Category Archives: South America

Argentina Andes

Posted on February 20, 2012 | 1 Comment

taken at Argentina Andes

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Posted in Argentina

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Drunkard in the streets

Posted on February 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

I loved this photo of a effigy, ano viejo!

In Quito, during the New year, the Quitenos make effigies of people, often poking fun of a particular person or character.  This is to symbolise the old year which they will burn at midnight.

This is particularly funny for me, because, while living in Quito, I often see many men around my neighbourhood, so drunked that they simply lie on the the streets. Quite a common sight around my barrio!

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Posted in Ecuador, South America

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Travel Wisdoms

Posted on February 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

taken at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

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Posted in Chile

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If only I have cerviche once a week

Posted on January 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

I have an obsession with food, always.  This is part of the essential part of my travels and it is a deal breaker for anyone who wants to travel with me. I eat a lot, sometimes a lot of weird stuff, and often the restaurant or food stall is hidden on some back alley street. I hate going to typical tourist restaurants and seek out the cheap and characterful places. It also helps to have an iron stomach, especially if you are game for raw stuff.

Part of the popular dishes in South America is cerviche. Raw seafood cooked in lime juice and other sauces. I had it in Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Easter Island, Peru.

The best cerviche I ever had was in the most unlikely place that is a little far away from the coast.  That was in Nazca, Peru, famous for the Nazca lines. It was cheap and so good for only us$5 for a complete meal that included a soup, the cerviche, main fish dish, a drink.

Every country prepares their cerviche a little differently.

Bolivia serve mostly fish cerviche with fried toasted corn and lotsa lime and chilli. Ecuador loves their cerviche with conche and prawns served with panacones (fried banana chips) and pop corn. Chile has their sea urchin cerviche which is delicious but expensive, serve plain with lime and onion. Easter island has mainly tuna cerviche, serve plainly like the Chileano version with lotsa lime juice. Peru has one of the best cerviches, mainly fish with some spices and mint.

 

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Posted in Bolivia, Chile, Easter Island, Ecuador, Peru, South America

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New Year rituals and traditions of Ecuador

Posted on January 5, 2012 | 3 Comments

Spending the New Year Celebrations in Ecuador is highly recommended and it had been quite a fun experience.

In Quito, Ecuador, the Quitenos celebrate their New Year’s Eve slightly different than the rest of the Andean countries. Around the late afternoon, the Quitenos would dress up in halloween costumes, the more frightful the better.

Families in costumes parade around the Avenue de Amazonas, often in costumes that are more suited to halloween.There were many celebrations going on with music stages all set up in the main street with huge dolls.

Events end early in Quito, the crowd would thin out quickly by 10pm, families would return to their barrio for their own family celebrations.

I got to visit a Quiteno family and participated in their celebrations, we did the rituals for the New year, danced, cried, read out our hopes and desires, burnt effigies, set off fireworks, then finally got to eat our new year dinner after 1am and continued until dawn broke.

In the neighbourhood, the young men or sometimes older men would dress up as ‘Viudo de Negro,’ Black widows. Blocking off their streets to hapless drivers begging and harassing for money. It can be quite a campy sight, where the males would dress and act in quite raunchy, exaggerated depictions of women.

Rituals and Traditions of the New Year

One of the traditions or rituals is to burn an effigy of a person in form of a masked dummy, the effigy is usually a person that you despise or someone you wish to get rid off in the new year.

At midnight, the effigy is burned, to symbolise the burning of the old year, aka Ano Viejo, and to usher the New year. Each person in the family would jump across the burning effigy to burn away their bad luck. It is also a custom to write your wishes and hopes out and speak it out as you burn the effigy.

Things to do at stroke of midnight – Everything is done 12 times

It gets quite busy at midnight,

You are suppose to eat 12 grapes to symbolise your desires and protect you for each 12 months of the year.

Wear new underwear :  yellow for money, or red for love.

Sweep the dirt away in the front of your house twelve times.

For those wishing to get married  in the new year, you have to sit and stand 12 times in a row at the stroke of midnight

Carry 13 golden coins for prosperity all night during dinner.

Read out your will, or desires and hopes for the coming New Year.

Then Finally eat your New Year’s dinner after everything is done!

Feliz Ano!

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Posted in Ecuador, South America

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Christmas Mass with pop singing monks

Posted on December 26, 2011 | 1 Comment

Since it is the Christmas Season, I might post a little video on Ecuador, South America.

Quitenos celebrate Christmas Eve by attending mass either at midnight or earlier before heading back to their homes for Christmas dinner around midnight or 1am. It is a rather quiet affair with few people in the streets except around the churches.

In San Francisco Iglesia, Quito, I was expecting it to be a solemn quiet mass only to be greeted with pretty lively music, young singing monks with live band. The young padre would in between those lively pop music give rather short sermons and even invited a few of the masses to sing along with the band!

This went on for quite a while and everyone was rushing to the front to get their baby jesus nativity dolls to be greeted by the padre after the music

What a great Christmas Eve Mass, who knew!

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Of pregnant whales and farting sea elephants

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

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Here in Peninsula Valdez, Patagonia, Argentina, it is winter, the perfect period for whale watching. In summer, millions of Magellanic Penguins come here for their breeding but at this moment, I only saw few swimming penguins out at sea.

It is whale season now (June to August), where the Southern Right Whales come to breed and give birth to young calves. With deep waters around the bay, it is possible to spend the whole day watching the whales swim close to shore or watch pregnant whales cavort in the waters.

Location : Peninsula Valdez is declared a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO, for those who collects UNESCO sites, here’s one for your collection.

The weather was cold (2oC) for first 2 days then pretty warm (20C) and gloomy for the rest. This peninsula experiences two different tides per day, with cold waters from Antarctic and warm waters from Brazil. This varied temperature is excellent, providing rich diverse food for the many animals who migrate here for breeding.

Besides the whales, the Southern Elephant Seals are another to watch  for. There are a few places around the Peninsula where you can get quite close to them, close enough to get attacked should you decide to get in their faces. They do smell bad,  with the frequent comical burps and farts of decomposing fish and dead birds. I visited Punta Ninfa, where a small colony of elephant seals congregate. They were so used to having humans around, they seem quite comfortable with me hanging near them. Punta Ninfa is also a popular site for the locals of Puerto Madryn to go fishing, pick shellfish or just have a day at the beach.

Southern Right Whale is one of the ugliest, they are like the elephant man of the whale species. Barnacles grow on their heads, making each of them quite unique and easily identitable to Marine researchers. Pregnant whales come to the Peninsula to calf, often heavily pregnant females cavort for long periods in the waters to ease calving. Fascinating to watch their tails stick out in the waters.

Here, you can get close to the Elephant seals, they don’t get too bothered with you lying on the ground pretending to be just like one of them. But always remind quiet and don’t get too close, else you would stress the animals or get attacked by them.

Guanacos are everywhere in Patagonia, relatively endangered due to aggressive sheep farming in the region. Apparently related to the camel family, they like to spit at humans just like the temperamental camels.

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Crazy eats of South America Part 1

Posted on July 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

In Mendoza, Argentina the famous Malbec wine region : The Malbec grape varietal thrives and where the best Argentina wine come from, also famous for its Dulce de Leche, a condensed caramelised milk product popular with Argentinians

Half spoonful of  Dulce de Leche, fill the other half with Malbec wine, gulp it down.
Chile has its terramoto cocktail drink, red wine, pisco (grape liquer), pineapple icecream. This is Mendoza’s version of very bad drink ideas that taste quite disgustingly weird.

Alfajores : Very typical biscuits of South America, you see versions of it everywhere, especially in Chile and Argentina. This Argentinian version consist of snow dusted sugar on 2 biscuits with Dulce de Leche filling (caramelised condensed milk) . Quite addictive and probably will kill your liver and kidney from all those sugar! You easily find them in shops, cafes and on the streets.

Cerviche in Easter island. Raw fish cooked in lemon juice along with raw local shrimp from the surrounding sea. Served with steamed banana bread (right) that is more banana than bread, local Tuna call Kana Kana (middle), fried plantains (left) with salad in the background.
One of the best cerviche tasted so far since coming to South America but deadly if you are not into raw fish and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Mendocino (Mendoza, Argentina) version of Paella :

Rice cooked purely in white wine and a bit of broth, but really mostly cook in wine.  Add  tomatos and fresh tomato, onions, salted anchovies, garlic. The octopus is cooked in red wine with carmelised onions. Local Mussles added at the end, Olives and Half boiled egg place on top along with Biondilo and Mendocino hard feta cheese. Cooking preparation & time s about 1 hour.

Eating out in Argentina is expensive and one can’t afford to eat out for all main meals daily especially when it cost 50-80pesos (us$13- us$20) for quite a sub standard dish. That’s just a dish not a meal. However Mendoza is a great place for beautiful vegetables, sea food, meats produce and cooking is fun if you have a great kitchen.

Empanadas are like the South America version of curry puff, pastry stuffed with meats, or cheese, or chicken. There is the fried and baked version. The pasteleria everywhere seems to make awful pre-prepared empanadas, but there are dedicated shops that make fresh versions when you order them. The fillings and the pastry matters a lot. The trouble is it is more of a hit and miss affair when choosing a good empanada shop. The standard varies and often the popular shops serve up quite crappy versions even if there are tons of folks buying it. The  freshly made fried empanadas taste better than the oven baked ones of course. This is what most Chileans and Argentinans have as cheap fast food. A typical cheap dinner will consist of at least 6 pieces.

Salted pig in Argentina, this is more traditional and often prepared only for the weekends. The whole pig with skin and hooves is cured in salt. It seems more of a spanish dish where you make a stew out of it.  The taste apparently is better than fresh pork. Preparation takes more than 1 day to soak the pig in water to rid of the salt then boiled and stewed with root vegetables or eaten just like so. I  have no clue what this taste like as I don’t eat red meats.

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Posted in 3. Food Around the World, Argentina, Chile, Easter Island, Peru, South America

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Largest salt plains in the world with ton loads of Cactus

Posted on July 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

Bolivia is pretty much known for the famous Salar de Uyuni and here in the Salar, Island of Pescadore or Incahuasi or the island of fish  is pretty much the most well known place to visit. However they should really rename it as the isle of Cactus for it is covered with cacti.

Incahuasi is right smack in the salt flats is an island spruce up with tons of cactus. Got to spend a night at the island after the tourists have left, under the freezing cold skies. I got the idea of sleeping here after looking at all the photos, and realise there isn’t many night shots of the island.

This is the  best place to star glaze or watching the sunset and sunrise touch the horizon. The skies are so clear as it is quite high in altitude (around 3000meters) and no one in sight for miles. Simply gorgeous and well worth the effort to persuade everyone including the travel companions and travel guide/driver to spend the night here. I had to keep harping on the great beauty that awaits all of us when most of the companions were apprehensive about the place. My tour guide cum driver was terrific and very accomodating to my request. It was his first time sleeping at the island as well.

My tour guide cum driver, a sweetheart wanted a photo of him jumping, and request to be dressed in my traditional poncho/manta.

Definately well worth the experience.

A pair of llamas dancing out their mating rituals. Only few llamas on the island of cacti

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Aconcagua and Puente del Inca : Roof of South America

Posted on June 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

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The roads lead to Chile border got snowed-in for 6 days and I was obsessed with this whole route, patiently stayed around Mendoza for more than a week. This area has one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen, especially when the mountains are covered with snow. Well worth the wait to the mountains of Aconcagua, they say its the roof top of South America, the highest peak of the Andes, reaching 6400meters altura.Some parts of the hike was a little challenging without snow boots, the snowed ground was sometimes knee high. Even though snow powder was the driest I have ever experienced, my hiking shoes were soaking wet after.

Puente del Inca is a natural bridge formed by the river with an old spa built under it. The natural hot spring still flows, causing the yellow sulphuric colored stain on the snowy ground.

While at Puente del Inca, met these 2 crazy brazilians who are making a documentary about their travels to 33 countries of Latin America. I think they are crazier to travel down to Patagonia in strong windy winter, let alone rush thru all these countries in 1 year.

Into the wild : this rusted bus reminds me of Jon Krauker’s book about the young man who ventured into Alaska and died in a bus just like this, in the cold white winter covered grounds.Apparently all were not allowed to cross the Puente del Inca, the bridge covered with yellow sulphur from the hot springs, so I was intrigued when this man walked cross it and climb down to the river underneath. Later I found out he was doing some clearings and getting some rocks for his art stall. He was rather tickled that I wanted to make a image of him

Old abandoned train tracks with avalanche coverings scattered all over, now being replaced by huge cargo tracks. This is the only road that borders between Chile and Argentina making this a heavily used route. Sometimes due to heavy snow or ice, this road gets closed for more than a month during winter

Dogs are everywhere at Puente del Inca. Very friendly and beautiful dogs who are not really that thrilled with the fox that invaded their territory barking aggressively. The sly fox hid well and I initially thought they were barking at the noisy trucks that passed, he appeared and sneaked pass the dogs, creeping pass the Puente del Inca and disappeared before I had the chance to put on my zoom lens.

 

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Posted in Argentina, South America

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