Chilling, Chilly and Chilli in Chile

Some cloud has arrived over San Pedro. Being the desert, there is little chance of rain (apparently less than 100mm per year on average) but it certainly makes a difference to the temperature. With the warmth of the sun's rays blocked, the air temperature does not rise above the chilly nighttime lows. However, the cloud adds texture to the skies above already spectacular scenery.

We have been cooling our heels for the last couple of days in order to acclimatise to the altitude, before setting off on any adventures. However, we have noticed that everything gets covered in a thin layer of dust if it sits still too long. The screen on which I am writing this needs a wipe down every hour or so. To prevent this happening to us too, we took ourselves into town for a delicious ice cream.

About town

The shop promised some unusual atacamenian flavours - rica rica, chañar, quinoa - but sadly did not have these in today. Fortunately, the black forest (selva negra) and fig (higo) flavours were packed full of real fruit (and cake) and reliably tasty.

We enjoyed the ice creams while people watching in the main square, Plaza de Armas, while the sun had deigned to come out. A large sign bearing "cuidemos el medio ambiente" exhorted us to care for the environment.

Back at home, we drew on another staple recipe in the vegetarian's arsenal: black bean chilli.

Chilli

The green chilli pepper we sourced from the market proved to be underspecified in Scoville's (Chilean cuisine lacks much in spice for my tastes), so we pepped things up with the ubiquitous merquén - a mixture of smoked pepper and coriander.