Lima: home sweet home (8/5/2014-14/5/2014)

Coming back to Lima after our life-changing experiences in La Paz, made me tht much more grateful for this amazing city. Experiences ranging from randomly learning Japanese from my Peruvian taxi driver to the most incredibly touching Día de la Madre celebration with our Peruvian family. After traveling for four weeks, eating a home cooked meal (causa and arroz con pollo anyone?) with a mom who hugged and kissed you like one of her own was amazing. Staying up all night salsa-ing with the master and eating what was probably the greatest ceviche of my life also did not hurt! I became an expert Lima taxi negotiator; Luis and Vanessa set goals for me, as a gringa, to negotiate down to when trying to get around Lima. When a driver accepts your terms for taxi fare by saying that the price is practically "un regalo", you know you have made a breakthrough.

Vanessa joked with me that Lima was "mi barrio" and you know, in some ways it is. I love that city. Sitting here in Fort Lauderdale waiting for my flight back to SF, makes me realize how much I already miss it. I even feel love for the reckless taxi driving! We definitely prayed to the patron saints of Peru, San Martin and Santa Rosa in our taxi on the way to the airport after the driver slammed on the brakes, ramming us into the front seats multiple times. 

I miss the beautiful artsy-ness of Barranco,with its lovers' bridge and multiple spots ideally situated for some serious PDA, Peruvian-style. You are so welcome, by ther way, for learning about PDA! I miss those bizarre art galleries with incredible and yet mildly disturbing art.

I miss playing kabu in random places and learning how to play pool using only Spanish. ¡Qúe chevere! I miss learning new words every day... "Te quiero como mierda" being a phrase of love and friendship. I miss my family and friends who are, at this point, scattered across the globe.

Most of all, I miss waking up every day without a care in the world, being able to decide what I wanted to do THAT day. And, as evidence by the fact that I only wro one blog post for my entire last week in Lima, should tell you that I was simply having too much fun to write!

Besitos,

EmBoss

From rough to amazing... Welcome to South America (7/5/2014)

Bolivian Immigration and Narcotics Police, and originally planning to not leave the airport. Being told that we would be booted our of the airport. That is all.

To eating dinner and drinking some Bolivian beer in La Paz with a bunch of New Zealanders until catching our 3:40am flight to Lima.

What did we learn class? In S.A. nothing ever goes according to plan but somehow it always manages to work out!

EmBoss

P.S. We do not have photos from today, but more to come in th future!

TCOB (6/5/2014)

We were exhausted after our week in Santiago, so we decided a calm day with catching up on all our business being the main focus. However, the primary focus of the morning was definitely finding an expresso. Santiago's preference for Nescafé was seriously causing problems in our lives. Real coffee please!

That night we headed to the Kiwi hostel, which was close to Mercado Central. We ended up walking through a sort of downtown area, and immediately decided that any late night transport would definitely occur in a licensed taxi! Dinner was amazing; we made the New Zealand version of nachos, which we enjoyed with delicious bottles of Chilean red wine. We also expanded our vocabulary; mince, skull it, and mean are now effective parts of my vocabulary. We ended up hanging out on the rooftop with an amazing view literally for hours, before realizing that we were all on the same flight the next day through La Paz, so we made plans to take the subway together.

Chip chip Cheerio!

EmBoss

Getting cultured (4/5/2014)

This morning was devoted to getting cultured, as Sunday is free museum day. We hit up the Museo de Bellas Artes, which had all different types of art, ranging from the 1800s to modern art. We really liked the Larco exhibit which was brutal and beautiful at the same time. His use of the color red was incredibly striking. We particularly enjoyed the faces of these young girls; weirdly innocent in these freaky scenes with blood of domestic animals etc. We enjoyed the Larco exhibit more than the others, although some of the more contemporary art was quite interesting.

The Museo de Arte Precolumbiano was also cool. Aymara metalworking is gorgeous and so detailed. Marisky particularly enjoyed the kipu, as this was one of five left in the world. The Spaniards destroyed most of them as they systematically conquered the Incas. Thoroughly enjoyable.

We took the funicular up to watch the sun set next to the Virgin Mary statue on Cerro Santa Lucia. This is the same location of Pope JP II's infamous mass in Santiago. The sky turned beautiful shades of pink and blue as the rays peeked over the tops of the cordillera. We followed up this ideallic evening with dinner at Galindo in the Bellavista neighborhood with friends from our hostel. I had this bean and corn stew with pumpkin and beef. Nomnomnom!

Here's to Valpo tomorrow!

EmBoss

Teaching the locals about Cinco de Mayo (5/5/2014)

So, we were super stoked to explore the glorious seaside city of Valparaiso, but little did we know the highlight of our day trip would be waiting for us on the TurBus. A lovely group of Kiwis was also on our bus! We spent all day with them, exploring the incredible street art on the hills of Valpo during our Tours for Tips walking tour. Our guide was exceptional, educating us about the history of Valpo and the pros/cons of Valparaiso being a UNESCO protected site. A hideous glass cube on top of an old building highlights one of the travesties that occurred prior to the UNESCO protection. Marsky also continued her habit of stepping in dog pooh and I definitely tripped multiple times on the terrible roads. I was particularly stoked to try a submarino, which is chocolate dunked in a glass of milk...Epic!

After our tour, we returned back to the Bellavista neighborhood to grab a bite and have a couple of drinks. The pisco happy hour special was simply too amazing to pass up so we literally were the the last people in the bar to leave. So amazing! I cannot wait for them to come to the states so we can show them around. We made plans to cook dinner the next day and continue our binge on the sweet Santiago life with our Kiwis.

Besos,

EmBoss

P.S. You are welcome dear Kiwis that you now know what a real San Francisco burrito and were able to experience the beauty of a nice Corona. We cannot wait for you to come visit!

Fresh market produce... And the most delicious salmon ever (5/3/2014)

So, we had, by all accounts, a very stressful day... NOT!

We (myself, Mariel, and our French friend, Christof) started off by waking up and heading to a winery, Viña Cousiña Macul, founded in 1868 is one of the oldest wineries in Chile. We were given a glass (hopefully I can bring it back without breaking it) for the tasting following a tour of the winery. Our guide, Alfonso, also happened to be a sommelier, Buenos Aires-trained chef, and quite easy on the eyes... A lovely combination. He made food suggestions with each wine... Apparently the vineyard's Syrah would go exquisitely with lamb, so we must all keep that in mind. On our walk back to the subway, a mother-son duo pulled over and asked us if we were headed to the metro and offered us a ride. We accepted, as this is a common and quite safe practice in Chile. The mother blasted Elvis music and we all sang along, which was positively hilarious!

Our afternoon plan consisted of finding lunch (headed to the fish market, where I had razor clams with Parmesan cheese yum!) and purchasing dinner. Christof chose and incredible piece of fresh salmon from this morning and while we waited for the fishmonger to de-scale it, the other man at the counter explained to me in Spanish how to tell real Ray Bans from fake even if the fake has all the correct marking. Learning something new every day! We then purchased some of avocado, onions, cucumber, and fruit for our feast. Fast forward to our dinner: holy moly... It was absolutely delicious! Salmon was perfectly cooked and positively melted in your mouth, the avocado was pertly creamy, and Christof's ceviche-making experiment turned out beautifully! I definitely wanted to try to make ceviche at home; it's so easy.

Fast backwards before dinner: down the street from our hostel one of the top 25 ice cream shops in the world is currently located, offering flavors such as raspberry mint, green tea mango, and spicy chocolate. I chose chocolate with pepper and banana, which was absolutely delicious, although I'm not sure exactly what top 25 ice cream should taste like so I cannot judge that. We were pretty full so wed decided to cross the river to th Bellavista neighborhood, where we discovered a little artesian market (I finally bought a scarf, YAY!) and droves of outdoor restaurants and bars. We decided we had to return the following evening, as the weather for the rest of the time we are in Santiago is supposed to be spectacular. 

Tomorrow is free-Museo Sunday so we are headed to get some Santiago art-culture and wander the weekend flea markets. Stoked!

Besitos,

EmBoss

Muy linda... Eres muy linda: Santiago (5/2/2014)

So grateful for our flight from Arica to Santiago; we arrived ready to grab some food and go to sleep. As per usual we made friends with out roommates and convinced two of them to come on the Tours for Tips walking tour of Santiago pop culture. It was an incredible tour of the Mercado Central (full of fresh fish... Strangely the market did not smell particularly fishy), Mercado Vega (there were fruits and vegetables that I did not even know existed), and the cemetery (literally a city of graves and mausoleums). We learned all about the division of both the city and the cemetery by class; the poorer part of the city is known as "la chimba". We visited the mausoleum of Jose Manuel Balmaceda, who was the Chilean president from the late 1800s who committed suicide in an Argentinian consulate. He created lots of schools, so students often pray to him to do well in school-related activities. We both sent Jose our own little prayers.

We then enjoyed our first TERREMOTOS at a local bar. All I am going to say is that the name for this beverage makes complete and total sense... After half a glass... Wowzers! So we continued on our merry way, made a metro transfer, and headed to Barrio Brasil, where we planned to get lunch and visit the Museo de las Memorias. Lunch at la Peluqueria Frances was pretty neat: French-ified Chilean food and a museum-like restaurant full of cool antiques. The museum was incredible, so well organized, with so much to learn. Literally, we spent 3 hours in the museum. 

Anywho, plans for tomorrow include wine and the fish market. So. Excited.

Buenas noches,

EmBoss

¡Hallo, Blonday! (4/30/2014)

We decided to make a group effort to head to the plaza in the city center if Arica, a mere 15-20 minute walk from our hostal. This area can only be described as the wannabe Promenade of Santa 

Monica. Not only was it an all pedestrian shopping strip, but there were street musicians and people selling random things all over the place. We greatly enjoyed the craziness of it all. 

The highlight of the day was definitely the empanada lady. Holy moly, these were the tastiest empanadas we had enjoyed yet in Chile. Mine was carne with potatoes, carrots, and a slightly spicy sauce. It was definitely delicious with a fresh avocado from the fruit and vegetable market near our hostal. I think the greatest thing about our hostal, Sunny Days, is the spectacular market nearby. They literally sell everything, including the greatest mangos of my life and car tires. Do not worry, I did not buy any tires on a whim!

As per usual the day progressed from a foggy morning to a warm and sunny afternoon, so we enjoyed the sunshine as we composed emails and read books. Strangely, most hostals have book collections that are mostly in German, so whenever there is a book in English it is cause for excitement!

Anywho, tomorrow we head off for Santiago!

I cannot wait to see the capital city!

EmBoss

Parque Nacional: Lauca (4/29/2014)

So, after much pushing and prodding from our German dorm-mate, Lisa, I decided to accompany her to the Lauca, which is the national park about 2-3hours outside of Arica in the Andes Mountains. Now, for those of you that are unaware, much of the western coast of South America is desert. In fact, Lauca is home to one of the highest, driest, most arid deserts in the world: Atacama. So, you can imagine I was a smidgen concerned that my great Chilean adventure would consists of mountains, sand, and rocks. I could not have been in for a better surprise.

Not only was the journey up to the park gorgeous (picture massive candelario cacti greater than 3m in height and rolling hills with the sun peaking over the tops), but the actual park was even more breathtaking. There were multiple snow-capped volcanos, perfectly blue Lago Changará, and desert scenery. At the peak of 4500m, there were only the sounds of the birds and the wind to keep you company. No photo can do it justice.

Now, if the scenery was not enough, we were also able to see multiple animals during our Great 

Chilean Safari. We saw loads of vicuñas, which explained why we saw so many "vicuña crossing" signs. A group of friendly alpaca approached our van; I was able to stand so close that it could have spit on me! Absolutely amazing! Of course we also saw llama, another member of the camelid family. We were lucky enough to spot several "viscachas" which are basically a cross between a bunny and a chinchilla; they are apparently very shy and run away at the sound of many startling noises. One member of our group, an older Chilean gentleman, seemed unable to comprehend our guides constant instructions to be quiet. We also saw an Andean deer, which is very rare as they fear human interaction. The Andean goose was quite neat looking with its vibrant orange beak. Such an incredible day!

We also visited some of the smaller villages in the park (population 11) and ate at the local restaurants... Yum! I was also able to drive down a famous international highway, CH-11, which is also pretty cool!

Anywho, I am so stoked I decided to see the national park. I was not only able to learn about the three ecosystems if the Atacame desert, but I was also able to practice my Spanish and try alpaca jerky ("charqui" as the locals call it).

So happy!

EmBoss

P.S. I still have not seen any flamingos!