Traveling Outlaws

Blue Berries waiting to be picked.

So it’s been a busy couple of days.  We have gone sort of crazy the last couple of days doing lots of neat things.  The weather was a bit colder so we managed to not be at the beach – and recover from our crazy hike.  We managed to meet some people at the BBQ that are from America & Australia – and they own a blue berry farm.  Well that perked our interest – so we proceeded to make arrangements to go see the farm.  The owners of the farm had never grown a blue berry before in their life.  They literally came to Chile – ordered a bunch (50,000) plants – and then proceeded to find property for their farm.  A year and a half later they had found the spot.  They have about 10 hectares that are planted and get about 5-6 runs on the plants through the season (Jan-Mar).  It’s a lot of work.  Blue berries are hand picked – so they have to bus in workers to pick the berries.  I do have to say, they were the best we have ever had – large and very tasty.  Currently most berries in Chile are exported to other countries – and now you’re thinking “USA right?” – nope – most these days are trying to go to our friends in China – because they pay better – it’s as simple as that.  They don’t do organic farming because there are some pests that can really kill your crop – others here do organic farming – but now the rules are such that it doesn’t make much financial sense to do organic farming here.  Even when an organic shipment hits the states it gets put in a container and ‘gassed’ for pests.    The boys had fun at the farm.  They were also expanding their water pit a bit – see the pictures on that.

Read More

Deja vu is all I can manage to say. I’m sitting in a chair overlooking  the lake that my parents were looking at 15 years ago. They say it has grown, and I believe them. It sorta reminds me of Aspen, CO with a mix of Cour De Lane, Idaho. Sitting on a piece of land between a dormant volcano and Lake Villarica is sorta unnerving knowing that the volcano is still bubbling and rising every time I see steam rise after a chunk of snow hits molten rock. They have some beaches around the lake with sand, but guess what? The sand is actually black ash from the eruptions of Volcano Villarica. Every morning, I wake to the sound of Sheep, South American Chicken Hawks, Cows, and Horses.  After all, we are living on a farm sort of plot of land. Our typical schedule goes like this.

Gavin working at the little desk in our room – the view is amazing.

Read More

So yesterday we went to a local hot springs to hang out and soak our bodies in the luke warm water.  Gavin decided that it would be fun to swim around all the people – who were all stationary in the hot springs – oh well “tourista’s”.  The hot springs were about a 40 minute drive away so we spent the afternoon there and came back later than expected.  In Chile they sell “carbon” for charcoal – it’s not charcoal but basically pre-burned wood that you get going again.  I decided that our gourmet evening would be rice, marinated chicken and some pico-de-gallo that Hayden had made.   In my mistake, when I was at the store I purchased the largest chicken breasts I’ve seen in a long time (even bigger than Costco) – I was actually thinking, “Did I get turkey by mistake?”.  Anyway – I started the grill – hoping it would be shorter than the place in Las Cruces (1.5 hours) to cook our food.  Well let me tell you at 1.5 hours I was staring at some semi-raw chicken – so I covered in foil and 2 hours later we had dinner.  Cindy doesn’t think we were quite at 180F for the internal temperature – but well that’s ok.  She was in charge of the rice on the stove – we’re not used to making rice on the stove – we have a rice cooker… about 20 minutes after the rice had started I’m smelling this burning smell in the house – yikes – well let’s say our rice had a nice smoky flavor.  Ever seen the movie BirdCage with Robin Williams?  There’s a great scene in there where their chef/house boy brings out his soup and everyone takes a bite – then immediately everyone goes for the bread on the table – if I put bread on the table… you get the idea.

Read More