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.

This needed a Title

Today was dominated by two events. The first was a failed attempt to make it to a national park and the other was a trip to the Valle de la Luna.

The trip to the national park started around noon and took me up into the surrounding mountains. The highest peak was a volcano that was at about 5500m. At first the peak was obscured by the clouds but as we made our was toward it the top revealed its self.

As we drove up the mountain pass the temperature gradually dropped until it was -5 Celsius and brought us to an altitude of about 14500 feet, give or take. The surrounding desert slowly became more and more covered in snow as we ascended the pass.

After we stopped for a restroom break, we decided to turn around which was too bad because I was excited about the park. But it would have been really cold and maybe too difficult to cross the pass later in the day. On the other side of those mountains above is Bolivia and 7 km on the other side of the border was a salta,what they call a salt lake here. It was supposed to be really nice but due to the fact that nobody had brought their necessary border crossing documents, my trip to Bolivia was limited to about 5 minutes, 30 feet inside the border. I got a picture of the immigration station and their sweet bus.

After we came back to the town and grabbed some lunch, which was the first time I ordered my meal in Spanish (it was awesome) and the first time that they forgot my order, we headed out to the Valle de la Luna. It is just outside of San Pedro and as the name suggests it looks like the Moon. We stopped at one of the more popular formations that you could climb up and took some pictures. Climbing up the side of the hill was very challenging due to the elevation and the fact that it was up a hill made mostly of sand.

There was another formations that we stopped by called the Three Marias. It was three columns that were standing alone in a field of small rocks. It too is a popular place to stop and take pictures. 

After we got back to the hotel we went to town to eat dinner at Cafe Adobe. There I had a dish called Lomo al Pilpil. It was cubes of beef and potato that were cooked in a sauce called pilpil and served in a clay bowl. You can get it with different meats or mushrooms but that night beef sounded good. The sauce was just the slightest bit spicy and had the best beefy flavor. It was one of the best things that I have eaten so far. It was followed by a mango dessert with strawberry sauce on top. During the meal a band came out and played traditional Northern Chilean music which was heavy on the flute and guitar. One of the guys played this little 12 stringed instrument that was like a bigger version of a ukulele. It was really nice and Alexis' Dad bought one of their CDs.

That takes us to the end of day 7. Stay tuned for the adventure to the salta in the Chilean mountains.

Making Dad Jealous Part 2

This morning started again with breakfast at the hotel before we got packed up and started our drive to San Pedro de Atacama with a stop at Alexis’ Dad’s mining project.
The mining project, Minera Espiranza, was about 2 hours away and San Pedro de Atacama was about 2 and a half hours past that. The country between Antofagasta and the mining project were beautiful. It was pretty flat with mountains off in the distance and all different shades of desert colors in the landscape.

About an hour into the drive we stopped in a little road side town that was not much more than a few stores on the side of the road. I tried a little cookie called Chocman. I tasted like a chocolate Twinky with manjar inside of it instead of the gross fake cream.

It is with this picture of the road trip in progress, I would like to introduce Alexis’ Dad. (He is the guy that is not me. In case anyone was confused)

As we pulled into the project you couldn’t tell that we were anywhere in particular. There was a little guard shack on the side of the road that you had stop at and talk to some guys then continue down the road. A little further down there was a nicer checkpoint that also functions as a transit stop for the workers.

Much of the mining camp is brand new because they just started construction in 2008. The facilities were really nice and the food was really good. I expected it to be good but it really exceeded my expectations. We got shown around the camp, ate in the dining area and got to see the rec room. It had several flat screen TVs with Wii and Playstation, a couple of ping pong tables and some pool tables. It was pretty cool.

The pudding wasn't very good.

We were given safety equipment to head out into the working part of the copper mine. The digs were pretty awesome. BTW everyone looks cool in a hard hat and neon orange.

Bling!

After we watched a safety video (en español) we headed out to the mine and get up close and personal with the biggest trucks IN THE WORLD. Yeah, the ones that get featured on every show about giant things. One of the guys that work in the mine called a driver on the radio and they stopped the trucks so we could take a picture on them and get to ride around in them during one of their circuits. We got to be in the truck when the big bucket loaders dropped a load in the truck bed. Soooo cool. Alexis had the best picture of anyone getting in the trucks

We stayed there until nightfall when I got some cool pictures of the processing equipment. They just installed the long conveyor belt and a mill to crush the rock that is the largest in the world. The plant is only running at about 30% now but will be up and running in the next few months to a year.

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama around 10:00 pm and after settling in at the hotel, Tudor. We left the hotel and walked through the town and came to a restaurant called Blanco. It was a smallish restaurant with a bonfire in the back. I had the Chilean version of risotto called quinoa. It isn’t actually a risotto but more like a small oat or grain. I had it with shrimp and abalone, it was really good. It had a tomato base with a few herbs and a parmesan cheese chip in it.

That pretty much ended the day. I went back to the hotel and went to bed.