Chiloé, Chica, and more Cueca!

So, I just ate lasagna with ham and refried beans inside. It made me want to write a blog solely dedicated to Chilean food, but too much has happened since the last one, so I figure I should talk about that instead.

Chiloé
The weekend after San Pedro de Atacama I hoped on another plane. This time, down south to the beautiful Isla Grande de Chiloé! I went with a gringo from another program, having no plans or reservations except a round-trip flight to Puerto Montt. We landed Thursday afternoon and decided to go straight to the island. After a beautiful ferry ride (which the bus drove right onto), we reached the small (but large by chilote standards) pueblo of Ancud.

In hind-sight, I wish we had spent more time there because I didn't notice how beautiful it was until we passed through it on the way back to Puerto Montt and the sun was shining. We stayed in a great little hostel right on the water with the nicest hostess (we love you, Rosita!!) and delicious breakfasts. The first night consisted of dinner, walking around the (more or less) 3 blocks of the town, FINALLY finding a bottle of tequila, and chatting it up with a German couple, French man, and Bulgarian (if I remember right) girl.

The next day we hopped on a bus to Castro, the biggest town and capital of Chiloé. Here, we saw the famous palafitos and once again found a great hostel. We decided right away to go visit the even-smaller island of Quinchao. Once again, we hopped on a bus which hopped on a ferry and ended up in a small pueblito. We managed to spend about an hour there, although I'm not sure how. We even went into a museum, which consisted of one room and essentially nothing to see except a written history of the island.

The next day we made it over to Parque Nacional Chiloé. The drive across the island was probably the prettiest thing I'd ever seen in my life. Soo green and soo beautiful, even in the rain and fog. Once there, we attempted to find the beach, which seems to be inacessible in the winter. After wandering through some private property with cattle, we decided it was time to go back. We made it through one more trail, but were soaked to the bone from the consistent rain so we decided to go back home.

The last day we went to a feria where I bought lots of fun gifts and then we headed back to the mainland. All in all, I decided Chiloé is probably the prettiest place I've ever been in my life, but there's not a whole lot to do there in the winter.

On the other hand, we spent our last night in Puerto Varas, a really cute lake town that kind of reminded me of a swiss ski village. While there wouldn't be much to do there for more than a few days, it was a nice change of pace after the rain and isolation of Chiloé.

Fiestas Patrias
The next weekend was by far the best one I've had since coming to Chile. I got back Tuesday morning to find that all my classes had been canceled for the rest of the week, except for one in which I had an exam the next day. So, starting Thursday, the festivities began. Fiestas Patrias (or el 18 de septiembre) is the Chilean independence day. It's equivalent to our 4th of July, except that they celebrate it for about 5 days with empanadas, asados, chica, and cueca.

Quick culture lesson:

empanada

• classic Chilean dish that can be made of many things, the traditional being pino (ground/shredded beef, onions, 1 raisin, 1/2 a hard-boiled egg, and 1 olive)
  
• In a word: delicious.

asado

• barbeque
• wayy too much food, but so delicious
• typical way of getting family and friends together for fiestas patrias

chica

• a sweet wine-like drink made of grapes but not fermented
• very strong, alcohol-wise (I'm not sure how this works with the whole non-fermented thing)
• goes WAY back to early mapuche times when a cacique showed his wealth by how much chica he could provide at a wedding

cueca

• the official dance of Chile (btw USA, where is our national dance??)
• based on a rooster courting a chicken
• actually really really fun!! and danced everywhere during 18 de septiembre

So, in summary:
food + drink + sack races + música folklórica + little boys dressed in gaucho costumes + neighborhood bbq's with old people dancing reggaeton = 18 de septiembre (a.k.a. best Chilean weekend ever).

Recent update:

1. Decided to try taekwando last Monday. Turns out I'm pretty good. Also turns out I hurt my ankle so badly I had to miss 3 classes because my hermana wouldn't let me out of the house.
2. It's spring!! Finally there is sun and flowers and fresh air!
3. Went to an 80's disco on Saturday with my hermanas and brother-in-law. The wonderfulness of this night plus the wonderfulness of the Fiestas Patrias has officially made carreteando with the familia my favorite kind of carrete.
   
4. Going to Viña del Mar and Vaparaíso this weekend! Hopefully the weather holds up...
   

Colegios, Cueca y las 5incomparables

Well...much has happened since my last entry. I'll try to make this one a relatively short summary :)

First things first, I started my volunteer program. It's called Inglés Abre Puertas. Basically, I spend 5 hours on Wednesdays helping an English teacher in a high school without a lot of resources. I LOVE it. The kids are soo sweet and very happy to have a gringa in the classroom. I thought the piropos on the street were bad, now I'm getting them from 16-year-old students!! The program people told us to try and speak English only, which is nearly impossible as a lot of them hardly speak it. So...it's turning out to be great practice for my translating skills!

Two weekends ago I went to a Cueca competition with my padre. He is in a folklore group and they were asked to sing. I didn't realize what a huge deal it was!! It was called the Primero Concurso Nacional de Cueca Chilena and have 15 pairs come from all over Chile to compete. The Cueca is the Chilean national dance. It is supposed to represent the way a rooster conquers a chicken. If it sounds kind of funny-looking, well, it is. I would call it the chilean version of the chicken dance. But...this competition was actually really cool. Each couple was dressed in typical clothes from their region and they all have very different ways of dancing. Plus there were all these other traditions wrapped into it, like the music and chicha and ponchos and...well, it was quite the show. And, to top it all off, my padre's group is really really good! His hermana sings lead and is absolutely un encanto! She has such stage presence. And they play and sing beautifully. It was so fun to watch. I can't wait for the 18th of September (Fiestas Patrias) to spend more time with my padre's talented family!

This last weekend, we had a trip with our director to San Pedro de Atacama. It is located up in northern Chile and is all desert. It was amazing. Probably the best weekend I've had in Chile so far, if not in my life! We did so many things in 3 days I can't even believe it! First we went to the salt flats and saw some flamingos. Then we went to Valle de la Muerte and Valle de la Luna. There we watched the sun set over a smaller mountain range as the full moon rose over the Andes. I don't think I've ever seen anything so gorgeous in my entire life. The next day we got up early (4 am!!) to go see the geysers. It is the 3rd largest geyser area in the world (Yellowstone is first). It was amazing and soo beautiful and sooo cold! But it warmed up quickly and we spent the afternoon driving through the mountains, looking at vicuñas (a llama-like animal) and eating llama meat. Then we went to some termas and spent the rest of the morning soaking up some sun.

That night, we went to a cafe with pretty much the entire town to watch the Chile-Venezuela soccer game. It should have been a great game, but it ended up as a tie. Fortunately, Chile is still in second place in the South America bracket and still has a good chance of getting into the World Cup. It was a blast to watch the game with all the crazy Chilean fans. And we spent the rest of the night dancing salsa and cueca (and pretending to eat when the police came because dancing/discotecs/bars are illegal in San Pedro!). Sunday morning we went sandboarding, which was way more fun than I'd even have thought, and spent the afternoon looking at archeological sites left behind by the indigenous people of the area. I felt like a real anthropologist!

Well, this weekend I go to Chiloé, so I'm sure there will be more to tell when I get back.