Chile's Fruit the Cherimoya

Before we left for Chile we heard about the fruit called Cherimoya. We have seen them in stands of the side of the street and in the grocery stores, but have been a little afraid of them. One of Chase's students decided it was time we tried them so he actually brought one to class for Chase to take home to try. Ever since I first saw this fruit, I thought it was hard, so you can imagine my surprise when I finally picked up the cherimoya and it felt like a peach. We cut it open and each tried a bite. I will have to say it was our first and last Cherimoya. It was incredible sweet and had a very strange texture.

A Chilean Cherimoya

It had lots of seeds

As you can tell from the picture, Chase really did not like the Cherimoya.

Every time we want to exercise we walk to a trail that goes along the Mapocho River. When I say a trail along the Mapocho Everytime we go to this trail we pass this strange piece of art. So Chase and I decided it was time to take a picture of it.

I am pretty sure we walked past this atleast 10 times before we noticed the guy on the top walking.

Gifts from the US

Andrew finally returned to Chile last week and was so kind as to bring an entire back pack full of things from my mom. I was so excited to receive everything that I could not wait for him to come over. You might be wondering what they sent that I was so excited about and it wasn't anything too big just little things that we miss from home such as sour belts (my favorite candy), a salad dressing mixer with packets to make salad dressing (they only have olive oil and lemon here), some pepper and other spices as I have mentioned before Chileans do not like flavor for some reason so everything is very bland. These were just a few things that were fun to get!

My mom heard we did not have a smoke detector so of coarse she sent us one.

Enjoying every second of opening gifts but Andrew was definitely making fun of me here.

You always need some new nike shorts and shirts

This past weekend Chase and I did not do a whole lot. We went to dinner with two of our students on Friday, which was a lot of fun. I teach Claudia and Chase teaches Tomas and they are dating. They took us a to bar in Vitacura, which is one of the nicest neighborhood in Santiago. It was fun to go there and we enjoyed spending time with Claudia and Tomas.

Saturday was quite possible the most beautiful day we have had in Santiago so I convinced Chase and Andrew that we needed to go on picnic. I wanted to rent bikes but unfortunately we had to have our passports which we do not just carry around with us so we had to walk to the park. On the way we picked up some KFC, which I have not had in years! It was much better than I remember it being, now I just have to keep myself from going to often.

We had to walk a pretty far distant and no one likes soggy fries so I decided to eat them on the way to the park. It might be best way to eat fries because I was hopefully burning some calories, lets be honest you all know how much I love fries!

We had a wonderful afternoon just hanging out in the park. We actually saw a dog almost kill another dog which was pretty crazy. A stray dog attacked another little dog and some random guy grabbed the little dog that was being attacked. When he held up the little dog the stray dog was still biting the small dog and did not want to stop. It was pretty intense for a couple of minutes.

There are street performers every where trying to make some money, we saw this guy juggling fire on the way home which was pretty cool.

Sunday was another beautiful day but we spent most of our time getting to church, attending church, and then getting home. I now appreciate how convenient having a car is. It has also made me realize how much of the world can't sleep in till an hour before church and make it on time. I am definitely beginning to understand how easy my life is in the US compared to here and the rest of the world.

Pomaire

Last weekend Chase and I decided to go to Pomaire, a place know for their empanadas and pottery. We woke up Saturday morning and headed to the Metro station which took us to a new bus station that we had not been to Estacion San Bajo. From the train station we took a bus or atleast the guy told us the bus was going to Pomaire. About an hour and forty-five minutes in the ride the bus driver yells out Pomaire so we off on the side of a small highway. It feels like Chase and I are always in these situations of wondering if we should try to walk, hail a cab or wait for the bus. We decided to walk. We made a a good distance but then realized we had no idea how far it was. Right when we were about to walk back to the bus stop a collectivo past. We quickly decided this was the best option and took it into Pomaire.

The walk was beautiful down this tree lined road, and it sounded amazing.

Pomaire, was very different then we were expecting. There were only two main roads one going into town and one going out. The streets were a bit dirty and every shop sold pretty much the same things, it felt a little bit like Mexico.

The main street going into town.

I did enjoy walking around but Chase was absolutely miserable. Even thought I thought it was fun to see the pottery it would definitely no be high on my list of places to send people.

Guy on the street making pottery

Chase putting on a smile for me

They seemed to have an odd obsession with pigs, about everything had a pig on it

Chase with a large pig, that I have no idea what you would do with

A typical shop

After walking around we worked up a big appetite but had a hard time find a place to eat because as you all know I am a little picky. In my defense it was not due to the menu but because everything looked so dirty. We finally settled on a empanada place.

A terrible picture but shows the place where we ate.

I really wanted to find something to buy and I finally settled on hunting for a nativity scene. The couple I found were really expensive, so I was determined to find one in my price range. I finally found one in a small shop.

I finally found one!

Getting home was a little difficult because we could not get a straight answer from anyone. Everyone kept telling us that the buses were in this one area and for such a small town we could never find them. So we decided to walk back to the were the bus dropped us off. We always seems to make the wrong decision

La Vega and the Meat Market

On Tuesday Chase and I decided to venture into real Santiago and go to the local markets. It took us a while to find it but we finally found the market. It was totally different than what I was expecting. There were lots of fruits and vegetables but most of them were the same in every booth. Since we are still coming out of winter we still do not have a lot variety. I never thought I would say this but I really would love some different vegetables. I actually miss Green beans! While we enjoyed the market, we did not end up buying a ton because everything was sold by the kilo, which is a lot for two people. The vendors would not negotiate either. We only found one person that would sell us a half a kilo. Regardless, it was a fun experience and we got to see a different side of the local culture.

Chase at La Vega

After La Vega we headed to the a meat market to pick up some meat. It was a hilarious because I thought I knew the word for pork chop but when we got there I could not find it. Like everything in Chile they do not use the most common phrase. Luckily, we had our trusty dictionary and were able to find it. The meat was so much better than the grocery store we might have to make another trip soon.

Merrill at the meat counter trying find pork chops, everything just looks the same!