Curarrehue

Before I jet off to Buenos Aires I thought I would share with you guys my experience this weekend living with a Mapuche family in the Auracania region of Chile. The first picture below is the picture of me, Leah and the family I stayed with. The older man next to me is Alejandro, the chief of the community, or the community organizer. Next to him is his wife and the mother of their six children including the Pablo, young guy next to Leah. We had chosen this family because we were told they had a bee farm that we could work with, however we ended up not spending any time at all with the bees! As a family and as a community they have been working hard to create an autonomous economy through tourism, artisan crafts, and traditional farming practices. The chilean government has continually repress the Mapuche people for years and years and this community is one of the more positive examples of how the Mapuche people have conserved their culture and thrived in a harsh political, social and cultural environment. Sadly, many Mapuche have left the traditional way of life in search of jobs in the Santiago area, where most of Mapuche are found today. When given the choice to spend the weekend in a cabin with other gringos, or stay with a Mapuche family, there was no question in my mind of what I wanted to do. 

We arrived at their home Friday morning after a twelve-hour long bus ride from Valparaiso to Pucon. From Pucon we got bused to Curarrehue, a small community of mostly Mapuche people. The valley in which we stayed was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. The following pictures are different shots I took of the view from their house and the surrounding area. The colors were so bright, the weather was perfect and I couldn't help but tear up a few times at the beauty of it all. 

view of Volcan de Villarica from their house:

They farmed sheep! They had probably 100 sheep or so that would constantly be running around the pastures, escaping through the fences and creating mischief! On Saturday they asked us to help the chief find a young male lamb for a friend to kill and eat the next day! However the chief decided not to sell them a lamb because they needed it for their own festivities coming up. We helped corral them but mostly we just watched the chief watch the sheep. 

These next two pictures are of the forest where we collected these little berries called dihueñes that I wish I had taken a picture of! They were round and high up in these trees. We had to shake the branches with a bamboo cane to get the berries out. Later we had a sort of quiche-like meal with them and other vegetables. It was not a sweet berry and was used in salty meals. We spent about 2 hours picking these berries and we only ended up with about half a plastic bag full. The forest was unbelievably beautiful, and it seemed more like a fairy tale forest than anything real.

These are the two little boys that we spent the weekend with! On the left is Kona who was a sweet heart and the son of the eldest daughter of the family who has the bee business. On the right is Benjamin who is the son of Pablo, the young guy in the picture above. They were so cute and funny and the whole time were competing for our attention. Benjamin would say, "whoever is macho does this" and then he would do whatever he said was macho. It was very interesting how even as little boys they both felt a sense of macho/men power and they would constantly do things for me and Leah to show their strenght (like take fire wood out of our hands because it was "too heavy for us"). 

Saturday morning we also had the opportunity to ride one of their two horses! This horse was just beautiful and so well trained. He was an old rodeo horse and those horses are trained very well because of all the specific work they do. He was sensitive and attentive to my demands. It was so, so, so, so exciting to get on the back of a horse again! I was a little nervous at first cause it had been so long but once I was in the saddle it was like I had never left. We only walked around the paddock a few times but it was still a great time. 

On Sunday we went on a hike up to the Volcano Villarica and to see the Auracania or "pehuen" trees. These trees are what the Auracania Mapuche primarily fed themselves off of.  Below is a picture of of of these trees. There are male and female trees, and the female trees are the only ones that produce the piñones. Piñones are these pine-like, chestnut-tasting things that come from a head-shaped ball of them at the top of the female tree. The Mapuche throw wood up high into these trees to try and knock down the head of piñones. They are beautiful trees that only grow two centimeters a year! Some of the trees we saw on this hike were thousands of years old!

The whole hike had tons of fallen piñones on the ground that had fallen and been frozen by the winter snow. The collection time of the piñones is in March and every three years brings in a larger count than the other years. 

This pot is full of cooked piñones that were then made into a sort of mashed potato meal. Butter and cream was added and it was absolutely delicious and I think there is some nutritiuos values in these piñones! 

Here is one of the many views of the volcano from our hike! The volcano is 9,341' in elevation and it is no longer active. We essentially ended up at the base of the volcano on our hike and could have easily kept walking up. When I say easily though, I don't mean the hike would be easy! It looked so extremely difficult and steep!  

 Me and Leah at the base of the volcano!

View of the Andes and Argentina with the beautiful Aurucaria trees.

 Another view of the volcano a little higher up! On the right is Pablo's cousin Jorge who was with us the whole weekend visiting from Temuco.

Well it was another great weekend, I think my favorite views so far. The beauty of this part of the country was unreal and I feel so lucky to have experienced it in such a cool way. Hopefully you guys enjoy the pictures and can get a little taste of the beauty. I'm off for a week in Buenos Aires tonight and I'll tell you all of my adventures when I get back!  CHAOOOOOOOOO <3

Check-in

Hey everybody! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written, I've been the busiest of bees these past two weeks, but they've been wonderful two weeks. I am not going to write two much right now because it's almost two in the morning and I'm exhausted but I am leaving tomorrow and won't be home for almost 12 days! 

These past two weeks I've been spending a lot of time with my friends from Casa de Colores. This is the name we have given to the the house of Benito and his crew in recreo! I have spent basically two full weekends at their house, hanging out, baking things, eating things and enjoying life! One day we played soccer and frisbee on the beach and made friends with the street puppies that were there. After our beach time we went home and made completos which were DELICIOUS. Just a reminder, completos are hot dogs in a bun with tons of mayo, ketchup and avocado and it sounds extremely weird but the mix is actually amazing. Another night Kacey and I made a banana bread for everybody and it turned out amazing. We used a little bit of yogurt which took the place of butter I think, which made it extra moist and healthier too! We also went to our favorite club PROA which only plays latino music and we danced until 6 am again. That night we had made homemade pizza with caramelized onions, olives, tomatoes and cheese. It was to die for and it was the perfect 6:30 am snack! Gosh all I'm talking about is food but it's how I organize the days in my head! In between food we play music, talk about future life projects, listen to music and take naps! I promise I do other things besides eat! 

banana bread:

homemade pizza:

homemade sopaipillas:

This past weekend we ended up going out to a little hari krishna restaurant with excellent, healthy and cheap food. I had a salad, chickpea and pumpkin stew, with strawberries and creme for dessert all for around 5 dollars! On friday was my mom's birthday and we had a family once (tea time/dinner) and spent the day making sopaipillas and empanadas for her birthday party the next day. I however didn't make it to that party, and went to Casa de Colores to celebrate Karla's birthday! We went out us girls for a few drinks, which turned into a few more, and then we went dancing at a new place called cubanisimo! Then sunday we had a special dinner of churrasco which are sort of like hamburgers but the meat is thinly sliced cuts of meat. Getting from Casa de Colores to my house at night is a little tough so I ended up spending the night on Sunday and going straight to class in the morning! And then when I got home my sister wanted to bake and so we made apple pie! Last night me and my family went to a birthday party that was cocktail themed. It was very, very fancy with caterers and everything. It was pretty weird to be in such a high class group of people, my sister told me that one of the guests there was or had been the senator of Chile. You all might be wondering how I've been doing all this eating and not gaining any weight, but the truth is... I have been gaining weight. My clothes are fairly tight right now, and my face is round as a pumpkin :) Just as it should be for study abroad... right?

chickpea stew thing:

Karla taking selfies of her birthday:

apple pie with coty:

I'm off to Pucon this weekend with our CIEE program and then the same day I get back I leave for Santiago airport to spend the night there before my flight out to Buenos Aires!! I will be there from the 29th-5th of November! Expect lots of pictures and stories when I get back! Hope everyone is doing well over there, miss you all.  

CHAO <3

Mil Tambores

Well this week and weekend was another great one! On Wednesday for class we went to La Sebastiana which is Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso. It is exactly what I thought it would be like; a beautiful, old house filled with odd, beautiful objects with a great view of the ocean. It's five stories tall and it looks so funky from the outside but the whole ocean side is practically window and you can see the whole city from the bed. 

Friday I don't have class and so I got to baked an apple cake for my family! My dad's special recipe, however I think he makes his much better! It still turned out really good and everything was gone in about 12 hours. And then Friday night I went to my brother and sisters school where they had a big festival and a singer named Francisca Valenzuela come and sing for everyone! She was great. I'm not sure how famous she is but it was pretty cool to see her! Her music is very pop-happy-girly and all the girls were screeeaming their heads off. 

On Saturday I went to lunch with my friends Luis and Ariel and we had a traditional cazuela! The cazuela is a soup with meat, a little bit of rice, and potato and it was so, so good. Sometimes I forget that drinking here is allowed in restaurants and such, so buying a bottle of wine together and sharing a delicious, cheap bottle with them was a special treat! We got a carmener which I've learned is a special grape that everyone thought had been lost during the plague, but a chilean was growing it and it was discovered. It was delicious and sweet and I am excited to have finally tried it! (Marisol told me about it last week). Then after our lunch we walked around Valparaiso, got delicious ice cream and then stopped for some fanchop at a local bar. Fanchop is Fanta and beer mixed together. It's very refreshing and crazy full of sugar and you feel so terrible after drinking it but it's so nice while it lasts! 

Saturday night with Leah, Kacey, and the Benito crew we all headed out to PROA which is the dance club that only plays latino music! It's so fun to only dance to that kind of music, it's so much better than the music they play on the radio and min most clubs. It was nice to go to a club, I haven't been in a long time! Definitely still something I prefer to do rarely, but fun nonetheless. We stayed until closing time which is 6 am! How crazy is that. It was the first time that I've stayed out until closing time and it felt good to be like a real chilean party-goer. We woke up somewhat early and decided to make yummy breakfast burritos! It's fun to see how much of a little family we've created at this little house in recreo. There are a group of chilenos and a group of gringos and we all have spent so much time together and they really have become another family for me. There were 8 of us happily cooking, laughing, dancing and hanging out while we made eggs, guacamole, corn, lettuce and cheese to be wrapped up in warm tortillas. We also made fresh apple/ kiwi and Pineapple/orange juice. Fresh juice is very common here, I think because it's so good and fruit is SO cheap! On Wednesday I've gotten into the habit of going to the Valparaiso market and buying half a kilo of some kind of fruit, either apples, oranges, pears, tangerines, or strawberries all for around a dollar. I eat those fruit along with these fig patties that this woman sells at the market which are delicious. It's so fun to go to the market and be surrounded with noise and fresh fruit and vegetables.  I've also gotten into the habit of buying almonds and raisins at these little family run stores where you can buy grains, nuts, dried fruits and other goodies by the kilo. I love these little stores, it feels so much better to buy from them than from Jumbo or Lider which are the Walmart type stores. As time has gone by, I've been forming all my favorite restaurants, cafe's, stores, and vendors and it is so fun create relationships with these people. I love feeling like I know this city, or at least part of this city, as no one can every truly know this whole city. Anyways, after making breakfast we headed to the Mil Tambores!

 

Mil Tambores is a yearly festival that was actually cancelled by the city this year because it causes a lot of disruptions with traffic, and safety. However, the mil tambores organizers decided to do it anyways. The main event on Sunday finally ended up being permitted by the city. I heard it was smaller than it normally is, which is saying a lot because it was a huge event. It was SOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!  Different groups of drum players walk down the boulevard with groups of dancers, artists and people intermixed. There is constant drumming the whole time and constant fun. We got there around 2:30 and I didn't get home until 9:30! I thought it would be like a little afternoon event that we would go to for a few hours but it just kept going and going and going. The number of people that were drunk was ridiculous but everyone was just there to have a good time and nobody cared. It is a custom for women to paint their naked upper bodies with cool designs and colors. We were actually planning on doing it with them but we arrived too late. All the paint happens earlier in the day and we missed our opportunity! Which actually was something I was okay with, as you can see in the pictures it was a grey and rainy day and it was much too cold for no clothes. The walk is probably a mile or two long, and the bands were playing the whole entire time. By the end all the drummers, dancers, and artists were exhausted. I was exhausted!! I didn't make it to my early morning class today I was so tired (don't worry it's only the first time I've skipped this class). The pictures below are all from the festival. It was one of my best days here in Chile I believe :) We were only six, so that made it easy to keep track of each other and we were all in the mood to carete! We danced along with the dancers that walked by, we danced with each other, we danced for hours. I remember having the thought, "everyone in the world knows how to have a good time except us ". I just realized that we are suuuch a lazy country consumed with making money and we have forgotten to live in the now and live wildly.   So many people were out yesterday celebrating. It was so alive and chaotic and it was a mess, but it was a beautiful mess. I'm so happy I got to experience Mil Tambores and I'm just sad that I don't know when the next time will be that I experience something like it again.  

One of many groups of drummers:

dancers:

dancer/fairy godmother? not sure:

super fun group of dancers:

dancers: 

crazy clown dude running everywhere:

dinosaur dude/fairy godmother?:

The four of us girls that went together!