Things to do in Chile before you die… or leave, never to return again.  But how could you ever say you’re never coming back to Chile?

This is an open article, meaning everybody writes it. The idea is to make the big list of the best of the best, unconstrained by the requirements of travel guide writing or the criteria of a small group of people.

So head down to the comment form below and add your top suggestion(s) for something do/see/hear/taste/etc in Chile, something you wouldn’t let a good friend leave without trying.  It can be something you really love, or just something that’s really Chilean.  And tell us a little about it.

It doesn’t even have to be a specific place or event; feel free to challenge us.  My brother, for example, might say “Eat as much palta as you possibly can.”*  And don’t leave something great out just because it’s touristy.

So share your top pick with us now.  Then, next week or next month, when you think of something else, come back and add that too.

* The word palta translates very straightforwardly to and from avocado in English, but it’s a term that gringos seem to prefer the local version of while in Chile.

Retail consumers in Chile don’t have many rights to speak of, but one we do have is the right to get our purchases gift-wrapped in the store for free.  Supermarkets, department stores and toystores have gift-wrapping counters year-round, and during the holidays so do the rest– drugstores, hardware stores, you name it.  A store that doesn’t provide this service might just stay in the red on whatever the Chilean equivalent of Black Friday is.

As such, stores must take gift-wrapping seriously; they must dedicate space, labor and materials to the endeavor, with basically no value added.  It’s just more overhead, like electricity or toilet paper.  They can’t skimp too much, however.  They should offer a choice of gender- and age-specific designs, and include a bow or other adornment.  What they can do to provide this service efficiently is to go “high-tech” in one of two ways:

1. High technique: In stores that use this method you will be impressed with the gift-wrapper’s skill.  He will take a precut sheet of wrapping paper, then quickly and with judicious use of creases and Scotch tape produce a bag that is open at one end.  He will then carefully insert your gift, and seal it with a few more careful folds and some more tape.  Finally he will pull out something that looks like a bookmark or several pieces of ribbon stuck together, and magically, just by pulling on it, turn it into an impressive bow that he will tape to the gift.
2. High technology: Some stores prefer to forego such time-consuming production, and buy pre-made bags that look like large multi-colored plastic envelopes.  They have a self-adhesive flap for sealing the gift, and– here’s the kicker– the adhesive is protected not with a piece of wax paper, but instead, one of the aforementioned magic bows.  What’ll they think of next?

With both methods you end up with a bagged gift rather than a wrapped gift, but this is absolutely acceptable in most social situations involving presents.  Also, birthday boys and girls traditionally open their gifts immediately upon receiving them, so guests don’t usually add a note to theirs to say who it’s from.  If the host doesn’t manage to open all presents as they arrive, though, the result is a big pile of unmarked colored bags– a good opportunity to let an uninspired gift get lost in the crowd.

This heavenly stuff gets translated into English in Isabel Allende novels as “blancmange” and into American ice cream flavors as “dulce de leche” (read with hard d and gutteral l), which is its name in most of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.   Manjar literally means “delicacy” and is what you get when you cook sugared milk for a long time.  It turns into a smooth brown paste that vaguely resembles peanut butter in color and consistency (which leads to a puzzling confusion between the two on the part of some Chileans, despite the completely different flavors and textures).

Manjar is a staple on the breakfast and once table, to be spread on bread like jam.  It’s also a common filling in many pastries and cakes.  Dunkin’ Donuts in Chile sells a “Boston Manjar” donut, which is a Boston Kreme donut with a manjar filling in place of the “kreme”.

If you like sweets, you will probably love manjar.  Fortunately, in Chile you can get it at any store that sells food, even the tiniest mom-and-pop negocio on a remote patagonian isle.  However, should you find yourself traveling abroad and in need of a fix, here are two simple recipes: the traditional slow-cooked milk and sugar, and the more modern boiled-can-of-condensed-milk.  For the moment, both are untested by expat.cl, so use at your own risk.

http://www.nuevoanden.com/recetas/recmanjar.html

The upside to all that smog is that it makes you really appreciate Santiago’s spectacular views of the Andes (since you don’t get to see them very often).  A good winter rain clears out the air for a while and leaves a fresh blanket of white on the mountaintops.  I took this photo a stone’s throw from my house after a rainy weekend.