Curanto

What to do with a mountain of seafood?  (Map this!)

What do you do with a “mountain” of “mariscos”? You dig a hole in the ground, heat up some stones and dump the shellfish on top, add spicy sausage or longaniza, chicken and pork for good measure and potatoes just because you grow a hundred different varieties, then cover it all up with the local Nalca leaves and steam it for a couple of hours. The “curanto” is now ready to be enjoyed with a glass of Chilean wine.

The “curanto” is a chilote speciality, from the island of Chiloé. Blessed with many types of clams, mussels and the really strange piura, the Chilotes have found this admirably simple method of cooking seafood. Before tasting it, I would never have believed that mussels and clams could be cooked for hours and taste anything better than carbonized lumps. But this method of slow cooking gives it a rich, creamy texture that we have never tasted in them before.

For a higher resolution video click here

After having visited Chiloé once before and tried the curanto, we couldn’t resist returning to try it one more time, this time arriving in enough time to watch the complete preparation from the beginning. This video traces the path of the curanto from the “oven” to the table.

In the video, we see “chapalele” and “milcao” being added to the curanto. We could not capture the explanation on tape, but here it is. “Milcao” is potatoes grated and mixed with pork rind or “chicharon” and “chapalele” is mashed potatoes mixed with flour. These are wrapped in plastic to prevent dirt from getting in them and added to the whole delicious mix.

For a related post on Chiloé, click here.

Chaitén

Eruption – Destruction – Disturbance.  (Map this!)

“You haven’t heard about the eruption in Chaitén? The Carretera Austral is closed.” , said the man in Temuco. That was the first time we heard about Chaitén; with relief we found that the ferry was still running and we could still do the Carretera Austral.

In May, 2008, when the volcano of the same name erupted, Chaitén was hastily evacuated by the Chilean government. Since then some of the hardy residents have been coming back, but now they face a different threat – how will the government react to the uncertainty of the still erupting volcano? The aid so far includes a generous monthly stipend and a lump sum large enough to reconstruct a dwelling of modest size. But the officials have kept the people in the dark about the factors that they took into account while making their decisions, especially the one to relocate the town.

For a higher resolution video click here

The residents of Chaitén are frustrated. They decided to vent their feelings towards the all-powerful government on the day we arrived, creating a second eruption to parallel the first.

“The government is authoritarian, in the sense that they do not ask the people of Chaiten what they want”, Bernardo, the leader, said.

“The government shouldn’t come here to force us off our land. We will never move”, another resident said.

We felt a lot of sympathy for the protesters; even though the government is trying to help them they deserve to know the criteria being used to make the decisions that will have a lasting effect on their lives.

For pictures of Chaitén, click here.

At the museum

Music concert – German influence – Ruth – When the US is good. (Map this!)

The guitar quintet is playing against the deep blue of Lake Llanquihue. And as notes from Vivaldi envelop us, the almost perfect, snow-covered cone of Volcán Osorno can be seen majestically framed by Volcán Puntiagudo to the left and Tronador to the right. A sailboat glides serenely by.

Volcán Osorno

Outside, on the black sand beaches of Frutillar, people are probably relaxing under frilly beach umbrellas, children playing with their baby floats, others swimming within limits imposed by the string of yellow buoys across the lake. The closing notes of the guitar concert snap me back to the present.

Frutillar, as most of Southern Chile, shows a strong German influence. The Chilean government actively courted the Germans in the 19th century to help colonize this part of the country. Frutillar is special, though, since the residents have made it a priority to preserve the German architecture and lifestyle as much as they can. Hotels, restaurants and kuchen shops line the lovely Avenida Phillippi in “Frutillar Bajo” right on the lakeshore, while all the ugly necessities of daily living like supermarkets, bars, barber shops are delegated to “Frutillar Alto”, a few kilometers away.

Lakeside Theater

The sleepy town comes alive during the annual music festival that has been held here for forty-one years, but it doesn’t get contentious and crowded. Most of the year, this area has bad weather. Our hotel, a lovely old German house, is only open only for three months in the summer. But in those three months, the same guests have been coming year after year, captivated by the tranquility and old worldliness of Frutillar. But there’s another reason they come back. That is Ruth.

Ruth is the hotel manager-cum-cook-cum-maid of the hotel. In the morning you find one of her freshly baked goodies for breakfast. She will do your laundry, turn down your bed, offer advice on restaurants.

Ruth

She is an all-in-one wonder. Ruth’s home is the hotel all year round. But soon, she will bow to the pressures of family. Her kids, now adolescents, want a place of their own to invite their friends over. Next year, Casona del 32 may wear a new face.

Back at the concert the US was represented by Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio and Jeffrey Sykes (the latter from San Francisco!), a violin and piano recital funded by the US embassy in Chile. After a great performance on a near-perfect day, glasses of red and white wine were distributed around in a small meet-the-artists (and the ambassador) reception. “We could do so much more but do not have the budget” the US ambassador, Paul Simons, said.

Flute recital

So often while traveling we excite the ire of others. The US, both consciously and unconsciously, affects the lives of people worldwide, and not everybody appreciates this. After getting earfuls on the Iraq war, the faulty federal monetary policies and political meddling, it is heartening to see these small but nice gestures that the US also makes, which rarely get reported.

Wine Tasting

Argentine Bikers – Speaking in poetry – A slim margin – Appropriation of property – Heresy

For another perspective see They Always Come for You at Night, part one of this series

Friendly Argentine Bikers.

The Argentine bikers talked just a little too loudly and laughed a little too easily. They were driving across Argentina, to the Pacific coast near Concepción and back to the Pampas where they were from. When they weren’t bombarding us with rapid fire questions about our expedition, they had us doubled over with laughter with their jokes. Our Chilean host smiled politely, but never participated in the raucous conversation. Its always the quiet ones you have to watch out for, because if you’re not careful you might learn something from them.

In Talca.

The quiet professor spoke in poetry, when he spoke at all. I was enthralled by every sentence – I had never heard Spanish spoken in that way, each word carefully chosen, each pause that lead to a wonderful cadence. “In Chile you have to learn to be silent”, he said, making a zipping motion across his mouth.

Salvador Allende, just like his nemesis Gen. Pinochet, was born in the beautiful port city of Valparaíso. For almost forty years he worked in government, mostly representing a left leaning agenda and during which time he unsuccessfully tried three times to be elected president of Chile. Much to the horror of the Nixon administration he actually managed to win in 1970 with a slim margin and 36.2% of the vote. Now most politicians would say that this is hardly a mandate and cautiously rule from the center until there is more support for their policies. But just like Fmr. President George W. Bush he decided to ram through his agenda ignoring the simple fact that most people hadn’t voted for him.

Allende supporters were mainly working class folk.

True to Marxist fashion property was seized, people thrown off their land, factories appropriated by their workers, and farms taken by the employees. Relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union were improved and the copper mines were nationalized, driving out the American companies who owned them. The benefits were short term and after a year of growth the economy plummeted. In August of 1973 Allende appointed a career army man, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, to be Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Weeks later Allende died in the coup the d’etat headed by the man he appointed.

For twenty two years the quiet professor had worked at the University in Talca. He had managed to keep himself out of trouble throughout the turbulent political times that Chile went through in the last few decades. Allende and Pinochet had come and gone but still one’s politics largely governed advancement at the University. Never mind that he was a professor of Economics, where facts and not political views should dictate career advancement.

Hi-Tech Aging	Modern Chateau	At Viu Manent	Grape Parking

“During the Pinochet years, it was work that mattered. If you worked hard you would get ahead, laziness was the path to failure.”, told the Economist. Maybe he wasn’t as careful as he should have been, or his respect for Pinochet had been hard to suppress and contain. The Pinochet rule brought a great deal of prosperity to Chile and the Economist found this quite admirable. But now times had changed; there was a new Rector at the University and he was an Allende man.

His crime was heresy, quite literally, holding the wrong belief. He had cleaved to the theories that had brought about Chile’s economic miracle, but for the Rector this was too great of an infraction to sustain. After twenty-two years of service to the University he was put out on the street…

Good beer!

Lock the door – Armed men – About a dairy – Gen. Pinochet – A friend from Europe

For another perspective see The Economist, part two of this series

I always lock the door at night when I sleep. I feel vulnerable lying dormant, unaware of my surroundings, oblivious to the world. Bad shit happens at night, the robbers, thieves, and evil-doers take advantage of our sleepiness and our lessened ability to defend ourselves.

They came for him at night. There were about fifty of them, some armed others not, a motley crew with not much in common other than the fact that they were supporters of Augusto Pinochet. Of course in September 1973 this was a matter of some significance, for Augusto Pinochet was now the leader of Chile.

Don José Retamales

Don José Retamales slept soundly because he had nothing to fear. He never took part in any of this political nonsense, that was for “those people with their heads in the clouds”. He was man of the earth; for forty years he had worked the land and built up his dairy business. It provided well for him and his family.

General Augusto Pinochet was born in 1915, in the beautiful port city of Valparaiso where he completed Military School. Rising steadily through the military he was appointed Commander in Chief by then President Salvador Allende in the August of 1973.

El Presidente

There is a matter of debate as to what happened next – either Pinochet planned and staged the coup d’etat that followed weeks later or he joined a coup planned by the heads of the various branches of the Chilean armed forces. With a cry of “Long live Chile! Long live the people!”, Salvador Allende committed suicide on the day of the coup and Augusto Pinochet became the most powerful man in Chile.

In the middle of the night they announced that the dairy was now theirs. There were so many of them that resistance would have been pointless. As a gesture of generosity they offered Don José half of his dairy back if he stayed and worked it for them. Too proud to work for the “lazy bums” who appropriated his property, Don José found himself on the street, penniless.

Valparaiso, hometown to Gen. Pinochet

And then something nice happened to Don José. A veterinarian friend working in Europe for Contessa ___ sent him some money to start a new business and wanted him to manage it for him. After saving up a bit of money Don José decided to move to Valdivia where his son was studying and bought a tumbledown mansion that he converted into a Hostal to welcome travelers from all around the world. It was here at the Hostal Torreón that our paths crossed…

FailBlog

FailBlog – Being tall – First reaction. (Map this!)

We had been reading FailBlog, a humorous website that features various things that unintentionally go wrong. Reading these kinds of websites give us that superior feeling that allows us to laugh at other people’s misfortunes while complacently shaking our heads at how silly people can be. Until that is, something of a similar nature happens to us.

Loaded FJ

On FailBlog, incidents resulting from the underestimating the height of a vehicle seem to be unusually common. Especially the one where the whole roof of a truck came off, presumably due to misjudging the clearance of a bridge. “How can people do this?” I wondered. It does seem that most of these height incidents happen with UHauls which were probably rented. I was shaking my head in disbelief at the carnage until….

Lighthouse, Chiloé

In Chiloé, our friend Vinay joined us. When we have another person traveling with us, we throw our jerry cans on the roof, thus raising the height of the car from approx 6′8″ to over 7′. We had just pulled into a fabulous hotel with ocean front rooms in the small town of Ancud and were off to see the local sights. The driveway passed underneath a nice little carport. Just as I drove under it, THWACK! the sound startled the living daylights out of me. What had happened? The jerry cans had taken a part of the portico right off!

Hotel damage

And what was Shreesh’s first comment after finding out what happened?

“Oh no! We will be on FailBlog!”

(His second comment was “Hey! The jerry cans are OK!” while the poor, gracious hotel manager was looking at the damage to the carport and telling us not to worry, he could fix it).

And food for the brain.

Vinay Yadappanavar joined us today and brought all kinds of goodies. Indian snacks, which we have missed a lot…and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them. And books. Good books in English are hard to find (understandably so) in Central and South America. The pitiable English section in most bookstores contains bestsellers and sometimes translations of the most famous Spanish authors. Now we have a supply that will last the trip. Thanks Fred, Ada, Lakshmi and Vinay!

Indian snacks and English books

Frutillar

A regret – Camping in Central America – Expensive campsites – Camping in style

Our only regret on this trip is that we haven’t camped much. Camping because its beautiful, not camping to save money, that is. There’s a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ about setting up the essentials in a place of beauty. Eating fine food in the shadow of the Andes. Sleeping on the shores of a turquoise blue lake. Some things are just better appreciated outdoors. I don’t particularly care for peanut butter jelly sandwiches, for example. But, have them on a hike after a few hours of exertion looking out over mountains fringed by araucaria trees and they are like manna from heaven.

Lago Chico

I ask little of campsites. The surroundings should be beautiful (otherwise why camp?) and there should be serviceable toilets and a water supply, if in a populated area. (Interestingly, I am perfectly fine with using a spade and the great outdoors while backpacking, but doing the same while car camping feels like slumming). Until we reached Chile and Argentina, we found nice campsites few and far between. One explanation of this could be that there is not much local demand for camping. So the campsites that do exist can be an amazing outdoors experience or one that can leave you traumatized for days

Lago Colico	Lago Tinquilco	Volcán Villarica	Cascada Nido

Chile and Argentina, however, is a completely different story. Campsites are always to be found in the most beautiful spots. They are primed to ensure privacy while camping, have clean toilet facilities, hot water for showers and even a ‘comedor’ or restaurant if you don’t want to cook. We even stumbled upon one right at the edge of the lovely lake Colico with camping spots the size of a large apartment, sheltered kitchen and dining area, private bathrooms and electric outlets to plug in your microwave, juicer, blender, and whatever else you cannot do without. When we heard the price, we gaped (USD 44). This must be the most expensive campsite in the world.

Trafanpulli

People camp for different reasons, and I have learnt to appreciate them. Whether you are camping because you can’t afford your hotel or you are bringing your house with you, being outdoors can be exhilarating. Shreesh recently saw a show on TV where this guy was preparing a wonderful three course meal with a dramatic backdrop of snow capped peaks under brilliant blue skies. This has inspired Shreesh and he is busy planning how to outfit the car to carry a dining table, a cutting table, stove, gas cylinders, his Le creuset pots, two fridges (one for wine and one for perishables), his favorite set of kitchen knives and of course, fine china and Riedel wine glasses.

Breakfast

Of course, nature has a way of spoiling the best laid plans. Brilliant, sunlit days can turn cloudy and cold instantaneously. A few days ago we discovered that our rainfly leaks, inspite of generous application of seam sealer. This led to various on the spot permutations and combinations of the tent, rain-fly and a tarp to prevent leakage. I am still not sure we would be safe in a heavy downpour. But the payback was enormous. Chilean wine paired with beans in black mole sauce from Oaxaca for dinner. Indian tea, fried bread and a can of juicy, lemony sardines for breakfast. I am curious to see whether canned sardines will taste just as yummy at home in San Francisco.

Waterproofing	Hiking