Chiloé

Well I just got back from a trip to the south of Chile with Katie Barkstrom, Jon Bacon, and Adoum Namde...my three best gringo friends!

Basically, it was unbelievably breathtaking. Gorgeous, really. It rained everyday but the last night, which was super nice. We stayed in cabañas--we paid about $60 for four people and had our own little house with a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms which was fantastic.

We rented a car (manual, so basically Bacon drove the whole time with me sprinkled in there at the end cause nobody else knows how to drive it) and that was a blessing to have, really. Had we not had the car I think the trip would have be a lot different and it certainly would have involved a lot more bus rides, so I'm thankful we could rent one!

A traditional dish in Chiloé (an island with many surrounding tiny islands) is called curanto. Here's how it's done: they heat stones on a fire until they're red-hot and then put them in a hole in the ground. Then they take big leaves and cover the stones with them (if you can imagine this, its like a big, natural stove or pot in the ground). Then they put it the meat and fish and vegetables and cover it all with more leaves and red-hot stones and let it cook for about an hour or so. I didn't try it, obviously, since I don't like fish, but the boys tried it and said it was kind of amazing.

We basically spent the whole trip in small cities, just cruising around and checking out some stuff...we went to Dalcahue, which has a market every Sunday selling traditional clothes, etc., generally all made of alpaca wool. I bought some things and wished I could have bought more, but decided to cap my purchases at a reasonable level (look at me, all responsible and grown up :) ).

So all in all, it was a cheap trip and super fun...I say it was a success!