My Aunt Betsy in Portland also wanted to visit her nephew Garrett in Santiago, so we teamed up for a Chilean adventure. We both had enough frequent flier miles on Alaska Airlines to make the trip, but they only had first class available for our trip down, so we had to figure out those crazy cocoon seats that recline totally flat like a bed. Ah, the experiences of travel.
Day 1 saw us biking through the Colchagua Valley, through the vineyards and little towns.
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| Pausing on a bridge for a selfie |
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| Betsy, Sam, Ben, Michelle, Garrett and yours truly |
The basic ingredients are pisco (a brandy made from grapes) and lime juice. It reminded me a bit of a Side Car--tart, sweet and packing some oomph!
Day 2 finds us at the Colchagua Museum learning about Chilean history. And why Bolivia has a navy, but no coastline. (Because they started a war with Chile to take more land and wound up losing all of their coastline.) I learned a bit, but was saving space in my brain for more important knowledge--about the wines of Chile! We visited the Las Niñas winery, owned by a French company (they ship 90% of their wines to France). I thought this barrel was rather appealing:
But cousin Garrett liked this one:
I learned about the history of the Carmenère grape. Originally cultivated in France (the word comes from the French word for crimson), it was wiped out in France in the 1860's (damn insects!) and thought extinct. In 1994 a French oenologist discovered that a Chilean Merlot variety was actually the long lost Carmenère! And there was much rejoicing. Today, the Colchagua Valley is the main producer of Carmenère for the world.
Day 4 is Santiago Day. Tours for Tips has a 3 hour walking tour for a suggested tip of 10,000 pesos (about $17). The only cool picture I got was this cappuccino.
We learned three words on the tour and I remember two of them. That's 66%, what's that a D+? That about captures my Spanish ability.
The first word was terremoto which means earthquake. It's also the name of a drink. If you have more than one, then when you try to stand up, you feel like you are in an earthquake. It's made from cheap white wine and pineapple ice cream. The tour ended in a bar where the tour guide bought a few pitchers of terremoto so we could all try some. Not really something to write home about, but here I am writing about it.
The second word means "the lesser side", but I don't remember what the word was. There's a river running through Santiago and in the past, the poor folk lived on one side and that was the lesser side.
The third word was animata, which means spirit or ghost. According to folklore, if a child dies, their spirit doesn't leave this world, but stays here to help other people. People go to the child's grave and leave gifts (like stuffed animals) and ask for help. If your wish is granted, then you have to go back to the grave and put a plaque thanking the animata. We looked at one grave with many children's toys and plaques.
Day 5 is time to visit the Chilean coast, so we're off to Valparaíso, the largest port in Chile. Not quite as busy as it was before the Panama Canal opened, but it's still a major seaport.
Next stop, the city of Viña del Mar (Vineyard by the Sea), which is famous for this clock made of flowers.
Finally, we stopped at the Casablanca Valley for some more wine tasting! This is Indomita Winery.
Before it was a winery it was a horse farm. We learned that indomita means untamed. Once we got up to the winery here's the view looking back down.
I'm not sure what the hiker sign is supposed to mean. Look out for hikers!
We tasted Chardonnay, Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon and their special high end red blend called Zardoz. I enjoyed them all, but I'd already bought 3 bottles from La Niña and didn't have any more room to bring back more wine. Fortunately, one of their distributors is Total Wine, which is all over the Northwest. I'll be looking for the 2014 Carmenère, my new favorite grape!
And finally, for my friends and family in Portland and Seattle, if you thought throwing something away was challenging in the Northwest, imagine figuring out which bin to to use in Chile when faced with this:
I only scratched the surface on this beautiful country. I hope to go back and experience more!
Day 4 is Santiago Day. Tours for Tips has a 3 hour walking tour for a suggested tip of 10,000 pesos (about $17). The only cool picture I got was this cappuccino.
We learned three words on the tour and I remember two of them. That's 66%, what's that a D+? That about captures my Spanish ability.
The first word was terremoto which means earthquake. It's also the name of a drink. If you have more than one, then when you try to stand up, you feel like you are in an earthquake. It's made from cheap white wine and pineapple ice cream. The tour ended in a bar where the tour guide bought a few pitchers of terremoto so we could all try some. Not really something to write home about, but here I am writing about it.
The second word means "the lesser side", but I don't remember what the word was. There's a river running through Santiago and in the past, the poor folk lived on one side and that was the lesser side.
The third word was animata, which means spirit or ghost. According to folklore, if a child dies, their spirit doesn't leave this world, but stays here to help other people. People go to the child's grave and leave gifts (like stuffed animals) and ask for help. If your wish is granted, then you have to go back to the grave and put a plaque thanking the animata. We looked at one grave with many children's toys and plaques.
Day 5 is time to visit the Chilean coast, so we're off to Valparaíso, the largest port in Chile. Not quite as busy as it was before the Panama Canal opened, but it's still a major seaport.
Next stop, the city of Viña del Mar (Vineyard by the Sea), which is famous for this clock made of flowers.
Finally, we stopped at the Casablanca Valley for some more wine tasting! This is Indomita Winery.
Before it was a winery it was a horse farm. We learned that indomita means untamed. Once we got up to the winery here's the view looking back down.
I'm not sure what the hiker sign is supposed to mean. Look out for hikers!
We tasted Chardonnay, Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon and their special high end red blend called Zardoz. I enjoyed them all, but I'd already bought 3 bottles from La Niña and didn't have any more room to bring back more wine. Fortunately, one of their distributors is Total Wine, which is all over the Northwest. I'll be looking for the 2014 Carmenère, my new favorite grape!
And finally, for my friends and family in Portland and Seattle, if you thought throwing something away was challenging in the Northwest, imagine figuring out which bin to to use in Chile when faced with this:
I only scratched the surface on this beautiful country. I hope to go back and experience more!
