18/03/2001
  Paildad - Isl. Chiloč - CILE
   S 42°51    W 73°36
  + 97

Hi how  have you been ? We hope that you've had an invigorating weekend. We are still on the magical island of Chiloé with its very hospitable inhabitants. We spent two very peaceful days with our hosts Carmen and Marcos, roaming around  and for ever discovering new landscapes surrounding our little wooden home. We have been on the road for nearly 100 days and each one of us feels the need for  some "time-out"  occasionally. 

Nicole goes off on long walks and meditates about her past, present and future life. Whilst enjoying the wildlife around her, she come across some  ducks and her thoughts vanish away as the ducks take off for an unknown destination.

Vale  spends quite some time behind her computer screen making sure that the team is still on budget but soon she heads off to the  kitchen to make one of her famous apple cake (gracie mille Nonna !).

Marco reads the weekend away but still manages to play several  video games on Cyber 2 

Theo, as restless as usual, seems loss in his thoughts... .

Ithaca and Aleko create a miniature rafting super duper circuit on the pebble beach, carving little boats out of whatever they can get their hands on. Very soon the whole team is searching for the most efficient material for their own  micro-racing machines. But It is Marco who comes up the most ingenious solution: he waterproofs a mussel with wax and wins many a race much to Aleko's dismay.

However, the weekend is clouded with  one incident: Rum, Carmen and Marcos's 83 kg dog comes home covered in blood. We later learn that he killed one of the neighbor's sheep. Marcos has to buy the sheep  and tie up his dog.

This place is ideal for learning to cook new dishes  that we'll be teaching you below (the most voted choice in the last voting form)

 Check out  the videos and the rest of this journal.

We'll be approaching the 100th day very soon and  we are as motivated as always to make sure that the Car@van becomes a world phenomenon, moving around the world in continuous movement. 

CURANTO  Typical  Chiloean dish

Ingredients: Crawfish (Clams and mussels), Chicken legs, pork chops, chorizo sausages, peas cooked in their pod, Milcao and Ciapalele.

Milcao: (raw) potatoes pancakes with pork lard and flour. 

Ciapalele: same as Milcao but with cooked potatoes 

Preparation:

Whilst the local women prepare the potatoes pancakes, their husbands dig a large hole in which the food will be cooked.

They make a fire and place large pebbles on its hearth. They then place the following ingredients in the following order: Crayfish, chicken and pork covered with several layers of giant rhubarb leaves, then the Milcao and Ciapalele also covered with rhubarb leaves. The men cover the whole lot with strips of lawn and leave it to cook for 1 hour whilst drinking wine.

Check out the video and enjoy!

NB: You'll need  a large garden if you want to do this at home !

The atmosphere here is very cosy and the warm attentions of our hostess Carmen, together with the cracking fire, sooth our spirits. 

After yet another amazing meal, Marcos plays several Chilean songs and Carmen sings along. Dusk falls and we all feel as if we were part of one big family enjoying each other's company in all simplicity. Carmen coins the feeling by shouting out: " Why don't we take a family picture ?"

HUMITAS (for 10 people)

40 corn on the cob (with leaves), 5 onions, 1 garlic, basil, salt

Grate the corn, chop up the onions and cook them for 15 minutes with the other ingredients.

Then make up small bricks from the mixture, carefully wrapping them up with the (washed) corn leaves. Secure each packet with some string.

And then leave them to cool down.

Before serving, heat up the packets in boiling water for 10 minutes.

This dish is even better with a Chilean Salad -see below-.

CHILEAN SALAD

Tomatoes, onions and fresh coriander.

Peel both tomatoes and onions. Chop up the tomatoes and slice up the onions. let the onions stand in boiling salted water for 20 minutes. Chop up the coriander.

Salt to taste and serve with lemon juice and olive oil.

 

PISCO SOUR (cocktail)

Pisco, Lemon, Crushed ice , Icing sugar.

2 part Pisco for 1 part lemon juice. Sugar to taste. Mix up the lot in a shaker with the crushed ice and party on!

MISSION 14 ACCOMPLISHED ! 

Your turn now !

We will be putting on a show for the only 22  kids of the local village school.

By the way, how is the organization of the Party in Rome getting on ?

Guide our next steps,insert contacts & info on   IWorld