I know that probably seems like a pretty odd title for a blog post. It’s from a scene in the movie “Boyz in the Hood”. The the price of this coffee in Chile struck me as a scary, mysterious, and seemingly (should be) a forbidden phenomenon (mirroring the reaction of the children in the movie) from my American perspective. It’s so interesting and sometimes shocking to the note the intercultural differences you find by living abroad. The price of this coffee in Chilean pesos (CLP) would be similar to paying $14 for this jar of coffee. Now, Juan Valdez instant coffee is delicious and I was fortunate enough to bring my partially used jar with me. I’m going to be drinking it like it’s a holiday treat while here. Ha ha.

I think I read at some time prior to arriving here in Chile, that there was a historical dispute over northern land with the neighboring country of Peru which effected access to coffee in Chile (I’ll have to research that more). Nevertheless, this is Nescafe and instant coffee land here in Chile. There is a lovely coffee shop in the local mall near my home in Talca that appears to serve fresh brewed, but I’m not for sure. I’ve only been there once. I am so spoiled by having purchase a French press back home in the US, I typically just suffer through my coffee cravings during the time I’m in Chile. I’ve never seen a back of fresh coffee (or ground) beans in the stories, so I didn’t waist my luggage space packing my French press.

Seems no matter where I go, I always find some favorite food spots.  Here in Talca, near the university, there are a number of small business that are restaurants or take-out places.  There is a sushi place with small dine-in area outside that makes these wonderful fried sushi rolls.  This one is called EBI Tempura and I ❤ them!!  They are so good and it seemed like the owners were so happy to see that I had returned to Chile, they gave me some extra rolls with my order. 🙂  Yummy!!

I know I had mentioned in an earlier blog post about all of the economic development taking place in the country and particularly in my providence. Above is the picture of the housing development near my house that was going up when I left last March. Tomorrow I will post and updated picture of the progress they have made.  We can not longer leave the bathroom window open on the second floor because the construction workers can see right into the house.  That is not the room that you want to be giving free peak-a-boos from…YIKES!!!

Nevertheless, below is a projection of the types of homes that will be available for purchase in the new development soon. They are much larger than most of the homes in the neighborhood. It sort of reminds me of the big housing boom that took place in the US during the late 90’s to early 2000s. Hopefully, they have introduced better financing practices than what was witnessed in the US with predatory housing contacts that left many lower-income Americans worse for ware. But generally, Chile has not struck me as a country interested in a lot of decadence. However, sometimes we can’t always project how new prosperity can affect a nation. I will be monitoring and hoping for the best in terms of the new President Bachelet’s goals and efforts to improve social mobility among a greater number of Chileanos.

Here are the two models of the two future home options.

As promised; here is the updated housing development picture.