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| Rainforest! |
I hung out in a rainforest last weekend without realizing it. We went
hiking in what I later found out was el Bosque Valdiviano, a temperate
rainforest that runs along southern Chile. The view from the lookout
point was jaw dropping. I felt like I was in Machu Picchu
—minus
the
ruins, of course. The thick mist blocked the view of the mountaintops,
making it seem like we were so high up that the mountains were jutting
up into the smoky clouds. The rest of the hike continued to be astonishing. Lush
green trees and thin white blankets of water in the air enveloped us as
we slid down the slippery forest. It had
been raining the entire time, so we climbed on the back of a pickup
truck for a ride back toward town. This was the first of the three times
we hitchhiked that day. Hitchhiking is a great way to avoid trekking
several kilometers on foot and to chat with
Chilenos happy to
help out a tired (or lazy) traveler. It's common and relatively safe in
Chile except in the north. One may end up trying to hitch a ride from drug traffickers up there. No thanks.
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| Kayaking on Lake Puyehue. |
The weather on Sunday was the opposite of the day before. After
eating the breakfast that was delivered to our cabin, we decided to take
advantage of the warm weather and kayak. I had never kayaked before and
thoroughly enjoyed it, even if my friend and I kept going around in
circles. The water was vivid green, snow-capped mountains surrounded
us, and it was actually hot outside. A perfect day. Except for when I
burned my work out clothes in the morning. I wanted them to be
toasty before I put them on, so I had placed them on top of the wood heater
for a quick minute. Bad idea. I got distracted by a phone call and by
the time I returned to retrieve my clothes, they had huge holes in them.
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| No ski lifts, just those black straps to hold on to. |
The following Friday, one of my co-teachers drove me and my friends
almost two hours to Antillanca to go skiing. Because he brought the ski equipments for us, we only had to pay the entrance fee. Sweet!
Getting up the mountain (hill really) wasn't so sweet. There were no
ski lifts; we had to hold on to a strap on a moving belt. My friend and I
both fell down the first time we tried to grasp the strap. I also
skidded down backwards at the top when I let go of the strap. I really thought I was going to break
my legs, my biggest concern being that I wouldn't be able to go to the
beaches this week.
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| A llama was spotted while waiting for friends. |
The next day, my friends and I went to the home of a restaurant
owner for afternoon tea. We met Silvia a couple
of weeks ago at her tiny little restaurant. Within an hour of us being there, we received an invitation to visit her at home for tea. Tea turned out to be lunch. We were served
cerdo,
which I had to decline since I don't eat pork. Being outside of the
U.S. or Nepal as essentially a vegetarian is difficult at times since
meat is an integral part of many cuisines. I've nearly gagged the times I
have tried meat (except for lamb kebabs at my favorite Turkish
restaurant?!) so I'm reluctant to try to eat meat here. When
Silvia's husband asked me why I didn't eat meat or seafood and I
explained that I didn't have the taste for them, he jokingly (I hope)
called me
mañosa. I didn't know the word for a picky eater before but now I won't forget it.
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Walnut cake made by Silvia.
She had three cakes ready to be shipped off to parties. |
Lunch with Silvia's family was super fun. I love sitting down with
Chilenos
for a few hours to talk about a billion things. I conjugate my verbs
incorrectly, make up words in the hopes that the Spanishized versions of
the English words really mean something in Spanish, and take a sentence or two to explain a word I don't know in Spanish. But I've
managed to have actual conversations about religion, culture, the
government, history, the complicated little country that is Nepal, and
education with
Chilenos. Conversations are easier with one other
person or a couple of people I feel really comfortable with, like my
family. I can ask them to slow down or repeat. But with others, like
Silvia's family, there is a lot of nodding of heads and saying "si, si,"
but really thinking "ummm, what?!!" If you zone out for even a second
or don't know the context of the conversation, good luck understanding what is going on.
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The cualiflower wouldn't cook for 30 minutes.
Then it burned. |
Even if I think I know what is going on, sometime it turns out I don't. I thought I was
cooking dinner for my host family today. But when I was soaking up some sun at 1 pm my host mother asked me why I hadn't
started preparing lunch. I didn't have half the ingredients (I thought
we were going to the farmer's market together before dinner...?) so I clearly
couldn't make anything then. We ran off to the grocery store to buy lunch for the family and ingredients for the Nepali food. I cooked
cauli ko tarkari, golbeda ko achar, and
bhaath
(cauliflower, tomato salsa, and rice) for dinner. It was the worst
cauli ko tarkari I've ever made but my sister took three helpings of the dish. My mom asked me to teach her how to make it because it's rare that my
mañosa sister loves a new dish. Success!
