After traveling all day and all night, we were thrilled to shower, contact a realtor to help us find an apartment, and get ready by 2 p.m. to go to our friends' house for lunch. Mary-Anne served us our favorite typical Chilean appetizer - erizos (sea urchin) marinated in lemon juice with a hint of onion and cilantro (fresh coriander). Our main dish was coq au vin (lots of French influence here) and we had wonderful chocolate-covered pastry shells filled with fresh fruit or bananas drizzled with manjar, a delicious caramelized milk cream that is Chile's equivalent of dulce de leche. It was a real joy to catch up with Mary-Anne and Diego's and their eight children (ages 4 to 22). We met them 14 years ago when we first came to Chile.
At 5:30 p.m. we saw our first apartment...lovely, but a bit small and with a view of a basement parking area - let's hope it gets better! My daughter, Cambria, accompanied us and was thrilled to discover a Starbuck's just around the corner - could be dangerous living so close!
We returned to Mary-Anne and Diego's to recoup the other kids and after an early dinner, headed back to our apart-hotel for a badly needed good night's sleep.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Slow start to our morning, but already we are adjusting to the Chilean eating schedule - breakfast anywhere from 7:30 to 11 depending on the day, lunch from 2-3 or 4, onces between 5 and 7 (the origin of this term is hotly debated, but it is a great excuse to eat tea and anyone of the delicious European-style pastries that are in show cases everywhere, and finally dinner which never starts before 9 and may not start until 11 or 11:30 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night. So we went to lunch at 2 at a place called Media Luna (Half Moon) which is a new and very popular food here in Chile - namely croissants. We sat outside in one of the many public areas that adorn all public places from shopping malls to city streets and office buildings. I loved listening to the Latin music group playing nearby... a guitar, a double bass, and an accordion - very Chilean (muy Chilena)!
We began our search for cell phones only to discover that my husband's RUT (Chile's national identification number required for all transactions) was inactive - more on that later. At 4:30 we headed off to see what turned out to be a rather used apartment with small rooms, but it was well worth the visit as it was a 13th floor penthouse (top floor) apartment with a spectacular view of the snow-covered Andes. It would never pass OSHA requirements in the US as the rails were only about thigh height. Afterward we headed back to the realtor's apartment for drinks and appetizers. We were treated to pisco sours (Chile's national cocktail and similar to a whiskey sour, though pisco is actually a form of brandy made from white grapes) and a delicious fish pate.
The kids were looking for a taste of home by evening, so we ordered Domino's Pizza - ubiquitous here. The pizzas now look the same as in the US and most of the ingredients are the same, but they often include corn, hearts of palm and anchovies and would never dream of including broccoli or garlic. Fourteen years ago when we were living here, the pizzas had only cheese on the whole pizza with all the other ingredients divided into individual pie-shaped sections - a section for ham, another for corn, another for chopped hardboiled egg, another for tomato, another for anchovies, etc.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Off to another apartment - a garden apartment with very nice artwork, some antique furniture and a delightful pond and fountain, but I doubt if the lady could move out in a month, let alone a day or two.
