Tough Days Lead to Chilean Cooking

A beautiful Spring day in Santiago
This is the Bellas Artes Art Museum

Hey Y'all!  (I say that because Britney Spears recently performed at the National Stadium.)  Sara here on the mic, or should I say keys.  Matt and I have finally gotten off our high horse about the Maquinaria Festival and have been living pretty low-key the last week or so.

I wish for (insert what you think I wish for).

Work has been keeping us both busy.  Currently, I'm teaching seven different courses to a variety of folks.  Here's a breakdown: I teach a young business entrepreneur who will be traveling to Korea in a couple of weeks.  The main language for the conference he will be attending is English, so he's brushing up before he goes off.   Secondly, I teach a very cool and very smart 10-year old who knows everything there is to know about Pokemon and loves to tell me jokes from his comic books.  Unfortunately, the jokes don't always translate, so I'm left to make up my own jokes in my head and laugh at those.  Next, I teach a group of 4 accountants at a brokerage firm in Los Condes, which is one of the fancy parts of town.  This class is definitely a challenge because none of the students speak much English and are very tired after a long day of work.  I speak all Spanish during this time which is hard, but it helps me practice!  Directly after that class I go to a TOEFL tutoring course with an extremely motivated lawyer who will be moving to Florida to complete an American Master's.  This class includes a lot of test-taking, which I am well-versed in from teaching in the public school system (sadly).  Twice a week I teach a computer designer who is preparing to move to NYC (!!!) in the next few months.  We meet in a really cute coffee shop and always end up talking about New York.  Only once a week, I work with a lawyer who is very fluent in English.  This class is fun because I bring music or sports related articles to read and discuss.  I even get to teach him some of the knowledge I picked up in my Urban Studies classes (who knew that would come in handy?).  Lastly, I teach a manager at a construction company who travels extensively out of the country.  Teaching English to adults is fairly new to me, but I enjoy the work.  I've learned a ton about Chilean culture and it has definitely helped me practice my (slow-going) Spanish.

New friends at our local bar.

This last week, we've had the opportunity to speak with many family and friends, either on the phone or over Skype.  It is such a joy to see your faces and hear your voices.  I have been Skyping into my book club meetings each month, which occurred last Thursday.  It's great to be able to continue to contribute to the discussions (even though Matt claims we only talk about the book for 15 minutes - not true!  It's more like 30...)  Saturday was a day packed with Skype dates!  Matt's baby nephew, Nate, was baptized and the Uphams/Hubens were able to plug us into the celebration!  We loved seeing everyone's faces on such a happy day!  Also on Saturday we had plans to Skype into our "Friend Thanksgiving" taking place in Queens.  Unfortunately, there were technical difficulties and we were only able to talk on the phone briefly.  As short as it was, we were happy to hear that the party goes on!  Lastly, I was able to talk with Lauren and Roe in Montana.  Though we are thousands of miles away, it felt like we were sitting on the couch together chatting.  I guess it doesn't matter how far away your good friends are, they always feel close.

Chorrillana Prep!

These electronic connections with family and friends are wonderful, but also remind us of how far away we are for special events and holidays.  It has definitely been hard coping with withdraw from our friends and familiar surroundings.  I suppose this is the plight of an ex-pat.  So, to deal with these tough days, I experiment with my Chilean cooking!!!  In between Skype dates on Saturday, I made a common Chilean dish called Chorrillana.  This is a popular dish for bars or pubs because it's perfect to munch on with a group of people.  Here are some pictures and the recipe for Chorrillana:  (Disclaimer: this is my adapted version, not officially Chilean)


You will need:
-Potatoes (or a bag of french fries)
-Onion
-MEAT!  (I used beef cubes, chicken and sausage- usually it's just beef and sausage)
-1-2 eggs
-Spices (salt, pepper, red pepper, garlic)

Meat and onions: delicioso!

Steps:

The final product!

1) First you will need to make the french fries.  You can make them with regular potatoes by cutting them into slices, seasoning them and baking them in one layer in the oven (357 F).  Make sure they are crispy.  If you are using a bag of french fries, follow the directions on the bag (duh!)
2) Saute the onions (in thin slices) with some spices.  I added some garlic here.
3) You want to cook the meat now.  You can do this with or without the onions in the pan (I kept the onions in).  Make sure everything is cooked through and spiced to your liking.
4) Scramble the eggs.  I like to add milk, salt and pepper when I scramble.  NOTE:  With Chorrillana, you can also use over easy/hard eggs as well.  However you like your eggs the best.  
5) Assembly time!  On a serving dish, layer the french fries, the meat and onion mix and the eggs on top.

There you have it!  Chorrillana, an easy to make dish that's great for pickin'!

Happy boyfriend.

Full boyfriend.

 Today, being Thanksgiving, is another tough day for us.  We, of course, wish we were stuffing our little faces with turkey, potatoes, stuffing and cranberries with our families rather than running around Santiago teaching English.  But, we only need to wait a day, since our good friend Charlie and his family have invited us to a 'Chilean Thanksgiving' at their house tomorrow evening.  We are so grateful and lucky to have the Walbaums as our friends here in Chile.  We can't wait to bring some American flava to their Chilean Thanksgiving.  Matt's biggest dilemma: Should he stuff his face until the point of bursting, as is tradition?  


Last, but definitely not least, I received a wonderful Thanksgiving gift today:  I was offered the teaching position at Santiago College I was so eager to get!!  I couldn't be more excited to get back into the classroom with young people.  I start on March first.  I am waiting to hear the grade I will be teaching, but I suspect it will be third.  I never thought I would be so happy to get into the classroom, but I can hardly wait!  


To close this blog post on this very special (and different) Thanksgiving, I would like to say I am thankful for all the important people in my life who have supported me throughout this and all my adventures: family, friends and especially Matt, who if it weren't for him, I would have high-tailed it out of here a month ago.  Gobble!  Gobble!  

Yes, this is the afternoon view from our terrace.

Maquinaria Festival

Cute, w/ beers

Hey, everybody; Matt here.  After last week, we needed a break and we sure got it.  "Isn't that guy retired?" you ask, well in an unfortunate development, I realized that I couldn't live off of the corpse of my US life forever and got a job tutoring English.  It's well under the amount Sara is working, but hell, I'm working again (ugh).  Therefore, we were in need of some relaxation post-haste this last weekend.  While we weren't exactly relaxing, we rocked out very hard.

Big/small names from all over

This guy is feeling it, his sitting friend is
laughing at him.  This goes on for 30 minutes.
I'm pretty sure they're on drugs.

November 12th & 13th saw Sara & I attending the Maquinaria Festival (see the line-up above or visit their website, maquinariafestival.cl).  These two days of music promised big names, small names, and one sh*t-ton of live music.  Held at the old horse track, Club Hipico, the festival was to be loud, sunny, and beer-filled (I said we were going to a music festival, right?).  However, someone missed the boat on that last part; there was no beer sold at the festival unless you had a VIP pass ($40USD extra/day).  WHAT A BUST!  Despite this letdown, we had a great time seeing bands like Alice in Chains, Megadeth, Black Angels, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and many others.

Turntables & bright lights.  Get your Red Bull!

We went to see a DJ, Vicarious Bliss, perform after Alice in Chains.  He was clearly a little miffed on stage: there were only about 50 of tens of thousands of people at his show, he was scheduled during a big name performance, and the crowd wasn't dancing as much as he would like (again, no/little beer).  Back to him in a minute.  In a stroke of massive poor-planning, I had worn shorts and a t-shirt to the festival.  As it is really dry here, it gets cold at night quickly.  We kept delaying leaving as I wanted to get my money's worth (I will freeze to save a buck).

Sara & Vale @ Sonic Youth.  Nice wristbands!

When we finally were on our way out, we saw Vicarious Bliss sitting on a rock, by himself, by the exit gate.  Saying, "Hey, man.  Good show." seemed like the least we could do.  We started talking more with him, lending him a sympathetic ear, and being people who spoke English well.  He then said he had something that would make our days.  We thought, "Finally, a beer!"  Instead, he pulled out three "Artist Access" wristbands.  SCORE!

Backstage for Damian Marley.

The next day we walked right back in through the exit, flashing the wristbands, and no one stopped us; one test passed.  We then went to the small stage side entrance and again walked in; #2 passed.  The main stage, where the big acts played was the last test; hat trick.  We immediately called up Charlie and Vale and told them to come down.  We were able to get Vale in on an artists' pass, give one of our tix to Charlie, and sell the other to a scalper.

Yes, that is Les Claypool and a giant spaceman.

By the end of the day, we had seen, talked with, drank with, and hung out with people from several bands.  The highlight of the day was definitely seeing Primus from backstage; it was incredible.  I also particularly liked hearing from Sara, Charlie, and Vale how during the Damian Marley show they all of a sudden noticed me standing off to the side of the stage ("Surprise!").

Nothing like free, cold hot dogs before the riot police swoop in.

 After rounding out the evening seeing Snoop Dogg and Stone Temple Pilots, we retired to our neighborhood for some more drinks at our local dive, Mano Manja (Nun's Hand).  We're still tired, but still very happy, days later.

This is just a weird thing we saw en route to the festival by the Mercado Central (big seafood market).  That is a keyboard plugged (only) into a small tree.  Strange.

Cerro El Plomo (5432M/17822')

Looking cool at approx. 4150M/13615'

Hey, everybody; Matt here.  So last Thursday (the beginning of November), I went against the better wishes of most people and attempted to summit Cerro El Plomo on my own.  This is the largest peak you can see from the city of Santiago.  Its presence over the city is similar to that of Mt.Rainier in Seattle: it is always there, watching over the city, tempting the adventurous/foolish.  Naturally, I had to go.


DAY 1

Piedra Numerada, El Plomo up the valley

The beginning of the way to El Plomo is at the ski areas about 40km east of Santiago.  Public transportation is available up the one road (Camino a Farellones), but only in the winter.  I was able to hitchhike all the way to La Parva (the ski resort I started from) in only 2 rides.  In a vast change of pace from the states, I only had to wait a total of 30 minutes w/o a ride from leaving the bus to being at the ski resort.

Bedside reading

My route took me directly up the ski mountain to a pass, down and up 2 valleys, and to a place called Piedra Numerada (Counting Stones).  This is where ranchers would count their livestock before bringing them down to lower elevations.  It was an awesome place to bivy (sleep outside w/o a tent) with a great view of the mountain.  It was also, however, high (about 3300M/10827'), cold (about 15F/-9C), and exposed (wind down the valley from El Plomo).


DAY 2

No reading material necessary

Refugio Federacion.  Cozy w/ a view!

After cooking breakfast from my sleeping bag, in my long johns, underneath my piled-up jackets, it was time to move on to the high camp, La Olla.  Moving steadily up the valley brought the mountain closer and closer as it grew steadily larger and larger.  One of the great things about being out here is that the higher you go, the better the views get.  This was very rewarding, which is a good thing as my pack was fairly heavy (about 45-50lbs) and the elevation increase was not the easiest.  I made camp at the Refugio Federacion (about 4200M/13780'), which is about 100M down from La Olla.  Sleeping inside the refugio was a vastly superior option to the very cold and windy La Olla, well-worth sacrificing 100M.

View of El Plomo from La Olla, my route followed the ridge
on the right.  The glacier route seemed suicidal on my own.

At this point I was not feeling the best, a sign of possible altitude sickness.  In Chile, it is called the puna.  This would be bad if it got worse, which would mean I would have to descend immediately; it can be deadly.  Luckily, it was not too bad, so I decided to stay.  The plan was to rise around 4 the next morning and make for the summit.


DAY 3

Shortly after sunrise, about 4700M/15420'.  Whoa.

Unsurprisingly, waking up at 4AM, it was ridiculously cold, so I waited 45 minutes in my bag, under all my clothes to warm up.  When I got going after 2 trail bars, a bit of chocolate, and some water, it was 5:15AM.  The moon had been waxing, but at this time it was down, exposing a hellacious view of the southern hemisphere's stars and the Milky Way.  It was a great way to start the climb.

Below false summit.  Direct assault on the summit plateau
straight up that glacier; real mountain stuff.

The going was steady, but fairly slow.  My route was very steep, on mostly loose rock, and my lifestyle in Santiago certainly didn't help.  I had planned on going directly up one of the glaciers, but decided against that as one slip would have likely been my last. I did have to cross the glacier to reach the summit plateau, but by that time its grade had eased to about 40 degrees.  

Looking south from the summit.  You don't see this in NYC.

Upon reaching the summit (5432M/17822', 11:30AM), I was floored.  Not only by the altitude, exposure, and exertion, but also by the INSANE view from the top.  Mountains!... Everywhere!.... Huge!  Unfortunately, my turnaround time (12PM) was approaching and I was pretty cold/tired, so I left after only 15 minutes (11:45AM).  The way back down was very fast: back to high camp by 2PM, back to base camp (Piedra Numerada) by 4:15PM.  On arrival at base camp, all I could do was slam some food and water, stare at my feet, and eventually crawl into my sleeping bag and pass out at 7:15PM.  Changing about 3350M/11000' in elevation in a day will do that.


DAY 4

Beautiful, but now I'm ready for a beer.

Horses grazing on a hillside, one of
many sights on the Camino a Farellones.

After an unbroken, solid 12 hours of sleep I woke to begin the exit hike.  I made great time back to La Parva and saw a bunch of condors on my descent circling overhead (I think I smelled like death).  Getting back to Santiago required a bit of a wait at first, but after about 2 hours of waiting, I was able to get, in 2 rides, directly to my front door.  The ride back down the Camino a Farellones was crazy; the road gains elevation very quickly through 40 hairpin turns from the Santiago valley.  My first driver, with his unbuckled 6 year-old daughter, was flooring it down the mountain (very exciting).  Getting back to Sara was great, especially as she had prepared a lot of food and beer.  It was a great trip and a new record elevation for me!


If you have any desire to see more pictures of this, and other trips, feel free to visit my adventure pictures website: http://getserious.shutterfly.com.

About Last Weekend...

Only $180 USD!

This man is no friar.

Hey, everybody.  What's up?  So last weekend here (end of October) was a sandwich holiday.  All Saints Day (Nov.1) is a national holiday, so everyone had Monday & Tuesday off.  Naturally, that meant it was time to get down on it.  We heeded the call and then some.

Fire bad, sausage good!

Just outside of Santiago there was an Oktoberfest celebration.  Of course, this had a great deal of appeal.  We sampled an immoderate amount of delicious beer and food from Chile and beyond.  It was massive; there must have been tens of thousands of people in attendance, and that was only Saturday (it went from Thursday-Tuesday).  We had such a good time that on returning to Santiago we continued the carrete with some other gringos we went with.  As if that weren't enough, a late-night dance party ensued in the Patronato neighborhood (just across the river) into the wee hours.  Our friends, Canudo & Dominique, were kind enough to put up with that thing I (Matt) call dancing (fists up, eyes closed, lip bitten) and bring me along.

To quote Brandon, "A symphony of yes!"

While a Sunday spent re-cooping would be the norm, we had other engagements; Charlie had invited us to his family's house north of the city.  His wonderful family hosted us for the following 2 nights. On the first night, Charlie and his brother, Lawrence, cooked up some slamming pernil (pork shoulder).  I can believe that I ate the whole thing.

Valpo'

Chupe de Locos

The next day, Charlie, Vale, Sara, and I went to Valparaiso.  This city is recognized as a world heritage location.  It is beautiful; the hills leading to the Pacific are covered in unique, colorful houses and there are many galleries, cafes, and restaurants.  Unfortunately, it would seem that most of Chile had the same idea as it took about 3 hours to find a place where we could eat.  A major highlight was the chupe de locos, a cheesy chowder made of a Chilean shellfish, the loco.  Afterwards, we went to Vale's beach house a ways north for more food.  Her parents had excellent camaron y queso (shrimp and cheese) empanadas, steak, fresh-baked bread, and vegetable salads.  I didn't think I should eat more, but as Charlie told me, "What is more water to a fish?"

The place is loaded with great street art

We got back to Santiago late the next day after sitting on the patio at Charlie's pretty much all day (a very nice way to spend a Tuesday).  It was a long weekend, but full of good times, good people, and good pets (Charlie has lots of dogs and cats).  Two days later, I started on a trek to summit Cerro El Plomo.  More on that in a coming post.

Not even half of the dogs at Charlie's.

Sweet park-job, Charlie.

One of many funiculars in Valpo'

Two final notes: 1) NYC is now 2 hours behind Santiago, and 2) if you want to see any of the images in a larger size, just click on them.

Creepin' in the Valpo' Plaza