Teskes Gone South: Chile - A Little Slice of Heaven

By Dana

After spending a few weeks near Pucon, we headed just to the other side of beautiful Volcan Villarica to stay with Kika and Xavier, two of the most genuine and generous people we have ever met. The moment we arrived, they welcomed us into their home and shared everything with us, including their time, energy, and amazing - and I mean amazing - food.

They made it very clear to us from the first moment that WWOOFing for them is an 'intercambio' or an exchange, where you give and receive. It was such a refreshing change of pace from some of the other WWOOFing experiences we have had where we've felt like servants in someone's home. They understood the importance of hard work combined with relaxation, and I look forward to getting to hopefully come back someday to see their dream home(s) become a reality.

The Family

Kika is an extremely hard-working, well-educated, and strong-willed woman. She lived in France for many years with her husband and 2 sons before recently moving back to Chile with her husband Xavier.

Xavier is from France and first 'met' Kika when their teachers set them up to be pen pals in high school. After years of writing back and forth he traveled to Chile to actually meet her for the first time (with a very limited Spanish vocabulary). Later they got married and moved to France, and the rest is history. :)

The next family member is Piu Piu (his name is the Spanish equivalent to the sound 'cheep cheep' in English). Piu Piu had his leg crushed as a chick and therefore had to be raised apart from the bullies in the chicken coup. He has since become part of the family. His poor leg makes him quite wobbly, making him hilarious to watch walk, and he often topples over as you see above. Xavier absolutely adores him and will often bring him to the dinner table where Piu Piu usually falls asleep in his arms.

This is their puppy Gaspar. I think I still have muddy paw prints on every shirt and pair of pants from his playful jumping. :)

Lastly are the 10 sheep that Gaspar loved to chase around. Every once in awhile he wouldn't be paying attention and would get butted by one of them. I can't say he didn't deserve it. :)

The 3 geese

The chickens which laid yummy eggs!

And the 2 ducks

Their Home

Kika and Xavier have more projects going on than I can believe. They are finally putting the finishing touches on their beautiful home made out of adobe and wood, they are building a brand new kitchen to add onto their house, they are getting the upstairs of their house ready to accomodate guests, and they are building a separate beautiful hostel up the hill that has an amazing view.

In addition, they have an enormous garden, tons of fruit trees, are putting in a solar shower, are working on installing composting toilets, and are constantly cutting wood to fill their wood burning stove that they use for almost all their cooking. With all this going on, they are constantly going nonstop.

Their home

The new kitchen they will soon be adding onto their house

The beautiful hostel they're building up the hill with a spectacular view over the valley

The view from their hostel location

The chicken coup with words painted on it that say, "Nothing occurs in nature that is not connected to the whole."

Awesome outdoor sink carved out of an old tree trunk they found. Their kitchen sink is similar.

Their water filtration system. Since plants filter the water that comes from their house, they only use homemade soap.

The Food!

One of the most amazing parts of our experience here was the food. Kika and Xavier not only happen to both be chefs, but they lived in France for many, many years, so they know good food. They are also very focused on permaculture, so not only do they make sure nothing goes to waste, but the majority of the produce we ate came straight from their garden. The combinations of flavors and variety they were able to create everyday was absolutely amazing. Every meal was a feast.

As the neighbor's cow grazed on their land, everyday Kika and Xavier received 1.5 liters of fresh milk as payment.

They used the milk for making cheese, homeade yogurt, and even sweet treats like homemade Manjar. Manjar is a delicious, traditional Chilean sweet made from milk and sugar, which is cooked down to a carmel consistency, as you see me working on above. Kika added orange peel and cinnamon to hers, which was heavenly.

We also had fresh honey harvested from their bees

Delicious and beautiful salads from their garden

Unlimited fruit from their trees and bushes

Some of the fruit included: apples, cherries, nectarines, and more plums than I could eat. I may have had to limit myself to 10 plums per meal. . . no joke. :) (and she sometimes was unsuccessful with that - ed.)

And of course wild blackberries! We made these into toppings for bread and yogurt as well as a big blackberry crisp.

We also got to enjoy some amazing, homeade, traditional Chilean dishes such as Humitas and Empanadas.

Humitas are similar to Mexican tamales. They are made by cutting all the corn off the cob and setting aside the husks.

Next the corn is blended with milk and a few spices of your choosing. Kika used fresh herbs from the garden.

Next the corn mixture is placed back in the corn husks and carefully wrapped up into little packages so they don't leak.

Next they're dropped into boiling water and cooked until the corn is done. They can be eaten with either sugar or a bit of salt and are delicious!

Empanadas are made by filling dough with either meat, cheese, seafood, or a combination. These empanadas happened to be made with wheat flour and filled with homeade cheese made right there on their farm.

Then they are either baked or fried.

These empanadas were extra special as they were made to celebrate my birthday. Thanks for the great birthday present Kika and Xavier!

We also had an amazing outdoor good-bye picnic on our last day.

We had delicious, marinated pork chops cooked over a fire

Chilean wine, homeade pebre (salsa), and some of our favorite salads

We'll never forget the amazing meals and even more amazing conversation we had during them.

Work

As we were there after all to work and help them out, I suppose I should highlight some of our typical jobs. First I have to say that Kika and Xavier are hands down two of the hardest workers we have encountered in Chile during our travels. They sleep very little, work all day, and yet somehow still make the time for friends. It was a good reminder to always take time for what is important in life. They clearly believe in the imporance of a good sit down meal and most importantly good conversation with friends.

When we weren't eating, Brent and I spent most of our time up on the second floor of the house in the dark "slinging poop on the walls."

We're actually not kidding. Their home is an earthen house built with a mix of mud, sand, clay and horse manure (don't worry it wasn't Dana-manure). Man oh man did it smell nice!

We spent days redoing all the outlets upstairs. The electrician had installed them deep into the wall, so we had to cut away the dried dirt around each one. . .

. . . often having to cut away chunks of wood that actually covered up the electrical box . . .

. . . patching it with more mud, while making sure the cover would still fit. . .

. . . and then applying the final, smoothing coat of mud . . . which was then smoothed out with a plastic sheet or bag to match the rest of the wall.

When we weren't working on outlets, we were. . .

Hauling and chopping wood for the wood cook stove in their kitchen

Working on other woodworking projects such as finishing the doors for all the bedrooms

Feeding the animals - I thought it was super cute that Gaspar and Piu Piu ate together. In fact, if the chicken wasn't given a bowl of food, he would usually go over and steal dog food from Gaspar.

Working on food or cleaning up in the kitchen

Or working in the greenhouse or one of their two huge gardens

We spent hours taming the 'selva' (jungle) as Kika called it, pulling some weeds, and rigging the plants on sticks so they started growing up more rather than out