Chacabuco

This week we took a road trip about an hour and a half north to Chacabuco, a 1920s saltpeter mining town that has been deserted for many, many years.  While it was made into a national heritage site by the Chilean government sometime in the recent years, it was actually used as a prison camp in the 70's under Pinochet's rule.  I will spare you the details (but you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chacabuco).  I have to say it was truly haunting.  Very creepy.  We pulled up to the entrance (the town itself was made so that it there was sort of a wall around it), and of course there was no one there.  The caretaker was not responding to us ringing the huge bell, so we started walking around.  A herd of dogs came over to us, but luckily they were tame and followed by the caretaker who opened the gate to let us drive around.  Of the 80 pictures I took, below are the best representations of the remains of the town.  I would like to remind you, this is in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE in the driest place on earth.  I have no idea how they survived here.  How did they get water???

I have to be honest, the more I explore Antofagasta and the surrounding region, the more I like it and appreciate it.  It is so much more than I expected.  I live in a mountainous desert by the ocean that is full of minerals.  The mining industry is the foundation of this sprawling city of almost half a million people.  And, we are in the middle of nowhere.  All around us are these huge mines, supporting the world's demand for copper.  And, again, we are in the middle of nowhere.  I have never seen anything like it. 

Chilean recipes

Well, I've done it.  I made my first Chilean dish even before we tried it in a restaurant.  Pastel de Choclo, which is basically like Shepard's pie but using corn instead of mashed potatoes, is a very popular Chilean dish here.  I hear about it and see it everywhere, so I thought I should try to make it, why not?  I have to say it turned out pretty good, but I have nothing to compare it to since I haven't tried the real thing.  Here is a picture.  It wasn't too difficult but next time I'm going to add more corn since that was the best part.

I also have to say that I finally found good potatoes! There are a billion types of potatoes here for some reason, and the ones I bought the other day are fabulous.  Perfect for mashed potatoes.  Let's hope I can find them again!

Next up, my list of recipes for main dishes I can make in Chile.  Super boring, but I figured this would be a good place I can keep track of the ones I can actually find ingredients for, and maybe some day I'll want to look back and see what I used to cook.  (and maybe one of you will want to make some of these family faves!)

Pastel de choclo (pictured above, although if you read the recipe you'll note that I forgot to put the olives and raisins in between the meat and corn, and I also omitted the hard boiled eggs): http://sweb1.dmit.nait.ca/~yastorga1/chilean-recipes/cornPie.html

Pot Roast: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pot-roast-recipe2.html using this instead of cream of mushroom soup since that doesn't exist: http://centercutcook.com/cream-soup-substitute/

Sloppy Joes (courtesy of Aunt Vicki who brought this one with her when she visited in August - probably in the top 3 of Steve's and Sadie's faves): http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/super-sloppy-joes-recipe.html (as long as I get the steak seasoning from the US!)

Meatloaf (from Alton Brown, one of my faves; also this recipe courtesy of Aunt Vicki!): http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-meat-loaf-recipe.html

Chicken Enchiladas: my own easy recipe using sour cream and a jar of taco sauce as the base (and Lopez Family Rub of course!)

Stir fry: my own easy recipe using store-bought sweet chili sauce and soy sauce as the base

Fried fish: Carmen's recipe, using flour, milk, egg, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper all mixed together


Mac n Cheese: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/stove-top-mac-n-cheese-recipe.html (Since boxed isn't always available!)

Spaghetti (however, I have yet to find good tomato sauce...)

Tacos (using my all-time favorite, Lopez Family Rub, I will be so sad when it's gone!)

Chicken, tomatoes, olives: Steve's and Sadie's fave.  Sadie loves the olives. Steve loves the roasted garlic. http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/roasted-chicken-tomatoes-olives Note, I use chicken breasts instead of bone-in, I use the green pimiento olives instead of the black olives, and I also substitute fresh rosemary instead of the thyme (did I mention we have rosemary growing in our backyard?)

Oven-roasted drumsticks: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/spicy-roasted-chicken-legs-recipe.html These were really good, and Sadie loves eating them right off the bone since they are so fun.  In the states I never would buy drumsticks but here I buy them all the time for some variety since we eat out maybe twice a month...

Fried rice: http://therecipecritic.com/2014/03/chicken-fried-rice/ so good for using up leftovers! and Sadie loves trying to eat this with chop sticks...

Visas are in!

After 6 months of waiting our visas are no longer "en tramite" (being processed).  They are finalized and approved.  This means we are now allowed to stay in Chile for 2 years since Steve is working.  Now comes the fun part (and we have 30 days to do this after our visas are approved)

(1) Send the passports to the magical visa office to get stamped and signed
(2) Take the stamped passports to the Policía de Investigaciones de Chile (PDI) to register the Visa and receive a certificate that proves you went there to register
(3) Go to the Registro Civil office to show them the aforementioned certificate (along with copies of your passport and visa) to obtain a cedula de identidad para extranjeros (i.e., an ID card) and a RUT number (which you need for EVERYTHING, such as opening a bank account or even a Jumbo frequent shoppers card).

Last week we did step one.  Today, we did steps 2 and 3.  However, I'd like to take a moment to explain the process of how you can do the second step, because like all things in Chile, it seems crazy and very inefficient.

Every day the PDI opens its doors in the late afternoon (sometime between 3:30 and 4pm) and hands out anywhere between 60 and 100 numbers to the people standing in a make shift line.  Based on these numbers, you get an "appointment" to come back the next day at a certain time (there will be about 20-30 people who get the same appointment as you).  People start lining up outside the PDI at 8am.  So, let me be clear.  You have to go to the PDI on a given day and stand in line all day for HOURS in hopes that you are given a number to come BACK to the PDI on the following day to register your visa, then of course waiting for everyone else who has your "appointment" until you are called.  Now, you might be thinking, how can there be so many foreigners that it is so crazy EVERY day that there aren't always enough numbers handed out to those who need them?  Well, this is Antofagasta we are talking about.  Everyone is from Peru, Bolivia or Colombia.  Hardly anyone is actually Chilean.

The good news is that if you are a wealthy gringo you don't have to do that step (and, yes, you who are reading this would also be considered a wealthy gringo, trust me).  You can either (a) hire a lawyer who will just call a guy and get you an appointment on the day of your choosing, or (b) your company's HR department will call a guy and get you an appointment on the day of your choosing.  Thankfully, we did (b).  An HR rep even went with us to the PDI to help us through the process.  And, of course, the other thing that helped us was that we had a baby and a toddler with us, so we were chosen to go first in our group of 20-30 at our designated appointment time.

The PDI was just a large office with a bunch of desks and a very large waiting room.  I didn't take any pictures of the inside since I felt creepy and didn't want to get arrested (or something?).  However, it was fairly nice and in a really beautiful old building.  Pic of outside below.  Overall pretty easy at the PDI (shockingly!).  Thank goodness we didn't have to deal with the crazy line (that was already queued up when we arrived at 8:30am for our appointment, which we BARELY made by the way...)

The third step I mentioned above was not as easy, but not terrible.  We had to go to the Registro Civil, where of course no matter what you bring with you, it's never enough (in other words, someone told us to bring one photocopy of our passports and our visas with us, but when we got there the man demanded three copies of all of Steve's documents since he is the main visa holder, and then he wanted copies of the certificate we had just received at the PDI across the street, which of course we hadn't done that because no one told us to get copies and we had JUST received it!).  Anyway, we get the copies (convenient there is a copy place around the corner so our HR rep zipped over and did it), then we waited for our number to be called and went to a desk to fill out the paper work (just like the DMV).  And, we even had all our 10 fingerprints taken.  So, in one month, we will have to go BACK to the Registro in person to stand in line and pick up our ID cards. 

All in all, it took 2.5 hours at both the PDI and Registro Civil.  Not bad, but thank goodness I brought my Kindle for Sadie...

So if you are even in Chile and need to stay for more than 30 days, that is the process.  PHEW.

Antofagasta Cemetery

On Sunday we went for a drive.  We found ourselves cruising along the north rim of the city, imagining what daily life was like for many locals, when we stumbled upon a huge cemetery.  While many people are a little put off or creeped out by cemeteries, I love strolling through them.  They speak such volumes about people - how someone honors and takes care of their dead is quite interesting.  And they can be so peaceful; a place for breathing in the past.

Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the cemetery we went to, but it was on one of the tallest hills on the northeast of the city, which meant it had an impressive view (see below).  Overall, the cemetery reminded me of one in New Orleans.  All the graves were above ground in cemented walls and crypts.  Some were very old (1900s) and some brand new.  What is so interesting to me about how the Chilean's honor their loved ones is that they keep pictures and sentimental objects by their graves.  I have seen that in the states, but not as much as here.  There are colorful paintings, toys, memorabilia, etc, all over the cemetery.  It feels much more sentimental and perhaps even more celebratory of life than I have witnessed in the US.

Here Steve and Sadie are walking into the main entrance of the cemetery.  You can see in the distance straight ahead a little blue building on a hill (with a yellow walk way leading up to it).  That is the path to the top part of the cemetery (and the blue building is a family's grave plot).

 As you walk down the main aisle of the cemetery you pass tons of smaller aisles of graves.  Some are just walls of various people, and others are family-purchased towers of graves.

Behind Steve here is the entrance of the cemetery.

Some of the graves are behind protective fences, so the family can place the memorabilia by the grave and it's protected. (you can see we bought some flowers from the MANY vendors outside the cemetery [in steve's backpack].  We decided to place them on some people's graves that seemed like they needed some brightening up).

Here is a sad one.  It is a very old wooded what looks like a crib.  It was for a baby.  And, there were many of these strew about. 

 Below is a crypt purchased by a Chinese organization, which I can only assume houses the graves of some of the Chinese Antofagastans. There were a bunch of these huge buildings along the main drag of the cemetery - all sorts of groups - from the workers unions to the police to just really rich families.

Here are the views from the top.  Just spectacular. You can see how huge the cemetery is (the beginning of it is that huge dome-like building).

More about food

Let's talk about food.  As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most interesting and unique things to discover in other cultures, and Chile is no exception.  Not only do they have different dishes, they also sell different food products at grocery stores, eat different types/sizes of meals at different times throughout the day, and have a different idea of what is spicy/sweet/etc.

One of the biggest things I have noticed (and have been very surprised about) is the lack of sweet potatoes sold here.  They are VERY popular in Peruvian cuisine, which is part of the reason I have been so shocked (since there are tons of Peruvians here - just look at how close we are to the border).  I've seen them one time in Jumbo, and I have never seen them at La Vega.  They're called "camote", and this week when I was at Jumbo looking through the frozen food section, I found them.  That's right.  Frozen pieces of peeled sweet potatoes.  Weird, right?

 

 I also finally found BACON!  I was waiting for my number to be called in the deli section so that I could buy some lunch meat, when all of a sudden I saw little squares of fatty meat wrapped in plastic.  I thought to myself, wow that really looks like a hunk of unsliced bacon.  I looked a little closer, and there it was, bacon! Like I said it was completely unsliced - you literally just buy a hunk of it and then have to slice it yourself.  It's not even cut in long rectangles so you can slice it like you would see bacon in the states.  The hunks are cut in little squares, so that when you slice it you get bite-sized pieces of bacon (pictured below).  Just for reference, the 9 teeny bite-sized slices that one hunk made cost about $6 USD.  It was pretty true to flavor except slightly saltier.  Sadie loved it.

Next up, a very fresh treat from the fish market. Unlike the two items above, this is a finished product we bought at a food stall in the fish market (as opposed to something we would prepare ourselves).  Thank goodness, because I wouldn't know where to start making it.  Below you will see an empanada de locos.  No, not a crazy empanada for all you people who think you know Spanish!  Locos is a shellfish here.  The consistency is kind of like a scallop - you can see them sliced in the empanada below.  They are actually pretty good.  Very tender and buttery.

And finally, I have been craving homemade cookies, so I attempted making snickerdoodles from scratch.  The main reason I'm posting this is (1) I couldn't find cream of tartar, so if anyone has any ideas of **good** substitutes let me know  - online ideas were not great, and (2) I didn't have a mixer.  Let me just put this question out there, has anyone ever creamed butter and sugar by hand and NOT with a mixer? If you have, you will understand when I saw that this was the first and last time I am doing that!  What a workout.  But, they turned out great and made me happy.

I got mail!

So a funny thing happened today.  I received five letters AND a package all from the US :) :)  They came via a man with a backpack who ran my door bell and asked me to pay him 200 pesos (which is less than 50 cents).  And, they were all post marked on various dates in September.  It is almost like the post office was just waiting for there to be enough letters to deliver them.  Very unlike the USPS which delivers in all weather!  I was a very happy girl!

Note: I took pictures of all the letters and the package since I was so excited, but then I realized that my address and those of the senders were on there, so probably not a great idea to post on the internet.  So there you go. No pictures...

Just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to all those who sent me something.  Frankly, I'm shocked they got here! (although I am still missing one card that I know one of you has been asking me about, I will let you know when I get it).

One of the most important things we got in the mail was Isaac's social security card from the US! Now he is complete with his paperwork for both Chile and the US.  Phew!

Festival Colectividades Extranjeras

This weekend was another festival.  Yesterday was a holiday (although not just Halloween - this was something else).  I'm not sure what exactly to be honest.  However, it has something to do with Antofagasta celebrating its cultural heritage, which includes honoring all the original settlers from all over the world (i.e., the name of the holiday is Foreign Communities Festival).  All week we have been watching the construction of facades and tents in one of the large parks on the boardwalk.  Today, Sadie, Isaac and I went and met some friends.  We got there at 12:30pm and it was pretty empty.  We left around 1pm for naptime, and it was finally getting crowded.  Basically, there were wooden facades for each country, each selling food and playing music with stages for traditional dancers. There was also a bunch of people selling artisanal crafts.  It was pretty interesting.

Here is Sadie, Isaac and I enjoying Colombia.

Below is an arepa, which Sadie loved.  It is basically a fried corn tortilla with an egg inside.  You can see it was very greasy and you can see the egg yolk (fully cooked don't worry!) in part of the arepa. 

Other countries included Greece (where we got a gyro!), Croatia (see the giant statues of people below - for whatever reason, that represented Croatia), Bolivia, China, an Arabic country (it was unclear which one, but it was obvious it was some middle eastern country and had Arabic lettering on the facade), and others.  Apparently, the US used to be represented, and when I asked what kind of food they had there, my friend told me, "It was just McDonalds".  Yup.

 

Future Domer

Isaac was having a good time in his Notre Dame attire when Sadie and I were playing with him today.  But, then, Sadie ran away to play with Dora la Exploradora, and he made the best face EVER. It made me laugh - what a lip!

Halloween, Chilean Style

I mentioned in a previous post that Chilean's celebrate Halloween.  However, this is a relatively new phenomenon as they have only been doing so for about 10-15 years.  Because of that, it is a little different than how we celebrate in the states.  One example is that they haven't taken costumes quite as far as I've seen.  They stick to witches, skeletons, zombies (scary stuff), and of course princesses and animals for little kids.  I didn't see any TV personalities, movie stars, ironic figures, or play on words (e.g., a few years ago, I went as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Steve went as Toto [the band], or that other time a few years even further back when Steve went as Holy Crap and he dressed up in all brown with fake poop on his head and wearing pretty white wings and a halo - yes, kind of inappropriate, but also kind of funny [and keep in mind this was about 15 years ago!]).  I digress.

So we went trick or treating kind of by accident.  Our friends came to our neighborhood to trick or treat and we figured we might as well walk around with them, and by the first or second block Sadie was getting into it, so we just kept trucking along.  While none of my kids were wearing costumes, luckily, Sadie was wearing her purple kitty sweat suit, so I could just say she was a purple catwoman and get by with that.  All the kids have little plastic pumpkins for their candy, and since Sadie didn't have one, she was literally stuffing the candy in her pockets (see pic below).  It was adorable.

Here are Sadie and her friend Raulito in action.  Raulito (who is 2 and a half) was an adorable lion, who, when passing by a garage with a huge fake spider web and spider decorations, said, "Sadie, watch out for those spiders!!!"  It was really sweet - he was very concerned.

Here is the other little man who went trick or treating with us, Lucas.  Being a crazy cute pumpkin!

And then here are some more pics of my neighborhood's trick or treaters.

And here is Sadie's loot, of which she will only ever eat one piece since the amount of sugar in Chilean candy is through the roof.  I let her eat one piece and I've never seen her have such a crazy high in her life.  I ate a few pieces myself and literally couldn't fall asleep!  My faves were the Chubis, which were just like M&Ms.  No mini candy bars :( :( (they are VERY expensive. You would pay $7 for one TINY bag of 12 mini mini snickers [the really small ones, not even the normal small ones!], which means everyone just buys hard candy and tons of masticables [or taffy].

La Playa Juan Lopez

Today was a gorgeous day.  Sunny, warm, cool breeze.  Really very nice.  Luckily, we decided to take a trip to the beach Juan Lopez, which is just north of La Portada close to the airport.  While I will confess that the beach was fairly dirty (meaning there was lots of trash), especially for American standards, it was still very fun and very pretty.

The drive to the beach was interesting.  We passed an abandoned carnival (or something...), a toy race track and a stunning mountain view (see pics below).  Sadie is obsessed with playing in the sand, and had a ball with some of our besties here in Antofagasta.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends!  And yes, I am aware of how huge her bathing suit is.  But, it covers her up well from the sun. And that sun is intense.
 

Sadie just loves our friends from Kansas.  Look how sweet they are!

Miss Julie looking hot!

Isaac turned into an astronaut??

Half tent :)

As I mentioned, on the way to the beach is a toy car race track...

La Portada (see other post) is also on the way, but we had a sunnier day today, so I took some better pics!