After an incredible week in Chile, I’m back home and it’s time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be).

Don’t get me wrong: I love my home office here in New York City.

But after spending the past week either outdoors or looking out onto these views…

it’s gonna be tough getting back in my NYC groove.

Text & Photos: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Translated by: Francisco Collazo

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[vease abajo para la version en espanol]

There are a hundred thoughts that pass through your mind when you’re standing in front of glaciers and icebergs in Patagonian Chile.

You think about time and the environment, about beauty and what it means to see something with your own eyes that you’ve only heard about.

And you think about dinosaur water.

As we trekked across the rocky beach ripped with wind, Alison Brick (a writer for Vagablogging) and I listened to the sound of the water lap up against the crystals of ice that lined the shore like an enormous diamond necklace.

“It sounds like windchimes,” she said, and she was right.

We walked up to a high point to look out towards the glacier and to get close shots of the icebergs.

And then we came back down to the water again. Alison picked up a piece of ice and held it in her hands.

“I’m holding dinosaur water!” she said with a tone of awe.

Her spontaneous exclamation was perfect. What strikes you more than anything as you stand at the foot of icebergs in Chilean Patagonia is the sense that you are just the latest addition in the universe’s long and lovely timeline.

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Hay cientos de ideas que pasan por tu mente cuando estas frente a frente a los glaciales y tempanos de hielo en la patagonia de Chile.

Uno piensa en el tiempo y en el medio ambiente, de la belleza de ser testigo y ver las cosas que antes solamente las oias decir y ahora las puedes ver con tus propios ojos.

Y piensas de estas aguas tan viejas como el dinosaurio.

Mientras caminamos en la playa rocosa acosada por los fuertes vientos, Alison Brick (una escritora para Vagablogging) y yo, nos detenemos a escuchar el sonido de las olas que golpean las formaciones de cristales de hielo que se forman en la orilla como si fuera un collar de diamantes.

“Esto suenan como moviles de viento,” me dijo ella, que de hecho era cierto.

Ambas caminamos hacia el punto mas elevado y cercano al glacial para tomar una mejor foto a los tempanos de hielo.

Luego bajamos a la orilla. Alison recoge un cristal de hielo en sus manos.

“Tengo en mis manos aguas tan viejas como el dinosaurio!” dice con tono de sorpresa y asombro.

Su exclamacion espontanea fue perfecta.

Lo que mas te choca de toda esta experiencia en la Patagonia Chilena mientras observas los tempanos de hielo, es el hecho de que te das cuenta que eres el ultimo objeto agregado a esta linea de tiempo y maravillas.

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Photos taken on the road between Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine, in Chilean Patagonia, between 8:00 and 9:00 PM on November 13.

Fotos tomadas en el camino entre Punta Arenas y Torres del Paine, en la Patagonia chilena, entre 8 y 9 de la noche el 13 de Noviembre.

Text & Photo: Julie Schwietert Collazo

This week, I’m traveling around Chile (that long, thin country in South America), and have found myself falling in love–yet again–with another Latin American nation.

Highlights?

Sharing dinner and some local wine under the stars with Chilean bloggers and podcasters in Santiago, talking about national identity, digital media, and–of course–Obama!

Eating the freshest seafood ever and realizing I actually like it.

Listening to a live karaoke rendition of the song “Sweet Child of Mine,” a heavy metal favorite from my adolescence, at a bar in the capital.

Watching the sun rise over the Andes this morning.

Fulfilling one of my life dreams of seeing the home of the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda (well, one of the three, anyway).

Tromping around the raw, wild landscape of what’s just shy of the southernmost point in South America, penguin watching and meeting super-friendly locals for conversation around a fireplace.

Turning around and seeing a double rainbow out my window this afternoon.

Walking everywhere with these words of Neruda in my head:

Voy a cumplir con todos
porque debo
a todos mi alegría.

No se sorprenda nadie porque quiero
entregar a los hombres
los dones de la tierra,
porque aprendí luchando
que es mi deber terrestre
propagar la alegría.
Y cumplo mi destino con mi canto.

What do you know about Chile? What would you like to know? Have you ever thought about visiting? Leave a comment below!

Text by Francisco Collazo
Photo by Julie Schwietert Collazo
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With all the excitement of our election night blogging experience at NPR, it’s taken us awhile to follow up on a request from a student in my cooking class to post a recipe for my cream of basil soup.

We first tasted cream of basil soup at the extraordinary Hotel Villa Ganz in Guadalajara, Mexico a couple months ago. At the time, we weren’t sure what the soup was. We spent 10 minutes guessing the ingredients and finally realized that the unexpected flavor of the soup was attributable to basil. An easy soup to make, and one that’s surprising and pleasing to guests because of its uniqueness, I decided to replicate the soup by devising my own recipe…and adding a final flourish.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups of broth (vegetable or chicken)
1 clove of garlic, minced (or in a paste after roasting in the oven, which is even better!)
1 cup of heavy cream
1.5 cups of basil leaves, chopped fine
1 medium onion, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon of anise seed (optional)
chile serrano to garnish (1 per serving) (optional)
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Directions:

1. In a saucepan or soup pot, sautee the minced onion and the garlic in the 2 Tb. of olive oil just until golden.
2. Add basil to the onion and garlic mixture; sautee for two minutes.
3. Add broth to the basil/onion/garlic mixture. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Simmer for five minutes then remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. Once the soup is cool, puree in a blender or using an immersion blender.
5. After blending, return the soup to the pot and heat on medium.
6. Add the heavy cream and anise seed. Cook until the soup thickens somewhat; stir continuously during this process.
7. Remove from heat and serve.
8. If you’d like to make the dish slightly more impressive, roast serrano chiles on the stove and garnish each bowl of soup with a single chile (uncut and unseeded).
9. Serve and enjoy!