At this point in our journey I´m taking some time to reflect on the last couple of weeks in Chile.
We have crossed the boarder to Argentina as I write this with our next journey to begin in Ushuaia.
Back to Chile.... just what is up with the Canadian Beaver and the European Rabbit?
And why don´t they have any vegetables on your dinner platae?
And just how do they make such good red wine when there seems to be little appreciation for the fruits of other vines (or bushes or trees)?
And why are the penguins so happy to sun themselves in 70km/hr winds?

Reflections on a month in central/south Chile.... Besides the beautiful scenery & wonderful people there are a few oddities here. When you order food you pick out meat or fish and that´s all you get.. period!! If you want vegetables that´s an extra and extra hard to find. You can easily get potatoes any way you want (my personal favourite is smashed!). There can be a list of vegetables on the menu. But even with our dictionary out it still just adds up to 8 or more ways to serve potatoes, a couple for rice and maybe, at the bottom, salted and steamed vegetables. So you go to the ensalada menu (salad). Here it´s better. However, if you order a lettuce salad that´s what you get... lettuce... period! Same thing goes for tomatoe, avacado etc. If you order ensalado mixto it gets a little better. Took us a while to figure it all out. That´s why we went crazy with eldante veggies when we had a hostal with a kitchen we could use.
So then there´s the fruit. Lemons are served with every meal (great for me with my allergy!) except breakfast (which consists of white bread, one slice of ham, 2 of cheese and if you´re lucky, huevos revoltos or scrambled eggs and yurgurt. Add a little nescafe and orange tang and you´re all set). Oranges seem to be the only fruit in the south with the exception of the occassional apple. In the grocery stores the fruit selection is very small. In small towns it doesn´t exist. Nor does the canned fruit. It just seems that meat, potatoes and bread make the meal with a tiny pot of local salsa thrown in.
I forgot to mention the amount of pop people drink in this world. Pop and beer is cheaper than water. It is hard to find juice in the store but there will be one whole isle for huge plastic jugs of pop and another two for beer. Wine.... well that takes up a whole corner of the store. You can buy a good bottle of wine for $5.

Ok... now to the Canadian beaver. Really!! Introduced years ago to raise for pelts, the beaver is now considered both a pest and a tourist attraction. Evidence of their destruction is everywhere in the south as soon as you get off the beaten track. Rabbits were introduced here as well and are also a pest. But, if you really want to, you can see examples of them stuffed and mounted in the front window of tourist agencies.

Where in the world are we??