Two Months: Deadly Animals, a Hole in the Ozone Layer, and Eggs

             It's been a while since I've updated this. I write every day in Word, but the things that I write usually aren't worth copying over to this blog. It's been long enough now that I've accumulated enough semi-worthy scraps of writing to make a semi-decent post.

            This should be considered my two-month update, even though it's only day 54. I'll be out of town for the majority of the rest of October (tomorrow is my last day of school until November- and we get out at 12:30). I have two trips this month, one to the South of Chile with my school and then another to Patagonia with Rotary. I'll have two days of down-time between trips. I should have a lot to write about and a lot of pictures to post.

            It feels strange to have suddenly jumped from the youngest in the group to the oldest. I was always the youngest in my class and in my group of friends. Now that I’m in the Chilean equivalent to a junior class, I’m one of the oldest students, if not the oldest. There are only a few exchange students that are older than I am as well, as it’s not common to do a post-graduation exchange.

A friend told me that there are no deadly animals in Chile. There are no spiders that could kill a human. He said the worse they have here is the Chilean puma, and even those don’t attack humans. Coming from a country that is loaded with things that could kill you (Grizzly bears, rattle snakes, Outback Steakhouse), I was seriously skeptical. I need to look into that.

The results: My friend was more or less correct. There are no dangerous snakes in Chile. Apparently the worst that Chile has are the Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders, the bites from which are very rarely fatal in humans. A bite from a Brown Recluse could cause kidney failure and necrosis around the bite, but it’s only fatal 3-4% of the time. A bite from a Black Widow can cause vomiting, muscle rigidity, severe pain, and sweating. Symptoms can persist from a few days to several weeks, but almost never result in human death, excluding in children or other weak bite victims. Anti-venom can be administered, but since the bite really isn't life threatening, it’s usually just for pain relief. Apparently it doesn't help much, according to Wikipedia.

Just last night, I found a Brown Recluse in my bedroom. After taking some pictures of it, I smashed it with a book called "The Exchange Student Survival Kit." I guess that title wasn't false advertising.

My host mother told me that the hole in the ozone layer affects Chile more than other countries. I didn't really believe that. Yes, it’s hot, so what. Well, after really feeling the sun burning me today, even through my clothes, even though it was only in the 60s, I looked into it. Turns out she was right. The hole in the ozone layer is directly above Antarctica, with little branches that reach out towards Chile and Australia. Areas under or close to the hole experience greatly increased levels of UV rays. Good thing sunblock is cheap.

Pomaire is a little village about an hour away from Santiago. It became an artisan village when it was discovered that there is abundant natural clay in the soil in and around the village. Today, while it is still small, Pomaire is a popular spot and is composed of very little more than street vendors and restaurants. Very fine quality pottery can be found all over the town and for very low prices, as it's all made right in the shops. Pomaire is known for its Chanchos, which are clay pigs that are supposed to bring good luck. They're often in bank-form. I bought a tiny one (the size of a dime) for my jacket.

While in Pomaire, I had a typical Chilean dish: Lomo a lo Pobre. It consisted of a massive steak, a mountain of French fries, fried onions, and all topped off with two fried eggs.

Lomo a lo Pobre

I had a similar meal last weekend at a sandwich shop that is owned by my host mother's brother when I ordered Chorrillano. It was a massive plate of (heavily salted) French fries topped with diced steak, grilled chicken, caramelized onions, sliced sausages, grilled peppers, and a fried egg. It was huge and absolutely delicious. Chorrillana originated in fishing villages, when fishermen would throw whatever they had together and call it a meal (when they got tired of fish, apparently). It was delicious. It is the kind of dish that you can eat once a year.

Eggs don’t need to be refrigerated here. I remember reading somewhere that in the U.S, eggs are power-washed to prevent salmonella, which could be present in the chicken coops, from entering the egg. This process removes a natural protective layer from the egg. The layer is basically the egg's immune system, and if left in the heat without it, the egg will spoil. Here, chickens are vaccinated so that salmonella can't be transferred to the eggs in the first place. The eggs are sold in stores on shelves with everything else or, if being sold from a vendor, sitting in the sun. There is also a wider variety of eggs here than in the U.S. Turkey eggs are commonly sold, along with eggs from much smaller birds. I noticed the turkey eggs for the first time when we went to Pomaire the other day. I saw more eggs in the mall today, including some small, spotted ones that were from the condorniz, or common quail.

Chicken, turkey, quail eggs in a supermarket near my house

Turkey eggs next to chicken eggs, Pomaire. You can see some pottery in the background. There's a lot of it.

 My classmate, Benjamin Tapia, told me the other day that he had read my blog. When I asked him which part, he told me that he had read all of it. He asked me to keep doing it. He also recognized that I had written about him in the part about black people. He seemed honored. In fact, he asked me to add a picture of him as an example of a Chilean black person.

Benjamin "Negro" Tapia

Pictured above is my good friend, Benjamin Tapia. Most people call him "Negro." While not exactly light-skinned, he wouldn't be called black in the United States. This is because there are very few black people in Chile (I wrote about that in much greater detail a few weeks ago- when Negro realized I was talking about him).

I probably won't post again for a couple of weeks (I probably wouldn't even if I didn't have two trips coming up), but in the mean time, if you'd like me to write about anything or have any questions, let me know.