Panama... Panama-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah

This is going to be the last post in the epic tale that was my trip to Chile and I can not think of a better place to end it than...

Panama?

I got to Panama City around 5 last night and the airport was dead. It took a few minutes to get through customs and a 5 dollar cab ride later I was at the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel and Resort.

This was my room. I feel they took some liberties with the term "Resort"

View from the Balcony. There is a pool back there somewhere, with bonus swim-up bar.

I had some dinner at the hotel restaurant to see what I could find in the way of entertainment. There wasn't a whole lot to choose from as the English programming was sparse but I did manage to find a really good movie on TV most of you will be familar with, Castaway. I turned it on just as he was getting on his plane.

Anyway I woke up an hour earlier than intended because of a confusion with the time. I got to the airport and got a bite to eat at the little cafe and some iced tea which is a little strange here.

And I leave you with that. My plane is at the gate and I should be on my way back to Houston at 10:05am if all goes to plan I'll be on the ground a little after 2:00 in the afternoon.

Walnuts 2.0

Today we went to Alexis' Grandmother's farm. It takes about an hour to get there and it is in the mountains that border Argentina. They also produce walnuts like the farm of her cousin.

On the drive up there I was informed that the mountain covered in snow belongs to her grandmother. Yup, she owns a mountain. A couple of them actually. The farm was bought back in the 30s by Alexis' Great Grandfather and the edge of the farm goes right up to Argentina. I was told that it was about 7000 hectares which is just over 17000 acres.

This is the River that is one border of the farm

One of the fields for the cows and horses

 This was near the top of that mountain from earlier

When we got there we built a small fire and cooked some steaks for dinner and ate them with a salad and some bread. It was all very good and after our tour of the place we had some tea and came back to the city where I packed my stuff and got ready to fly out in the morning.

I have an awesome panoramic shot from the mountain but it won't upload so I'll have to but it on Facebook along with the extra pictures.

Picoroco (google it)

Friday we went to the Mercado Central again this time to show Christina as well as give me the chance to eat picorocos. They are a species of giant barnacle that is eaten in Chile and parts of Peru. It is very rare for them to be ordered in the restaurants in the market especially by foreigners so when the guy found out that I wanted them he got very excited. No one had tried them before including the 2 employees we talked to at the restaurant where we were eating.

They look pretty gross but they were cooked in oil and garlic and taste like crab mixed with a little bit of clam. Not too bad. If you are ever in the area I would suggest trying them.

This was a tiny after dinner drink that tasted a lot like celery salt.

Later that night we went over to a friend's house to meet up before going out to celebrate this girl's birthday. It was at a place called Murano that no one likes to go to but seemed alright to me.

Snoooooooooooooooow!

On Thursday we heard that the ski season had opened a little earlier than normal so we got in Alexis' truck and headed about an hour outside of the city to the slope that had opened. We got a late start heading up there so there was no chance that we were going to get to do anything up there but look around but it was still really beautiful. I had never been to a ski slope so it was cool to get to see one.

The road heading up the mountain was long and winding. All of the sharp curves were numbered and there were 40 of them. Every year in November they hold a bike race from Santiago to the top of the mountain. 

Somewhere in that fog is Santiago

We were there for only an hour or so because we had to go eat dinner with some friends of the family whose daughter was going to New York for a few weeks. We ate at an Italian restaurant in one of the malls here . I had blue cheese and artichoke pizza and a chocolate brownie topped with manjar mousse. Awesome.

No Time For A Clever Name

Tuesday, June 1 2010
Valparaiso, Chile
75mi NW of Santiago

Tuesday we spent the day at the beach in Valparaiso. It is the near the town where Alexis' Mom was raised and is one of has biggest ports in the country. It is also where the Navy and Chilean Congress is headquartered. We spent the first part of the afternoon walking around the hillside where most of the houses are located. The city is also one of the cultural centers on the country and because of all the immigrants in the city coming from all over the world the city has a variety of buildings that reflect this. The houses in the hills of the city are painted all different colors and the city has a large artistic community.

While we were walking around we came across a guy selling paintings of the city that he had done. He talked to us for about 15 minutes explaining all about his art and sounded really passionate but I couldn't understand most of what he said. Alexis' Mom bought 4 of his smaller paintings and we left to go get hot chocolate at Color Cafe. I don't drink a lot of hot chocolate so I got a hot tea instead. Alexis got a slice of banana pie and her mom got a piece of lemon pie. The banana pie was interesting but the lemon pie was really good. 

Inside Color Cafe

We left Valparaiso and drove along the water to Vina del Mar where Alexis' Mom was raised. The ocean was really beautiful and the waves were huge. There were people surfing even though the water had to be freezing. We ate at a place across from the ocean that sold fried empanadas.  I think it was a place that Alexis' Mom went to when she was a child. I had crab, shrimp and beef empanadas for lunch that were really good but had a lot of cheese in them.

On an unrelated note, when we driving into town sitting in traffic we saw a little boy in a bus licking the window.

I bet he eats his boogers too

Castles and Dead White Guys

This is the building that we parked down the street from in a... FREE PARKING SPOT!!!!! Well almost free we got a cab back to the spot because we were tired and hungry, 1450 pesos (<$3). Parking is hard to find downtown and is expensive underground.

Now, today was the Dia del Patrimonio Cultural en Santiago. It is the day when once a year all the private, cultural and governmental buildings are open to the public free of charge. More than 100 buildings around the city and region were opened up and available to tour. We got a late start on the day so once we parked we only got to go to two of the buildings but they were probably among the coolest. The first place that we went to was Castillo Hidalgo. It is near the center of downtown Santiago and sits atop a hill that is surrounded by a tall stone and metal fence and gardens all the way up to the castle. The building is used today as a place to host fancy parties and balls in the city and is usually closed unless you are invited to a party there. It think it was used in the past as a fort because of the vantage point that it affords to the surrounding terrain.

Castle Gate (random guy to be photoshopped later)

The second place that we went to was La Palacio de La Moneda, the Chilean version of the White House. There was a long line to get into the building but it moved pretty quickly. Once we made it to the front of the line we (Christina and I) found out that we needed our passports to get in but the let us in anyway because we were with Alexis and Tatienne. After a brief pad down and metal detecting buy a large police officer in Spanish, we went into the Palace. The name of the building translates to "the coin" because it was a colonial mint back in the day. 

 Under the ground and fountain of the plaza in front of the palace is a Museum.

 Statue of Arturo Alessandri Palma

I wasn't allowed to use my flash inside the palace so alot of the pictures didn't turn out. Sin flash = Con Blur. Inside we got to see the different rooms each with their own color that are used for hosting guests of the state and house all the busts and paintings of the past presidents and other important people. We also got to see the First Lady's office which was pretty cool and the press room. No word on where the President was. 

Earthquake Damage in the Bernard O'Higgins Room

There were several plazas in the interior of the building that we could walk around. The biggest of them was the Courtyard of Oranges where they had an old police car and an old Presidential Motorcade. I'm not sure if they still used the car to transport the President because it looked old but the escort motorcycles in front of it were brand new BMWs. We also got to take pictures with some police officers, they were really nice.

After we left the Palace all the public buildings were closed so we didn't get to go to the national vault. So, we hopped in a cab and went back to the car and headed over to Domino to get some sandwiches and hot dogs and then came home. All in all it was a good day and tonight I'm going to relax and catch up on some sleep.

Cab Ride *jazz hands*

Going to the Country, Gonna eat a lot of walnuts.

Today we traveled south to Rancagua to the Thiele family farm to visit the cousins and eat lunch and take a look around. Today was the first day that it rained since I have been here but it never really rained all that hard and it created some really cool clouds in the mountains. Another bonus to the rain is that it clears out some of the smog that gets trapped in the valley so you can see the city as you come down the mountain from Alexis' house.

The farm is about an hour south down Route 5 which is the only north/south highway in Chile because the country is so narrow. The drive was very nice and we passed through some of the country that produces wine and some of the country's other produce.

Once we arrived at the farm we settled in and ate some of the snacks that had been set out for us. The people that own the farm are cousins of Alexis' Dad and they produce walnuts and have a few of other fruit trees for their own personal use. 

Fuji Apples

Our lunch that turned in to our dinner as well was beef and salmon. They also made potato salad, cucumber salad and corn that you ate with some green mayonnaise.

Food on the grill

Julie, who I think runs the farm, makes her own piscosour that was really good and she wasn't shy with refilling your glass if it was empty. The Matriarch of the farm was Alexis' Dad's Aunt and had made a walnut pie that was similar to a pecan pie but mostly made of crushed nuts with a sweet goo that holds it all together. Super good.

Tatienne's friend Christina

Later that night we went to a birthday party of a friend of a friend of a friend that lived in Santiago near Alexis' house. It was really cold but they had a couple of fires going and had roasted a whole lamb that was awesome. The people were nice and tried to talk to me in English. I met Ferni's boyfriend Felipe who was cool and took the time to make sure I was having fun and showed me around. It was fun but house parties aren't really my thing.

Sporty Spice

Friday was a day spent doing nothing at all until Friday night when we went to a party downtown that a guy in architecture school with Alexis invited us to. It was a sport theme party. I went to HyperLider to get some stuff to wear, which contrary to my first impression is more like a Wal-mart (it was recently purchased by them) as compared to Jumbo which is a nicer store that is more groceryesque.

We started by going to his boyfriend's apartment, he was gay this theme will come up again later in the story, and socialized until almost 1am. People here operate on a schedule that I have not become used to, nor do I really want to for that matter. I enjoy my sleep. Then we headed to the bar where the party was going on. We arrived at about 1:30 and there wasn't really anyone there so I assumed that the place was just dead and the party fell flat but no one here goes to anything before 2. It had not occurred to me that a party that a gay guy invited you to might also be a party mostly attended by other gay people. This was a fact that was lost on me because I didn't care, another one of Alexis' friends however wasn't so care free. He was walking around like at any moment he might be attacked by one of the other people there. Despite the light case of homophobia that Alexis' friend had come down with a good time was had by all and we left without any "incidents".

This was our attempt at looking "sporty"

Late Nite Pizza Run

So when I thought that my Wednesday night was coming to an end, Alexis' Dad came home around 10 and decided that instead of ordering pizza we should go to Tiramisu. It is his favorite restaurant in town and apparently has the highest turnover and generates more revenue than any other restaurant in Santiago. The piscosour was really good there because they make their sour mix at the restaurant and use good pisco. The pizza that I ordered was a margherita with mushrooms.

The pizza looks like it is mostly mushrooms and might have been the best pizza I have ever had. After the pizza we order some of the tiramisu the restaurant is named for and, while good, I don't like it but I could see how someone who likes the dessert would think that it was really good. Dinner ended around 12:30 and that really was the end of the night.

Lazy Days

This is going to be a double post, a 2-fer if you will. As the title would suggest the past two days have been pretty laid back. Tuesday was spent traveling back to Santiago from San Pedro. The girls made sopapillas which were different than the ones that I have had back home. I guess the ones in Texas are more of a Mexican style, not sure. Here they are very flat and dense in comparison and are made with cooked squash in the batter. They are also sometimes soaked in a brown sugar citrus syrup. They were pretty good. Hump day was spent relaxing at home and meeting up with Agu at the mall down the street. We "convinced" her to play hookie and hang out for a little longer so we all came back to Alexis' place and ate lunch then Agu had to go back to school. Later we met Alexis' Mom back at the same mall where they shopped and I bought a tie and a super cool jacket and ate gelato. I had a combo of honey and spicy chocolate. I only took one picture that I will post today and it is dedicated to Matt.

Los Colonos de Catan

(As seen on TV)

Llamas, llamas, llamas

Today we went up into the mountains to see the salt lakes that were trapped in the valley. It took a while to get there and we passed through a little town called Socaire. Socaire was actually part of the trip as it was a town that no one had ever been to but a little more of that in a bit.

This was one of a group of 4 llamas that we passed on the way to the lake.

After we finished with the lakes we headed back to Socaire. The town might be one of the smallest and most isolated places I have ever been to. There is no way more than 50 people lived in this town. It was probably more like 25. Anyway we tried to eat lunch at the restaurant in town but they had ran out of food. So we ate at Cocineria Sairilulama. It was explained to me that a cocineria is not really a restaurant but a small kitchen where people can eat. 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in another small town where we looked in the little stores around the town square. One of the stores had a llama out back that we got to look at and while back there I saw the loom that the lady used to make clothes out of llama wool. There was another store where you could take pictures with Madonna and Maximilliano, the resident llamas.

Old School

We got back to San Pedro soon after leaving the second small town where we rented bikes and rode to Moon Valley but turned around before we got there because it was getting dark. We also did some more shopping in San Pedro where I found a ready-to-eat quinoa popcorn like snack that was kinda sweet and really good.

We ate dinner at La Estaka where I got a cream of chile soup and cannelloni stuffed with tomatoes, cheese and eggplant. The soup was awesome and the cannelloni was really good especially when I put balsamic vinegar and olive oil on it.

It looks gross but was sooooo good.

....and so wraps up day 8 of my trip in Chile.