Acutely aware that we haven't posted an update for this whole year (ha), we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to catch-up on what we've been up to in Chile. Given that we have been working full time hours in a place that isn't exactly accessible by public transport, our main time for exploring comes at the weekends when we can spare the hour and a half it takes to get into central Santiago. Our first weekend saw a whistle stop tour of the main sights of the city, including lunch at the tourist hotspot Patio Bellavista (with the addition of one of those ice cream rolls where a man hacked at milk on a frozen plate until he had managed to make a delicious lemon, basil and mint creation). We wandered up to San Cristobal hill (where the famous funicular was closed due to ongoing maintenance!) and made our way to South America's tallest building, the Costanera Center, which houses a 6 level shopping mall of epic proportions. This was closely followed by a quiet Christmas as we baked in the 33 degree heat and found ourselves longing for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.
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December the 25th marks actually quite a few milestones for us. It is our first Christmas spent together, the first one away from our families and the first in a foreign country. Not to mention our first warm festive period (it's been around 32 degrees here!) The plan is to avoid the warming comfort food of a UK banquet, and skip straight to the fresh bread, cured meats and cheeses that are favoured by the Mediterraneans. Throw in some good old fashioned Christmas telly courtesy of iplayer and a bottle of Odfjell red, and we're set for our holidays to be very happy indeed! We would also like to take this opportunity to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Some people may be wondering what exactly we're doing with our time over the festive period on a vineyard in Chile. The answer is a rather fun internship working in the offices at Odfjell. Joe is spending his time working with the Sales and Distribution team, compiling pricing data and assisting with analysis on the winery's main markets and competitors. Alice is designing and running a project for the Marketing and Hospitality Manager, looking to set up walking and biking trails across the estate for potential visitors. The next three weeks are being spent in the office, learning about the wine industry, analysing Chilean export data and of course sampling some of the products (all in the name of research, obviously...) Having in arrived in Chile, it is immediately obvious that the country is very very different to Bolivia. Driving down the motorways flanked by detached houses in an air conditioned taxi (with seat belts!), you'd be forgiven for mistaking Santiago for somewhere in the USA. The closest supermarket is basically a Walmart, Uber is very active here and the city has its own fully developed metro service. Stepping off the plane is almost stepping into another world. We were warned about culture shock prior to arriving in Bolivia, but we hadn't quite anticipated having it the other way around. After a painless 40 minute taxi ride from the airport, we made our way to the vineyard and winery that will be our home for the next 4 weeks. The Odfjell Vineyard in the Maipo Valley is an 85 hectare farm, complete with state of the art underground gravity flow production facility and a host of beautiful Norwegian fjord horses (which they breed meaning adorable foals!). The vineyard was founded and continues to be run by a family of Norwegian armadors (ship owners) - hence the fjord horses - and is a stunningly beautiful place to be. We are lucky enough to be staying directly on the estate in an apartment and have been encouraged to walk and explore the extensive grounds. Something tells us we're going to have a very lovely time in Chile... The time has finally come to wave goodbye to La Paz as we move on to the next stage of our adventure. Our last week saw a flurry of activities as we tried to get the most out of our final few days. Highlights included visiting a project in El Alto where former prostitutes are helped out of exploitation by an organisation that provides them with the opportunity to gain a skill and work making beautiful handmade bags and purses, whilst supporting their mental health, and in many cases, childcare needs. We also went to the famous 'Cholita Wrestling' show that is hosted twice a week in El Alto. Again the origins of this lie in community action - this time to combat domestic violence. The founders were women who initially wanted to learn self defence to protect themselves against abusive partners, and ended up running a very successful show that attracts tourists and locals alike. We also had the opportunity to spend some extra time at Ma Wawaki, joining the staff for an 'end of year' party where many of the children who attend therapy sessions and their families came along for food, drink and a rather impressive magic show. (We never did find out if we won the raffle...)
Now on to one of our favourite places! Located in Cota Cota in the Zona Sur (or South Zone), Ma Wawaki is both bizarre and beautiful. Set up as an equine therapy centre by the Higher University of San Andrés, the stables actually sit on the same site as the humanities lecture halls and offices! We can't imagine walking past riding lessons, muck piles, hay mountains and horses everyday whilst studying. In end what you get is a place with a fantastic atmosphere, with a dedicated team of staff who truly care about both the horses they look after and the children who use their services. Chinese vegetable stir fry with egg fried rice. For the sauce:
For the rice:
Method Start cooking the rice. Fry the onion and pepper in oil until softened. Add the broccoli and fry until tender. Add garlic, ginger and chilli for a few minutes before adding soy sauce. Reduce until sticky and add seeds and nuts. Add more soy sauce until sauce is desired consistency. Once the rice is cooked, heat in large pan or wok with oil (stirring constantly) for a few minutes. Push rice to one side of the pan and add beaten egg to the other - fry like an omelette before chopping up and mixing into rice. Add cooked peas and serve with sauce.
After prematurely declaring ourselves free from sickness, Alice managed to have a relapse but this time we didn't hang about, and instead went straight to the clinic for a consultation. 3 hours, a blood test and some garbled Spanish symptoms translated in Google later, we had a diagnosis: salmonella. In many ways it was relief - at least we now know what the problem is and that the treatment is only a small cocktail of antibiotics, painkillers and a very strange tasting oral solution for 4 days. (Speaking of painkillers, these bad boys are strong, and knocked me out for around 2 hours during which I apparently snored my head off and even failed to be roused by Joe's loud cleaning efforts). Doctor's orders include plenty of rest, lots of fluids and a dieta blanca (or a "white diet" consisting mainly of plain crackers and rice) for 5 whole days. The cravings for a spicy pizza smothered in cheese have already begun...
Firstly just to say we have both fully recovered from our illness and are pretty much back to full strength without the need for medical intervention! Secondly, just a quick note about our blogging. Over the past few weeks in Bolivia we've been finding it increasingly difficult to load our weebly site to add blog posts. This has mainly been due to the incredibly poor wifi connection in the volunteer house (which is an inevitable part of living and working out of the main city). What it has meant is we've been unable to upload the ramblings and pictures we've been producing and instead have been collecting them together for a time when the wifi is just strong enough to let us on. Basically we've backdated a bunch of posts from our time here which have been added below, so make sure you scroll down to catch everything, including some more information about the projects we have been working at.
As happens to even the most able explorers, we've both come down with a bought of TD (travellers diarrhoea - I promise I won't repeat this word again and will spare you the gory details). .As I write this we are lying in isolation from each other and our fellow housemate and volunteer Stephanie, who has remained mercilessly free of the dreaded plague thus far. In ourselves we don't feel too bad (we've definitely both felt worse) but the gripping and sudden urge 'to go' is keeping us both housebound for the foreseeable. We've made the decision to remain on bed rest, with plenty of fluids, rehydration solution and plain food for a few days in the hope we will get better on our own. If not, we'll be down the clinic for a round of tests to determine exactly what nasty has set us off. Wish us luck...
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Hi! We're Alice and Joseph, currently on a year long RTW trip :) Archives
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