Chile is NOT Mexico!

Preface
I originally started this post during my August trip to South America.  I wrote most of it in September.  But I haven't gotten around to it until now.  I figured that if I don't post it before basketball season starts, I'll never have time for it.  So, finally, here is the wrap-up for my trip to Chile.

"Chile is NOT Mexico!"

Most Americans, I would suspect, do not conflate the countries of the English speaking world.  They know that Ireland is distinct from Canada (excepting French speaking Quebec) is distinct from Australia, the UK, South Africa, Jamaica, the US, etc. 

The English Speaking World

When it comes to countries of the Spanish speaking world, however, Americans conflate away.  Mexico equals Spain equals Chile equals Argentina, etc.  When most people read the previous sentence, they think to themselves, "Of course all of those countries are unique and distinct!"  Except when people make assumptions or ask Garv and LG about Chile, their questions are rooted in their perceptions of Mexico, which is natural considering the profound impact Mexico has on the United States.

The Spanish Speaking World

So here are some topics with which people often conflate Chile and Mexcio.

Conflation #1: Alcohol

Mexico is known for tequila.  Chile does not produce tequila and Chileans do not drink much tequila.  Northern Chile produces pisco, a liquor made from grapes,  and it is the only liquor that Chileans drink in a large quantity.  Chileans prefer their pisco mixed with Coke in drink suitably called piscola.  The other common way to drink it is in pisco sours, which is pisco, sour, lime juice, simple syrup, an egg white for froth, and bitters.  Pisco sours come in both Chilean and Peruvian versions.  The Peruvian versions are better.  There are no pictures of me with tequila.  But there are plenty of pictures of me with pisco sours...

Peruvian Pisco Sour at a Peruvian restaurant

Chilean Pisco Sour at a trendy bar

Chile also produces great wine.  The most popular wine grape in Chile is Carmenere and to quote Garv, "Malbec made Argentina famous, Carmenere should make Chile famous but hasn’t yet."  Notice he didn't mention Mexico because Mexico doesn't have the climate to make great wine...

Carmenere was a grape originally grown in France and it was thought to be extinct because of a disease in the 1860s that destroyed almost all of the Carmenere in France.  Carmenere, however, was growing in Chile though it was thought to be Merlot.  In the 1990s, an oenologist (person who studies wine) in Chile discovered that some of the grapes thought to be Merlot were actually Carmenere.  Since then, Carmenere has become the wine most associated with Chile, and for good reason, because it is excellent.  I bought ten bottles in Chile and brought them back home.  Here are some more pictures of me drinking and even one of me not drinking. 

Conflation #2: Geography, Climate, Resorts, and Beaches
Mexico has lots of resorts for American tourists to visit.  Chile does not.  Chileans have a few beach towns and local resorts that Chileans go to, but there are not many foreigners who go to Chile for the beaches.  The water off of Chile is very cold since it comes straight from Antarctica.  So it's not like the warm Caribbean where many of Mexico's resorts are.



Another major characteristic of Chile is that it is very a long country; it is three thousand miles from north to south.  I would describe it myself, but Garv did a good job already: "Chile’s population center is Santiago, everything happens here.  The north of Chile is like rural Arizona, the south of Chile is like rural Vermont (or some remote, small population place with forests and small farms) and Santiago is like Denver (big city, big buildings, activity, crime in some areas, close to the mountains)."

Conflation #3: The Police
This one is easy.  Chile's police are very trustworthy.  They are the most trustworthy in all of Latin America and Chileans are very proud of it.  Do NOT try to bribe them.  Mexico's police could not be more different.  I've heard several stories from friends who have had to pay bribes to police in Mexico.

Conflation #4: Language
 Mi espanol es muy mal.  Puedo escribir y leer un poco pero es dificil para mi hablar y eschuchar. En Chile es imposible para mi comprender. 

This was especially apparent in Argentina.  In Chile, I can't understand any Spanish, but in Argentina I could pick out enough words in a sentence to figure it out.  Part of the problem is that Chilean Spanish has some strange practices such as adding "po" to the end of words like "sipo" (yes) and "nopo" (no). They also drop the "s" from the end of words such as "gracia" which would normally be pronounced "gracias" (thanks).  Chileans also use "ciao" to say goodbye rather than adios...or adio.
 
When thinking about the English speaking world, it should make sense that Spanish is different in different countries.  Especially considering how difficult in can be to understand someone speaking English with a thick Southern or Scottish accent.

Conflation #5: Food

The most obvious conflation of Mexico and Chile is in the area of food.  Mexican food is known for its spice and flavor.  Thus, most Americans assume Chilean food is spicy.  Chileans food has no spice.  Very few restaurants in Chile even have black pepper on the table because that is too spicy.  (Chileans do love salt, however, and they douse it on many items, including bread, tacos, salads, meat, and basically anything.  And when I say douse, I mean douse.)

Here are a couple recreated conversations that happened on the trip that illustrate Chileans avoidance of spicy food:

Recreated conversation #1:
SCENE: We just sat down at El Camino, a Texas Barbecue restaurant
TK: Is that barbecue sauce on the tables?
LG: Yeah. But it doesn't look like any of the Chileans are eating it.
Garv: That makes me want to eat it even more.

We all laughed because we knew that Garv was joking about Chileans dislike of spicy food.  The barbecue sauce it self was very ketchup-y.   So it wasn't very good on meat.  But it was awesome with french fries. (Garv loves spicy food and burritos (even though burritos are an American invention) and usually gets a burrito as soon as he can when he gets back in the US.)

Recreated conversation #2:
SCENE: A Deli-Style Mexican Restaurant
Lady at the counter: Quieres salsa picante? (Do you want hot sauce?)
Random Chilean dude: No.
Garv: Of course not.

The three of us laughed again.

The variety of the cuisines we consumed in Chile is also a testament to the fact that Mexican cuisine is much better and different.  If I was in Mexico (the real Mexico, not a resort), I would eat nothing but Mexican food (It should be noted, however, that Mexico is a big country with many regional food variations--but regardless, I would be eating the regional Mexican food).  If I was in Italy, I would eat nothing but Italian food.  If I was in Spain, I would eat nothing but Spanish food.  In Chile, however, we had Chilean, American, Texan, Mexican, Venezuelan, Peruvian, Patagonian, Italian, and Middle Eastern food.  (And in Argentina we had Argentinian and Italian food.)

My favorite in Santiago, by far, is a Mexican restaurant called El Ranchero.  It's also Garv's favorite because it actually has spicy food.  In the picture below, I'm inhaling one of the six tacos I had.  I could have easily had three more, or maybe four more to reach double digits, but LG somehow talked me out of it.  I'm now regretting that decision.

Also of note in the picture below, you'll see a Chilean guy behind me.  He, like all the other Chileans, was eating his taco with a knife and fork. All the other Chileans ate them that way, too. Seriously. A total abomination and insult to tacos...

Not only do I regret not eating ten or a dozen tacos that night, I regret that I only went there once.  And I regret that we went there so late in the trip.  So this is one of the many reasons to go back to Chile.

Ciao and adio, Chile...See you next August.

This is how you eat a taco.