Tänä iltana on ikävä Chileä. This evening I miss Chile. Esta noche yo extraño a Chile.

Laguna Verde 04.04.09

A dog who ate our lunch and harassed us to the maximum (The damn dog actually attacked Laila for a salad. A salad, guys.) and a frikkin sand storm out of nowhere (I had sand in my eyes despite keeping my eyes closed and wearing shades). That was Laguna Verde for us. Woo-hoo!

Laguna Verde is a village / beach about 15km south of Valparaíso. The place was absolutely gorgeous but it just wasn't our day. Buuut we did wrap up the day with delicious coffee drinks and a nice conversation at Puro Café.

Next week: Buenos Aires

Next week me and Laila are off to Buenos Aires for a few days! I am very excited to go there and here is a list of what I'm gonna do there:

- Sit at different restaurants and cafes and eat delicious food. I love food, I so do. I love cooking, I love eating other people's cookings and love eating out.

- Drink Argentinian wine, obviously.

- Watch Laila getting it on with the famous Argentinian beef. Good luck, girl. We'll see if I'll get jealous and start questioning my decision of being a vegetarian. I've been off carne for a long long time and I don't really even know what I'm missing out on but I am afraid if eating well in Chile has been limited on my part, in Argentina it is even more so. I mean I'm sure I can find great vegetarian food in a place like Buenos Aires but I just don't get the best of the best, the true Argentinian culinary excellence, the beef steak.

- Drink good coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker normally but I do enjoy a cup of cafe con leche if it's well made. Actually the last time I was in Spain I was hooked on the milk coffee they had in Pedreguer. I sprinkle sugar on the nice foamy milk surface, then eat the sugar+milk foam with a spoon, then add more sugar to the rest of the coffee and enjoy it preferably with a bit of equally delicious chocolate. But if the coffee is as good as it sometimes is I don't even need the chocolate. And while drinking it I don't even have to make funny faces like I normally do with the awful Finnish coffee because I actually like it a lot. So the reason why I'm hoping to spend a good amount of pesos on coffee in BA is because the coffee here really sucks. And it's supposed to be a lot better in Argentina. I know a few places with good espresso based coffee here but other than that it's nescafe. And seriously a cup of that instant shit often costs more than a huge completo (local "hot dog") which is absurd. With Laila we never get tired of being amazed by that. Chile is not a coffee country, not saying Finland is but it's still half a light year ahead of Chile with its coffee.

- Listen and watch tango. How could I not do that in Buenos Aires?

- See the real Casa Rosada. Our home here in Valpo is called Casa Rosada by its people and by its friends. Mainly because of its pink residents (Anne and me of course, NOT referring to any hello kitty stuff, just our beautiful nordic skin. Although the concept of rosada has gone beyond all things explainable. Everything can be and is pink around here. In conclusion: PINK IS A STATE OF MIND.) but the house itself is pink too. I'm not particularly interested to see the Argentinian precidential palace except for the fact that me and the prez share something really special, something pink.

- Visit book stores. I love books for a variety of reasons. I love them as objects and I love reading. I've heard that one of the most magnificent book stores in the world is in BA, it's called El Ateneo and I definitely wanna see what it's like.

- Try to get to know a little bit about the (political) history of Argentina. This will probably include visiting the grave of Eva Peron as well as other monuments. I read that even today the mothers of those who disappeared during the dictatorship march every Thursday at Plaza de Mayo and give a speech in front of the Casa Rosada. Mothers will never forget and I support them.

So wandering, eating, drinking, listening, enjoying, laughing and talking will be my tasks for next week.

P.S. The pictures above are from Restaurant Allegretto in Cerro Concepcion here in Valparaíso.

The last days of summer

The summer is ending, it's getting colder and soon it will be my time to say goodbye.

Ode to things/Oda a las cosas

Today I went to the house of Pablo Neruda, the museum La Sebastiana. It is right around the corner from our home and shameful of me, I had never been there before.

The view from the house is breath-taking. I see the same view everyday, actually I live right there in the view but I was still amazed by it. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the house but I did snap a quick one while the guard wasn't looking from Neruda's bathroom. Imagine taking a bath and rubbing your armpits while looking at that view. Incredible! The tiles of the bathroom were selected by Señor Pablo himself and at that time there were only three different colors for bathroom tiles available in Chile: white, green and blue. As a visualist he obviously chose all the three.

The painting of Neruda on photo #2 can be seen from my window. The cactus grew on the yard of La Sebastiana. And on picture #4 the street in the middle of the shot, that runs between the houses is the one I take when I go downtown. It's cool because here going downtown is going downtown, you know what I mean.

Oh Valparaíso, no wonder you were such an inspiration to him.

P.S. Click on the images to view them large.

AMRIK

I went to the library here in Valparaíso yesterday to kill time before going to the cinema. I found a book called AMRIK - PRESENCIA ÁRABE EN AMÉRICA DEL SUR. It's a very interesting book about the presence of Arabs and Arabic culture in South America. Especially in Brazil there is a relatively big community of mostly syrian-lebanese Arabs. Here in Chile the Arabic population is mainly originated in the Palestine. Eventhough there are a couple of Arabic restaurants here I can't say I've noticed really any Arabic presence here. But interestingly I secretly learn parts of the Arabic language while learning Spanish.

The Arabic language has had a big influence on the Spanish language. That's because the Arabs invaded and ruled the modern day Spain for hundreds of years back in the day. It's actually pretty amazing how much Spanish words derive from Arabic. You can find a list of them here.

The picture above is from the book Amarik. It's a picture of two young Arab-Latinos: a beautiful mixture of sweet Arabic mint tea and salty beef from the Pampa.

Man, the world is such a big ass mystery to me. I can't get enough.

Bean there

My roommate Kike done that. Traditional Chilean bean stew. Looove it. I'll try to learn how to prepare it. So far I've only reached the peeling-the-beans phase in which I'm actually pretty good at.

Hot stuff

Here in Chile we have a bit different types of problems. The article above (published in Publimetro Dec5 2008) tells about how Santas have to put up with the heat of the summer in their thick santa costumes. They are asking if the Santas in the south could rebel against the norm and wear a similar outfit of red and white but in a form of t-shirt and shorts. The answer is no because apparently the Santa would lose its "magic"?! Well, I don't know about the magic but it might be a bit weird to sit on Santa's lap and feel your legs brush up against his hairy legs..

It's actually kinda twisted that all the Christmas decorations here are straight from the snowy winter wonderland while in reality people are wet from sweat, not slush. And some people here have a tendency to go a bit overboard with the decorating. I'm just saying that it is not necessary to have your whole balcony covered with colorful blinking xmas lights. I wonder if there's a peak in epilepsy cases around December.

Another article in the same paper: "The question is: with or without underwear?" It deals with the Finnish Independence day celebration and how this year the most important question is whether the people who go to the President's party will wear underpants or no, because apparently it gets so hot in there. Oh well, if the Chilenos have to know something about Finland it might as well be about the sweaty asses of the elite, right? Oh dear.

The Dunes - Las Dunas - Dyynit

On Monday we went to the dunes between Reñaca and Concón. It was a steaming hot day and the sand almost burned our feet. - El lunes estuvimos en las dunas cerca de Reñaca y Concón. ¡Hizo demasiado calor! - Maanantaina olimme hiekkadyyneillä Reñacan ja Concónin lähellä. Oli kuuma päivä ja vielä kuumempi hiekka!

06.12.2008

Preparing and eating Chilean and Finnish goods, making Christmas decorations and finishing the night with a bbq in Viña.

Domingo

I fell off of a merry-go-round in a children's playground. I laughed so hard.