Cabbage Salad

So we can´t stop eating cabbage salad here. We ate alot of it back home as well but we´ve learned a different way to make it here. It´s really simple so if you were brave enough to make the empanadas then this should be a piece of cake! And we promise you that lack of difficulty does NOT mean lack of delicousness because this salad is sooo good!

Ingredients:
(We´ve never actually measured our ingredients so we´re guessing. Use your judgement and taste buds to get it just right)

• 1/2 a head of white cabbage (red cabbage does not work nearly as well)
• 2 tblsp of salt
• 1/4-1/2 bunch Cilantro
• Juice from 2-3 lemons
• 1/4 cup Oil

Directions:

• Thinly slice cabbage and put in a bowl
• Dice cilantro and add to cabbage
• Add salt, lemon juice and oil
• Mix well
• Best if left to marinate in lemon juice for a bit
• Eat!

See how easy that was?! The trick we learned was to use white cabbage which has a milder flavor than red cabbage and soaks up the lemon juice much better.

The past coupla weeks...

So we finally got to share our hooked up paradise with some other gringo friends for a few days. Our friend Ariana was visiting Chile and Argentina with some of her colleagues from Outward Bound for a mountaineering course and paid us a visit! We spent 3 days drinking wine and bbq-ing with the 5-person Outward Bound possé. The highlight was definetely the scavenger hunt we all made for Sam´s bday. It might have even been more fun for all of us watching her tromp through the resort trying to figure out our silly clues.

It was hard to re-adjust to the quiet life after they all left. But there wasn't much time to mope since we left hot on their heels to visit the famous Valparaiso. It´s famous for it´s bohemian and artsy culture as well as it´s physical layout. The city is built on a steep incline that runs into a busy port and is filled with steep-as-hell stairs leading to winding alleys and neighborhoods... and all of it decorated with amazing murals and graffiti.

At the bottom of one of these said stairs, we had our first run-in with bad (and perhaps inevitable) luck and were robbed! Some twerp stumbled in between us and yanked off with all his strength Gigi´s "man purse," throwing her to the ground. Micah saw perpetrator #1 coming which gave her time to register what was happening. As the twerp tried to run off she yelled "Nooooooo!" and grabbed him by the shirt. She was reaching for the bag but all she could manage was a big tear in #1´s shirt. Fortunately, Micah´s continual repetition of her war cry, "Nooooo!" snapped Gigi out of her sprawl on the sidewalk and she ran to put #1´s head in a lock, which did nothing to get the bag back but seemed important at the time. She pulled his hair as Micah tore his shirt and yelled her cry. We were so close to showing this twerp what tough gringas are made out of...alas... not tough enough. Twerp had a friend, perpetrator #2, who eventually came back to help his friend. #1 passed off the bag as #2 ran for the steep stairs. We let go, realizing our defeat and watched #1 follow #2. But no! Gigi followed them up the 100 steps of stairs making sure that they would have to work hard to win our valuables. And let me tell you, by the 50th stair all 4 of us were barely walking in between our huffs. At the top of the stairs they ducked into one of the many alleys and vanished. Blasted! We were left with piercing lungs, scrapes and bruises and no camera amongst other stuff!

(Dr. Jones, if you are reading zees, ve are not fooled by yer tactics! Ze secret plans you seek ver not stored in ze cameraz micro chip! HAHAHA!)

After the incident several people came to our help and were so kind. We filed a police report so, hopefully, our insurance will cover the stuff in the bag. We are, of course, the saddest about our camera but, fortunately, no money nor important documents were taken. We were mistrustful of everyone in the streets for the next couple of days and talked alot about compassion and classism. It´s hard to bounce right back without harboring resentment. Every young boy with brown hair we walked past was a potential robber. And that practically means every boy in the street. We reminded ourselves of all the positive experiences we´ve had and how those have mostly shaped our trip, not the bad ones! And 14 year old boys aren´t to be assumed criminals! It was hard to do in reality... so we decided to go back to our apt where there weren´t many people and recover without the expense of insulting innocent young boys in the streets.

Otherwise we had an awesome time in Valpo exploring the streets, finding the murals and meeting some friends of Gigi´s sister who were great hosts. We went to this community center called "Ex-Carcel" that is located in an old prison! There are workshops, studios, a free circus and who knows what else. It was crazy to be in such a rad place surrounded by huge cement walls and metal bars. We had an interesting conversation with a man there that was selling jewelry. He asked us why we elected Bush as president which lead us into a conversation about politics and US activism. At the end of our conversation he told us we had homework to do back home. It was awesome. We told him about the new community center in Greensboro called the HIVE and he gave us a poster of the Ex-Carcel as a gift to the HIVE.

Which, we are wondering how the HIVE is going and what kind of thriving community there will be when we get back to the boro..?

Oh! and the past 24 hours have been super exciting (but totally safe) with another earthquake and her aftershocks! Check out this footage from our neighborhood grocery store:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNEWQ8iT1uI

Arica & Micah´s Bday!

After our road trip in the Iquique area it was time to head even further north and check out Arica (20 km from the Peruvian border). We were debating whether or not to visit the nearby national park or to focus on Arica because time didn´t allow for both. Micah made the call (bday priviledges) and we stayed close to the coast. The first 2 days we stayed in a hostal run by an older New Zealander and his Chilean wife. This was the hotspot for older travelers which was quite a change from the young surfer hostal we had just come from in Iquique. We rented bikes for Micah´s bday and rode down the coast.

We found some caves on the road to explore. It was too dark to go far.

Gigi tried making a geoglyph for Micah´s Bday. Can you read it? It´s harder than it looks people! (P.S. It say´s Happy Bday)

We left the old timers hostal to go camping on a northern beach. Hurrah! We scored an umbrella again!

Everyday at sunset this group of kids would show up for bareback horseriding.

Fortunately, we found a viscous guard dog to watch our tent while we went on walks. She was really viscous, watch out. She barely even let us have room under the shade she was so viscous.

We couldn´t figure out what these groups of people were doing out in the water. It looked like they were dancing or something. Finally we figured it out when we saw a man walk up to shore with a bag of Machas (razorclams). The dancing was them digging with their toes to unearth the clams. And they got to take them home for dinner. Mmmmm!

"Thank god I have these sunglasses! You and me sun! You got nothing on me!"

Day 4: Salar de Huasco y Mamiña

We spent the night in Pica again cuz we loved it so much and then woke up early to go to Salar de Huasco. We were really excited about this trip because we missed alot of the salares when we were in the San Pedro area. Salares are salt lakes. Alot of them have dried up but the ones at the highest elevation still have water. Most of them have wild flamingoes! So we bought coca leaves and we grinded on em as we drove the 5000 meters to the salar.

We couldn´t get enough of these fuzzy cuties. They´re called llamas and not all of them come with bright cloth collars. This flock must belong to someone but they sure looked like they lived in a wild place with nothing nearby.

As we got higher into the Andes we got a better and better view of the mountains on the Chile/Bolivia border. Take notice of the clouds.

Here we are at the mirador (lookout point) for Salad de Huasco. We were so close we could taste it! Can you see the blue of the lake?

So close yet not close enough... as we stood at the mirador taking it all in, the black clouds started rumbling and looking more ominous. In a matter of seconds the moisture broke and it started raining and hailing! In the driest desert in the world!?! Turns out, this is what they mean by a "Bolivian Winter." The road was dirt and sand for the last part of the trip and we didn´t want to risk getting stuck in our little rental in the middle of nowhere... so, we turned back with no flamingo sightings and went onto Mamiña.

Mamiña is a mining town centered around thermal waters in the depths of the Andes. We soaked in our own private bath tub tapped with piping hot thermal waters sipping on coca tea our wonderful host, Gloria brought to our room. She took extra good care of us because we were the only guests in her big hotel. We couldn´t have asked for a better host... she was the cutest woman ever! And the baths were, of course, delicious.

The next day we went exploring and found what must be the sweetest spot in the whole town. An outdoor thermal water bath that is actually a holding tank for the town.

To get there, walk down from Hotel Bellavista until you see a trench of hot water. Pass the burros and keep following the trench.

Eventually you get to what looks like an inground bathtub and huge pool full of mineral rich hot water!

Day 3: Pisagua

Pisagua is a tiny town with a very interesting landscape and brutal history. Originally, it was built as a port town for all the minerals that were mined in the area. It´s nestled in between the Cordillera and the Pacific on a tiny ledge, making Micah shake with fear at the thought of an earthquake, or worse off, a tsunami. It´s a claustrophobe´s nightmare! We decided to make the trip short for her frazzled nerves and went straight for the graveyard.

It´s an amazing graveyard overlooking the coast. All the gravesites had a wooden crib. We don´t know exactly what that´s about... Is it a chilean custom or just a Pisagua custom? Maybe it´s their way of protecting the dead from falling out of their coffin into the rocky coast?

The real reason we went to the graveyard wasn´t to explore the cribs, despite it´s intrigue. Pisagua´s more recent history of brutality is due to its isolation, which provided Pinochet a perfect location for one of his torture camps. Recently, a memorial was erected paying tribute to bodies found in an unmarked mass grave and to political prisoners of the area who were ¨disappeared¨.

After the memorial we went to the town and were almost immediately bombarded by a group of tiny superheroes. I wonder what it´s like to grow up next to a memorial reminding you of tortures... I was so happy to leave Pisagua on a note of laughter and youth...thanks niños.

Day 2: Route 1

We headed out early in the morning along Route 1 which connects Antofogasta and Iquique for good beach camping. We slowly drove all the way down to Rio Loa marvelling at the scenery which really doesn´t get old. Then we found our camp site and just relaxed.

Route 1 is the red line along the coast south of Iquique.

Check out the Cordillera literally running right into the ocean!

Lunch break

Aaaarrrggghhh!

Our cute little tent in a gorgeous nook

(Ken: we found a different tent that was super light so we opted for that one... but thanks!)

Day 1: A day with Christian

While we were in Iquique we decided that we were tired of being in the hostal and wanted to put our tent to use. But with it being the desert and all, we were nervous to get too far off the beaten path with no experience and no sight of water. So, we decided to put our good money to use and rent a car for 4 days. We made friends with the paragliders and they hooked us up with info of all the good spots to check out in the area and we even covinced Christian, Micah´s pilot, to join us.

Christian took us to see a bunch of geoglyphs from pre-Columbian times. It´s pretty crazy how many there are in this area. There you are, just driving along the Pan-American highway and all of a sudden you´ll see one on the side of the mountain like it´s the most normal thing to have this evidence from the far far past.

This is el Gigante de Atacama, the BIGGEST archaeolical representation of a human in the world. It´s 86 meters high!

The north is full of old mines and ghost towns from back in the day when Nitrate was Chile´s biggest exporter. The industry fell when an artificial product was made to replace nitrate in fertilizers, thus turning thriving towns into ghost towns. We visited one factory near Iquique called Santa Maria. Nearby is a famous ghost town called Humberstone.

Maybe our favorite part of our day trip with Christian was eating lunch and taking a dip in Pica, a natural oasis in the middle of the desert. If you know anything about Chile then you know about Pisco Sours de Pica. Pica grows the country´s limes that are essential for the ¨sour¨in Pisco Sours. Alongside the limes there are mangoes, oranges, papaya, guayaba and grapefruit growing EVERYWHERE in the town. It´s unbelievable. The reason for the oasis, of course, is water. And below Pica is an abundance of hot, thermal water that is available for relaxing in at the public pool. Gigi will never be able to go into the cold Pacific ocean now!

We were so lucky to have Christian come with us and, in typical Chilean hospitality, show off his country with the greatest enthusiasm. Hopefully we´ll continue to meet folk like him throughout our trip.

We are safe!

Hey yáll! Many people are emailing us to see if we were affected by the earthquake that hit Chile today. We actually left Calama (where it was much worse) last night at 11 pm. We are in Iquique now, on the coast, and only felt one rumble today. Really long, but not fuerte. So all is well and the travel continues! Thanks for looking out.

San Pedro de Atacama and Iquique

The tiny tiny airport in Calama

Here we are in San(dy) Pedro de Atacama in the desert. It is soooo dry here we have used an entire tube of lotion trying to keep from our skin flaking off. One woman we met from Brasil felt like it was so arid her soul was drying up! Perhaps a bit dramatic but it gets the point across. We arrived here late on Thursday night and stumbled off the bus barely able to see the dirt road under our feet. We both wondered to ourselves, where the hell are we? We couldn´t see a damn thing and the night was so quiet. We picked a direction to walk in and as we came to a corner we practically walked on 2 teenagers making out on the curb which totally added to the strange feeling of not knowing what was going on. But finally in about 1 minute (because this town is so small) we made it to our hostal and brushed our teeth under the brightest southern hemisphere stars we´ve ever seen.


Being in the north is so different than Santiago. The presence of indigenous cultures is much more apparent here than it is in the big city. It´s also quite interesting because we´re both reading Isabelle Allende´s Inez of my Soul, a story about the Spanish conquering of Peru and Chile, right in the region we are right now. The fiction story parallels with the museum visits and stories we hear from the people we meet... it´s such a different story than the U.S. and its tales of conquering.

The main road in San Pedro

The north of Chile is famous for the architecture of its adobe churches

It´s a cute town. Sleepy but full of adventure. There is so much to do here but it is all hard to access without a car so we´ve resorted to taking tours. It's not our preferred way but how else would we get to the geysers when none of the "dirt roads" are marked?

Valle de la Muerte

The first day we went to Valle de la Luna and Valle de los Muertos. Miles and miles of salt encrusted rocks and dunes. It was so beautiful and gigantic and nothing like we've ever seen before.

The 2 best parts of the tour were taking our stinky shoes and socks off and running down a huge dune with the softest sand we´ve ever felt in between our toes.

And then we stopped to listen to the sounds of the rocks creaking and clicking due to the temperature change.

The next day we got up at 3:30 am to take another tour (look at us!) to the Tatio Geysers.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a waste of money... not because the tour was bad but because Gigi got ill. 20 minutes into the ride we had to shout for the driver to stop and Gigi rushed out of the van to throw up. We couldn't figure out what exactly was causing this... was it the elevation? Did she have the flu? Was she car sick? Was it something she ate? After it continued non-stop for 4 hours we concluded that it was probably something she ate or the flu.

After getting medicine from a woman in ski pants on the tour and some rest Gigi was feeling better and finally able to laugh at the situation and even has a comic brewing in her head. Just imagine: huge geysers exploding in the background and hot thermal baths steaming with Gigi not having a clue, hunched over throwing up.

After the geysers we went to visit an old cactus forest nestled next to a stream. The only green we had seen all day!

This is Gigi pretending like she saw the cacti forest and wasn´t asleep the whole time.

Finally we left San Pedro and decided to abandon our idea of Peru for a different trip altogether and head to the beaches of Iquique. We took a night bus and rode into the city just before sunrise.

It's quite a beautiful view coming into this city with the way it´s nestled between the cordillera (coastal mountain range) and the coast. We stayed at a hostal run by some really nice young Chileans and had an adventurous couple days!

Iquique is an excellent place for parapenting (paragliding) because the conditions make flying possible everyday. We drove up the mountain and took off from a cliff, flew over Iquique, and landed on the beach 30 minutes later. Originally Gigi wasn´t going to go. It was expensive and well....she is terrified of heights and gets motion sickness. However after Micah took off someone was looking for a person to ride with them for free and she couldn´t turn down the opportunity. Keeping with the theme of sickness on this trip, she threw up 3 times while in the air...over the city. Aside from being awfully embarrassed and covered with the morning´s breakfast she was fine once her feet were safely on the ground.

The view from the cliff...a long way down.......

taking off....

and we´re flying!!!
Can you see the other parapenters in the distance?

Later that day Micah went for a surf lesson with Lalo, a surfer who works at the hostal where we stayed.

While not yet in the most proper form I did catch a couple waves and they weren´t all so teeny as this one...




and got trampled by a few more....



What a day! I am pooped!