Food:
One thing I will say about Chile is that the food, without exception is fan-freakin-tabulous. The fish, beef, and pork dishes are awesome. Don't expect the food to resemble any of the Mexican dishes you get either here in the states or in Mexico itself. While there is a lot of flavor, there is not a lot of spice. The salsa would typically rank among the bland, compared to the burrito shops on B Street in San Mateo.
Fish dishes are plentiful. Lots of salmon, shell fish, and white fish. Be somewhat careful of the translations. At one restaurant a friend was told that he was ordering abalone. I think what he actually meant was albacore, as in chicken of the sea. Abalone is a fairly rare shell fish that can be caught in the shallow waters along the coast of California and other places. It is a family favorite in the Ferro house, and this certainly was not abalone.
Steak dishes. If you like a good rib eye, Chile is the place for you. I had some unbelievable cuts of meat while down there. The best I would have to say was at a place called the Gaucho in Vina del Mar.
Rice: Other than on a few business trips to Japan, I can't say that I remember the rice being anything to speak of. The type of rice they have in Chile is awesome.
Pisco, Pisco, Pisco:
The national drink of the Chileans is the Pisco Sour. Pisco is made by distilling fermented grapes. It's about 70 proof, and packs quite a wallop. They will mix it most often with sour mix, yielding something akin to a margarita. Personally, I preferred the Mango Sour, which oddly enough doesn't actually have any sour mix in it. It is just Pisco and mango. I also don't recommend having more than two of any drink including pisco. While it is theoretically just booze, it seems to have some form of evening accelerant included as well.
Beer:
Ah yes, a necessary part of any rugby tour. We were quite pleased with the beer selection. Cristal, Royal, and Escudo are the primary low level beers. All were very cheap, and pretty darn good. Budweiser, Heineken, Guinness, and other imports were also available, but at a hefty premium, as I recall.
Dogs:
One of the things that is truly amazing about Chile is the number of stray dogs that populate the streets of Chile, and how well they are integrated into society. People will feed them, pet them, or walk right by them without noticing that they are there. The dogs don't bark, beg, or approach people, but when greeted, they are completely friendly. They even have mastered the skill of looking both ways before crossing the street. As owners of 4 high maintenance dogs, it took us a little while to figure it out, but whatever system has been developed down there certainly seems to have worked itself out. The only time I saw any aggression from any dog was when a pack of 4 were all trying to mate a female in heat. Nothing like a woman in heat to cause an uproar.
Santiago:
Santiago is the capital city of Chile. I got different numbers, but about 5.5 million people live in Santiago. I would recommend spending a day or maybe two in Santiago. After that, you are just in another big freakin city, where you don't speak the language. It's got some beautiful buildings and parks. There is also a huge amount of development going on in Santiago. The skyline is littered with cranes that are helping replace short buildings with taller ones.
We played a round robin against three clubs from Santiago, and one from Mendosa, Argentina. The rugby in Santiago was probably the worst day of rugby that I have ever participated in. They play the game with uncontested scrums. For the uninitiated, that's like having a jump ball where the ref just hands the ball to the team that he wants to have it. Because we were winning, the ref seemed to consistently blow the whistle in our opposition's favor. At one point, one of the wives was laughing at my displeasure over the referee situation. She asked me what I expected to happen, we were in South America afterall. Solid point. We won 3 and tied one match, so on the overall, I'd say it worked out. Oh, and they had beer too, so all is good.
La Serena:
La Serena is a sleepy little beach town after about a 7 hour bus ride from Santiago. It was my favorite stop on the tour. Mining and Fishing are the two major industries there. Though the Wynn Corporation is building a casino along the beach, so I would imagine that tourism is becoming more of the focus.
We arrived about 2-3 weeks after their version of Labor Day, when all the tourists go home. So for us, we more or less had the town to ourselves, which is probably a good thing. One evening when a handful of us went to dinner, our departure from the restaurant was applauded by a table of women who might have thought that we were a bit too loud. These things will happen on tour.
About 2 hours due east of La Serena is Pisco country. It's kind of like Sonoma or Napa before all the McMansions started popping up. Miles and miles of grape. The Pisco industry must be doing quite well. They are excavating and planting grape on hillsides that you would think impossible to grow or maintain vines on. Picking the grape on these hillsides must be an adventure of its own.
Between relaxing by the beach, playing rugby against a great club, and the phenomenally beautiful countryside just east of the coast, La Serena is a place that I would highly recommend to anyone going to Chile.
We played the La Serena Rugby Club on a foggy afternoon in La Serena. Earlier in the day, a bunch of the Boulder OB hosted a rugby clinic for the kids at the local school. What a great experience that was. The kids were so happy to have us come and teach the game, it was just awesome. Our arrival was apparently quite the big deal in town. Many people showed up to watch the game and we made the local paper. The match against the La Serena club was a good fun match. Both teams played hard, we won, and a good time was had after the match. They hosted a dinner, and some of the kids from the school performed a dance in traditional attire, pictures can be seen below.
Top to bottom, La Serena was the highlight of our trip.
Vina del Mar:
Large city along the water. Chile's version of Miami beach I would imagine. 40-50 story shoebox condominiums everywhere. Buildings that block the sun. Great food, very modern, yet no reason to go to South America to see another big city by the beach.
The Boulder OB lost their first match on foreign soil on April 29, 2008. We were pretty worn out by the tour at this point, and we ran into a club that came to play. They beat us 4 tries to 1. They outplayed us in every facet of the game. You hate to lose, but when you do, you want it to be to a solid club. The Sporting Rugby Club of Vina del Mar are a great bunch of guys, who play solid rugby, and have perfected the art of the maul. Rugby is big down there. We played on the infield of the horse track. They have 4 regulation pitches in that infield. When we arrived, a couple of youth teams were being taught the technique of the maul. No wonder these guys we played knew what they were doing.
Alas, it came time to head back to the states. Note to travelers, for long trips, those pillows that support your head are worth every freakin penny. We arrived safely, and with the exception of needing to help pull the limo driver out of the ditch, all was smooth.
Pictures of the trip can be found at:
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| Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le |
Fly of the day:
The Blue Winged Olive Hair Stacker - Courtesy of Fly Anglers Online
Tight Lines,
Dave
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