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Published: December 14th 2006
Raúl finds an alternative to ice-cream: mote con huesillo
Despite what it might look like he's actually spooning it in, not spitting it out...Our journey to Easter Island began with a two-day stopover in Santiago, Chile, where Samuel, one of Raúl's Chilean workmates, was available to show us around. Raúl devised a convoluted means of feeding his ice-cream habit, buying three different sorts of
helado under the guise of "getting change for the pay phone" until local telecommunications services were no longer required.
A wander through Barrio Bellavista and a somewhat sweaty-palmed jaunt around the Cerro San Cristóbal in creaky cable cars, and we were ready to try a
Cucaracha or Cockroach. This alcoholic beverage contains tequila and Kahlua and is set alight before being consumed rapidly through a straw (don't try this at home, kids!) I imagine it is something like the so-called Flaming Lamborghini drink I have enjoyed on a number of occasions in an impossibly small bar in Valladolid. But we were left wondering about this comparison - thirty minutes later the bar staff still couldn't get one to stay alight!
The following day - evidently still with the desire to try an interesting beverage - we sampled the surprisingly refreshing
mote con huesillo. Sold by street vendors, this drink is made of wheat seeds or maize
and dried peaches. It was good, but didn't beat my top Chilean beverage: fresh raspberry juice. One of many
jugos de frambuesa was consumed in the laid-back Café Tales in the Calle Concha y Toro area - worth a stop-off for a temporary respite from the crowded city centre.
Feigning an interest in all things caffeine, I attempted to convince the boys to bring me to a
café con piernas. (Amsterdam has "funny cigarettes", Santiago has "legs"). In these establishments (literally, a café or coffee with legs) coffee is served to a typically all-male clientele by scantily-clad ladies. Or so I've been told. I couldn't verify this as the boys were unwilling to accompany me (or rather, to have me accompany them), and instead bustled me off to Santiago's main square, the Plaza de Armas.
Later, Raúl and I found ourselves on the upmarket Avenida Isidora Goyenechea, with its Starbucks and American chain restaurants (okay, there
are some other dining options too). Still begrudging him my missed opportunity to play cultural anthropologist amid the testosterone-filled environment of a
café con piernas, I wasn't about to give in to
his pleas, and managed to convince him that
Hooters was NOT an obligatory stop on the Santiago sightseeing route: I'm a legs girl, myself.
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