Freshly-made fruit juice is a common drink in both Rapa Nui and Santiago, and it is far more delicious than bottled juice in the United States.
We had a delicious meal at the Mapuche cultural center that included a variety of traditional foods, including piñones (the seeds of a Chilean plant that look like large pine nuts), chestnuts, and sopaipillas, a traditional fried pastry a bit like a flat donut that can be served with honey, sugar, jam, or a variety of savory and spicy sauces.
On my own time, I've been listening to a lot of instrumental and acapella music, but the music I hear on the buses and the metro from live performers is the best. This can be anything from instrumentals to traditional Chilean folk songs to English rock songs to rap music. I think I'm getting a bit better at understanding the Spanish rap lyrics now!
Our linguistics class took a trip to the Mapuche cultural center here in Santiago to learn more about these indigenous people of Chile and their struggles, both in the past and in current Chilean society. I had a wonderful, in-depth conversation with one of our guides at the center about the common misconception that the Mapuche are merely a historical group of people who don't exist in present times. This is an issue also facing many native American tribes today.
