Border Run to Chile

I can't believe I've already been here for 3 months and need to make a border run! (I guess I should stop saying I can't believe how fast the time is flying because I say it every time...hmmm)

I took the last bus from Arequipa to Tacna, s/20 at 10:15pm, thinking that I'd get in at about 5:30, 6 am. It was only about a 5.5 hour ride and so I got in at 3:45, a bit too early to be walking around exploring. So I sat in the bus station drinking coffee and reading my book until the sun rose.

Just out front of the bus station is the international bus terminal. How convenient! And behind it was a bustling city market just opening. There was a flower market lining the street leading up to the main market entrance, and at 5:30 in the morning all the trucks were unloading all of their flower bundles onto the street.
This is also probably the time to go if you want to buy fresh meat. What a sight to see all the stands full! These markets are one of the things that I really miss when I go back home to the states. I miss wandering though the crowded streets seeking out the best deal on vegetables and then going home with some crazy exotic fruit or vegetable that definitely wasn't on my shopping list.

Fish market, because Tacna
 is next to the ocean.

All kinds of seafood

I wonder how much is left at the end of the day.

Rock pictures on the hillside over the bus station

The old train station

After I'd had enough at the market I took a colectivo, for s/20 across the border to Arica. In Arica everything was closed, I couldn't even find a place to change money. I wonder if everything in Chile is closed on Sundays. So I walked (actually I would have walked anyway because because that's how I like to travel when I don't have any place in particular to be) toward the beach, and then along the beach until I was lucky enough to come to the center of Arica.

'Little Italy' in Arica. This cute little church
looked so out of place though.

At some point it felt really creepy just walking along the lonely road next to the unused railroad tracks following along the coast line. Had I known that everything, even in the center of town, was also closed and that I couldn't use Peruvian soles I probably would have felt a lot less brave wandering around by myself. Once I got to the center everything was still closed but at least there was a lot to see.





I climbed the hill to check out the flag at the top and I found a tourist site of an old military bunker. Definitely a very strategic hill for Chile because you can see out over the entire bay of Arica and the city.

The hill to the bunkers.

I think I'm addicted to the kind of feeling I felt walking around that day. It's a feeling of freedom when you have a period of time with absolutely nothing to do, no place to be, you have no cell service or money to spend. So you're able to completely relax, because anything that happens is completely out of your control. When I came across something interesting or scenic I was happy to sit for a while or however long I felt. I had no expectations for where I was headed and so I was able to enjoy everything as it came. (I've come to believe that it's impossible to plan this kind of trip because then that creates an expectation to have a relaxing trip, which the expectation completely negates the intention. So I've learned to just enjoy these moments when they come. :)

Graffiti

The Chilean flag at the top.

Is this supposed to be a mini
 'Redeemer' statue? 

Back in Tacna, Peru in the afternoon I decided to try to find the Plaza de Armas because it's the picture on the back of the s/100 bill. I was on the right bus but the bus went down the street parallel to the plaza and so I missed the stop. I just kept riding the bus because I thought I'd find a good place to eat lunch then make my way back to the plaza. And I got so lucky because the bus rode past a food festival, only once a year in Tacna. It was like the one here in Arequipa except free and miniature size. So I sought out the 'comida tipical de Tacna' and someone pointed me to the patasca a la tacneña. It was this thick yellow stew with potatoes, corn and I'm guessing pig skin. Even though I'm not normally eating pork I tried it because this is the reason I'm traveling, to try the local things and if that's what people recommended to experience Tacnena food then I want to try it. It was tasty. And even better since it was served to be by this Peruvian abuela.

Next I tried a desert. I thought it was some kind of pudding  so I was pretty surprised when it was pumpkin. Although it was really good, especially with the canela, cinnamon, that they used on it. 

After the food fest I was feeling good and full and continued on to the Plaza de Armas. 

The back of the s/100 bill

Sun burnt but happy, just enjoying the park before going back to Arequipa. A long, awesome day.

A full Sunday: Festisabores in Arequipa

First thing in the morning I took Micah to Avelino, because I knew he'd love it. We spent about 2 hours there wandering around and shopping for all the things we didn't really need, and that's about Micah's limit for putting up with me at the market, lol. 

Next we went to Fesitsabores, this big annual food festival. It was in the Cerro Juli convention center, which was big and green and a bit out of the city, so it made a perfect venue. Only s/10 entrance fee. 

We tried some food, but for some reason all the stands were selling whole plates of food instead of small plates to taste the food. So we didn't get to try as many things as we wanted but most of the things we tried were really good. The best thing was definitely the recoto relleno, a traditional food from Arequipa (supposedly originally from here) that is a recoto hot pepper stuffed with beef and topped with cheese. 

The whole grilled fish we ate for s/15.

They had a stage setup for bands and some dancers in front so that while you're taking a break from eating too much you can chill here. We also got to taste some wine and get free mini Pisco sours (the national liquer of Peru) from all the bars that were trying to promote themselves. Yummm...  but the mixture of all these things with the sun ended up giving me a bad headache. 

Later in the evening we watched a cooking class from a gastronomy school here in Arequipa, Instituto del Sur. They showed us how to make 'Chinese Peruvian' food. Fried chicken with a sweet and sour sauce, fried rice and vegetables. Ok, so at least they did introduce it as a fusion. Not too bad. And since I took notes (it was all in Spanish so I only understood a little) at the end of the demonstration they asked questions about how to make the dishes and I won a shirt for answering. 

    


We saw a lot of really interesting foods. Sometimes I'm thinking the food is weirder here than it was in China. Like, cuy (guinea pig) another traditional food from Peru.

Cuy

 

Grilled pork

The traditional countryside dress for women.

Canon SX260

This is from my new Canon SX260. For just playing around with it this past week I have mixed feelings about it.
Pros: It has the ability to take really high quality photos either manually and with the standard auto setting.
It has 20x optical zoom(really nice for me after using the 5x optical zoom on the Canon G10) and can still take great clear photos at that zoom even when you're holding the camera by hand.
It takes great night and low light photos.
It has a high-speed burst setting where it'll take up to 10 fast shots in a row for the best action photos.
Cons: Canon changed the settings for how to choose different options. On my old (broken) G10 I could change the settings by scrolling with the wheel on the back whereas on this camera I need to go into the functions menu to change the settings. This was one of my main reasons for sticking with Canon, because I was used to the settings and it was fast and easy to navigate.
Secondly, I can't find any basic quick setting for mid-day bright light photos. I thought this was one of the most standard settings. Instead when I take photos at that time I need to be on the portrait setting and change to the long distance option to get the right focus... It's really starting to frustrate me. And there is no 'mountain' setting for basic landscape shots. So, basically they added on all these funky settings for fish-eye, and miniature car, but took out the settings that people really use.
Had I known this, I actually wouldn't have bought this camera, because I could have spent $80 more and gotten a lot nicer camera with a lot more control of the the settings.
Anyway, I shouldn't complain too loudly because it's a lot nicer than this $60 Fujifilm camera I thought I'd be happy to just make do with and then decided I've become too spoiled by my G10 and this is why I spent another $300 to get the SX260.  And in the grand scheme of things $300 is nothing in the camera world.

Micah finally got here

One of the first places I took Micah to when he got here was this Civecheria that I've known about for a long time but never had a good enough reason to spend so much money. It's in Cayma, a bit nicer part of Arequipa right next to Yanahuara where we live. Actually we live in one of the richest parts of the city but that just speaks to how nice Cayma is. They have a lot of upscale restaurants back on the little residential side streets that we're going to eventually try. :) That's one of the good things about living in a place so long is that eventually we can try them all.

Civeche w/the giant Peruvian corn

We ordered a spicy civeche, we had to because that's what they're known for and the reason why we went, and a tacutacu dish with fried fish in a soy sauce. And we got a pitcher of Chicha morada to go with it.

Tacutacu

Civeche is one of those typical Peruvian dishes that you need to try when you come to Peru. It's thinly sliced fish cooked in the acid from lime juice and mixed with onions and peppers for heat. Chicha is a really typical juice, you can find it every where and most places don't charge you for it, it usually comes with the meal. The way my family here makes it is by boiling purple corn, pineapple rinds and sugar to make the juice. It's not what you expect when you first taste it because it looks like wine, but it's definitely not. 

All in all we spent about $25, which is nothing in the States but a lot of money here. But this Civecheria turned out to be well worth the money.

"The light of the sun is but the shadow of love.... Love is the wind, the tide, the waves, the sunshine. Its power is incalculable; it is many horse-power. It never ceases, it never slacks; it can move the globe without a resting-place; it can warm without fire; it can feed without meat; it can clothe without garments; it can shelter without roof; it can make a paradise within which will dispense with a paradise without. But though the wisest men in all ages have labored to publish this force, and every human heart is, sooner or later, more or less, made to feel it, yet how little is actually applied to social ends! True,... the power of love has been but meanly and sparingly applied, as yet. It has patented only such machines as the almshouse, the hospital, and the Bible Society, while its infinite wind is still blowing, and blowing down these very structures too, from time to time. Still less are we accumulating its power, and preparing to act with greater energy at a future time. Shall we not contribute our shares to this enterprise, then?" 

-Henry David Thoreau

AveLINO!

If I thought markets in China were big it's only because I hadn't been to Avelino yet. Since I got here I had been looking for Chinese or 'developing country' style markets. I figured they must have them here. I couldn't imagine that everyone was paying the prices that I've been paying at the supermarket for their vegetables. So I asked around and people told me to go to San Camilo, so I went and ok I can buy some vegetables or a lot of potatoes there, but I wasn't satisfied. Then Giovana and Milner took me to this market outside of town that is really big, about the size of the market in Fuyang. But for some reason I still thought the vegetables were a bit pricey and that there should be a market closer to the center of town, I couldn't believe that everyone had to trek all the way out of town to buy their veggies.

Then last weekend I asked Giovana to go with me to that same market to buy some vegetables, but she said it was too late to go because it's a morning market but that we could go to a bigger market that's busy all day long. And that's when she and Milner took me to Avelino for the first time. Last week I saw that it was big, but we didn't really wander around. Just to one of the vegetable and fruit areas. But today I went back on my own and wandered through about 6 streets, each with a market the size of one big market in China, and I didn't even get to the end! After 4 hours I was beat! But I saw everything imaginable; fruit everywhere, vegetables everywhere, meat markets, potatoes piled to the ceiling, lines of 18-wheelers parked full of green bananas and any other tropical fruit, clothes markets, shoe markets, a flower market, rows and rows of food stalls, CIVECHE!, electronics, electronics, household items.....on and on and on. I went looking for vegetable plants to put on the really sunny roof terrace just outside my bedroom door. Well, I didn't find them, even though I'm sure they have them there, but I did find oregano, rosemary, thyme, yerba buena, and some other herb for tea. Ok, that's still awesome and now I have to go back :)