chile:temuco.

tracy took the three of us to temuco with her today, which is a bigger city about two hours from the house.  we were going to an “ecoferia” or eco-fair that she does every couple of months with a group of similarly environmentally-conscious people. tracy sells these things called eco-fans; they don’t require any electricity or batteries or anything, you just put them on top of your wood stove and the heat powers the fan and it blows hot air around the room. pretty cool.

tracy and lance run a store in pucón called siempreverde, that means “always green”. they sell a lot of cool eco products from cleaning supplies to toys, etc.

we got to temuco after a car ride filled with croissants for breakfast and listening to tracy’s murder mystery book on tape. we were all surprised by the venue for the ecoferia because it was pretty tiny, our table took up almost the entire room. but we set up and hung our sign up out front

then truckee, andy and i wandered around for a while because there wasn’t much to do inside and we found a weird playground in a park. weird because there weren’t slides or swings or anything, but instead versions of workout equipment, like ellipticals and stuff. andy said they have them all over chile, and it’s funny because people use them acting like they are working out really hard but there’s no resistance, they are just metal structures. kids play on them too. who knows? wish i got a picture!

we went back into the ecoferia and watched a pretty neat presentation about sustainable building materials, and all of these housing projects being pursued using them. it talked about adobe, colihue, earth-bags, even building houses out of glass and plastic bottles and they looked really cool.

we bailed pretty quick after that, and tracy took us to the best lunch I maybe have ever eaten. it was this tiny restaurant, she didn’t even know the name of it and they have a different menu everyday. it seemed like it was basically just someone’s house with the dining room turned into a restaurant. i think that’s exactly what it was actually. but anyways it started with homemade bread and a mixture of oil and merkén for dipping

and homemade juice. truckee, andy and I all got carrot and tracy got a mix of carrot, beet, and quinoa. yuuuum

then came food! We all got the vegetariano plate, i think it had bulgur, split peas, hominy, a cabbage and broccoli slaw, and homemade cheese. my kind of meal for sure.

then we ordered dessert which was creamed quinoa with homemade jam, it was super good. like rice pudding but with quinoa i was told, but i’ve never had rice pudding.

to finish off the meal we got mate! so it comes in this little cup with a metal straw called a bombilla and a pot of boiling water. you pour water in, sip through the straw and then pass it on to the next person for their turn. you keep passing until all the water is gone.

tracy told us all sorts of maté etiquette like you don’t say “gracias” unless you don’t want anymore, you always pass to the next person with the straw facing them, you never touch the straw, etc. etc. i got a gourd and straw for maté as a gift last year but haven’t used it yet so i’ll definitely pick up some maté to bring back to the states, truckee and i both liked it a lot! a good pick-me-up.

after lunch we made a trip to the mercado (market) and it was like a gigantic farmers market.

there were tons of stands selling all sorts of things like beans,

peppers,

and this stand was entirely dedicated to selling different types of merkén!

we got all sorts of goodies: tomatoes, avocado, peas, broccoli, pears, honey, butter, and this delicious fruit they call sweet cucumber. it’s like this tiny melon that tastes like a watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe all mixed together.

truckee and i were running low on cereal for breakfast so after the market we stopped in the grocery store which was highly entertaining. they were playing this fast paced upbeat music really loud and i think it made everyone walk around really fast because it was crazy in there.

we made it out of the market alive and then headed over to the gigantic department store “falabella” which is like a sears or something. tracy needed to buy a new washing machine and truckee, andy an I entertained ourselves finding things like this:

what a great name for a washer!

then we were sent on an excursion to mcdonald’s to buy lance hamburgers. tracy is a health food buff but lance has a weakness for junk food i guess. i definitely never thought i would be standing at the mcdonald’s counter ordering two big macs at any point in my life, but there I was, and doing it in spanish no less. an experience for sure. we waited for tracy to get back and when she did she told us she got sucked into buying a whole bed as well. an expensive trip to temuco.

tracy bought us chocolate for waiting patiently for her to finish shopping (we are such little kids) so we were happy, and we got home around ten to wash veggies and eat popcorn for dinner. truckee and i were looking forward to a shower and a good sleep in a nice warm cabin but when we got in we discovered that the pilot light for the water heater  was out and we couldn't get the fire to stay lit, so we gave up and just decided to burrow into bed and drink some tea to warm up. innovation right there.