Random thoughts from Santiago

-Esma found 3000 Chilean pesos (~$5 US) on the sidewalk Tuesday evening - ice cream shop here we come! Or possibly another bottle of wine :-)

-We have been frequenting a gelateria (the ice cream shop) in the last week or so. Although not technically ice cream, we would rank their frozen deliciousness up there with Maple View Creamery (those of you in NC will know what we are talking about). They have unusual flavors like lucuma (a fruit native to Chile & Peru); grapefruit with Sauvignon Blanc; raisins with red wine. The other good thing about this shop is that we have to walk 25 minutes (one way) to get there, so we get our exercise in on the way to get dessert and on the way back home.

-Chileans, at least those in Santiago, have the eating habits of Hobbits. They have breakfast, mid-morning snack (elevenses), lunch, mid-afternoon "helado", and dinner.

-Yesterday we found a fly fishing shop that is better stocked (full line of Simms, Sage, etc.) than probably 90% of the fly shops in the U.S. and, surprisingly, prices are comparable (although, sadly, Clay couldn't talk Esma into buying a new fly rod).

-Chileans, like many Americans, are very excited about the 44th President of the United States of America. We couldn't find any other news on TV Tuesday or Wednesday.

-Clay takes a Spanish test today to pass to the next level.

-We are heading to the beach tomorrow (Valparaiso and Vina del Mar) and Sunday. Hopefully we'll have some good pictures to post when we get back.

-Our love to you all!

Weekend culinary extravaganza

Our weekend trip turned out even better than we could have anticipated. The "gastronomic hostal", called Mapuyampay, we visited is beautiful with a great view of the Andes mountains and plenty of room to roam. They grow their own fruits and vegetables on site, and the above picture is from their cherry orchard just outside their front door.

This was our part of our "room", which turned out to be more of a wing of the house (it was about twice as big as our condo in NC) and had great views in all directions.

We took a bike ride with Vicente, the owner and husband of the chef, yesterday afternoon after our cooking class.

The first course we prepared in the cooking class: two types of ceviche (scallops; shrimp and fish).

Second course: quinoa risotto made with Chilean Carmenere wine and local varieties of mushrooms.

Third course: marinated lamb, peach, bay leaf grilled skewers. The lamb was marinated in special spices of the Mapuche Indians of southern Chile.

Desert: poached pears in a sabayon sauce made with late harvest Sauvignon Blanc.

Here we are cooking with a world-class chef. Ruth is executive chef and culinary adviser for Concha y Toro winery and a former Peter Kump's New York Cooking School instructor. She's a wonderful teacher! She cooked for us every meal for the last 2+ days, and it was like eating in heaven every time! Seriously, some of the very best food we've ever tasted, and it's in the middle of nowhere in central Chile!

Spanish classes

Nothing much going on since the weekend. Clay passed his first step of Spanish classes, so he is in a different level now. He is still learning a lot and slowly speaking more and more (and better) Spanish. We're heading about 160 km south of Santiago for the weekend to take cooking classes (traditional Chilean and also other foods). We love you all and hope everyone is doing well. We'll try to update with some pictures after our culinary expedition. Ciao!!!

Drinking wine at 10am

Yesterday we went on our first wine tour. We visited the two oldest vineyards in Chile: Undurraga (est. 1885) and Concha y Toro (est. 1883). They were very different but both very interesting. Because Undurraga is the less "touristy" one, they allowed us to roam free, and we enjoyed that one more (we visited in the morning, and that's why we were drinking wine at 10am). Concha y Toro is more well-known, so there was a lot of security, and we were limited in where we could go. We did, however, get to go down into "El Casillero del Diablo". Overall, we liked the wine at Concha y Toro better, but the whole tour was great.

Pinot Noir grapes ripening on the vine at Undurraga.

Esma next to some of Undurraga's barrels in one of their bodegas.

Here we are at the "Casillero del Diablo", which got its name long ago. Don Melchor, the founder of this winery, kept his best wine in this underground cellar. One day he noticed that some of his best bottles were missing, so he spread a story that the devil lived in the cellar to try to keep out the locals. His ploy worked, and he never had bottles stolen again. Today, Concha y Toro's finest barrels of wine (Don Melchor) are still kept in this underground cellar.

Food, flowers, Frida, & fotos

This morning before Clay's Spanish classes we went to El Museo La Moneda ("The Coin" Museum) in downtown Santiago to see a visiting exhibit of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's art. These two were Mexico's greatest artists of the 20th century and also husband and wife until her death in 1954. Some of you probably recognize Diego Rivera's name because he is Mexico's most famous muralist. He also painted a few murals in the U.S. (NYC, San Fran., Detroit). Of course, we couldn't take pictures of the paintings, drawings, etc., but we did get a photo of us outside the museum.

Clay surprised Esma with flowers after Spanish class today. The street vendor happened to have the same colored rose that we used in our wedding (light yellow/off white with peach trim).

This is the view off our balcony in the evenings. This photo was taken yesterday just before sunset (which is very late here; it doesn't get dark until almost 10pm). The peak on the far right is ~20,000 feet above sea level. Not far from this peak is one called Aconcagua that is the highest peak outside of Asia at 22,841 feet.

Some mornings Esma goes to a little neighborhood cafe that she has fallen in love with. They serve pastries and drinks, and the drinks are made with local fresh fruits. The lemonade pictured above was the best she has ever had.

Speaking of fresh fruits, Esma bought Black Mission figs from a street vendor a couple of days ago and fixed one mean late afternoon meal (more on Chilean meals in a coming post). The meal included: 2006 Portal De Alto Grand Reserve Cabernet Savignon; fresh Chilean red grapes; Chilean pepper cheese; and toasted bread topped with jamon serrano (a Spanish ham), mint, figs, olive oil (also from Chile and the 2nd best olive oil we've ever tasted).

Getting lost in Santiago

Why would I ever think that I could get around in Santiago without getting lost? After all, I sometimes still get lost on my way from school to the house (this is esma, clay is at school right now). Today, I decided to go to this huge mall that is supposed to be the largest in S. America (and it really is huge!!). To get there, I was either going to have to walk for like 5 hours, or take the metro and be there in about 10 minutes. So, clay convinced me to take the metro. That part wasn't too bad, but it was scary. I let the first metro pass because I was too scared to get in; I was brave enough by the second time.

What should have taken me about 10 minutes from the metro to the mall turned into at least 30 minutes. But, after asking for directions and looking at my map many times, I finally arrived at the Parque Arauco Mall. I won't talk much about the mall bc it was like any other huge ones. Coming back from the mall, I decided that paying 50cents was too much for transportation, so I decided to take the bus!! The first one I tried to take was going the opposite way (I only know this because the driver was kind enough to tell me that wasn't the right bus for me & where to go). Once I did board the right bus, I didn't have a bus pass, which I learned was the only way to pay for fare. Once again, the bus driver saved me and allowed me to take the bus for FREE!!! I was so so excited; you guys know how much Clay & I love free stuff!!! So, that's basically all I have done today.

I have much more to post, but this is getting pretty long. On our next chapter, we will talk about McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, & my new favorite coffee shop.

Photos

We liked this sign outside of a Santiago pub. The translation would read: "Here gather hunters, fishermen, and other liars."

Fruit and wine from our first trip to the market.

Bienvenidos a Chile!

Hello from Santiago, Chile!

We are making our entry into the blog world from South America. We arrived Jan. 1st to find most of the city, including the airport, shut down for the holiday. We walked for a long time trying to find food and a place to use internet/phone so we could let our family know we arrived safely. We finally found a little convenience store where we bought spaghetti sauce and pasta and made our phone call.

Thankfully, everything was back to normal the next day. We have spent the last two days exploring the city and getting used to the time zone (4 hours ahead of Salt Lake City, where we spent the last week before arriving here). Also, the weather is pretty hot. We have been in the high 80s-90, but nights are pretty cool (low 60s).

We have found restaurant food to be more expensive than expected, so we have decided to cook most of our meals at our condo (which is very small but nice & with a great view of the city and the Andes). Fruit and wine are both very cheap and very good. Cherries, both black and Ranier, are especially good and cost around U.S. 50 cents/lb.!!! We have already eaten about 1 kilo of each type in the first 3 days. The wine selection is awesome; we already had a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Savignon Reserve that costs ~$15 in the U.S. for ~$5 here (and it was very yummy).

Well, that's enough for now. We hope to update almost every day. Esma will probably be posting more than Clay because he starts his Spanish immersion program tomorrow. We love you all and hope winter in the U.S. is treating you well. ;)

c&e