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Published: December 31st 2008
Dishing up the goods
San Pedro de Atacama, ChileIt was a strange but pleasant Christmas day this year. For one thing, waking up to the heat again first thing in the morning was both confusing and comforting. I had a smile on my lips before I had even opened my eyes as the realisation hit me - that´s right I WAS back in the southern hemisphere again!
The destination for Christmas was San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It is an oasis tourist town located in the Atacama desert, which is apparently the driest in the world. I would believe this claim.
Much like any other Christmas, the day begins casually with the scent of festive spirit in the air and much preparation to be done. We were lucky enough to have met another two couples (Katherine and Julian, Liam and Anna) while travelling across the Bolivian salt flats and together we would celebrate the day. We headed over to their hostel around midday. There was a communal kitchen there for us to utilise and we had all gone shopping the day before for anything we could find that might resemble a Christmas feast. The beverages flowed constantly during the afternoon (Liam can make a mean sangria!) and
Time to get stuck in
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile it was nice to make the meal preparation a social event. Some hours later (mainly because of the unreliable cooking of the gas oven) in the heat of the afternoon, we sat down to enjoy the labour of our hard work (not that Steve or I were allowed to contribute much under the watchful beady eyes of the hostel staff - ´kitchen not for friends´ was their
reaction to our arrival - you´ve got to love the Christmas spirit!).
Our Christmas feast consisted of: home made guacamole and crisps to start followed by chicken and what we think was probably llama steaks, mashed potato and pumpkin, a Greek style salad, carrots, sweet corn and crusty bread rolls. Dessert was a dry fruit cake which we set on fire with brandy and served with ´helado´ (ice cream). It wasn´t too bad as long as every mouthful was doused in brandy before eating! Just to be civilised (and use up the food we had bought) the cheese and crackers came out towards the end of the day/evening.
Sufficiently stuffed, we enjoyed each others company and reminisced about past Christmases as the heat of the day subsided. ´Santa Katherine´ distributed the
Santa Katherine
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile secret Santa gifts that had been bought. It was amusing to watch Julian and Liam as they endured their first coca leaves experience. Julian introduced the parlour games and I must say thank you for one of the most entertaining yet frustrating conversations of my life!
Merry Christmas to all. I hope your day was as memorable as ours. It´s the people around you that make the day special and as blessed as we were in 2008 we are looking forward to the next one with family.
All the best for the new year,
Steve and Lottie x
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Tony Elliott
non-member comment
2009
Happy New Year