Cream of coffee soup

Funny things can happen when you try to fuction in an enviroment in which you do not speak the language. I had a day full of this. It began when I had the notion to use up the left over evaporated milk in vanilla lattes. I found a recipe online. It required powdered sugar, which I asked Ken to pick up at the store. I saw what he got and where he got it from, with the other sugar. At home after lunch I decided to make the lattes. i put the milk in the blender with some vanilla and "powdered sugar". I realized I had forgot to preheat the milk so into the microwave it went. First indication something was not right. It came out of the micro as a thick glob. HUM???? That is wierd. More milk into the blender and lots of "powdered sugar" since the first time it was not sweet. I made my hubby the first one. I poured some of the milk into the steaming cup of coffee and stirred. Strange it thicken like gravy. By the time I took it to Ken it required a spoon to eat. He said it was not sweet at all so more "powdered sugar" into the blender. Then i made one for myself. Really thick and still not sweet so more water and "powdered sugar." So finally, after my sweet hubby choked down the Cream of coffee soup, I tasted the "powdered sugar" straight and realized it must not be sugar. It was potato flour. Yum! It is quite filling, but makes a terrible latte.

I am wanting to make some breakfast sausage and need ground pork. I have not seen ground pork anywhere. i went into my usual carneria(meat store) "Carne a punta" They said no. i walked down to another and asked. They said, "no try Punta" In my effort to explain that I had already been there and they said no i stated in my limited spanish, "Punta habla no" While discussing later what I had actually said, we realized i said, "Now you speak no" Basically, shut up. This may explain why the guy gave Ken a very strange look then asked how much and promptly ground me some pork.

Finally, I picked up some "yellow lentils" in the store. They were right with the green lentils and looked the same. While cooking them I thought they smelled alot like peas. After eating them, I thought they tasted a lot like peas. Out with the spanish-english dictionary. We now know that peelled yellow peas are good in soup.

In conclusion, I should consult my Spanish-English dictionary alot more often.

Auracaria tree

more photos Huerquehue

Photos from Huerquehue

Hiking Huerquehue

Hiking Huerquehue
(pronounced similar to---Wayrkayway)

We set out around 9:00 am. on Sat. July 11, 2009. We were headed for Parque National Huerquehue about an hour away. We traveled up a windy gravel road and parked near the river. We set off hiking in the wet forest. It did not take long for me to feel I had way too much clothing on. I was soon fascinated by the size of the tree trunks. Our guide ( a Chilean friend), the kids and I held hands and still only covered one side of the tree. Due to all the rain lately there was quite a bit of mud to slop through. My belief that I was in pretty good shape was soon despelled as I started to feel the cramps in my legs upon approaching the 943 meter marker. I also knew our destination was more than 1200 meters. The views were extrodinary. As we continued our climb we soon came upon snow. Then we came upon more snow. This was beautiful, but it did make the trail slippery and difficult. As we continued our ascent we found more snow, 6-10 inches. The Auracaria (monkey puzzle) trees were stunning. They are incredibly tall with all thier branches at the top. We left the trail to go visit and waterfall and had a snack of fruit. Back on the trail we came to the first of three mountain lakes. The spot where we had planned to have lunch was already taken by a couple of North Americans, two young students from Berkley. She is dueing a year abroad in her ecologist program. We continued to another lake where we sat on some large bolders and had lunch. It was awe inspiring seated at the edge of the crystal clear lake just beginning to ice over in spots and look out at the trees, mountains, and volcanoe, while nibbling down some yummy Chilean produce and sandwiches. It did not take long however, before I was glad to have the extra clothing to put back on. Once we stopped the strenuous hiking we got cold fast. After filling our bellies and having a much needed rest, we headed to lago verde (green lake) our last stop before beginning the descent. At this point we are a minimum of 2 hours from the truck and a 30 minute drive to town from there. Feeling full and rested we were climbing rocks and taking lots of pictures at the lake. Theodore was next to the rock I was standing atop, dodging snowballs being thrown by his uncle when the innevitable happened. I had seen him getting careless with his footing and was about to climb down to help him when it happened. Splash!!! He fell backwards into the lake. Everything was in except his feet. Although it was near the shore it was still deep enough that his entire face was under water looking at me. With in a matter of secounds I had slid off the rock and flung him with one arm onto shore, where my brother had now arrived. We removed his wet clothing so fast the water did not have a chance to soak through his pants to his long underwear. His shirt and jacket were soaked. By the time we had his clothes off, Ken, who was near the packs and farthest from us, had his spare jacket ready. We put his jacket, my extra coat, his scarf, and a back pack on him and set off. We made him carry the pack and walk in order to generate heat. I found out later that ken had matches and such to start a fire, had it been necessary. He had already considered this before we left and came prepared. It was not long before Theodore said he was warming up. We kept him well hydrated and fed. He was doing so well that we stopped at a few more places on the way down, including another waterfall. We came home to soup which had been simmering on the fire place all day. Although we were so sore and stiff we could barely get out of the truck or walk the next day, it was indeed a great day. I thank God everyone was ontop of thier game and filled thier parts well and quickly in getting Theodore handled. This could have been a much more serious situation if any one of us had dropped the ball.

Peruvian coast

The Fluid Plan

We went to Pucon Sunday and were NOT impressed. We were looking for a good hiking backpack. We are planning a 3 day trip to Argentina in August. We need to get a good pack to travel with. Suitcases are not practicle. The extremely fluid plan is that we will take off November 1 on foot with the kids and starting or midway up Argentina work our way down through toward Patagonia. Our plan is to be in Patagonia by Christmas and stay there through the 1st. We want to be in Ushuia (the southern most city in the world, not to be confused with the southern most permanant human settlement-Port Williams.) for the new year. We think it will be neat for our kids to be as close to the south pole as realistically possible during the holiday focused on the north pole. We also like the idea they can say they rang in 2010 at the bottom of the world.

Valdivia Day 2

We went to the river front and got a bite to eat. We decided to try the traditional Chilean soup, cazuela. It is good but nothing to write home about. We went to the fish market and saw sea lions. They come right up to the wall and jump up on it waitingt for scraps from the market. At the market you can but fresh salmon for 1800 pecos per Kilo (this is less than $2 per pound.) then they will clean it and fillet it for you while you wait. Too bad I had no way to get it home or cook it there. We then walked the 4 KM to the bewery Kunstmann. This was a nice walk and the kids did not complain. By the way this was not a flat 4 KM. There was a lot of UP in it. We wanted to be sure we ordered exactly what we wanted. We figured out the beer first. We ordered the sampler. You get to all 8 of thier beers. I learned I prefer a nonfiltered beer, but not a dark bock. The Torobuyo nonfiltered was my favorite with the honey ale as a close secound. Then we managed to order a meat appetizer. This was a large bowl of sausage and other meats, a bowl of bread and a few french fries. It was delicious. An hour after we arrived and with the help of our new Spanish English dictionary, we managed to order. Ken had a steak with white almond sauce, carmelized onions and rice. I had a different cut of steak with beer plum sauce, red cabbage and spatzel. These 2 meals and the appetizer were plenty for all 4 of us. This had to be some of the best food I have ever or ever will eat. This was incredible. We then chose a pie of apple strudel and Chocolate cherry cake to take back to the hotel. We were way to full to eat it there. We then waited briefly in the complete dark for the minibus back to Valdivia. The strudel was not like strudel we are used to. This was not a bready danish with a bit of apple. This was a dessert made almost entirely of thin sliced apples stacked up. It was fabulous!!!! Then the chocolate cake. There are no words. WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!! This cake was the perfect texture(not too moist or dry) it had layers of sweet cherries in it and tiny bits of almonds all through it. It was the frosting which will forever stick in my mind as a once in a lifetime food experience. This was not frosting. It was as if they took the best quality chocolate possible and added just enough wonderful things to make it speadable. It was almost like eating soft chocolate not frosting. It was fabulous. If you ever find yourself in Valdivia Kutsmann is a must. If you do not want to do a meal atleast get the chocolate cake. There is not much to say after the cake. It took the cake, hehehehe!

The house

This is the new place we have been staying in since the beginning of June. It is a small 2 bedroom 1 bath. About 900 squ ft. On 2.5 acres fenced. My brother and the kids share a room and Ken and I have a room. Except sleeping, when Theodore sleeps on a mattress on the floor in our room. We manage quite well. It is cozy, but working. The Kids love to lay in the windows to read and do school on the rare occasion we see sun. Although I usually put aside all work and send the out doors if we actually have a sunny day. (they are of course RARE!!!!!)