Panchito

Hehehe. Yeah snail cream seems to be big here. They even sell it in the street. My boyfriend's mom actually has a pet snail and she has it crawl across scars, scabs and sunburns to heal them faster. Snail saliva (or whatever that is) is supposed to regenerate your skin. One day Vuko and I arrived from the beach and the tops of my feet were all burned so Tere and Pepe (Vuko's folks) convinced me to let Pancho the snail crawl across my feet and slobber on them. Unfortuately I think I poisoned him with the lotion I'd applied on my feet because after about 10 minutes, he, uncharacteristically, rolled up into his shell and stopped still, but not before leaving me a big white loogey with curative properties. It was pretty cool.

Vuko's friend Guillermo told me that his girlfriend's mom (la suegra) actually lets the snail crawl across her face to try to get rid of her wrinkles. I heard about this before my encounter with Pancho so it was kind of freaky and slightly nasty to hear. With a grimace, I asked him if it worked, and he started laughing and said it didn't work at all.

Springbreakers bring sexy back in Ft. Lauderdale

On vacation we came into contact with a "new" 70s-inspired fashion trend: the mini skirt. Actually the mini-dress. It´s basically a long sexy t-shirt that is worn with matching sexy panties. So this trend is new to me (I've been in Chile for the last 4 years and am not up-to-date on US fashion). Vuko and I went out dancing to this club called Art Bar and we came into very close contact with this fad. About 4 spring-breakers had their ultra short dresses in florescent shades of blue, orange and green and they came and danced on the raised stage by Vuko and I. The place was so packed we had nowhere to go, so we stayed where we were right by these girls who were bringing sexy back with their provocative attire and dancing. The one in orange was loving all the attention and giving quite the sexy show. She made her way over to the main stage with the stripper pole to shock and awe. Then she came back and while getting back on stage almost toppled over on me, steadying herself on my shoulder. For me, this maneuver took points off her sexiness. But the goggle-eye gringos on Spring Break weren't fazed. They cheered and drooled. As the girl in orange tried stealing the show with her short dress and sexy pole-style dancing, Vuko, who was dancing right in front of her, ruined it for her because when she got really sexy and show stealing, he would just stop dancing, look out at all the other partiers, and point to her with both hands as if he was presenting her sexy dancing. She didn't know how to interpret this and was visibly uncomfortable. The couple next to us and I all chuckled.

A week or so later my mom and sisters-in-law saw another woman with a super short dress and I explained to them that the fad seemed to be "in". And then in the airport before coming back to Santiago, I was leafing through some fashion magazine and saw lots of pics of models wearing super short dresses and showing off their underwear. With that, my suspicion was confirmed. I don't think this will be a fad hitting Chile too soon due to the amount of jotes here.

Shrill voices and Sahne-nusses

Since I´ve been living in Chile, I swear I´ve often noticed myself talking in a higher pitched voice than I do in the States. It's the strangest thing. It doesn't get annoyingly high pitched like some chikas I've heard talking...I once saw high-pitched voices combatted, these shrill talkers were told to "bring out their inner bear" when they talk. It was absolutely hilarious and their voices really did change. The memory still makes me laugh. But it's soo weird. Like I feel like I have to be more female here in Chile and not so androgynous in the way I act... like fullfil the roll of "la mujer". Not too many ambigously sexed "Pats" in Chile. (Like from SNL, not a guy, not a lady, just Pat). Though now with the new generation of young adults, there are guys who dress sort of androgynous. According to this article, the tribu urbano is called "el visual" http://www.zona.cl/historicos/2007/11/30/corrientemagnetica%20.asp.

Another random thing I´ve noticed here in Chile is that when shopping at the grocery store, buying in cuantity isn't a good value. For example, in the USA the larger cuantity of a product you buy (like 24 rolls of toilet paper instead of 4) the better discount you get on the product. Here in Chile I find it's rarely like that. (Though I don't shop at the big box stores like Lider and Jumbo). But generally like a small to medium sized product is the best deal in terms of cuantity of product for how much you pay. For example, the Sahne-nuss chocolate bars at the two grocery stores I shop at are like 1.800 pesos for 250 grams and 1.000 pesos for 180grams. Unexpected. The 250 gram bar looks bigger and, in both stores, there are lots of stacks of them, but the 180 gram bar is often sort of hidden and you have to look for it, you have to know it exists. I´m not the only one who knows, because this lady ahead of me in line at the Bandera Azul asked for it the other day. Tramposos los weones.
But I have my priorities and I know how much decent chocolate should cost. Mil pesos los 180 gramos. Así de simple.

Turkish coffee: pure fusion

So nescafé coffee (powdered coffee) is huge in Chile. Some people have it with breakfast and once (like evening tea). It leaves a little to be desired in the way of taste, but is incredibly easy to serve because you just need the can of powdered coffee and boiled water. And then people can choose between tea or nescafe, and you can add sugar and milk. It's a custom here. I can totally understand the pull of nescafe for its ease of use. You don´t need a drip machine, or an Italian percolator or an expresso machine. You just mix the ingredients and voila.

I arrived in Chile with my Italian percolator. For the first few years here I percolated lots and lots of coffee. Yummy. And then my friend Fer changed my life. Suddenly the ease of nescafe was fused with real coffee to make the dream of a good cup of coffee and the ease of nescafe a reality. I have the supermarket Jumbo's high prices to thank for this newfound knowledge.

So some girlfriends, Fer and I were shopping in Jumbo for our weekend trip to Tunquen, which was a send-off party for our friend Karina who is presently studying in Barcelona for the next couple years. Anyway we went to buy this little tin of nescafe for the five of us for the weekend. This tiny little can of like 200 grams cost like 800 pesos. (Like almost $2 now that the dollars way down). And its bad coffee. Alongside the nescafe was like 250 grams of the real stuff and it cost like 900 pesos. So Fer suggested we buy that and make turkish coffee. Yummy, yummy. So it's prepared the same way as nescafé but you have to use just boiled water. You mix in a spoonful or two of coffee grounds, sugar and milk if you want. Then pour the boiled water in, stir well and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes while the coffee grounds fall to the bottom. And there you have it. A yummy cup of joe fused with the ease of preparation that nescafe provides. Sheer genius.

Needless to say, we drank tasty coffee all weekend. What a pleasure!

La Carretera Austral

From the archives of my memory... February 2005

With my folk's former exchange student from Chile, Alexis, and his mom and younger siblings we drove from Puerto Montt to Coihaique, Chile. It was one of the most gorgeous trips I´ve ever been on as far as scenery goes. We drove down this curvy, hilly dirt road for several days and the view from the windshield was perpetual beauty. About halfway between the two cities, we spent two nights at this camping spot called "las toninas", where I was to learn why it has that name. One afternoon Alexis was fishing with Paz (the daughter of the owners of the camping area) about 100 meters down the fjord from where we were camping. It occurred to me to swim over that way to find out how the fishing was. So I get about 15 meters out in the fjord and start swimming down the water, towards Alexis and Paz and I hear a breath behind me. I kind of wanted to deny what I had heard so I kept swimming for a couple more strokes until something touched my foot. I looked back and there was a fin right behind me. I was so scared! I logically new sharks aren’t too common off the coast of Chile because the water is quite cold and furthermore they breathe underwater, but I sure didn’t like having this sea creature sneak up behind me and touch my foot. So after screaming to Alexis "shark, shark", I swam back to shore. (Just in case I didn’t make it, I wanted someone to know where to find my body.) The longest swim of my life. So I got back and told the owners of the camping place what had happened, and they said I was followed by a tonina, a cousin of the dolphin. So from the safety of shore I could appreciate how cool it was that I'd swam with a tonina, even if she came off as a bit sneaky and aggressive. I guess I’d encroached on her territory.

Later Paz and her mom went out in a row boat and came back with fresh King Crab which we bought from them. It was so good. And Alexis's mom Leti prepared home-made onion rings and sopaipillas (like fried pumpkin bread) on the camping stove. I bought fresh jam made from calafates for the sopaipillas. We had a tasty meal with the beautiful Patagonia as a backdrop. The trip to the Carretera Austral has been one of the best I’ve made in Chile due to its remoteness and abundance of natural beauty, good food and good company.





Paz with king crab she'd just caught.


Me holding the evening's snack.

A day of excitement & locavorism.

punk'd out

New Year's Day 2006, late afternoon, Viña del Mar

femicide-response graffiti