Trying to write my blog while searching for the best way to get from Salar de Uyuni to La Paz. Internet is slow, so I can write a bit while waiting. Finding the best way is a nightmare though; all bus companies have bad reviews, ranging from cancelling reservations to not making reservations at all, not showing up, being literally ice cold with ice on the windows - or way too hot - to bad food, unusable toilets or lying about the standard of the seat. Fun.
Anyway, I want to start where I left of; last Sunday. After that 4 hour sleep or whatever, I was quite glad to be able to sleep in. Or that is - I thought I could sleep in. I had been so tired when I had got back from Viña del Mar at around…1 AM that I had completely forgotten I had a skype meeting the next morning. Maybe it’s for the best; two others didn’t shop up either. But point is that when I woke up, I had both e-mails and facebook messages asking where we were, and it was only then that I realized I had put the clock like an hour late… We had to postpone until Monday morning, which would quite seriously be the last chance.
I got out of bed maybe around 11, took a shower, and then I went with my hosts to La Vega - a market, and it has basically everything, but to a cheaper price - of course. We bought a lot of stuff, from lemons to avocado, weird fruit and spices…and noodles. I wanted to make them pho - Vietnamese noodle soup, and had mentioned that my grandma makes cornflakes cake so I was gonna make that too.
My hosts were really worried about me and my camera (and had scared the crap out of me with regards to the camera in Valparaíso) so one of them would always walk behind me…not quite sure how that helped make sure I wouldn’t get robbed or whatever they were afraid of…
When we were done with all the shopping, we went to a restaurant in the market area. I think…what your definition of restaurant doesn’t quite add up to what this actually was. It was very similar to the place in Pucón, except there were like multiple restaurants run in the same place. Extremely basic; plastic or wooden chairs…maybe a simple table cloth. Food is cheap, but I found both Pucón and this place to be very tasty though.
Their menu consisted of Chilean and Peruvian dishes, the names of which they had directly translated, so I was laughing the entire time we were reading the menu. Like ‘al pobre’ (or a lo pobre - I don’t remember) was translated into ‘from poor’ I think. But the thing is…anything called ‘al pobre’ or whatever, actually means with French fries, egg and…something else I’ve forgotten. So the dish was called like ‘meat from poor’. There was also a ‘macho fish’.
After that we went to cerro Santa Lucia. It’s a hill in town, famous for being where Santiago was founded. It contains a…well, fort (?) that was built to protect the city. So we went up there; it was a really good day with like 25 degrees. Felt so nice to not be wearing the triple sweaters I wear at work but just light jeans and a t-shirt - and still feel hot.
Up on Santa Lucia I got a mote con huesillo. It’s a drink you have to get when mounting hill San Cristobal - so I was a bit unsure if I was cheating taking it there. After all, it was more about group pressure than me needing a drink right there and then. But I took it for 700 pesos.
Mote is a drink made from…something I’m not sure of. Honey maybe and peach? I found it extremely sweet at first, but there is like…a corn type thing at the bottom, or more like half the glass (so you get the drink with a spoon) and they’re not sweet at all. So it evened everything out nicely when you started eating that sunken in sweet juice. Also on the bottom is a peach - I don’t think conserved but definitely not fresh either. It’s all wrinkly but sure, tastes like a peach, so pretty good. It comes in its entirety so that one too, has to be eaten with a spoon.
After having sat up there for a while drinking my mote, we went to the Santa Lucia market. That on the other hand, is not a food market, but a tourist/souvenir market. Since it was Sunday, not everything was open, but enough, and plenty to find some nice stuff. They had wanted to take me there, since it was cheaper than Los Domínicos, which I had told them I had been to on my first day.
I got some stuff, mostly (or I think only) for others. My hosts also found a couple of those toys you have to solve - similarly to a Rubic’s cube but on a more reasonable level. Apparently, they’re big fans of games and stuff like that, so they bought two.
Lastly, we went to a activity park on the outskirts of town, just in time to see the sunset. The pollution makes it hard to see anything though, at least when the sun was setting - I’m guessing because you’re looking against the sun. It got clearer as the sun set.
On the way home, my friend called, saying he had forgotten where we lived. We - or I - had invited him over for the noodle soup and cake I was gonna make.
We got back like 15 minutes later, and my friend was already waiting for me. My hosts had to deliver some tests on the other side of town so they went straight, while I went upstairs to start cooking. Or that is…I realized I had been so focused on the soup that I had forgotten everything else. So my friend and I walked to the store to get the most essential part of the cake: corn flakes. They had cream at home.
It’s only when we get back home and start cooking that I realize we forgot the meat as well. And fish sauce…- did that even exist? My hosts checked in a bigger store on the way back from their…test-delivery, but couldn’t find any. They just bought meat and chocolate instead, which I had also forgotten that you need for the cake.
The soup turned out surprisingly well despite the lack of fish sauce, but I still think it missed the ‘essential’ part. The whole thing that makes it into pho. They really liked it (they said) and had never tried it before so it’s not as if they had anything to compare it with.
What failed more though, was the cake. It’s one of those funny stories you can laugh at afterwards but at the time…well. You can ask my hosts what they thought of my reaction. Firstly, their oven is extremely fast - and hot. They said to put the heat only on half of what the recipe said - and also just half time. I forgot to check the time when I put it in, so I don’t know how long it was in…but it got - not burnt, but…dark.
Then my friend and I joked that they should finish preparing the cake since we had made the noodles for them. I had told them they needed cream and chocolate so, of course, they took cream and chocolate. Except cream apparently doesn’t mean quite the same thing in English as in Spanish.
I don’t remember what the problem was, but they called me into the kitchen with a problem. Before I could even answer the question, I saw the cake and was like ‘wait - what???’
What they call ‘crema’ is…I don’t even know what it is, but because it says ‘ready to serve’ on the package you’re just supposed to serve it like that. To be honest, it looks more like vanilla sauce; the colour is darker, and it may be slightly thicker than cream since they squeeze the carton to get the last bit out. Plus the cream is in a ‘drinking carton’ - you know like the small 250 ml cartons with a small hole for a straw? That they had just squeezed out of the carton in a pattern on the cake - and were just about to cut chocolate, the way you casually cut a banana, onto top of the cake.
After my ‘panic attack’, I realized that I hadn’t been clear enough when saying ‘cream’ and that they hadn’t understood that when I said cream, I meant whipped cream - or at the very least cream that is whippable. We tried whipping this but obviously nothing happened. The chocolate was cut into small pieces and…well, we had to eat it with their type of cream. The cake wasn’t crunchy at all, I think it may have been too raw on the inside due to the weirdness of the oven…basically, it was all a huge mess. But fun, and sure yummy, although not as yummy as it should be. Our little party ended around midnight, since we all had work the next morning.
Day 17-21: Costanera and the picnic
These days were the last days of work. I compile them into one since there’s not that much to tell from each work day. But on the Monday I went back to Santa Lucia after the skype morning, since I didn’t work Monday mornings. Actually, it was more like: the meeting dragged out, the stuff I needed to fix after the meeting took insanely long, and when I finally got out the door I accidentally walked too far, into an area with very colour houses, sort of reminding me of Valparaíso.
I don’t know if I actually found Santa Lucia in the end. As in…the area Santa Lucia is apparently like the ‘bohemian’ place, and there had been a lot of people there on Sunday, and it seemed really cool. However, I was running short on time, and just found myself some earrings, an empanada on the go and then took the metro to work.
On Tuesday I went back to the Domínicos handcraft market after work, where I had been with my friend the first day. It was the first ever grey day in Santiago since I got there, and quite cold. I had been wishing for a day of rain, because that’s the best time to go up to Costanera (or hill San Cristobal) from where you can see the entire city - but only if it’s clear from pollution, which requires rain and then sun. That never happened.
I knew Domínicos was more expensive than the market at Santa Lucia, and now that I had got an idea of prices I could see that indeed it was. I did find a working panflute on a keyring though, for the same price as the key rings cost in Santa Lucia, so I got that. I also got solidified manjar, or whatever they call it, like a candy. Normal manjar is better though…
On Wednesday night I went out with my friend. He was celebrating end of exams with some friends, by going to a bar in walking distance to where I lived. It had happy hour from - was it 6 or 7? - to 9, with mojito for 1000 pesos - or about 1.5 USD.
I recognized a guy there from the birthday club thing the first evening, and a girl from the exchange party the weekend before. I asked my friend to order a virgin mojito for me - and he asked what flavour I wanted.
Flavour? Aren’t mojitos just lemon, vodka (or in my case sprite) and mint? Well, apparently here it was strawberry, guava or melon. I went for the guava after having tried my friend’s guava mojito, although that one obviously had alcohol and tasted like ****. It was really nice, but on my second one I wanted to try strawberry. It tasted bitter - so I asked my friend if he was sure there wasn’t any alcohol in it. He tried it, and he was sure; I tried his, and surely his was even more bitter. I still didn’t like it…
I ended up talking to a Chilean guy who arrived later, about…Scandinavia? He knew an awful lot about our education system and vikings and stuff. Best of all though, we talked almost exclusively in Spanish.
After happy hour had ended they were gonna go out. I kinda wanted to, but was tired, and obviously had work the next morning. So I said bye and walked home instead.
Thursday at work I reminded the two people I had been working the most with (or only with) that I only had one day left, and asked for any remaining assignments to be sent so I could finish it. I also asked if they had any ‘merchandise’, like a fabric bag or something, with their logo on, that I could take with me home as a reminder of having worked there. They e-mailed me back, saying I had done such a great job, and that some of the things for which I had been on stand-by, they hadn’t been able to finish in order to send it back. They would want to formally say good-bye on Friday with a little something.
At 5 o’clock I left work in a hurry. My hosts and I had decided to cycle up hill San Cristobal, and since the sun sets just after 7, there’s not endless time. I got home, and changed to something sportier. Something airy on the way there, something extra for the way back; the way back is downhill all the way so the wind will get you cold.
I asked how long they usually did the ride in. Apparently they have a friend who does it in 12 minutes - but I knew I wouldn’t do that. They usually did it in…20 minutes? I was sure I wouldn’t manage that either. I warned them I was in bad shape, but she said she wasn’t ‘very good at this either’. Well, lets still put it this way: I was behind the entire time, and it had almost got completely dark by the time we fin-al-ly got to the top. They would wait for me on the way, but apparently I was so slow that the guy wasn’t even feeling hot or sweaty, so he was already cold when up there. As a complete must, we of course got mote con huesillo. It was better now, I suppose when you’ve cycled all that way. But since it was slightly windy up there, the sweat quickly turned ice cold, and the drink being ice cold as well, it didn’t make a great combi.
The view was great. Just as it had been on the way up. We had stopped once to take pictures, because I figured it’d be dark by the time we’d be on our way back.
Downhill was obviously easier, but also not as cold as I had expected - or maybe I was just properly dressed. The girl usually breaks a lot, and is careful on the way down. Her boyfriend - not. And when we got down to the bottom of the hill, he said ‘you’re a descent person’; not decent, but descent. As in…I like going fast down. I guess? I had noticed it was now her turn to be far behind, but I still hadn’t considered my own speed super fast or anything.
We cycled home, left the bicycles and then went to pick up a truck that they had had on repair. I could have chosen to stay at home, but they were going to his mother afterwards for some dinner, and she was really nice when she came to visit, so I went with them. Additionally, I thought of the whole ‘you should always say yes’ when someone suggests something, so I did.
At his mother’s place we got break with fresh cheese, normal cheese, salami ish sausage, manjar (YUM - it’s become an internal joke with my hosts that I really like manjar) and tea. One of his cousins also came while we were there, although he mostly ate the sausage, and had coke. He had lived in the US so he spoke good English.
They told him about their business plan to make a Chilean version of Cards Against Humanity. They had never played it before, but I had told them about the game - and as I said, they love games - so they want to make a Chilean version, and sell it to their friends. At first I thought it was hilarious - and if anything it’s even more hilarious now that I realize just how serious they are. They have already started translating some of the cards. The cousin knew what Cards Against Humanity was - and even knew every single card. As was proven the next day.
On Friday, as promised, there was a formal good-bye. In this case, it means loudly whispering my name and calling me out into the backyard, the two of them whom I’ve been working with. They thanked me so much for the job I had done and hoped I had enjoyed it as well. I could say something if I wanted to. In my awful Spanish I tried to express what I had written in an e-mail to one of them earlier that day;
I think this organization has so much potential. You can do big things. So I really enjoyed working here because it’s such a good cause.
They knew I was going to Lampa the next day to construct a park with the team (they weren’t going though) - and I think they, too, were happy that I was going, to kinda…see how everything fits together. They had a fabric backpack, gym bottle (or whatever you call it?), a pin and a ribbon with Mi Parque’s logo on. The ribbon is for the wrist, obviously, although I’m less sure of how you’re meant to attach the ends. I’ll put it on when I get home.
I meant to leave early, since it was Friday. However, one of the girls in ‘charge’ of me said they were going out for a picnic nearby since it was the birthday of one of the employees. So I decided to come along with this one other intern who started working on the same day as me - and then everyone else of course. We went to a park a couple of blocks away, had blankets to sit on and some had food with them. The majority of us went to a place called Buenos Aires though, and ordered empanadas. Some ordered two, but I had just eaten since I didn’t want to be hungry when I went on my afternoon walk, so I only got one. We got cake - again; the same type as the first week. I think it’s a typical cake in Chile, because when I explained it to my hosts at home they had a name for it. I got two slices since there was some left at the end.
They were making fun of the girl in charge of me for having pokemon go - the only one in the group. But the funniest part was perhaps that she didn’t know how to play it - and there were two pokestops in the park apparently, and we could kind of see that a lot of other people there were playing. So she decided to go up to one of them and ask how to play. She was away for about 15 minutes probably. When she came back, we had a group photo taken because apparently there was a pokemon amongst us. When she got back, there was a pokemon right in front of me too, so I posed ‘kissing’ the pokemon - but it was hard because I was laughing so much. I haven’t seen the result yet…
I got the tour at a student price, against a warning that ‘today is not good visibility because of clouds and the haze’. Since I was going to the park the next day, this was probably my only possibility to go up, so I got the ticket anyway.
Indeed, things were not nearly as clear as for example in the pictures. You could only just about sense the mountains in the distance. I caught a tour at 5 of the things you could see from the tower - in Spanish. In the beginning I understood most. After some time I got a bit bored though, so I understood less and less, and eventually left the tour. I felt like I had seen enough.
I took the elevator back down, and decided to take a look at the Costanera 6-floor shopping center. I had read that it was purely stupid to go to Salar de Uyuni in sneakers - but I don’t have anything else! So I looked around for some hiking or trekking booths (I still haven’t really figured out what the difference is…) but as I had expected, the price was high. Cheaper than at home, but still damn expensive. Mostly because they had so many ‘respectable’ companies, like the North Face and others…some Chilean ones as well that I’ve seen a lot of people wear. I’ve never seen so many outdoor stores in one place though. I can’t even start to count how many there were - and sports clothing stores too! Some had discounts, but few of them had discounts on the boots.
I consider myself really lucky though; I went into a rather small store, compared to some of the others, and found that they had some really nice uhm…hiking/trekking shoes; as in most of them are brown ish, and they all look very alike. Here they came in purple and blue. They seemed good; high ankle support, waterproof, deep ‘rifts’ on the soles…but best of all they were discounted and only cost 48 000 pesos. About 30-50 000 pesos cheaper than the other ones I had seen - and definitely more expensive than at home - yet prettier. I decided to try the blue ones on because the sample shoe was my size. After having talked to the store managers a bit about the shoes, having got to try both on, and found out that the purple one was the last one in size 35, I decided to buy the blue ones.
I love them; unlike my winter boots from Timberland, these don’t hurt (I even had two different kinds and yes, they both hurt). They’re pretty, and have these…extra points up the ankle to put the shoe lace higher up - and when you “unplug” them from the extra points, they come off immediately.
Now that I’m in the driest dessert in the world, and going to Salar de Uyuni tomorrow, I definitely don’t regret having them.
I went back home, where my hosts were in the process of cutting out Cards Against the Humanity, which apparently you can print off the Internet. I laughed so much when I saw that. I said I had scissors in my room so I could help them.
After a couple of sheets, they left me to cut the rest, while they went to make the lasagna we had discussed for so long. In the meantime I watched Stranger Things while cutting.
They had invited the cousin over, who had been at the mother’s place the day before. So we all had lasagna and then we started playing Cards Against Humanity. It was in English so everything went fine. Another friend of theirs came over a bit later, and even later two more guys. It made for a very funny game.
I meant to go out with my friend during the night but he had been at some BBQ with his professors and didn’t finish until around 1 AM when we were still playing. I asked him to join us but the wifi wasn’t working on his phone so I don’t think either of us were receiving each others’ messages. I ended up staying in the entire night, and we played through the entire game until all the white cards were gone. In other words…we had a lot of fun. I think I lost with the fewest cards though. I apparently tend to do that.
So as I said, tomorrow I’m leaving for Salar de Uyuni. It’s the biggest salt flat in the world and the first day/night is supposed to be absolutely freezing - so my bag is half empty because I’m wearing the vast majority of the clothes I brought. However, my point is that there is neither celular nor Internet connection in Uyuni, so you’ll have to wait to hear about the park construction and this dry dessert until I’m back in civilzation, probably in four days.
But having finished my post about the last day at the office, I want to take the time to thank the biggest sponsors of my crowdfunding campaign;
-Mamma
-Dadde
-Fríða frænka
-Magnus och Kerstin
-Amma og afi
Þetta er allt ykkur að þakka! Ekkert hefði mögulegt án ykkar. // Allt detta är tack vare er! Inget hade varit möjligt utan er.
Thank you so much again, and I hope you look forward to receiving your souvenirs/postcard - everything is ready for you! (Except the stamp for the postcard…the post office was closed so I’ll have to send them from Bolivia or Peru - sorry!)
So now then, I’m off to sleep - and off to nowhere for a while. Look forward to getting back to you with more news!
P.s. I meant to add another picture, but the Internet is so slow here - I really don't have the patience. It'll have to wait. Sorry.