Bienvenido Pearl!

Saturday, February 14

Pearl arrived this morning from Santiago after an overnight bus ride. She is a good friend of both me and Lily from Harvard. She has spent the past couple of months shadowing doctors in Santiago and now will be doing a stint in southern Chile to get a more rural medical experience. We cleaned the apartment in anticipation of her arrival and setup the futon bed in the living room.

When she arrived we grabbed some lunch at Da’Alessandro’s Express down the street and had a picnic on the beach. The empanadas were average, but this was some of the better pizza I have had since being in Puerto Varas. The empanadas were average, but this was some of the better pizza I have had since being in Puerto Varas. I brought my new fishing rod to test it out on the lake. After some minor assembly mishaps and tangled line I began casting away. I didn’t catch anything, but I loved it. For some reason there is something about fishing that really excites me. To make the experience even better, Lily took some casts and looked like a pro. Her form and technique was awesome and it was good to see that we can have another outdoor sport to share.

In the afternoon we met Pearl’s doctor mentor named Pato Guerra (aka Dr. War). He took us on a quick tour of Puerot Varas in his car and then we stopped in town to enjoy a drink overlooking the lake. He was extremely kind, and Pearl seemed really excited about her time working down here. We parted ways with Dr. War, and made our way over to the supermarket to restock our kitchen in the apartment. We pulled out all the stops and cooked a delicious steak dinner and grilled zucchini dinner to welcome Pearl. I can’t get over how good the steaks taste with a little seasoning of merken. It can’t be beat.

Chile Trivia: Ojos de Salado is the highest mountain in Chile

Valentine’s Day

Friday, February 13

I hopped in Nati’s red Toyota pick-up with Lily and we drove to Frutillar to check out an entrepreneur products fair. I love Nati’s truck. It looks just like the truck Marty McFly got at the end of Back to Future only red. Also, the Toyota truck model down here is called the Hilux instead of the Tundra or Tacoma. Anyway, at the fair we saw a little bit of everything, but most products were homegrown and homemade items like honey products, marmalades, meats, veggies, & wines. One interesting product was sod that grows without soil as the roots intertwine to produce a connective mat along the bottom. The purpose of this sod is to place it in areas where grass can’t grow like on concrete & indoors for parties and things. It is quite amazing, but also a weird concept, like why would you need grass in your house?

After a quick lunch, I rode my bike back to the apartment, but first I snipped a rose from one of the many rose bushes lining the streets of Puerto Varas. I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed, but they were perfect for Lily’s Valentine’s present. They were 3 pink roses off of a single stem. I got home and immediately got to work on the card. I bought all kinds of construction paper & red see through wrapping and put together a very nice card if I do say so myself. Inside I wrote a little note on one side and a poem on the other.

While I was making the card I experienced one of the scarier moments in my life when an older man unlocked the door and walked into the apartment. I thought it was Lily and had glue and construction paper everywhere & didn’t want her to see her gift prematurely, so as the door swung open I was yelling, “Don’t come in, don’t come in.” An old man entered and was just as shocked at my presence as I was at his entrance, so he quickly shut the door and rang the doorbell. I was mortified, but went and answered the door only to find out that he was a broker and was showing the apartment to a prospective renter. Lily and I had just informed the landlord that we would be moving out in April because the rent was too expensive and apparently he already put the apartment on the market. Now that I had scared the crap out of both men and most likely ended the possible sale of the apartment they did a quick tour and scurried out….how bizarre.

Lily came home a few hours later, and we made our first batch of homemade pisco sours. We had a martini shaker in the apartment and the drinks came out perfectly with a little meringue foam on top. After the drinks we got changed and headed to A Fuego Lento for our Valentine’s meal. The restaurant was amazing and very reasonably priced. It was buffet style with high quality food and great service. Unfortunately, we were so excited about the all-you-can-eat that we both over-stuffed ourselves. Luckily, the restaurant is next door to our apartment so the walk home wasn’t bad. At home I set up Lily’s gift on the bed with a plate of chocolates and hearts along with her card and the flowers. She loved it. And for me she gave the most thoughtful gift ever. A fishing rod! I have been wanting to go fishing down here, and had even been invited by many friends, but couldn’t go because I didn’t have a rod. Lily fixed that problem with the best Valentine’s gift…a fishing rod with love.

Chile Trivia: Pichilemu, CL is internationally known for it’s waves and surfers from all around the world flock to its beach Punta de Lobos.

Imperial 605

Thursday, February 12

Woooooohooooo! Torres del Paine is official. Lily and I bought the tickets today after booking yesterday. We had to collect passport numbers so that we could buy the tickets for Daniel and Pearl. This trip is going to be so much fun, and a true outdoor expedition. I have never been hiking/camping before, and I’m breaking the ice at one of the most famous hiking destinations in the world. Nothing like setting the bar high.

With so many projects going on, Valentine’s Day kind of snuck up on both Lily and me. We decided on celebrating Valentine’s on Friday instead of Saturday because Pearl would be arriving on Saturday, and this would give us a little more alone time. So on my way home I stopped in the supermarket to pick up supplies for my Valentine’s day gift. My plans were simple with an emphasis on a personal touch, so all of my efforts were put into making a Valentine’s card. More to come on this tomorrow.

Tonight was a bit out of the ordinary. We ate out at a restaurant up the street from our apartment called Imperial 605. They were having a special sandwich & cerveza night, so Lily and I decided to take advantage. The restaurant was empty when we arrived, which explained why the owner was running a special food and drink night. Despite the lack of activity the food was very good, and the beer selection was the best I have seen in Chile. Also, the servers were great and they were able to secure a beer bottle cap that I had yet to add to my collection. I am up to about 7 new Chilean beer caps to add to my collection at home. Unfortunately, most of the beer caps down here are plain gold caps with no logos or anything.

We made a dash for the apartment due to the rain that started to fall when we left the restaurant. Jaime greeted us at the door, who I thought would be ready for his third lesson, but instead had to cancel as his duties as doorman required his full attention tonight. So we postponed the lesson for Monday and Lily and I took advantage with an early bed time.

Chile Trivia: Easter Island is also known as Rapa Nui

Work Begins

Wednesday, February 11

Jimmy and I had our second meeting regarding development of the magazine. We went into some more details about how to gain readership & advertising revenues. I met his friend, Manuel, who is the director of marketing. We postulated some ideas before laying out concrete next steps on my end. I am charged with development of the business plan, and with Jimmy’s help will hopefully be able to put together a document that highlights the strengths of the magazine while detailing the financial outlook and costs to be incurred. Hopefully, this project in addition to the work already done on Patagon Journal will provide incentive to financiers to give money and business to buy advertising space. If nothing less it will be a great learning experience.

After the meeting I met with Lily to schedule an additional English lesson with her friend Felipe. We met him at the birthday asado a couple of days ago when he approached us for English lessons. Our English tutoring business seems to be growing…hopefully we can get the discussion group concept off the ground.

Later we made our way into el centro to book our flights for Torres del Paine. Our team for the trip had grown to 4 with the additions of my brother and our friend Pearl from Harvard. Pearl had been working in hospitals in Santiago for the past couple of months and is coming down to live with us for a couple of weeks to gain some medical experience in a less urban setting. We are very excited for her arrival and couldn’t be happier that she will be joining us in Torres del Paine.

After a quick empanada dinner I made my way to the front desk in our apartment building to start my second lesson with Jaime. The lesson went well, but I feel like we are spending too much time on pronounciation than on practicing the vocab & verbs. It will be something I can monitor over the next couple of weeks, but I think it’s important to stress proper pronunciation in the beginning.

During our lesson, Lily was making a panqueque cake with layers of manjar between the panqueques. It was partly an experiement, but turned into an excellent congratulations gift for her co-worker Nati who just found out she is pregnant with her fourth child. People down here are always preganant and have so many babies….it’s incredible. With the extra panqueques Lily brought apples with manjar rolled up in the panqueque as a snack for me and Jaime. What a treat! Lily is turning into quite an accomplished chef in the kitchen.

Chile Trivia: Puerto Williams is the southern most city in the world.

Keeping the Ball Rolling

Tuesday, February 10

I know I have reported on this a million times already, but my brother booked his ticket from Boston to Santiago today and is officially making the trip down to Puerto Varas. I couldn’t be more excited about this news.

After a day of following-up on yesterday’s meetings, Lily and I met her friend Natalia for a beer at her office. Natalia is 28 and runs an event planning business. Her office is directly above a restaurant on the lake shore and we sat enjoying the sunset over some beers. We met her friend Rodrigo and discussed the endless possibilities for business and entrepreneurial ventures in Chile. We set up plans to start and English conversation group to be held during the week at Rodrigo’s restaurant in the city center. It will be a great way for us to make some extra cash and teach English in a comfortable setting. I can see this being a great side project. We also discussed the endless untapped potential with the lake & watersports, as well as the lack of tourist infrastructure. These are all things to think about and hopefully capitalize on during my time down here.

We walked home as the sun was setting to prepare a meal of sausage, peppers, and onions Fenway Park style. They turned out perfectly, and we both went to bed with visions of opportunity in Chile.

Chile Trivia: Because the thickness of the ozone layer increases and decreases steadily, Punta Arenas operates on a light system in which a red light indicates almost no ozone protection, an orange light indicating a dangerously thin ozone layer, a yellow light indicating when the ozone is thinner than normal, and a green light indicating normal ozone protection.

Professional Progress

Monday, February 9

Monday was packed with potential. I began with a meeting at the Tompkins House to offer my services for Parque Pumalin. The woman Lily and I met with was extremely nice. We spoke a bit about the park and my background as well as my willingness to help and take on a new project. She seemed very receptive and I am optimistic in hearing from her soon. There are so many possibilities with Parque Pumalin including land conservation in the park itself (a couple hours south of Puerto Varas), the capital campaign in raising funds for the park, as well as their all-natural merchandising business.

Next Lily and I made our way to el centro to meet with Jimmy Langman, the founder of Patagon Journal. We met him at Café Barrista over coffee and discussed his planned publication of a new magazine centered on life in Patagonia. This project is extremely interesting as this magazine intends to offer a greater variety of coverage for Patagonian & environmental enthusiasts. Also the magazine is scheduled to be offered in both English and Spanish, which is not yet offered by any magazine in this area. We spoke about ideas for the magazine and Jimmy asked about our thoughts on his plans and intentions. Everything sounded very promising and I ended by offering my services to help him prepare a business plan for the magazine to aid his effort in procuring financing for the project. This project will be a great use of my time and a great learning experience, and hopefully I can help them get the magazine off the ground and become the next big publication in Patagonia and abroad.

Unfortunately, our meeting ended on the worst note possible as Jimmy’s $2000 Nikon camera was stolen while we were having our meeting. He left his camera under his chair and somehow someone grabbed it while we were distracted during the meeting. None of us could believe what had happened as we were tucked away in a corner inside a café. It was so bizarre and disheartening, and of course Jimmy was crushed because high quality photography was such a huge part of the magazine. He had been financing the whole project himself, and providing much of the initial photography, and now the instrument responsible for the initial blossoming of the magazine was stolen. It was a huge financial loss for Jimmy and a devastating setback for the magazine. I hope this doesn’t destroy my promising involvement in the magazine.

The night ended with my first English lesson with our doorman Jaime. He was so excited to learn and I was so excited to teach. His motivation to learn was quite noble as he plans to work with people in English at a local drug rehab center. Much of the first lesson was spent with very introductory words with extra emphasis on pronunciation. Learning how to properly pronounce English words for a native Spanish speaker can be quite difficult and I knew it would be a challenge for Jaime. However, he is giving his best effort and is very motivated to learn…both good things!

Chile Trivia: The Atacama Desert, located in northern Chile is only the 18th largest desert in the world, but is the world’s driest desert.

A Day in the Life with Leon’s/Happy Birthday Mum

Sunday, February 8

Lily and I met Nati and her family at Dane’s for an empanada lunch. I spoke with her husband who is a very interesting guy. He works in the salmon industry down here, and is extremely athletic and active. We spoke about sailing and cycling and before we knew it they invited us for an afternoon bike ride with their family to Llanquihue (one town north on the west side of the lake). We obliged and hit the dirt paths that followed the lake shore. The bike ride was absolutely beautiful and great exercise as their whole family is obsessed with athletic activity (my kind of people). Even their 4-year old riding with training wheels was keeping as we rode for almost 1 hour.

We made a pit-stop in Llanquihue to for helados (ice cream) before making the return leg to Puerto Varas. The kids were great fun going off jumps and over curbs while we hung back with Nati and Martin to converse some more about our time in Chile. Everyone keeps telling Lily and I to stay, but I don’t think they comprehend how far Chile is from the northern US. A move like that is not in my decision-making abilities, but it is nice to know that Lily has made such a huge impact down here.

We returned home and all I wanted was a nap…shocking. We threw together a quick meal of hot dogs Chilean style with palta & tomatoes, before I got on the computer to wish Mum a happy birthday. I wish I was there to celebrate with everyone, but it was good to be able to catch up with her and give her birthday wishes live over the internet. It’s hard not to feel homesick on days like this. But, I couldn’t be more excited for tomorrow and all of the meetings I have scheduled. It would be great to have some solid projects to concentrate on during the day.

Chile Trivia: Due to the lack of consistent ozone protection in Punta Arenas, CL, it’s inhabitants are 3 times more likely to get skin cancer