Wednesday, January 4, 2012

5 senses of Chile

Smell: Salty air produced from the combination of the pacific ocean swells and the rows of hotdog stands feeding herds of starving Chileans boiled panchos completos topped with guacamole, pickled carrots, mayo, fried onion strings, and hot sauce.

Sight: Streets lined with rainbows of apartments and store fronts detailed with graffiti that can be considered nothing less than art. Government buildings where leaders suicidally stood ground for their people despite the showers of bombs and grenades aimed at their destruction. Students filling streets protesting for their right to be educated. Lots of movement, empowerment, and struggle hidden beneath the clean park infested city of Santiago.

Sound:WAVES! the pacific coast once again crashing on its shores. The atlantic possesses tranquility, the pacific possesses a power you can feel running through your veins...its good to be back!

Taste: Chilean specialties like fresh ceviche and pastel de choclo pairing perfectly with deadly yet refreshing pisco sours.

Touch: Long awaited hugs from my sister and having her near as we sip pisco and watch the city ignite as the sun sets behind the andes.


The 17hr bus ride that actually took 27 hrs crossing the Chilean boarder in the Andes

The textures of Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso: Port city of rainbows



Best cooking class ever! Not only did i get lessons in Chilean cuisine but also in love.  My cooking comrades were a couple of 35 years cruising south america whose love for each other was inspiring and empowering. We cried, we laughed, we had a gay 'ol time.

Our masterpiece: Pastel de Choclo: its a mixture of ground beef, olives, chilean spices, boiled egg, and raisins all artistically places and covered in the most delicious cornbread concoction my lips have touched...and im from the south, that says something!


the street my hostel was on...ocean at the end of every street!

Rainbow row half a world away


Way too excited about seeing the pacific ocean




More of me being way too excited about the Pacific ocean




The government building is even colorful...I love this place!

Celebrating our final reuniting with piscos and sunsets




Now on to Santiago....

Cola light, christmas tree, tour book, sunglasses...nailing the tourist role to a tee

Santiago

There were way too many pics of me eating my way through Chile so Leslie was kind enough to create a "Natalie stuffing her face" collage....thanks sis!
(clockwise: poncho suprema, civiche and pisco sour, Chorrillana, and chicken stew with pumpkin and white beans with pumpkin....delicious!)

Bici Verde Bike tour around Santiago...only way to crank out a city this massive in a day and have time to eat all its delicacies. 

check it mom...we are wearing our helmets!

Our spunky tour guides in front of the presidential palace where history has been made over and over and over. 


one of the only 2 statues of the virgin Mary prego...quite appropriate for the Christmas season

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