/ alcohol
I wrote last week about pisco in Chile, and now I´ve had the opportunity to try the Peruvian pisco I heard so much about. I can´t really tell the difference, and the drink is served in pretty much the same way in both countries. Pisco sours are the most common, though they call a piscola Perú Libre here - and add some lemon. Pisco with Sprite and lemon is also common.
The main difference seems to be price, honestly. The three pisco sours in picture one cost PEN$12 (Peruvian Nuevo Soles - about US$4) combined. Almost all the bars in Arequipa have happy hour specials all the time - and use the term ´Happy Hour´ on menus in Spanish. Three drinks for PEN$12 for pisco sours, mojitos and similar well drinks is common. In Chile, one pisco sour was at least US$2 or $3 ($1000 and $1500 Chilean pesos, respectively) and could easily cost $7 or $10.
I also learned, during the pisco tasting in picture two, that pisco comes from the first fermentation of the grapes; it´s literally fermented grape juice (as opposed to a grape-based alcohol like grappa, which is made from the remnants of wine grapes). A few grapes, like muscat, are common in Peruvian pisco, and most bottles actually contain a mix.
Like many things - including land - Chile and Perú both claim pisco as their own. Named for pisqu, a little bird in Quechua, the liquor is distilled from grapes.
In Chile it´s most commonly drank in pisco sours, a mix of pisco, raw egg white, simple syrup and lemon juice with a shake-like consistency, or in a piscola, a simple mix of pisco and CocaCola, but it goes with ginger ale and Sprite as well. Or you can just knock it back with a little lime, sugar and ice water.
Shown above: a bottle of Chilean pisco next to pisco on the rocks; pisco sours at a bar in Valparaiso; a for rent sign with a Chilean pisco brand sponsor
surfing in tent city
Read up on the event, put your name on the list, leave and hope for the best. After deciding to take an impromptu trip to Oktoberfest, Pale South African Traveler and I quickly discovered there was nowhere to stay in Villa General Belgrano (big surprise). Couchsurfing to the rescue! A bunch of the CS from Cordoba had already organized a campout for the weekend in a nearby town called Santa Rosa de Calamuchita. Having little idea what to expect, PSAT and I took the nine-hour busride to the city of Cordoba (we started Oktoberfest off right with mini caipirinhas in small plastic watercooler cups - made with bootleg cachaca a farmer gave PSAT when he was teaching English in Brazil), a two-and-a-half hour local bus to Santa Rosa and walked the remaining kilometer and a half to the municipal campsite. After waiting for about 10 minutes at the administration area, an Argentine guy and a French woman walked up to us to see if we were with CS (thank god) and lead us to the camping area.
A weird cross between Spartan and hippie, the actual campsite was no more than dirt with a few overtrimmed trees and grills (parillas). The CS campout looked more like music festivals in the US than anything I’d seen previously in Argentina. But the attitude was distinctly Argentine.
In total, about 100 people - less than 15 weren’t Argentine - showed up to share 30-some tents, a lot of beer, wine, fernet (an herb-based liquor), mate, cigarettes, pot, food and good times. When there weren’t cups, people cut open empty 1 or 2 liter soda bottles and used the bottom half. For every meal there was something on the grill - blood sausage (morcilla) for breakfast, hamburgers for lunch and steak, ribs and chorizo for dinner. The only meal that wasn’t on the grill was the ever-popular (here) ham and cheese on white bread with mayo. People showed up at all different times, coming from the nearby city of Cordoba, as well as Mendoza, Santa Fe and BsAs. The partying lasted well into the daylight hours and started again around 9 am.
Argentines seem to have an endless ability to hang out, even with strangers, drinking, smoking, sharing mate and talking.
