Entrevista

Me and Theresa did an interview today.

In Spanish. 

And it was filmed. 

So embarassing. 

(But also a lot of fun!)

French barbershop and restaurant

Demonstration

Street art in Barrio Yungay

The two Chileans interviewing and filming us to the left, and Theresa and me to the right!

Rooftop birthday BBQ

Red sky in Santiago

Amazing view with never ending lights 

Chilean BBQ

The day after the independence day, we were invited to a Chilean BBQ.

They told us to come at 8pm, so we came at 9.30 and thought we would be there right on time (Chilean time: always add at least 1 hour to the time they tell you).

BUT NO. Chileans are slow and we were the first ones to come. (the rests came at 11!)

The hostess just started on preparing the food, and we gladely helped her. But little did we know that we would not get food until after midnight.. 

and the meat did not come until after 1am.. 

So we were really really starving!!! 

Next time I'm invited to a Chilean BBQ I will definitely eat dinner before coming. 

And if I'm inviting latinos, I will definitely tell them to come 2 hours before time so that they might be on time..

Nevertheless, it was a great evening with good food and wine! 

The view from their apartment 

Grilling 

Totally forgot that I'm allergic to cats, so got a runny nose and sudden sneezes all night.. 

Fiestas Patrias

Ever since I came to Chile 3 months ago, I have been told that September is the best month, with nice  and warm weather, lots of BBQs and Terremoto drinking. 18th of September is the Chilean Independence day, and they celebrate the whole week, and already started preperations with flags and music everywhere two weeks ahead. 

Unfortunately for us, September has been a bad month- weather wise, but there has been lots of BBQs and we had plenty of Terremotos on the 18th. 

Terremoto is Chile's national drink, and means earthquake. Normally, the Terremoto is so strong that you should get tipsy or drunk after the first one, so that's why they call the 2nd one you get for "Replica" (aftershake). However, on the 18th, the Terremotos we had were not thaat strong, so we managed to drink a couple of them.. 

We celebreated the 18th in two different parks, with lots of BBQ meat, cueca music and dance (Chilean traditional music and dance), and Terremotos! 

Cueca 

Dancing cueca!

La Serena and Isla Damas

After biking in Vicuña we went to La Serena the same night for some relaxation (we were all soo dead after biking the whole day!). But instead of lying on the beach with nice weather the next day (our weather app said it would be 24 degrees and sun), we went surfing in 10 degrees celcius, and no sun at all..

It was so cold,  and so much fun!!

The next day we took a bus to Punta de Choros and took a boat from there to the penguin island and Isla Damas. We were expected to see sea lions and penguins, (and lots of birds), but never did we imagine we would also see dolphins!! They were so playful and swimming right next to our boat. 

What was a bit dissappointing was that we could not get close to the island with all the penguins on. We saw them, and they were super cute, but I didn't bring my zoom lenses so couldn't really capture any good penguin photos :( Sometimes it was also very hard to see the penguins, since they were blending in really good together with the stones.

How many penguins do you see? 

Sea lion jumping in to the water

Isla Damas

Isla Damas

Biking in Vicuña and Valle de Elqui

The day we arrived to Vicuña was the second time in the year that it rained. 

And it was pouring down. 

So the only thing we could do was to go to one pisco farm and hear about how pisco is made and do a little bit of pisco tasting. During the night we wanted to go to a star observatorium, but because of the heavy rain, it would be impossible for us to see anything, so we dropped it. 

The next day we went for a 6 hours biking trip around Vicuña and Valle de Elqui. The landscape was amazing and the weather was fantastic.  Fom the very start a dog followed us, and stayed with us till the end of the day. We thought that the dog would be the one protecting us, but instead, we had to protect her from the dogs in the villages we passed by. They all started barking and jumping on her, and it was actually a challenge for us to protect her all the time, because the dogs just kept on coming!! 

We biked through many villages, churches, pisco farms and had plenty of photo breaks. In many of the villages, there was always one house that was playing merengue, bachata, reggaeton or salsa on full blast. It made me so happy. 

One of the many graffiti walls in Vicuña

Looking for butterflies to play with

Our cute dog that followed us from the start to the end

Lots of muddy roads beause of the heavy rain from the day before 

Krishna temple

Amazing view over Valle de Elqui

Beer tasting

Pisco tasting

La comida tipica Chilena

Food Food Food..

I love to cook food, but I love to eat food even more.

So when I get an invite to come and eat mariscos(seafood) at a Chilean friend's house, of course I come. At first we all thought we were going to cook together, but arriving at the house, we (8 exchange students) got greeted by his mum, with home made empanadas (prawns and cheese) and pisco sour! We got stuffed with delicious empanadas fritas con camarones y queso, ceviche, lemon cake, more pisco sour and beer. When we were all way too full from eating and drinking, his mum suddenly serves us "cocimiento", a soup with mussels, clams, chorizo, chicken and pork. It sounds weird.. but it was surprisingly tasty!

After a great evening with amazing food and great hospitality from this Chilean family, we rolled back home with our big and happy stomaches. 

empanadas ready to be fried

pisco sour

lovely sky and drink

the best empanada fritas!

Jose's mum cooking for us the whole evening

Yummy ceviche

lemon cake

Cocimiento mariscos

group picture: 1st try

again!