Friedlands tackle the heat

Today is the first day of summer here but it seems like summer has been here for a while.  I personally love the dry heat but it has been a challenge for the Friedland family that is used to San Francisco.   Most houses and apartments are not air conditioned nor is public transportation but thankfully they have an air conditioning unit in their aparthotel.  We try to start the day early when it is still cool out but have not yet been successful.  On Monday we went downtown and toured La Vega (the fruit and veggie market), Mercado Central (the fish market), had lunch at a Peruvian restaurant, and ended up at Plaza de Armas.  The hit was the misters in the Metro station.

The day ended with swimming at our apartment.

Tuesday we did the classic tourist thing and went to San Cristobal and up the mountain on the funicular with the first stop at the zoo and made sure, despite the heat, to check out the llamas, vicunas, and guanacos.  We had lunch at a classic Chilean restaurant, headed to the Estadio for a swim, and were treated to a cazuela and pie de limon from Marcela, our Nana.

OK, not native, but darn cute.  J. and I spent 15 minutes just watching him eat!

They have a great aviary at the zoo divided into two sections - one for native birds and one for exotics.

A native bird - you are on for ID Max!

Another native bird - Max?

More hydration and cooling off

Pie de Limon - we'll make latkes tomorrow night

Making our hanukiah out of  wood and bottlecaps

First night of Hannukah (our handmade hanukiah ended up catching fire - bad planning)

The Best of Hannukah by Samantha!

Christmas in Chile

Christmas here basically starts off the summer complete with big family reunions and feasts.  You don't see houses decorated on the outside but inside there are Christmas trees and nativity scenes.  There are a few apartment balconies with lights in our neighborhood.

The supermarkets are filling up with fake evergreen trees, a lot of faux snow, toys, Christmas muzak (some actually translated into Spanish) and, of course, Cola de Mono (Monkey's Tail).  It is a traditional Christmas-time Chilean drink that does not contain egg but does contain rum (thank goodness, I could never really get into eggnog but this stuff is yummy). It is similar to a White Russian with coffee, milk, aguardiente (a 90 proof alcohol), other various spices and is served cold.

For more than enough about this drink you can check out:  http://urbatorium.blogspot.com/2008/12/el-cola-de-mono-la-tradicional-y.html

Cola de Mono

Santa Claus is known as Viejito Pascuero here.  I was in Chile 15 years ago and definitely do not remember it being as commercialized (or should I say "Coca-Cola"ized) as it is now but perhaps I was just not as observant.  What I do remember is that everybody went to midnight mass or the Misa de Gallo (Rooster's Mass?).  Ellen, correct me if I am wrong, but we were in Frutillar in the south and were staying in a room in somebody's house and they invited us to go to mass with them.  We went and, besides being two Jewish girls who were clueless about a Christmas mass to begin with, we had the language issue thrown in.  I do recall everybody kissing each other and saying "La Paz."  It took me a while to figure out that they were not all blessing the capital of Bolivia.  Dinner is served after the mass and many people stay up most of the night - not for me!!

Same gig at the mall, just a different language and some very non-southern hemisphere-esque Santa helpers.  Couldn't that have vincuna helping him out?

Pan de Pascua is being sold everywhere and they claim that it is much better than the U.S. fruitcake.  I'll wait for somebody to serve it to me rather than buy one though.

Christmas Day is spent like everywhere else enjoying presents but then families often head to the beach or pool.  Perhaps Florida and California etc. have the same traditions but not where I grew up!

A sweating Santa in Plaza de Armas

They're here! Day #1 Friedland Family Visit

The long-awaited visit of the Friedland Family is finally here -  my sister Rachel, brother-in-law Andrew, niece Naomi (10) and niece Samantha (7),   They flew from San Francisco via Lima and had enough time to try a Peruvian empanada and to notice that it would be very hard for anybody over 5'2" to buy clothing in Peru.

They were, of course, exhausted so they napped in the morning at their aparthotel (Rachel thought that she couldn't do it but could) and then came over for lunch, went to the Estadio for a tour and swim and then had dinner.  I dropped them off around 9:00 at the aparthotel - still waiting to see if they could go to sleep last night since it is a 5 hour difference for them.

Rachel wore the dreaded Land End skirt and marked herself as a Gringa right away!

Andrew trying to blend in with the well-coiffed 80-year olds while taking in some kitschy Jewish choral music 

The general plan is four days in and around Santiago, four days at the beach, three days for Rachel and Andrew in Buenos Aires while we watch the kids and then a final two days here.  Stay tuned for how the actual plan pans out!  Perhaps I can even get a guest blog out of them...

Radio Disney Latino

None of my kids has really been into pop music yet but between the Bat Mitzvahs, the playing of youtube videos during recess at school (can you see that happening in the States??), and Radio Disney we are getting our fill.  The best part has been the exposure to Spanish (and Portuguese) pop songs.  The funniest part is that they translate the songs literally and then ask me with a confused expression what "Bite me en la boca" means.  Oy!  I guess every parent deals with that but usually not in two (or three) languages,

What is interesting is that Ricky Martin, Shakira, and others release the same songs in Spanish and English (or sometimes in a little bit of both).  It will be interesting to see if over time they just switch to their native language and enough people in the States understand it. Meanwhile my kids will probably end up translating lewd Spanish lyrics for their friends....

Also, there is a lag before the American pop songs show up here.  The ones that were popular last summer are just being played now.

Here are some of the top hits so far (unfortunately only the youtube videos are free - you can always turn off the video ;-) ):

Ricky Martin - Mas - Puerto Rican and the singer who probably was the first cross-over Latin pop singer - remember Livin' La Vida Loca?
Don Omar - La Mano Arriba - Puerto Rican
Michel Teló - Ai Se Eu Te Pego - from Brazil!

Shakira - Rabiosa - both the English/Spanish and the Spanish versions are on the radio - Columbian

Ari and Zoe - Renee is trying to figure out how to get you two to include some of this music at your Bat Mitzvahs since she won't be going the dance party route ;-)

Humitas

One of Renee's favorite foods is chicken tamales so we have waited patiently for the first sign of humitas.   They are traditional in many parts of South America but are prepared a little different in each country. They are made with fresh corn so you cannot get them year round.

In Chile they are usually sweet and are made with fresh corn, onion, basil and butter or lard.  They are wrapped in the corn husks and then, I think, usually boiled.  The first one that I bought was exceedingly sweet and Renee didn't like it.  Apparently they can also be made with aji verde (green chili pepper) - perhaps that will go over better but it will never be a chicken tamale although I have heard rumors that they may be cooked with chicken or cheese inside.  We'll be on the look-out.

Bought at our local Farmer's Market

Refugio Lo Valdes - guest blogger

Several people have suggested staying at this Refugio in the mountains for a weekend.  It is about a 2.5 hour drive away and they have trails, horseback riding, hot springs, and just a nice rustic feel in the mountains.  We planned to go this past weekend because school was over and it was before my sister and family came and before summer camps started.  What we didn't plan on was that Elisa got a 103 degree fever Friday night so I stayed home with her and the rest went up since we already paid for a room.

The rest of this is written by Jonathan who was there ;-):

Me and Renee on the see-saw with the refugio behind us.

When we first got there we found a really nice dog who was really old, but he was very fun.

Us with the dog.

After settling in we got hungry enough to go to their "afternoon tea" which consisted of tea or coffee, strudle , bread (nobody liked the bread,it was too dry), ham, cheese, butter and jelly.  For tea and breakfast on the menu it was one meal for tea (see "afternoon tea") and the same meal for breakfast except that it came with a bowl of under-cooked scrambled eggs.

our afternoon tea

The comfy chairs up front

A pond next to the driveway (with tadpoles as Renee observed - added by Renee)

my friend the dog

At the entrance to the building

our room

horseback riding in the mountains (sorry that I missed those views :-(  -Sarah)

Water

Given my career and obsession with water you may be surprised how long it has taken me to write about it.  The truth is that there is not a lot of public awareness or information about water here.  The climate is almost like Arizona (very dry heat during the day and cold at night, a short rainy season June-September with really not that much rain) so you would expect there to be an awareness of water use but perhaps it is because of the huge reserves in the snow-capped Andes are the backyard. Word has it that there are a lot more conflicts in the more arid areas and where the mining industry is in conflict with local agricultural interests.   Unlike a lot of Latin America, most of the urban areas have a clean water supply and have wastewater treatment.  

The Chocolate Rivers

That said, they definitely have a water quality issue with their urban rivers (ditches?).  Most of the rivers including the main one that flows through town, the Mapocho, are entirely concrete lined and usually barely hold any water although they are built for the spring floods.  I have yet to see a roaring river and instead usually just observe a lot of trash on the "banks" waiting to be swept away by the next deluge

Wikipedia:  The Mapocho River remains contaminated by household, agricultural and industrial sewage, and by upstream copper-mining waste (from the several copper mines in the Andes, east of Santiago), being dumped unfiltered into the river. Laws force industry and local governments to process all their wastewater, but are loosely enforced.  There are now a number of large wastewater processing and recycling plants under construction. There are ongoing plans to decontaminate the river and make it navigable.  [I know all about planning......]

Wastewater

In March 2007, only 61% of the wastewater in Santiago was treated, though this increased to 71% by the end of the year (Wikipedia).  Not sure if it is there yet - Rob - any idea?

Drinking Water

The standards are pretty similar to the US and we have been drinking it since we arrived with no problems.

Water Use

Again, it is very arid here but the concept of xeroscaping has definitely not been introduced or perhaps not caught on.  Instead, because labor is so cheap they have a different type of sprinkler system here that starts early each morning that I highlighted in another blog.  That said, there is this advertisement campaign going on so somebody cares.