On my first day in Santiago de Chile I went straight to a supermarket to see if Chile has some new exotic fruits. For the first time I was surprised by a wide variety of exotic and delicious fruit in Colombia.  Some of the exotic fruit are not exported to Europe as they would not withstand the long transport (a nice Colombian explained it to me while I was in the greengrocer’s, looking at a fruit called Guanabana). Although Chile doesn´t lay within any tropical climate zone and there is no chance to find exotic fruit I was still hoping to find a new fruit. And yes, in the supermarket I could only find fruit that is available in Europe. No exotic fruit at all.

When I had lunch in a restaurant, the waiter offered me frutilla juice. A fruit I have never heard of before. And yes, this is what I ordered. The juice was delicious and the taste was not strange. I kept forgetting to google it to find out what fruit it was, whenever I was back in the hotel.  The next day I also order frutilla juice and was enjoying it while having lunch.

Once I had to buy something in a small grocery shop next to the hotel. And this is where I found frutilla jam. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt disappointed too as frutilla turned out to be a … strawberry! Yes, the stwaberry I have been eating for my entire life. The thing is that in Spain and Colombia is called fresa and in Chile is called differently –frutilla.

I was expecting some difference between the Spanish I speak and the Chilean Spanish but I have never thought that a strawberry would make a fool of me 😉