A bountiful (and cheap) harvest

We went to the Policia Internacional and the Civil Registrar today. The first stop took about 45 minutes. The second stop... took forever. We stood in line for something like 2 and a half hours, got some paperwork, waited a little while longer, then got fingerprinted. Which took another ten minutes to clean up.

But, after that (and quite a bit of lost-like wandering around) we found the market that we briefly visited on Saturday. And this time, we bought stuff. We spent somewhere around $2.50 or $3.00, and got: six Roma tomatoes, two Hass avocados, mushrooms, spring onions, garlic, a white onion, three bell peppers (red, green and orange), close to a pound of pasta... and my favorites: a pound of raspberries and close to a pound of cherries.

Very nice.

Prices for produce are much, much higher in grocery stores -- closer to US prices. According to Bruce, residents of Santiago tend to see going to the market as lower class. I am not sure why. Better prices, better produce. Seems like a win-win to me.

Jason

Siete Vidas

Sorry, Jules, it isn't the Playboy TV show. It is, in fact, the idea that cats in Chile have only seven lives, not the nine that cats get elsewhere. I found this fascinating... Is it because Chilean cats have harder lives? The idea that cats have nine lives is likely Egyptian in origin. How did it get changed when it migrated to Spain, South America, and a few other places? And why to seven? Is it because seven is a historically lucky number?

Jason

Random things

1. You might not think so, but hot dogs with tomatoes, avocado and mayonnaise are pretty good. And contrary to what Jen and I thought, it is avocado paste, sort of like guacamole. Oh, and they cost about a dollar.
   
2. There is this drink/snack called mote con huesillo that is sold on street corners in the city. Mote is boiled or soaked barley grain, and huesillos are sun-dried peaches. You get a cup of this sticky sweet syrup, with two or three peach pieces, and about an inch and a half of barley for about 80 cents. It was really, really tasty.
3. The Metro is very nice here. The buses... may involve taking your life into your own hands.
4. There seem to be fewer people that know any English than while we were in Spain (probably as much to do with the fact that we were in a very tourist-y area of Spain), but everyone has been very kind. They slow down and speak more clearly, and often pantomime things to get their point across. Spanish classes are at the top of our list...

Jason

Our first Communist rally

Our first Communist rally
Originally uploaded by jaults.

We went to a park about 4 blocks east from the Hostal this evening to get some pictures. We had been to this park on Friday, and wanted to stop back and take pictures of the lake (one, two, three), the wildlife, and some giant palm trees (later). We didn't expect to find a rally for the Communist party of Chile.

There was some kind of a musical festival called Ojo con la Música Chilena going on. I don't know if the communists were just taking advantage of the rather large number of people there for the concert, or what, but they had at least 2,000 people at their rally. To me, the most interesting thing was not the number of people there, but the fact that they all knew the words to all the songs! I guess a band was playing communist rally songs, and the people in the crowd were all very enthusiastically singing along...

Jason

Hostal Santiago

A bunch of firsts... First blog post, first Flickr picture, first picture with our new camera, first night in the Hostal in Santiago. This is a picture of the common room in the Hostal Santiago. I'll have more to post soon.

Jason

Oh, and post in the comments if you have any ideas about why this blog is called Siete Vidas. It is based on an interesting fact we learned yesterday...