Saturday, August 4, 2012
At long last... foods.
Food Blog
Well folks, as promised, here is the blog about some of the foods that I found to be blog worthy during my travels. I realize that I have been stateside all summer, but here it is, and I guess better late than never?:
Anywho, here we go:
1) First up. Rocoto Relleno. I have probably written about this one before so I'll be brief. Additionally, this picture was taken by my friend Joe, as were the next few items. I have these pictures, so I'm throwing them into the mix for more substance. Rocoto is a pepper native to the Andean region that is comparable to Habaneros on the Scoville hottness chart. I find them to have the best flavor of hot things that I have tasted, but I'm incredible biased since before Peru, I had no tolerance for anything spicy. I initially had my baptism by fire (a pun you see) because I was trying to deaden my tongue so as not to taste a certain food that I disliked and repeatedly had to eat when I first arrived at peru. I ended up loving both the peppers, and the dish which I was trying to suppress. (It was tortillas made from egg and day old rice if you are wondering).
ANYWAY- Rocoto Relleno is THE signature dish of Arequipa. It usually is served with pastel de papa, and chichorron de chancho (something like potato and cheese casserole and fried pork). This is called a "doble" in restaurants, and is usually pretty cheap. Probably around 10-15 soles. (under 5 bucks). The "relleno" -stuffing- consists of small beef chunks, peas, carrots, olives, raisins, and cheese. These rocotos can vary greatly in spicyness, so approach with caution. I like to cut up everything and mix it all together, rocoto, relleno, pastel, etc. My wife likes to just eat the filling and leaves the rocoto. She is a very lame Arequipeñan, but alas, I pull my weight and hers as well by eating enough "picante" (spicy food) for the both of us.
2) Kabab- A thing that Joe finds delightful, which I find pretty mediocre. This is actually a Peru fastfoodish chain that derives it's inspiration from the Turkey region of the world. Hence the name, "El Turko". They serve kababs and things of that nature. The chicken one is pretty tasty, but all in all, this item is sort of like including a review of Beto's Mexican food if I were writing about authentic US food (of which there isn't much). This isn't Peruvian in origin, but Peruvians seem to dig it. I'm pretty sure I slaughtered the spelling and whatnot, and Joe knows better, and I invite him to post an addendum to all of these foods that he tried.
3) Chinchuli- Another one of Joe's contributions, it is basically fried intestine. I'm not sure from which animal, and I'm fairly certain I don't much care. I never tried it. I am open to new things, but I figure, there are much better things to eat. Joe didn't like it much. So thats all I have to report on that.
4) Crepe- These are from France I believe, but like the kababs, they are liked in Peru. You can go to a place called El Crepisimo, which I also have probably written about, and get some awesome crepes. Some like the banana/nutella crepe, are sweet. Some are salty, like the ham and cheese. But they are mostly delicious.
5) Mate de coca- This is basically coca leaf natural tea. It tastes kind of minty and deadens the tongue a smidge. The members of the LDS church who may be concerned if this violates the "no-tea" rule should be assured because every authority from the prophet to my mission president has not only consumed it themselves for the altitude, but recommended it to others as a remedy. So there you go. It's really cheap, and VERY common in places like Puno and Cuzco. Drink some to deal with a headache or to help you digest all those Kabab/chinchuli's you've been munching on. Interesting side note, Mate (Tea) de Manzanilla is chamomile tea in the US. Took me years to realize that. I prefer Manzanilla to all others: coca, san luis, anis, etc.
6) Atomatada- This picture dosn't do it much justice, because the meat looks gristly, boney, and gross. BUT, it's delicious. And as for the meat quality, sometimes OCCASIONALLY the meat is all of the aforementioned, but you can usually scrape off enough good stuff to get by. Atomatada is sautéed tomato and beef or chicken, generally served with potato and rice. It's salty and tasty. Also, while potato and rice might sound starchily redundant, if you stay in Peru for any length of time you will accustom yourself to it and find it works out fine.
7) Paneton- This stuff is good, but I don't much like it anymore. I think I've mentioned this before, but as a missionary I was in Peru for 2 years. That meant 2 Christmases, and since this is a BIG part of the Navidad celebration in Peru, I was given LOTS of it. It is usually served with hot chocolate, and divided up at any and all social events surrounding the holidays. It is basically a fluffy lemon cake-like loaf that has little gummy things and raisins sprinkled throughout. That's right, it's the Peru equivalent of fruitcake, except that paneton is actually edible. It's common for employers to provide a paneton for each of their employees before Christmas break, and no Christmas party is complete without at least one paneton. I've seen paneton advertised with chocolate chips in lieu of the gummies, but I've never been fortunate enough to try it.
8) Truncha- This is trout. In Cuzco and Puno, it's pretty popular, and I liked this particular restaurant located about 30 minutes south along Lake Titicaca from Puno, in a little town I wrote about earlier called Chiquito. Anyway, there is a pretty well known restaurant in the plaza, I forget the name, but it's the only one, so if you find yourself there, you will undoubtably be able to locate it in short order. Their specialty is trout, and I thought it was great. It came with... shockingly, potato and rice.
9) Pollo a la piña- Pineapple Chicken. I'm not sure if this is strictly Peruvian, but it is my mother-in-law's best dish, among many good dishes. It has specially fried chicken (rather, chicken fried in a special way), and the sauce consists of chives, carrots, peppers, sweet and sour sauce, and pineapples. On rice of course. It is delicious. Really, delicious.
10) Papa a la Huancaína- This is just good ol potato with a special sauce. The sauce has peanut, ají amarillo (yellow pepper), cheese, and some other stuff. I'm not exactly sure, but its good. It usually is served on a bit of lettuce with a hard boiled egg and perhaps an olive. It's not a main course, but it's filling so be careful not to order this when you aren't filling particularly hungry in addition to your main course.
11) Calzone- These are served in various pizzerias (pizza stores.. obviously). While not Peruvian, they have some AWESOME ideas of them. One, the Hawaiian, has not just pineapple and mozzarella and ham, but also peaches and even more mozzarella. It's a beautiful thing and you can find them even in fast foodish chains in the food courts of the malls or stores like Plaza Vea (the Peruvian version of Wal-Mart). The one pictured in here was devoured with much glee during the Fiesta de la Candelaria in Puno. If you are going to eat at a Pizzaria, there are several great ones I can recommend. In Cuzco there is one called "La Romana". and my favorites in Puno are "El Buho" and "Pizzeria Jhutmay" (The owners of the latter are LDS, and there is an awesome woven picture of Jesus Christ right by the main desk). I believe they can be found easily enough, just jump into a taxi in the main plaza and ask the driver, they know where they are (Puno isn't all that big). Shouldn't be more then 10 blocks from the plaza. Anywho, this calzone was a calzone de carne, and it had hamburger meat and cheese and eggs inside. What you can see on top of the calzone is what really makes it shine, rocoto molido (which is ubiquitous in all resaurants and can be used on most foods to make them even more awesome and spicy), and garlic sauce. The garlic sauce seems to be garlic with mayo and lemon, I'm not certain but it's so good I am tempted to use a credit card to separate a few lines out and to snort them straightaway. Believe me when I say that I am a fan of the calzone. Also, all of these pizzarias serve what is called "pizza a la leña", which is pizza over firewood in special adobe ovens. Great stuff.
12) Torta de Mil Hojas de Chocolate. Thousand layers cake, chocolate style. This was really good, and for my birthday. This was too sweet, and impossible to eat without milk, but still good. This cake has many layers, as the name implies, and each layer consists of manjar (which is something like carmel, but better), and a wafer-like crusty material. The second type of cake here was just some normal variant of chocolate, but it looked and tasted really good, so I threw it in. Notice the manjar. It is my opinion that all desserts should include manjar, this stuff is sooooo good.
Now going a bit farther south, to Chile:
13) Ají Chileno- This stuff is kind of like tabasco sauce. I'm a rocoto snob, so I found it infuriatingly inferior to Peru's picante stuff, but it's not bad. They (Chileans) don't get as into the spicy element with quite the same gusto as Peruvians anyway.
14) Argentine Steak. Steak,.... From Argentina. While that may sound pretty silly to include, you wouldn't think that if you've ever tried it. My cousin Claudio has an awesome (previously described) restaurant in Limache, and this is what he served me during my visit. It's a bit of bovine heaven on a plate.
For the sake of brevity, here were the other noteworthy items served during that meal (Pictures in order): ensalada, pan, and pebre.
Chileans and Peruvians alike are big on some version of salad, whether it is like the one pictured here, with some cabbage, lettuce, carrots, potato salad, beets, tomato, tuna/mayo, and lime some other combination or variant, they usually serve some salad. It's healthy, and good for you. Word of caution to tourists, sometimes lettuce is hard to clean, so don't eat it in dodgy looking establishments. Chances are, you may contract some mean parasite that will make you long for death. Pan, bread, is ubiquitous and fresh wherever you roam in Peru/Chile, so eat it often and enjoy. Chileans like "pebre" on their bread, which is: onions, cilantro, tomato, and lemon. I LOVE pebre, as do all good Chileans.
15) Carne Molido- This is greasy, meaty, and pretty tasty. Basically pureed hamburger with mashed potatoes, it probably isn't very good for you, but it's good tasting. There are onions thrown in there somewhere I believe, and I put ají on mine and it seemed to get even better. For those of you who are wondering why I didn't mention Lomitos or Super-completos thus far, I'm sorry. I haven't had my camera when I've eaten those things. I'll get them next trip though, never fear.
16) Helados- A critical part of ANY trip to Peru or Chile, are the helados (Ice Creams). We have lots of good stuff in the States, most of which I haven't even tried, but I have to say that ice creams in S. America are awesome. This one is called a "Mega, Frambuesa". Raspberry. It is really rich and delicious. Kind of steep, this one cost me about a buck fifty, but it was worth it.
There are MANY different types of helados, and to do full reviews of each would require more photos than I have and more time than I am willing to devote to the subject. I will just mention two from Peru that I really like, and recommend, after that, you really can't go wrong with helados.
First, Huracan. These are kind of like Orange Dreams from the US, if you know what those are. Fruit popsicle-like stuff wrapped around a vanilla creamy center part. They have strawberry (my personal fav), orange, maracuya (passion fruit), and mango. Try them all. These run only 2 soles, so less than a dollar.
Second, Frio Ricos. These are kind of like Drum Sticks from the US, but WAY better. They have lots of flavors, like Cappuccino (not Mormon friendly in all likelihood), Apple, Chocolate carmel, lucuma (a delicious fruit that makes an even better ice cream flavor),etc. They are ever changing up the new big flavor so I couldn't tell you what to go for, but I am a sucker for anything with a chocolate cone. (FYI, the Frio Rico Black and the Cappuccino one both sport the chocolate cone). They cost about a dollar.
17) Last but certainly not least, Empanadas. Specifically, empanadas that have some seafood in them. Both Peru and Chile have empanadas, and if you are in Peru, a "triple" (Chiken, ham, cheese) is really good, and I die for the Arabe (rocoto, hamburger, onion). But in the world of empanadas, Chile will always reign king in my opinion. If you can get up to a place called "Con Con", you can have the most awesome seafood empanadas ever. But for my visit, a place called "Los Vilos" supplied me with my empanada fix. There are several kinds, crab, shrimp, fish, squid, oyster, etc. But my favorite is the shrimp one. It's delicious. Empanada de Cameron, can't go wrong.
Food is one of my favorite ways to discover a new culture, and I hope the things that I have listed have peaked your interest to explore some new foods. In Provo/Orem, there are 3 Peruvian restaurants and 2 Chilean restaurants. They are obviously limited in menu but I frequent them occasionally and if you must go somewhere in Utah county, I'd say for Peruvian food, head to "La Carreta". But, if you can wander up to West Valley in Salt Lake, "El Rocoto" is even better. For Chilean food, I'm not sure about SLC, but here in Provo I'm given to understand that "Pantrucos" is the place to go. In any rate, I'm going on a long posting freeze because I'm going to be stuck here in Utah for the next foreseeable future.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Chile Pt. 3
Limache
The fun continued with a trip to Limache to visit my cousin Claudio. He has a nice restaurant. I won't go into the details, but the food was tasty and the place was nice. Here's a picture of the place and the fam:
Limache is about 40 minutes inland from Vina, and we rode the nifty metro. The metro isn't very old, and if you want to use it, you have to buy a 2 dollar card and then put money on it. To get to Limache costs about 2 dollars. I didn't see much of the town, but this street was nifty because of the trees that have been groomed to form an arch over the whole street:
Also in at Claudio's restaurant, I took a picture of the Chilean National Tree- the Araucano. It is pretty nifty:
Valparaiso
After the Limache trip, there were several birthdays where I saw my cousins and their little kids. They are all pretty cute, and I have posted many of these pictures on my facebook, as I am sure most of the readers have noticed. In the midst of these festivities, Cabanillas came down and we went and checked out Valparaiso one morning. I have written about Valpariso a bit before, but a here are a few more pictures that I took for your viewing pleasure (and one of the spiffy new metro):
Salamanca/Los Vilos
After these festivities, I went to a place I'd never been before to visit my cousin Daniel. He works in a place about 5 hours north and inland of Vina, and it's not a very exciting place. I liked it, but I wouldn't want to spend more than a few days there. It was a very small town, out in the middle of nowhere, lots of cacti on the road in though. Daniel was a hospitable bloke, as usual, and when I left, he accompanied me all the way down to the coast to a place called, Los Vilos. There we had some great empanadas, which I will describe in a later blog, and saw the beach. You can see what I saw:
The last one is of us on the boat, and the second to last is the Plaza of Salamanca. I'd put more pictures up of Salamanca... but there really isn't much more to see. Los Vilos was a pleasant way to spend a few hours, and I'm sure it would be a blast in the height of summer.
La Serena/ Coquimbo
After Los Vilos, it was on to La Serena/ Coquimbo to visit the rest of Daniel's family. His son Danielito, was the one who walked around with me the most while I was there. The high points of the stay was first, the Japanese Garden. Secondly, the Fuerte de Coquimbo (fort). There was also a trip to the dock, where I saw the welfare sea lions up close and personal. One of them was quite a brute who barked at me and made threatening waddles, but luckily, I was out of reach. They are ugly suckers I'll give you that. Another cool thing that I saw was the Mosque of Coquimbo, which is an active site for the few Muslims around. It is elaborately constructed and the inside tiling was supposedly done by Moroccan artisans. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside, so too bad, you'll have to make the trip yourself. Everything I saw was free except for the Japanese Garden, and it cost 2 dollars. After a few days here, it was the long haul back to Peru, and man it seemed to take FOREVER!!! I had time to reflect on how long I've been traveling. I figure that since January, I've spend over 170 hours on bus/car/train. I'm a fan of the travel, but I think it'll be nice to rest for a while. Here are some slide shows to demonstrate how fun the tail end of my trip proved to be.
The fun continued with a trip to Limache to visit my cousin Claudio. He has a nice restaurant. I won't go into the details, but the food was tasty and the place was nice. Here's a picture of the place and the fam:
Limache is about 40 minutes inland from Vina, and we rode the nifty metro. The metro isn't very old, and if you want to use it, you have to buy a 2 dollar card and then put money on it. To get to Limache costs about 2 dollars. I didn't see much of the town, but this street was nifty because of the trees that have been groomed to form an arch over the whole street:
Also in at Claudio's restaurant, I took a picture of the Chilean National Tree- the Araucano. It is pretty nifty:
Valparaiso
After the Limache trip, there were several birthdays where I saw my cousins and their little kids. They are all pretty cute, and I have posted many of these pictures on my facebook, as I am sure most of the readers have noticed. In the midst of these festivities, Cabanillas came down and we went and checked out Valparaiso one morning. I have written about Valpariso a bit before, but a here are a few more pictures that I took for your viewing pleasure (and one of the spiffy new metro):
Salamanca/Los Vilos
After these festivities, I went to a place I'd never been before to visit my cousin Daniel. He works in a place about 5 hours north and inland of Vina, and it's not a very exciting place. I liked it, but I wouldn't want to spend more than a few days there. It was a very small town, out in the middle of nowhere, lots of cacti on the road in though. Daniel was a hospitable bloke, as usual, and when I left, he accompanied me all the way down to the coast to a place called, Los Vilos. There we had some great empanadas, which I will describe in a later blog, and saw the beach. You can see what I saw:
The last one is of us on the boat, and the second to last is the Plaza of Salamanca. I'd put more pictures up of Salamanca... but there really isn't much more to see. Los Vilos was a pleasant way to spend a few hours, and I'm sure it would be a blast in the height of summer.
La Serena/ Coquimbo
After Los Vilos, it was on to La Serena/ Coquimbo to visit the rest of Daniel's family. His son Danielito, was the one who walked around with me the most while I was there. The high points of the stay was first, the Japanese Garden. Secondly, the Fuerte de Coquimbo (fort). There was also a trip to the dock, where I saw the welfare sea lions up close and personal. One of them was quite a brute who barked at me and made threatening waddles, but luckily, I was out of reach. They are ugly suckers I'll give you that. Another cool thing that I saw was the Mosque of Coquimbo, which is an active site for the few Muslims around. It is elaborately constructed and the inside tiling was supposedly done by Moroccan artisans. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside, so too bad, you'll have to make the trip yourself. Everything I saw was free except for the Japanese Garden, and it cost 2 dollars. After a few days here, it was the long haul back to Peru, and man it seemed to take FOREVER!!! I had time to reflect on how long I've been traveling. I figure that since January, I've spend over 170 hours on bus/car/train. I'm a fan of the travel, but I think it'll be nice to rest for a while. Here are some slide shows to demonstrate how fun the tail end of my trip proved to be.
Monday, April 9, 2012
My Time in Chile pt. 2
Trip to Vina Del Mar.
This was a long bus ride through the desert. I don’t really know how to explain 30 hours on a bus with nothing to see but sand and occasionally the ocean, but I can tell you it’s not as exciting as it sounds…
On the other hand, I would really like to spend a week or two in Iquique and Antofagasta. They are on the coast and they look like they have some interesting things to see. If nothing else, the largest Duty Free zone in South America is in Iquique, and you can stock up on booze and cologne for cheap. I suppose that this would be a huge draw for any Frenchies that happen into the Atacama. In any event, I made it to Santiago clinging to my sanity by a fingernail and bent nearly double underneath my absurdly heavy backpack. (I had my huge laptop in it; if you ever have a chance to buy a 17 inch laptop that weighs 7 pounds, think carefully about future travels.)
In Santiago, I was received by my good friend and former mission companion, Luis Cabanillas. He graciously agreed to meet me at the Santiago terminal at 5 am and keep me company until the first bus to VIna left at 8 am. Good guy, and he had plenty of interesting gossip to share.
I then got on the 2 hour last stretch to Vina. My Aunt lives on Calle Valparaiso in Vina Del Mar, which is the same street that the terminal is located on, about 8 blocks towards the ocean. Upon arrival, I was tired and so got in a taxi which ripped me off, but I didn’t mind much because I was ready to get there already. In a later post I am going to put up a lengthy description of all the foods I have tried in the last few months, with pictures, so I won’t get into lunch and all of that now.
My Tia Elba was the person who I saw most while I was in Chile, and with her I was able to see most of my cousins and uncles. With my Tia Elba, I went to Valparaiso the day after I arrived. There we had lunch and walked around doing some errands. It would seem like Chileans love their demonstrations, and while we were eating, a lot of students came running by being chased by riot police. I snapped a picture, but missed a truly photogenic moment when a cop in riot armor came past the window where I was seated dragging a guy in a headlock. I was too busy enjoying asado molido (*There will be an all food blog post soon, so never fear) to have my camera at the ready. Curse You Cuisine!, alas, I was able to snap this picture of the hubub after the fact:
After a few days of meandering around Vina, I had the interesting experience of leaving one afternoon and walking aimlessly until, without intending, I arrived at my dead Aunt Eliana's house. It was strange to fall into flashback mode as I rounded the corner. This was the house that I stayed in when I came to Chile for the first time. I felt like I could see a ghost of myself at 8 years old running around the corner in the sandals that my mother bought for my brother Jonathan and I. I remembered in the moment that I recognized the key cutting place on the corner so many bizarre little details. For instance, I recalled that the sandals that my mom bought left white triangle tan lines on my ankles due to the fasteners. Weird. In any event, this is what the place looks like:
Santiago
The first weekend in Chile, I went to Santiago to visit my friend from the mission Luis Cabanillas and also my Tio Chalo. Cabanillas (who I met in Tacna, and who hails from Trujillo) picked me up from the bus terminal and we immediately went to the center of Santiago to see the "tourist" stuff. I found it interesting, but in all honesty, I am coming to realize that I am not a big city guy. It was expensive getting around and took forever because the city is so large. More on that in a second. The things to see in the center are the Palacio de la Moneda, Plaza de Armas, and the Calle Ahumada:
I liked seeing the sights, but I was burdened by my 7 pound laptop and 2 days worth of clothes in my backpack. It was a beast to heave around. I also started to resent my beloved DSL's weight after several blocks. But oh well, that's the price of good pictures I suppose. Anywho, I had a swell time with Cabanillas and his family, and it happened to be his birthday. Oddly enough, I ate almost exclusively Peruvian food my entire 2 day stint in Santiago. The Saturday that we went to the center, we also went out to a dance club. Let me just say, this place was kind of ghetto. The ratio of guys to gals was way off (more dudes), and it was HOT!. Not good hot, no ventilation and I felt like I was breathing everyone else's sweat hot. It was still an ok time, but about 3am, I called it and we started the long trip back to Cabanillas's home. Along the way, I saw a drunken fight on the bus that ended with a guy getting stabbed several times by what looked like a box cutter. The stabber and his friend did quite a number on the other drunken fool before they jumped off the bus. Later, while awaiting the second bus that we had to take to get to where Cabanillas lived, he was propositioned by a hooker. I couldn't stop laughing, and his discomfort reached a apex (poor word choice?) when she made a grad at his family jewels. After his power block, she got miffed and left. I cannot express how funny this experience was, but it still makes me chuckle. For those readers who are perhaps thinking that Santiago is a crime ridden sty, I would like to point out that any big city at 4 am would probably not have it's best face on, and also that Cabanillas doesn't exactly live in the poshest part of town. In any event, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed after only a few short hours sleep in order to make church. I was impressed by the number of members, and surprised that in Cabanillas's ward, it would seem that 3 out of every four members are Peruvian. I believe that this is the part of Santiago where a lot of Peruvians live, so maybe in other areas, the ratio is less. Later that afternoon I went to visit my Tio Chalo and my Tia Consuelo (and for clarification, Tia Consuelo is actually my great aunt, so she is also Tio Chalo's aunt). We had a delightful chat and I was able to see his wife and youngest daughter.
And that was the second part of my Chile Trip, soon to come (hopefully in the next two days) will be the next part.
This was a long bus ride through the desert. I don’t really know how to explain 30 hours on a bus with nothing to see but sand and occasionally the ocean, but I can tell you it’s not as exciting as it sounds…
On the other hand, I would really like to spend a week or two in Iquique and Antofagasta. They are on the coast and they look like they have some interesting things to see. If nothing else, the largest Duty Free zone in South America is in Iquique, and you can stock up on booze and cologne for cheap. I suppose that this would be a huge draw for any Frenchies that happen into the Atacama. In any event, I made it to Santiago clinging to my sanity by a fingernail and bent nearly double underneath my absurdly heavy backpack. (I had my huge laptop in it; if you ever have a chance to buy a 17 inch laptop that weighs 7 pounds, think carefully about future travels.)
In Santiago, I was received by my good friend and former mission companion, Luis Cabanillas. He graciously agreed to meet me at the Santiago terminal at 5 am and keep me company until the first bus to VIna left at 8 am. Good guy, and he had plenty of interesting gossip to share.
I then got on the 2 hour last stretch to Vina. My Aunt lives on Calle Valparaiso in Vina Del Mar, which is the same street that the terminal is located on, about 8 blocks towards the ocean. Upon arrival, I was tired and so got in a taxi which ripped me off, but I didn’t mind much because I was ready to get there already. In a later post I am going to put up a lengthy description of all the foods I have tried in the last few months, with pictures, so I won’t get into lunch and all of that now.
My Tia Elba was the person who I saw most while I was in Chile, and with her I was able to see most of my cousins and uncles. With my Tia Elba, I went to Valparaiso the day after I arrived. There we had lunch and walked around doing some errands. It would seem like Chileans love their demonstrations, and while we were eating, a lot of students came running by being chased by riot police. I snapped a picture, but missed a truly photogenic moment when a cop in riot armor came past the window where I was seated dragging a guy in a headlock. I was too busy enjoying asado molido (*There will be an all food blog post soon, so never fear) to have my camera at the ready. Curse You Cuisine!, alas, I was able to snap this picture of the hubub after the fact:
After a few days of meandering around Vina, I had the interesting experience of leaving one afternoon and walking aimlessly until, without intending, I arrived at my dead Aunt Eliana's house. It was strange to fall into flashback mode as I rounded the corner. This was the house that I stayed in when I came to Chile for the first time. I felt like I could see a ghost of myself at 8 years old running around the corner in the sandals that my mother bought for my brother Jonathan and I. I remembered in the moment that I recognized the key cutting place on the corner so many bizarre little details. For instance, I recalled that the sandals that my mom bought left white triangle tan lines on my ankles due to the fasteners. Weird. In any event, this is what the place looks like:
Santiago
The first weekend in Chile, I went to Santiago to visit my friend from the mission Luis Cabanillas and also my Tio Chalo. Cabanillas (who I met in Tacna, and who hails from Trujillo) picked me up from the bus terminal and we immediately went to the center of Santiago to see the "tourist" stuff. I found it interesting, but in all honesty, I am coming to realize that I am not a big city guy. It was expensive getting around and took forever because the city is so large. More on that in a second. The things to see in the center are the Palacio de la Moneda, Plaza de Armas, and the Calle Ahumada:
I liked seeing the sights, but I was burdened by my 7 pound laptop and 2 days worth of clothes in my backpack. It was a beast to heave around. I also started to resent my beloved DSL's weight after several blocks. But oh well, that's the price of good pictures I suppose. Anywho, I had a swell time with Cabanillas and his family, and it happened to be his birthday. Oddly enough, I ate almost exclusively Peruvian food my entire 2 day stint in Santiago. The Saturday that we went to the center, we also went out to a dance club. Let me just say, this place was kind of ghetto. The ratio of guys to gals was way off (more dudes), and it was HOT!. Not good hot, no ventilation and I felt like I was breathing everyone else's sweat hot. It was still an ok time, but about 3am, I called it and we started the long trip back to Cabanillas's home. Along the way, I saw a drunken fight on the bus that ended with a guy getting stabbed several times by what looked like a box cutter. The stabber and his friend did quite a number on the other drunken fool before they jumped off the bus. Later, while awaiting the second bus that we had to take to get to where Cabanillas lived, he was propositioned by a hooker. I couldn't stop laughing, and his discomfort reached a apex (poor word choice?) when she made a grad at his family jewels. After his power block, she got miffed and left. I cannot express how funny this experience was, but it still makes me chuckle. For those readers who are perhaps thinking that Santiago is a crime ridden sty, I would like to point out that any big city at 4 am would probably not have it's best face on, and also that Cabanillas doesn't exactly live in the poshest part of town. In any event, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed after only a few short hours sleep in order to make church. I was impressed by the number of members, and surprised that in Cabanillas's ward, it would seem that 3 out of every four members are Peruvian. I believe that this is the part of Santiago where a lot of Peruvians live, so maybe in other areas, the ratio is less. Later that afternoon I went to visit my Tio Chalo and my Tia Consuelo (and for clarification, Tia Consuelo is actually my great aunt, so she is also Tio Chalo's aunt). We had a delightful chat and I was able to see his wife and youngest daughter.
And that was the second part of my Chile Trip, soon to come (hopefully in the next two days) will be the next part.
My Time in Chile pt. 1
I'm sure that you've all been very bummed out by the lack of recent posts, but I think you will forgive me when you understand that I have been traveling and taking lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure.
I am currently in Vina Del Mar with my Aunt Elba, and it was quite a trip to come down. I first went to Ilo, where it was HOT and I saw some people that I knew when I was a missionary there. That was good times. The most interesting part of that journey was the discovery of the new road to Ilo from Arequipa. Before, one had to go due South from Arequipa to Moquegua, and then to the coast, which took about 5 hours. Now, there is a road which goes strait to the coast (East) from Arequipa, hitting the ocean a little bit south of Mollendo at a place called Coca Chacra, and then it goes South hugging the coast. This trip takes only 3 and 1/2 hours, and instead of in a large bus, it is in a 10 passenger van. If you ever have to make this trip, buy the seat RIGHT BEHIND THE DRIVER. The ones in the middle are hard and uncomfortable, and there are leg room issues in other areas. The cost for this is 30 Soles and it's an interesting little trip.
Ilo was good times, I saw some of the Church members that I hadn't seen in a while, like these people:
The Sarmiento Family
And Hilda, Sheyley, and Bianca
I always enjoy seeing them, I get warm fuzzies.
After Ilo, I went down to Tacna. I forget what I have written about Tacna, but it now was a movie theatre, woot woot! The only thing to do in Tacna is buy stuff. There are clothes, electronics, and other such things. I then crossed over to Arica. This is not a very pleasurable experience, not because it's difficult, but because it becomes tedious with repetition. You have to get out of the car to leave Peru, get in, drive a few hundred yards, get out again, get in again. Basically just a hassle. But clearing that, I was able to recover the ticket that my aunt had bought on TUR Bus. It costs about 80 bucks to get from Arica to Santiago on the 1st floor, which is like first class. I recommend this because it is a 30 hour bus ride. There isn't much to comment about this particular ride, lots of desert, lots of time sitting. The one super plus to this trip is that there was a functioning electrical outlet by my seat and I had the foresight to purchase the necessary adapters and whatnot to enable me to use my laptop most of the trip.
I am currently in Vina Del Mar with my Aunt Elba, and it was quite a trip to come down. I first went to Ilo, where it was HOT and I saw some people that I knew when I was a missionary there. That was good times. The most interesting part of that journey was the discovery of the new road to Ilo from Arequipa. Before, one had to go due South from Arequipa to Moquegua, and then to the coast, which took about 5 hours. Now, there is a road which goes strait to the coast (East) from Arequipa, hitting the ocean a little bit south of Mollendo at a place called Coca Chacra, and then it goes South hugging the coast. This trip takes only 3 and 1/2 hours, and instead of in a large bus, it is in a 10 passenger van. If you ever have to make this trip, buy the seat RIGHT BEHIND THE DRIVER. The ones in the middle are hard and uncomfortable, and there are leg room issues in other areas. The cost for this is 30 Soles and it's an interesting little trip.
Ilo was good times, I saw some of the Church members that I hadn't seen in a while, like these people:
The Sarmiento Family
And Hilda, Sheyley, and Bianca
I always enjoy seeing them, I get warm fuzzies.
After Ilo, I went down to Tacna. I forget what I have written about Tacna, but it now was a movie theatre, woot woot! The only thing to do in Tacna is buy stuff. There are clothes, electronics, and other such things. I then crossed over to Arica. This is not a very pleasurable experience, not because it's difficult, but because it becomes tedious with repetition. You have to get out of the car to leave Peru, get in, drive a few hundred yards, get out again, get in again. Basically just a hassle. But clearing that, I was able to recover the ticket that my aunt had bought on TUR Bus. It costs about 80 bucks to get from Arica to Santiago on the 1st floor, which is like first class. I recommend this because it is a 30 hour bus ride. There isn't much to comment about this particular ride, lots of desert, lots of time sitting. The one super plus to this trip is that there was a functioning electrical outlet by my seat and I had the foresight to purchase the necessary adapters and whatnot to enable me to use my laptop most of the trip.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Puno: Juli
The next phase of our Puno trip involved a jaunt out to one of my favorite places on the South side of Lake Titicaca, Juli. Juli is one of the older towns in the area, and historically was a center for the Aymara indigenous people. A bit of info about the Aymara. Anyway, I like Juli because when I was a missionary, my good buddy GLUCH was assigned to Juli and it was much better than where I was, the illustrious town of Desaquadero. AS you undoubtedly know by now, Desaquadero es a terrible place. But Juli on the other hand, has narrow streets and is relatively trash free, therefore, it became my favorite place in the Zone when I was there. In Juli, there are four really old churches which are interesting to look at, and I enjoyed visiting each of them. They were built late 1500's early 1600's. Here are pictures of the four of them:
The first one is supposedly haunted. They are all pretty cool, and when I was a missionary, I got to go into the haunted one and inside it is AWESOME, very much like the forest temple in The Legend of Zelda. Too bad it's falling apart. Now there are lame sheets of tin all over it, and it certainly ruins the effect. Also, it isn't open to the public, Gluch and I were really lucky that we happened to go check it out when some University students were inside checking it out for renovation purposes.
The fifth church that I really dig in Juli is this one:
Surprise, it's a LDS church.
Juli also has a pretty decent beach, for what you can get on Lake Titicaca. We didn't have time to make it down to the beach, but when I was a missionary, we checked it out and it was pretty great.
We had a nice little walk around Juli, we took empanadas and ate them at some random spot in between two of the churches. There was also a nice lookout which Joe and I went up to alone because Malu and Carolina were lame. There we had a bromance photo session because there wasn't much else to do. You can see the fruits of that session in this fabulous video:
To wrap this up, I must relate one quick tale. When we were in Puno trying to find the departure point for the buses to Juli, I warned my companions of the ridiculous disorder and wildness of the place where the buses left. In my time, there were four different buses that would go to Ilave, Juli, Yunguyo, and Desaguadero respectively, and it was a battle royal to get on one. First you had to fight a bunch of crazy locals, in addition, you had to worry about the sheep and other livestock that was tied up and thrown on the roof, and finally, they were really ghetto vehicles and people got crammed in there like fish in a barrel. Imagine my surprise when we waltzed up to a perfectly clean and organized terminal. It even had a name, Terminal Sonal. I couldn't believe it when we calmly got on the bus in it's assigned place and sat in a pretty decent little bus. The whole time my group asked me if this was the same place. I guess 6 years makes a difference. However, when we were coming back from Juli to Puno, we had to contest with a mob to get on the bus, and I very nearly came to serious blows with a drunk guy who wouldn't let Malu get to her seat next to me, so I felt better about the whole trip ;).
The first one is supposedly haunted. They are all pretty cool, and when I was a missionary, I got to go into the haunted one and inside it is AWESOME, very much like the forest temple in The Legend of Zelda. Too bad it's falling apart. Now there are lame sheets of tin all over it, and it certainly ruins the effect. Also, it isn't open to the public, Gluch and I were really lucky that we happened to go check it out when some University students were inside checking it out for renovation purposes.
The fifth church that I really dig in Juli is this one:
Surprise, it's a LDS church.
Juli also has a pretty decent beach, for what you can get on Lake Titicaca. We didn't have time to make it down to the beach, but when I was a missionary, we checked it out and it was pretty great.
We had a nice little walk around Juli, we took empanadas and ate them at some random spot in between two of the churches. There was also a nice lookout which Joe and I went up to alone because Malu and Carolina were lame. There we had a bromance photo session because there wasn't much else to do. You can see the fruits of that session in this fabulous video:
To wrap this up, I must relate one quick tale. When we were in Puno trying to find the departure point for the buses to Juli, I warned my companions of the ridiculous disorder and wildness of the place where the buses left. In my time, there were four different buses that would go to Ilave, Juli, Yunguyo, and Desaguadero respectively, and it was a battle royal to get on one. First you had to fight a bunch of crazy locals, in addition, you had to worry about the sheep and other livestock that was tied up and thrown on the roof, and finally, they were really ghetto vehicles and people got crammed in there like fish in a barrel. Imagine my surprise when we waltzed up to a perfectly clean and organized terminal. It even had a name, Terminal Sonal. I couldn't believe it when we calmly got on the bus in it's assigned place and sat in a pretty decent little bus. The whole time my group asked me if this was the same place. I guess 6 years makes a difference. However, when we were coming back from Juli to Puno, we had to contest with a mob to get on the bus, and I very nearly came to serious blows with a drunk guy who wouldn't let Malu get to her seat next to me, so I felt better about the whole trip ;).
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