Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice is a precious commodity here.  In the suffocating heat of the summer, one of the few ways to combat the intense humidity is with an ice cold beverage.  But refrigerators here don't come with built-in ice makers, and with ice cube trays you would have to implement an organized rotation to produce enough ice to satisfy the demand of a typical household.  So the method of choice here is to use every disposable plastic container you come across, fill it with water, and freeze it.  This applies to empty soda bottles, dulce de leche containers, yogurt cups, etc.  If you use a 2 liter bottle, for example, once the water is frozen you can cut slices off as you need them.  This is an art that I have yet to master, as cutting through a cylinder of ice requires a certain chiseling technique that is apparently acquired over time.  Or, if you prefer smaller pieces of ice, you can hammer your frozen bottle and then cut the plastic away.

The principle use of ice is for terere, the cold version of mate.  Most people have large, insolated cooler-thermoses, as this is the best way to make your terere portable so you can take it with you wherever you go while at the same time ensuring that it stays cold.  It is also quite common to put ice in wine, even in red wine, and sometimes even in beer.  Once I witnessed someone cut a partially frozen 2 liter bottle in half, pour our the unfrozen water from the base half of the bottle, and then fill the remaining space around the cylinder of ice with red wine.  This plastic "wine cup" was passed around and shared among various people.  A French girl staying at the hostel was present for this and she was absolutely appalled on various levels.

I'm not sure if an entire post devoted to ice is very interesting, so if anyone reading this has any questions or specific things you'd be interested in reading about post a comment or send me an email or message on facebook!!