The unearthing - Curanto

We all shuffle outside, when they give us the signal, to witness the unearthing.

Smoke rises from the earth and two men stand on either side of the plot of land with shovels in hand.

As they remove the earth, more and more smoke is released, at times we can't even see them working.

Fabric is revealed. A shroud. When it becomes fully visible, the two workers set aside their shovels and open it. First one side, then the other. They work slowly, meticulously, so as not to damage the contents.

When the last flap is pulled aside, a burst of smoke blocks our view completely. As it parts, our eyes feast upon the bodies held within. Chickens, goats, pigs, cows. All dead. All cooked. All ready to eat.

Seulement 2 ou 3 autobus par jour se rendent à Colonia Suiza. Nous avons choisi au hasard de prendre ceuli de 11h00, qui arrive à 12h00. Nous avons aussi choisi de ne pas dîner en arrivant, mais d'attendre un peu, de visiter et de dîner à l'heure argentine, vers 14h00. Sur la rue une femme nous a remis un dépliant pour un restaurant qui offre la spécialité du coin, le curanto. Nous avons choisi d'y aller vers 13h30. Sans tous ces choix complètement au hasard, nous n'aurions pas pu goûter le magnifique curanto de Victor Goye, qui est servi à 14h00, deux fois par semaine seulement.

Curanto: sorte de BBQ Mapuche.

Mapuche: Population autochtone d'Argentine et du Chili. Probablement la plus populeuse.

Pour faire le curanto: on creuse un trou dans la terre. On y met un lit de pierres. On réchauffe ces pierres à 390 degrés. On y met de la viande et des légumes. On recouvre de feuilles, puis de jute, puis de terre. On laisse cuire pour environ 18 heures. On l'ouvre devant les touristes qui prennent plein de photos. On sert aux touristes (quoique je crois qu'à l'époque on le servait aux gens du village, probablement).

Ce fût sept assiettes (oui, oui, sept) merveilleuses. Les six premières assiettes comprennent une viande accompagnée d'un légume/fruit (tous cuits au curanto) différents, et ensuite, on peut redemander de ce que l'on veut, à volonté. Alors les variétés: saucisse, poulet, bœuf, porc, bouc, patates, patates douces, pommes, carottes, potiron farci au fromage et légumes, oignon. Le tout accompagné d'un bon vin puis d'un chansonnier.

Ça ne gâche rien que la vue en chemin est magnifique: lac, montagnes, verdures.

Alors, si vous êtes comme moi et que pour vous, une bonne bouffe vaut le déplacement, si vous allez dans le coin de Bariloche, allez à Colonia Suiza. Pas pour le village d'artisans (pas très village, pas très artisans), mais pour le curanto.

Provecho!

https://picasaweb.google.com/109079031155853156451/Curanto

Chocolat - Legendary

Bariloche est connue pour être la mecque du chocolat en Argentine. Cela tombe sous le sens puisqu'elle fût colonisée par des suisses. Je ne suis jamais allée en Suisse mais si ce qu'on dit de leur chocolat est vrai, Bariloche ne fait pas honneur à sa ville soeur.

Mamuschka offre une grande variété de chocolats: bouchée, palettes, torsades, chaud à boire, à la menthe, blanc, aux noix, etc etc etc. C'est la qualité qui fait défaut. Ne vous méprenez pas, ils étaient très bons. Mais pas renversants. Et quand j'entends qu'un endroit est la capitale de quelque chose, je m'attends à mieux que ce que je connais déjà. Honnêtement, Juliette et Chocolat offrent mieux.

Je dois tout de même dire qu'après un après-midi de lèche-vitrine dans le froid et la pluie, un arrêt chez Mamuschka a été divin. Mon amoureux, un chocolat chaud de bonne qualité, suivi d'un shooter en chocolat rempli de Bailey's. Hummmmmmmmmm.....


¿You want to see a chocolate shop in Mendoza stay open on a Sunday? Be there during a Chileno holiday weekend. They seem to come in droves across the border with but one objective. Buy chocolate. For Chilenos, it seems, Argentino chocolate has achieved legendary status. And for Argentinos, it seems, the legend begins in Bariloche with its St-Bernards, it's ski hills, and it's wood-adorned buildings.

However, those who know me, know that I don't like chocolate, but I have been to Switzerland, I have had what eurocentrics tend to consider the best chocolate in the world, and there is no comparison.

When I tried Audray's hot chocolate made with real chocolate, I immediately ordered my own. And after we were done with our cups, upon leaving the store, we opted not to buy any to bring back to the hostel with us.

Fait No 9 - Untitled number nine

Chalet Suisse, restaurant de fondue, photos avec un Saint-Bernard, affiches dans laquelle on met sa tête pour se prendre en photo représentant des costumes suisses traditionnels. Oui, vous êtes bien à Bariloche, Argentine.


My original idea was to simply post the picture and use a variation of the question where in the world is Carmen Santiago, with the name Christopher Hearns, or Christopher Santiago, or maybe even Carmen Hearnsiago, as the title. But I realized that it might give the impression that there exists only one building in Bariloche that looks like the kind of place where one eats a cheese fondue while sitting next to a St-Bernard, instead of most of the buildings. Quite different from the rest of Argentina.

¿Otra vez? - Chos Malal

Chos Malal is everything the guidebook promised. We arrived in the beautiful former capitol of the Neuquén region after a short hop down route forty from Mendoza, a ride that can in itself be considered an adventure due to the splendor of the Andes located right outside the window the entire ride down, the beauty of the desert around us, and the intriguing small dusty towns we would occasionaly pass through.

The hotel, as promised, was in the centre of this small twenty-four thousand town and was about half the price it should have been. It had no kitchen available to us, but with the prices in the restaurants, ¿who needs a kitchen? Out of this world fresh trout or goat for less than the price of a movie ticket back home.

Of course, we weren't there for the hotel, nor for the food, they were just bonuses, we were there for the land outside the city limits.

First up, las aguas calientes. Natural hot springs that we took a too short soak in, bubbling mud pits that look like a scene from a science fiction movie, and geysers that shoot forth twenty meter sprays like a waterfall in reverse. Las aguas calientes is like being in a waking dream.

After that, a quick trip over to see ancient rock carvings by the Pehuenche. Their work was mostly abstract, and in some senses it's sad that this will never be seen in a museum of contemporary work where it could sit side by side with other modern masterpieces, but on the other hand, it is probably most respectful to them that it remains where it is.

Our final night before leaving, I stepped twenty meters out of downtown Chos Malal and took this picture as the sun was setting:

My spanish teachers, when I would read out my responses and make a grammatical or pronunciation error, would ask me, ¿otra vez? Literally it means, other time, and what they were asking me to do was repeat what I had just said, only this time, without the error.

¿Otra vez?

I have no idea what that ride down the forty looks like because I didn't find out what bus company went from Mendoza to Chos Malal directly, instead we had to take a long detour through Neuquén City, which is further east and south than Chos Malal. Instead of an eight hour ride, we had a sixteen hour ride.

The town of Chos Malal is nice looking, for a small town that is mostly dirt roads, but the promised old country buildings from back when Chos Malal was the capitol are either no longer there, or just not very visible.

The hotel was twice as expensive as what the guide book said, so we went instead with a slightly cheaper option with a room that Audray remarked is "nicer than many prison cells." Still more expensive than anywhere else we've stayed in Argentina.

No kitchen, ¿and that goat and trout? Might be the greatest in the world but we'll never know because they were more expensive than our hotel room, four times the price listed in the guide book.

As for the two outings, well if I had done my research even half-assed instead of not at all, I would have known that the only agency in town that did them was not in operation.

When we arrived we were told that the owner would still bring us, but when I asked about the price, I was quoted a number that could have let us stay in Mendoza for a week, eating steak and drinking top of the line wine every night.

¿But who really wants to go on an outing when one of us is bed-ridden with a virus, and the other with a twisted ankle? The pain from my ankle was such that at night I was worried that Audray wouldn't get the sleep she needed because the moans of pain would not stay in my lungs, hardly conditions screaming for rock-climbing.

And on our final night before leaving, I stepped twenty meters out of downtown Chos Malal and took that picture as the sun was setting.

Arriver à Chos Malal, c'est prendre un bus de 12 heures pour se rendre à Neuquen, puis, reprendre un bus de 6 heures (en revenant sur ses pas) pour Chos Malal. Aucun autre moyen de le faire à partir de Mendoza.

C'est aussi ne pas encore savoir où l'on va rester, parce qu'on ne sait pas exactement quand on y arrive. C'est donc faire le tour des hôtels et choisir le moins cher, mais aussi le plus miteux: coulisses étranges sur les murs, plafond moisi, salle de bain partagée en décomposition.

Chos Malal, c'est réaliser que les agences de tourisme n'existent plus et que le seul moyen de faire les activitées voulues est de payer un particulier très, très cher.

C'est se réveiller avec un rhume puissant qui nous empêche de sortir du lit.

C'est aussi un partenaire qui se foule la cheville et qui n'est donc pas vraiment plus utile que soi même.

Chos Malal, c'est une foire au malheurs de 48 heures que je suis heureuse de savoir derrière moi.

Chos Malal, c'est tout de même un peu drôle, quand on y pense.

Fait No 8 - Untitled number eight

Vous connaissez touTEs le slogan de fusion de Montréal: 1 Île-1 ville. Mon slogan pour l'Argentine: 1 ville-1 casino. Si petite cette ville soit-elle.


Big city with high rises where the roofs are lost in the clouds, small town with nothing but dirt roads, it doesn't make any difference, somewhere within the city limits you'll find a shiny modern new-looking building with the word Casino written large in neon.

Untitled number seven - Fait No 7

¡Feliz Halloween!

¡Truco ó recompensa!

These are words you will never hear in Argentina.

Halloween, ma fête préférée, n'est pas célébrée en Argentine. Chris m'a tout de même organisé une chasse au trésor dans l'hôtel le 31 octobre. Alfajores pour tout le monde!

Valparaiso - A tourist's guide to Valparaíso, for tourists

Je ne reconnais pas ces rues grises, un peu sales. Ces immeubles abandonnés et cette odeur de ville portuaire. C'est curieux, ça ne ressemble en rien à ce que l'on m'avait décrit. Je suis confuse, un peu perdue. Peut-être si je continue un peu...c'est quoi là-bas?

C'est bien cela? Oui, un banc de loups-marins, qui se dorent la couenne au soleil. Ça me fait plaisir de les regarder. Ah, et un navire échoué, enveloppé par les algues. C'est beau, tout vert luisant contre la mer bleue. La mer forte qui vient se briser sur la roche, c'est beau.


Et en haut, la-bas, c'est quoi les couleurs? L’ascenseur m'y mène. Les rues, escaliers et ruelles sont étroites, éclectiques, pleines de couleurs et de vie. Il y a des beaux dessins partout, des messages laissés par les gens. C'est comme un musée à ciel ouvert. De petites maisons colorées si mignonnes qu'on a envie de les manger. À chaque détour, c'est beau, ça fait sourire. Et puis d'ici, je vois toute la ville en bas, la mer, les couleurs. Mon petit nuage me mène d'un rêve à l'autre.


Je respire bien et profondément, ici. Je vais rester encore un jour ou deux, je crois.

Valparaíso was at one point the most important city in Chile, unsurprising as most port cities held greater importance in the past than they do in the present, and this can still be seen in that even though Santiago is the capital, Valparaíso is where the national congress sits.

In many ways stepping into Valparaíso is stepping back about a hundred years, as architecturally not much has changed, or it would be if these hundred year old structures had been maintained, since a lot of rust and peeling paint adorns the houses in Valparaíso.

WARNINGS

Stay away from Viña del Mar. Oh sure, on paper it seems like a really nice place, but in reality it's simply a mini-Miami. The people dress snobbishly, the buildings are all enormous, the food is twice as expensive for half as much that isn't even half as good as food from elsewhere, and finally, the prices for lodging are way higher than in Valparaíso with fewer options.

The only reason to go there is for the beach, which is larger than the one in Valporaíso, a bit cleaner (but not much, you still have to be on the lookout for broken glass in the sand), and where the waves are impressively larger and louder.

WHERE TO STAY

Valporaíso has many options of where to stay. Many many many. An overwhelming number of options. My suggestion, try to find something at the base of one of the cerros (hills) and not on them. On them is the residential area, and if you want access to public transportation, super-mercados, restaurants, bars (of which Valporaíso has many), then you want to be near the base of the cerros.

Prices are the same either way, and often a bit cheaper at the base because the view from your room won't be as impressive.

WHAT TO EAT

Sopaipillas. For one hundred Chileno pesos, or the price of four gummy worms in Montréal, you too can enjoy this amazing piece of street food. It looks like a yellowish orangeish piece of round fried bread, about the size of my outstretched hand, and I slather it with hot sauce before I eat it. If you don't like hot sauce, ketchup, mustard, or salsa verde are also options.

If they had these for sale on the streets of Montréal for one hundred pesos each, I might never have to cook again. On the other hand I'd probably be dead in less than a month from blocked arteries...

HOW TO GET AROUND

Along the coast, there is no better option than the subte which runs frequently (much more frequently than the Montréal metro system), is spotlessly clean, and is extremely cheap. If you need transportation in town, there are buses which are slightly more costly, but they are everywhere, all the time.

Not that we ever needed to take a bus, walking around town is one of Valparaíso's greatest pleasures.

WHAT TO SEE

After securing lodging, your next step should be to acquire a copy of the Fundación Valparaíso's walking tours at their headquarters located at Hector Calvo Cofre 205. It's not very easy to find, and the book isn't cheap, but the walks they suggest are incredible for getting to know the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Both because you'll know where to go, and also because on each step of the journey they fill you in on the historical relevance of buildings or areas. The book is available in English and Spanish.

With book in one hand and camera in the other, you are now ready to walk the streets of Valparaíso. Ready to see the fantastically colourful buildings, with murals on almost every last one of them. I've come to suspect that there isn't a vantage point in the city where a great photo isn't waiting to be taken.

I recall that on one of our walks, our camera's battery died, and we returned to the hostel to recharge it rather than continuing on sin camera. And I am not a camera happy person in general.

As for the history, for me it was at times too much in the book, likely because there was a focus on the rich and influential, and I am more curious how the poor and down-trodden got on, but for those who like to know the history of where they are travelling, the book's information, both on the grand order of things as well as the details (like the history of a coffee shop), is extensive.

None of this sounds great on paper, it didn't to me when I first heard of Valparaíso, I needed to be convinced to go, but the experience far outweighs the talking about it.

https://picasaweb.google.com/109079031155853156451/Valparaiso#