It Was a Dark and Stormy Day

This is winter, so the rain is to be expected. Actually, we've been quite fortunate in leaving the worst weather behind us in Santiago. Until yesterday. Yesterday we went to the Isla de Chiloé, the second largest island in South America, according to our guide. He studied electronics, though, so we had a running joke about whether to trust what he told us. The best part of taking tours, besides learning a lot about local culture and history, is the people you meet. We were in a group of 6--us, Lily from Brazil and Ruben from the northern desert part of Chile, plus the guide and the driver. Ruben had come to the south to experience the cold and the rain so he was happy with the weather. Spanish was the common language we all understood. Lily spoke only Portuguese, but we could get the gist of what she said.

Yesterday was also seafood day. I tried clams at lunch and abalone for dinner. I still don't understand the appeal. It's hard to take someone who grew up about as far from the sea as it's possible to live and get them to enjoy sea food. I've had better luck with the drinks here. I'm on a quest for the best café cortado. It's a layered drink of hot milk, hot coffee and foam. I'm going to switch to finding the perfect pisco sour. Pisco is a type of brandy that I'm told is originally Chilean. I have to say so far the pisco sours in Perú were much better, but I'm not giving up yet.