The City by the Sea

Last Saturday Henry and I caught a bus west to the coast to spend the weekend in the city of Valparaiso, home to one of Chile’s most important seaports. After Chile’s Independence from Spain, the port was opened up to international trade and became a required stopover for trading ships traversing between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. With this traffic the city grew and grew with an influx of European immigrants who had plenty of work in the booming port town. However, the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 sealed Valparaiso’s fate as a second tier port. Ships no longer had the need to sail south around the Strait of Magellan, and the necessity for Valparaiso’s port decreased substantially. 

But fortunately in the past few decades with Chile’s increase in world commerce trade and the construction of ships that exceed the limits of the Panama Canal, Valparaiso has had a slow but steady re-growth of ship traffic in and out of the port.

We arrived in town around 10:30 a.m. after a quick 1 ½ hour bus ride from Santiago. Within a few hours the usual morning cloud cover broke off and we enjoyed a beautiful day touring the colorful city.  I found an English spoken tour online that had some pretty good reviews so we went for it. It was led by an American (ex-mortgage broker) from Georgia who has been living in Chile for the past four years.  His name was Bobby and he led us on a great venture through the city to 8 of the 40+ ‘hill districts’ in Valpo.

Story has it that the reason the houses were painted so bright is that when the locals were finished painting their boats they often had paint left over, and they used the left over to paint their houses. Apparently you can't find two houses side by side of the same color anywhere in the city.

I loved the tangled webs of electric lines strung throughout the city.

Aside from the vibrant colored homes, Valpo is also known for the many murals and ‘graffiti’ painted throughout the city. It is by no means your typical graffiti - these artists create remarkable murals all up and down the streets. Graffiti is not technically allowed in the city by law, but it is accepted by almost all residents and permanently disregarded by the police.

Once our tour came to an end Bobby invited us for a few beers and a bite to eat at one of his favorite local joints.  A few beers turned into a few more and a few more after that (what can we say it was a long walk in the hot Chilean sun) and by 8:00 we decided we had to go somewhere else for dinner to balance out all of the barley pops we acquired in our bellies.  We ended up at Casino Social which claims to be the original creator of the choriana.  They serve nothing there but choriana and drinks.  This dish consists of a mountain of french fries topped with onions, egg and lots of meat.  It was pretty good despite its looks but in that sitting I probably had my fill of choriana for the next year. 

We washed down our meal with a local Valpo beer called 'Barba Negra' (Black Beard) I didn't know he made it all the way down here from the outer banks...

Sunday morning we woke up to both thick cloudcover over the city and thick hangovers (whether it was from the beer or the choriana we’re not quite sure). So we spent a few good hours sittin’ on the dock of Valparaiso bay watchin’ the ships roll in.

We only had a day and a half to spend in the bright city but we’ll surely be returning throughout the winter –There are still many things to see and do that we missed like a ride on the funicular, a tour of Pablo Neruda’s second house, a boat ride to see the sea lions and more. We’ll definitely need a few weekend splashes of color during the long gray winter months of June, July and August in Chile. So Valpo – We’ll be back!

Love, love, loving this city!!!

No we have not disappeared.. we are still very much alive and well in the bustling city of Santiago- just busy, busy, busy!!! Henry has been working away at archdaily and he couldn’t be happier. We both get home around 8:30 and when I ask how his day was I don’t receive the normal “Ehh, it was good.” response. I get the “It was awesome! I love my job! Today I cranked through ten articles, my architecture classics article on the Brooklyn Bridge was posted, (check it out here), I taught my co-workers the thrill and competition of March Madness and now everyone in the office has a bracket hanging on the wall, and Friday it will be my turn to grill out for the office lunch- what do you think I should make?” Throughout the whole explanation he has the grin of a little kid at Christmas full of utter excitement. I am so happy for him and couldn’t be more proud - to find a job you love that much seems nearly impossible these days. So if you’d like to see what he’s up to check out http://www.archdaily.com/  - His articles are posted daily.

I have also been quite fortunate in finding a great job. (Almost as great J) I am working for a small English school, Rincon Ingles (English Corner) near Salvador Metro. A 20 minute ride on the metro or a pleasant 30 minute walk from our apartment.  We don’t have a pool in the backyard, or cookouts on Fridays like at archdaily but we still manage to have fun without those. We are a small school with about only 6 professors and my two bosses (the owners). I was just recently hired as full time which is exciting and typically difficult to find as an ESL (English as a second language) teacher. Because we’re so small, it’s not that impressive but myself and one other teacher were just given the responsibility of heading up the academic coordination and organization of the school. A huge task and responsibility but very exciting. So while I’m not working on that I teach a range of classes throughout the day to a range of students- Conversation, structure and grammar, private one on one classes as well as in-office classes. I’m really enjoying it and man, am I learning a lot!

Henry and I both typically have fairly long days during the week… he works from 9-7 and I from 11-8 or sometimes 9-8. We come home hungry and start attempting to cook something for dinner in our tiny kitchen amongst our five other roommates.  There are a total of 7 people in our apartment now – two French guys, two German girls, one girl from Philadelphia and ourselves. We couldn’t love them more- it is such a fun place to live! So in the midst of cooking and eating dinner, sipping on some wine after our arrival home between 8 and 8:30 we share stories, jokes, music and more usually in four different languages. And we thought we were coming down here to only learn Spanish! – Our lists of Spanish, French and German sayings grow longer every day.

Stumbling upon our apartment, our jobs and new friends here in Santiago has almost come too easily- we feel so spoiled but are so very thankful for how everything has worked out.  Thanks for being patient during our hiatus on the blog – we’re trying to post on a weekly routine again and we have lots of posts to catch up on. Stay tuned for: A day trip to the pottery town of Pomaire, An attempt at baking in our degree-less oven, A weekend in Valparaiso – the city by the sea, Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago, Shenanigans with the roommates and much more!

Dinner and

shenanigans on the roof.

Holy Lomito

And we thought the completo was incredible... This is the Lomito. The Chilean mammoth sandwich which is typically stacked with hot pork and slathered with toppings in the same manner as the completo. Tomatoes, mayonnaise and of course palta (guacamole). They have other toppings but Henry and I each chose the traditional Italiano.

We were told Fuente Alemana had the best lomitos in Santiago so that’s where we headed. This restaurant has been open for years and apparently many of the women working there today are many of the ladies who started working at the restaurant when it first opened over 40 years ago! I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of lomitos those ladies have made?!

So you belly up to the bar (if you can find an empty stool- its quite the popular spot not only for tourists but locals as well) and one of the women comes to take your order. She then proceeds over to the center islands to whip up this hefty sandwich.

There isn't even any meat on that yet and it's already larger than the average sandwich.

Scrumptious.

The aftermath... and a true Chilean just beyond, finishing every last bite of his. 

Though we didn’t really have any more room in our bellies, we ignored our "I’m stuffed" symptoms and headed just down the street for some gelato from Emporio la Rosa. It’s a small café next to the park that offers some out of this world gelato. Henry had some sort of berry flavor and I had naranja jengibre which is orange gelato with little pieces of spicy ginger throughout – it’s officially my new favorite flavor.

That's my "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" face.

We enjoyed our ice cream, stuffed bellies and each others company on a delightful walk through the park. 

Futbol South Americano

Here in Santiago there are three big names in futbol. Universidad de Chile, also known as el ‘U’, Colo Colo and Universidad Catolica. Despite their names the teams are not affiliated with the universities here in Santiago and not made up of student athletes but of Chilean soccer players.  Though Catolica fans may argue, Colo Colo and U are the biggest rivalry in the city.  The fans are not known to get AS crazy as the fans in say Brazil or Argentina… but tourists are still warned of the dangers of attending the games,  at least in the seats located directly behind the goals.

The team logos for 'U', Catolica and Colo Colo. 

The other week, while Henry was pecking away at his keyboard working on writing samples for his Arch Daily position, I went with a few people from school to a futbol game. We went to the Northern part of the city where Universidad Catolica played Union Espanola at Espanola’s stadium. Diego, The teacher that took us to the game was a diehard Catolica fan- so we sat amongst some of their most excited fans.

But the Catolica vs. Espanola game I attended was very safe despite the razor wire along the fences, the carabineros (police) in bulletproof vests and the large gates that separated the opposing fans on the East side of the stadium. These are all normal precautionary measures.

Here are just a few of the Carabineros that were in our section. The large black fence separating the fans from the field prevents angry fans from throwing things(typically soda bottle filled with urine) at the players and referees.

In this photo you can see the white gates put up in between the two sections of fans. There were also carabineros located every few rows to maintain the 'peace'. In the foreground you can see the razor wire along the top of the fence to keep fans from climbing up and over.

The first half proved to be rather uneventful but at the start of the second half Espanola scored and put the surrounding Catolica fans in the worst of moods. The teams then started to pick up and Catolica matched Espanola’s goal.  Catolica then scored a second time and lead 2-1 until last few minutes of the game when Espanola made a goal to end the game in a tie.  The second half was incredibly entertaining by both the play on the field as well as the fans in the stands.

A young Catolica fan.

Espanola fans. Though they were the home team they didn't have nearly as many fans as Catolica.

Click here

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

After the game is over the home team fans are ‘released’ first while the away fans have to wait 20-30 minutes in the stands for the Carabineros to clear the streets of opposing fans to avoid any fights. Then they allowed us Catolica fans out of the stadium.

We hope to soon attend another game that Henry can come to and following that- he will be able to give you a much better summary of stats well beyond just the score.

Mi Casa es Su Casa

We are comfortably settled in our new place located in the barrio of Ñuñoa. I was entirely wrong in my original desires to get a place of our own and I’m so glad we didn’t. We have three awesome roommates from France. It’s great to make new friends (esp. from other countries), to practice the language, to hear other peoples stories and to get recommendations for restaurants, weekend trips or simply places to buy a bike.

Our location is both great and not so great. We’re only a few blocks from the metro so that makes it easy to get around- (as long as it’s not rush hour). But the one main drawback is the location right along the main street. It gets semi-quiet from about 2:00a.m. to 6:00a.m. We are quickly trying to adjust our sleeping habits to tune out the sounds of the street but it’s not all that easy. I think we’ll each own a pair of ear plugs by the end of the week.

The view from our pequeno balcony.

Our living room.

Dining Room.

Our cocina.

But aside from that, we love the apartment. There’s a good amount of room to hang out in our room, the living room, dining room and on the roof. And it’s an older building with lots of great character - wavy glass windows, high ceilings, stained glass, old doors and the like. No garden or grapevine laden trellis like at our Chilean madre’s house.. but there are a few cacti on the roof adding a little appeal.

The rooftop terrace at dusk. Our new favorite place to enjoy beers and chilean wine.

I was also so excited to move into an apartment so I could bake some homemade cookies! (which I’ve been craving for over 2 weeks now) So I overcame the first challenge of finding chocolate chips- a feat that was much more difficult than one might imagine. Well last night Henry and I baked some chicken for dinner and I was on oven pre-heating duty, but I couldn’t entirely understand the dial… I called in Pierre- one of our roommates and I asked (in Spanish of course) ‘So where are the degrees on this thing? How do I know how hot it is?’ Pierre responded ‘Oh there are no exact degrees- these little symbols are approximations of most hot to least hot.”He looked at me to verify that I understood his broken Spanish and I just laughed – not at him of course but at the ridiculousness of our oven. Turns out the little symbols are pictures of a flame at different sizes indicating the amount of heat you get inside the oven. Pierre suggested to not go by the little pictures on the dial but to guess the the amount of heat by the actual size of the flames in the bottom of the oven.

You have got to be kidding me! How’s a girl supposed to bake in an oven of approximated degrees?!?! Nevertheless.. the chicken turned out great.. but I am hesitant to mix up a batch of cookie dough only to have each dozen burn in our approximation oven.

“Yo perdi mis calcetines.” I lost my socks.

(Jenn and I on the top of Cerro San Cristobal; that day we took the trolley up)

While running Cerro San Cristobal last weekend I discovered that language doesn’t come from the heart but from the stomach.

From where I live now the run is 9-miles door to door with 1,472 feet of climbing. By the time you reach the top you are so thirsty you can barely enjoy the absolutely stunning view of Santiago. Generally I wouldn’t complain, but this hill enacts a kind of cruel and unusual punishment that hardly seems legal. The 2.5-mile incline and 90° heat doesn’t really bother me, but the Gatorade stations placed periodically up the hill seem to laugh at the runner who doesn’t want to carry change on a 9-mile run. I swear the thirst is 90% mental 10% physical.

After the first two treks I finally gave in and decided to take 1,000 pesos to reward myself with an ice-cold Gatorade at the summit. Unbeknownst to me I was also paying for a Spanish lesson. After paying I immediately gulped down the liquid candy bar and headed back down. It took about 2 minutes before I realized I made a huge mistake. I should have brought 1150 pesos not 1000. The ice-cold deliciousness shocked my stomach into action and I quickly learned that the Chilean entrepreneurial spirit charges 150 pesos per squat—30 cents. And oh the irony, the bathrooms are just as numerous as the Gatorade stands on the way down. I wanted to yell, “Stop laughing at me bathroom! Just wait till I come back with 30 cents after a night of drinking and completos! We’ll see who is laughing then.”

I walked about a mile before I admitted to myself I wasn’t going to make the 3 miles back. Now, normally I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking strangers for money in English, but there is nothing like stomach thunder to make you start begging in a foreign language. I went up to few pololos (couples) lounging on the grassy hill and asked in my most polite Spanish if I could “borrow” 150 pesos for the bano. Unfortunately none had spare change and I approaching time zero.

Finally, I marched/waddled up to the bathroom guard and explained my predicament. She said it was fine and let me pass. My momentary relief soon faded as I discovered that my Spanish isn’t all that good. Somewhere I had lost in the translation that the 150 pesos came with the toilet paper, which she apparently couldn’t part with.

Now I’ll approach the next part sensitively. When I was telling this story in my Spanish class Monday morning my teacher’s eyes kept getting wider and wider as I searched for the words to describe my Sunday afternoon jog. When I got to this part I simply said “Yo perdi mis calcetines.” I lost my socks. 

(Mary at the top)

Vino at the Viña

Last week we took a trip to the southeast part of Santiago to the vineyards and winery of Cousino-Macul. Originally it was built a distance from the city closer to the foothills of the Andes but since its formation, the city of Santiago has expanded to surround the winery. It was established in 1856 by Matias Cousino, a successful entrepreneur who had developed one of the richest silver mines in the north of Chile and later on constructed Chile’s first copper smelting plant. Along with extending railroads to the south and to the coast to export his products he also started Cousino-Macul Winery. Matias passed away during the establishment of the winery and left the task to his son, Luis Cousino.

Luis traveled to France in 1860 to purchase original grapevine rootstock from wineries all over France for Cab Sav, Merlot, Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It was only three years later that the Phylloxera, and aphid like insect, was accidentally released by English Botanists into Europe. The epidemic killed off rootstock in wineries all across Europe and primarily in France.

Because of its geographical location, Chile’s wine region has been extremely protected from plagues, insects and epidemics from the outside world for years. It is secured by the dry Atacama Desert in the north, the Andes mountain range to the east, the narrow Strait of Magellan and Antarctica to the South and the Pacific Ocean to the west. This has allowed Cousino-Macul to become home to some of the oldest grapevine rootstock in the world.

Each of these barrels back in the caves has a large cork to hold in the pressure throughout the fermentation process. If there is a strong enough earthquake, some of the corks can wiggle loose and numerous barrels of wine can be ruined.

Deliciousness.