Lago Todos los Santos

On Saturday, we headed off to El Lago Todos Los Santos (All Saint´s Lake), a Chilean national park. The sheer diversity of the park was captivating- from a 360º turn I could see crisp blue waters, green hillsides, and a snow-capped volano. Some students opted to go on boat rides towards the Argentinean border and others went on ¨adventure tours¨ that included ropes courses and ziplines. I ended up going for a 4-hour hike on a trail called Paseo Desolación. Here are some of the best pics!

Sights from the Trail

Horseflies!

The one downside of Lago Todos Los Santos...they were everywhere. Lucky for me, they tended to cloud around people wearing darker colors by then 10´s, but I happened to be wearing a white shirt so they tended to leave me alone. No real bites for anyone though.

Frutillar

We spent Sunday morning in the quaint town of Frutillar. The town was filled with small German bakeries/restaurants, artesanía shops, and book stores. One other main attraction was the theatre, Teatro del Lago, pictured below. After walking around for an hour or so, we got to attend a music concert there, and I was particularly impressed by the architecture. The performance itself was called Ensemble Bartok de Chile: De Rusia con amor, and featured works by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofief.

Teatro del Lago

Hanging out Before the Show

Kuchen

stores sold these traditional German pies come in a number of varieties

Handmade Chocolates

Puerto Montt and the Island of Chiloé (Chacao and Ancud)

This past weekend, I traveled to Puerto Montt and some neighboring towns in el Región de Los Lagos in Chile. Since this trip was organized through the Stanford program and funded by the Bing´s, all the logistics were already taken care of, which I especially appreciated. It was also a lot of fun traveling in a large group with all the other students in my program! The next few blog entries are a breakdown of the 3 days we spent down there.

Friday:

• Left for airport at 7 am
• Drove through Puerto Varas- beautiful seaside town (we spent Sunday afternoon there)
• Spent afternoon exploring Chacao and Ancud on the Island of Chiloé. Yummy, fresh seafood!
• Dinner at German restaurant Club Alemán- there is a LOT of German innfluence in this part of Chile

Enjoying the Cool Weather Down South

(Santiago is still about 90º F)

The Hillsides of Puerto Montt

Beautiful View from the Bus Window on a Day Excursion to Chacao and Chiloé

As you can tell from the picture, the landscape in Puerto Montt is very similar to Temuco. Lots of greenery, 1-story houses and blue skies. (at least most of the time...the weather can become rainy and cold very quickly)

The Ferie Ride Over to Chiloé

Ancud

The Island Shores of Chacao

Curanto en Olla

The local speciality- comes with 1 plate of sausage, pork-ribs, and a pototo and cheese bread (think gnocchi) and another plate of mussels, beans, and clams

Artesanías

Showing Off Our New Wool Sweaters

The Local Seafood Market

Smoked Clams, Muscles, and Kelp

More Good Eats (Mote con Huesillos, Humitas, Cazuela etc.)

Time for another food update!

Humitas

Humitas are basically the vegetarian version of Pastel de Choclo (see previous entry). Individually wrapped in corn leaves (hojas de maíz), humitas look like tamales but have quite a distinct flavor. Like the topping for pastel de choclo, these steamed corn-meal treats are denser and on the sweeter side.

Most street cafés sell humitas, although I've only tried them twice so far. This first time they were hand-made and I was at my host family's neighbor's apartment. Then, I ordered them again for lunch this week. Remember Chileans tend towards simplicity with their food, because of this, the first time I just had them with fresh diced tomatoes, and the second time with pebre, a traditional Chilean salsa.

Pebre

In the U.S., "pebre" would be the salsa Mexican restaurants typically serve with chips, but in Chile the word "salsa" is generally used for sauces, such as those put on pasta and meat dishes.

Here's an authentic-looking recipe for humitas I found online (although so far the ones I've tried haven't had cheese):

http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/09/05/humitas/

Mote con Huesillos

It's hard to walk through Santiago without passing by a "Mote con Huesillos" puesto (stand) like the one pictured above. About $500 Chilean Pesos or $1 USD a pop, this peach-tea drink is quite popular with Chileans. In addition to fruit juice, it contains durazno seco (dried peach) and trigo cocido (literally translates to "cooked wheat" but I've been told it's actually cooked barley...still don't know quite for sure).

Either way, I'm a big fan of trigo cocido- it has a somewhat chewy texture and exotic flavor since it's cooked with juice. I've never liked sweet juices much, so I don't enjoy the actual juice and dried peach of Mote con Huesillos as much, but I'd definitely recommend trying it.

Cazuela

My host mom prepares this delicious, traditional Chilean stew for dinner weekly. It contains beef or chicken, corn on the cob, potato, squash, rice, peas, red bell pepper, carrots, and cilantro in a flavorful stock-based broth.

Bravissimo

Bravissimo is one of the more popular ice-cream chains in Santiago with a wide selection of flavors. My host family treated me there after dinner the other night. I found it a bit sweeter and lighter in texture than the ice-cream characteristic of the U.S. Also note that when you order a cone in Chile, it's usually stuck on top of your ice-cream in a cup.

Salmón con Arroz

Okay, so maybe Salmon and rice isn't so unique to Chile, but I couldn't help but include this picture- my host Mom seasons it particularly well. (I'm pretty sure the rice is loaded with margarine...)

Colo Colo and La Noche Alba

Some of the University of Chile students we met at an asado, invited us to soccer event called La Noche Alba for a local team: Colo Colo. This kick-off event is held before the start of the official soccer season and lasts a good 6 hours.

I arrived around 7 pm, but it took us a while to find our Chilean friends among the crowds. Pedrero, a metro station, is about 2 blocks away from the Colo Colo stadium, and during the walk over we were surrounded by tons of excited fans. The streets were also lined with food vendors (mostly sausages, hamburgers, and empanadas).

La Noche Alba started off with a series of friendly soccer games between retired Colo Colo players. Later, some musical groups performed, including one popular Cumbia band from Argentina. This was followed by the official presentation of the 2011 Colo Colo Fútbol team and and a beautiful display of fuegos artificiales (fireworks). The evening finally wrapped up with a close game between Colo Colo and Nacional, a team from Uruguay.

The festivities ended around 1 am. Since the metro closes at 11 pm and the bus system is particularly slow, a friend and I split a cab home and arrived close to 2 am- leaving just enough time to get a good night's sleep before classes the next day. Not too bad for a Tuesday night!

If you want to read more about Colo Colo or Fútbol in South America check out: http://www.colocolo.cl/

The Colo Colo Logo

El Estadio

The Fans

The energy of the fans at the game was really quite admirable: they didn't ever seem to stop cheering, chanting and jumping during the event. This was particularly true for one section of the stadium that is especially cheap. The tickets there cost about 1,000 pesos ($2). In contrast, our Chilean friends had us buy better tickets (12,000 pesos) because the cheaper sections can get quite rowdy and dangerous. So, even though we weren't in the middle of the crowd, we were able to share the excitement.

La Feria Indígena

While running errands the other day, my host Mom saw a poster advertising La Feria Indígena, or Indigenous Artisan Fair, that was in town this week. Since this sort of craftwork is related to my internship, I was particularly interested in visiting; and so, we took the metro over to Cerro Blanco on the opposite side of Santiago and checked it out.

Once there, I was surprised by the variety of booths: bags, ponchos, decorations, toys, spices, street-food, music, books, you name it. I also enjoyed talking with the artisans, who were particularly friendly.

Gaby at an Artisan's Stand

Dreamcatcher

Textelería!

La Tela (loom)

Quinoa and Toasted Wheat

My Host Mom and Gaby in the Surrounding Park

More Cacti