons of pictures), but I'm not going to post them here for lack of space.  I've put them on my Photobucket account: click here for the rest.  Hopefully that link should work.  Let me know if there are any problems with it.

♥

The end of the earth

Going to the southernmost city in the world, be back Monday.