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Today the plan was for Lorena to take us around the city showing us some interesting places and grabbing some local cuisine for lunch. We had all organized to leave at 10:30am but by 12pm Lorena was still sleeping. I headed off for a walk down the hill to find something for lunch and left a message with Clemmy that I would be back within the hour. The markets here are fascinating with an incredible variety of foods and it seems as if everywhere you go there is people selling food. I brought a heap of vegetables, fruits and then headed to the fish stand where I picked up a fresh tuna for $2 and like in all fish markets in South America the guy happily cleaned and filleted fish for me so that it was ready to go. When I arrived back at Lorena's she had awoke and wasn't feeling the best so I offered to make her lunch. I boiled some corn, slowly fried the fish, made a garden salad and some guacamole. After lunch Clemmy arrived back and we all decided to go on a bit of a walk around the city with Lorena as our guide. First we headed up the hill where we got some amazing views of the city and were able to get a good layout of Valparaiso and its surrounding areas. Next we wondered the streets observing some amazing street art and some very old and antique housing - the colours, the art, the old style buildings and the dingey nature of this city make a feast for the eyes. We visited an entered an old tunnel that was used for 100s of years and is still used today to give people quick and easy access to the hills - this is truly a city of hills. Next stop was the weekend market where locals were selling everything from second-hand goods to fruits, vegetables and arts: I couldn't help myself tasting all the different types of avocados and leaving with a ginormous bag full of sweet Californian avocados. I found this really tasty treat which was called cake of figs and was basically a bunch of dried figs mashed up and shaped into a small cake - a tasty treat for 40c. Tonight Lorena after hearing how much I love to cook had offered to make Chiles National Dish: Pastel del Choclo - after buying the ingredients we headed back to the house and began cooking. Basically the dish is a corn pie with some very tasty and unique ingredients. First up we fried some onions and garlic and then added some mince meat along with some Soy mince (that I had prepared earlier), then we added some whole black olives, 6 hard boiled eggs (quartered) and finally big chunks of boiled chicken and its juices. Next step was to place all these cooked ingredients into ceramic bowls and cover in Choclo: basically corn mashed into a purée with a little sugar and basil - this forming the surface of the pies. These pies were then placed in the oven on high heat for 20-30 meats and then out they came ready to eat. There were 4 of us for dinner and with a few beers we enjoyed this incredibly tasty dish which has now become my favorite Chilean food. The Choclo formed a hard and sweet top to the delicious meaty and treat filled interior with its suprises which included chunks of egg, chicken, olives, onions and mince. After dinner I cleaned up whilst everyone else got ready to go to a Secret Santa Party we had all been invited to. By 10:30pm we headed off to the party which turned out to be quite a walk away, twisting and weaving our way through various streets, up stairs and through dark alleyways. None of us had any idea where we were going and followed a crude map that finally had us arriving at our destination an hour later. Everyone had just eaten and all presents had been given out which worked well for us as we had all eaten and had not brought presents. I new quite a few of the people and was introduced to everyone else; a really interesting mix of people from locals to Anericans, French, Germans, Swiss, Argentinians and other South American countries. I met a very interesting girl called Sam from Texas who had been studying here and is an Astronomical Professor with a keen interest in cross-country trips via her motorcycle. After a long and very inspiring chat with Sam I then met Shannon also an American - who's house the party was being held out; what followed was one of the most beautiful and enlightening conversations of my travels so far and to think of this encounter will bring smiles to my face for many years to come. Shannon's story was incredible to say the least - heading to Chile nearly one year go with a location independent job that was due to conclude, no funds and no plan. She has now been living here, working online (only a few hours a day) with the same company (an NGO in America) getting paid incredible well and also at the same time publishing her first Erotic Novel. I also met her roommate and good friend Amanda who was equally as interesting and had left the US and the rat race to come to Chile and experience a different lifestyle. Conversation flowed for hours from experiences, realizations, enlightenment of the planet, the Information Age and everything else in between - one of those conversations that energizes and motivates you to seek new experiences. Lorena came and mentioned she was thinking of heading home and checking my phone I realized it was 3am. I said goodbye to my new friends and then went to find Lorena who had now started dancing and so I told her to stay and that I would find my way back to her place; I headed off on what turned out to be quite an adventure. Although I had my phone GPS I still had a lot of trouble finding my way back to Lorena's - on the roads I could easily remember where we had walked but all the alleys, steep staircases, off the path treks confused the hell out of me and I ended up in people's backyards, being chased by dogs and looked at very oddly by many people still out on the streets at this godly hour. I eventually made it back by 4am and was relieved to say the least - one because I had gotten so lost and 2 because by this time I was knackered from all the walking. I collapsed on the bed ready for some sleep.
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