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Good-bye Chile

Our last day started slowly, relaxing and finally packing. Upon learning that we were still allowed to check in a second bag for free, we found a box and filled it with some extra wine bottles and those likely-to-break wine glasses.

A farewell lunch
We wanted to re-visit Santa Rita, as our rushed lunch didn't do it justice. Of course, stuffing a bigger meal to fill ourselves before our late flight didn't hurt either.

Initially the plan was to do a tasting, as it would be the final one. Speaking with our English-speaking host, he advised us not too, since we were eating and could sample more wines at a much better rate. So we took his advice and bought a few glasses to sample with food instead.

The food was exquisite, and I got the closest thing to a rare steak all trip. The sea bass was simply cooked and was so light that I even liked it! Oddly enough, the middle-priced wine was some of the best I tasted all trip.

It is still strange to order meat and sides separately, and isn't something I would want to do often. Thinking about why Argentina and Chile wine-dining experiences are different, perhaps Argentina's reputation for its gastronomy results in the more complete dining experience. While it is nice sometimes to self-assemble piece by piece of your meal, including your wine, I do prefer to allow the chef to be creative in assembling everything.

Still, the meal at Santa Rita was the perfect way to end our trip.

Finding the airport
With time flying by, we said our good-byes and made our way to the airport. Looking at the map it seemed pretty self-explanatory. The only problem? We had no idea what the autopista ring-road would be called. But surely there'd be a sign, right?

Of course not. Next thing you know we were heading through Santiago, which was thankfully still on an autopista. Taking a chance, we head off the northward route for a westward one that should connect to the ring-road. So we head off any finally found a sign to point us to the airport. So we headed back north again, only to face gridlock traffic.

There was some construction on the autopista, so instead they closed off the entrances to the road and ran us along a parallel road with lighted intersections. While we left plenty of time in case of any traffic incidents, we were frustrated to have the clock running while not knowing how far the airport was.

Thankfully we made it with still plenty of time to spare, and only had to face minor frustrations when dropping off our rental.

The highlights
- Fruit: fresh, plentiful and cheap. (A special shout-out to goes out to chirimoya)
- Wine: lots of choices
- Sunshine and clear skies
- Empanadas, pastel de choclo and pebre
- Landscape: mountains, volcanoes, ocean and vineyards

Glad to leave behind
- Stray dogs: sometimes abused, sometimes injured, there are just too many
- Dust: it is everywhere
- Pan amasado: or what we called "hockey pucks" of bread

Final thoughts
Chile is a great country to visit. Chileans are friendly, laid back, and petty-crime is relatively low. All our days were sunny, with only a few clouds and not a single drop of rain. About as long as Canada is wide, there is so much diversity to be found. Now to visit the northern part!

Final day of touring

In Chile, when traveling on your own you can't have a schedule or a plan. No matter how hard you may try, Chilean time takes over.

A slow start
This morning we had woke up with good intentions to get an earlier start to the day.

Roadblock #1 - the shower
As we've encountered in some other places, the shower here is either scalding hot or freezing cold. The only time you can take a shower is when the water switches from one to another. This makes for a tedious, frustrating, and ultimately longer shower.

Roadblock #2 - traveling non-autopista routes
Driving around, it isn't hard for traffic to come to grinding hault. Reasons may be horses, construction, farm equipment, or stupidly planned intersections causing massive backup. Locals obviously know that the traffic lights are inefficient, as they are often found standing beside cars with stuff they are selling. Today it was even more odd, as we encountered fire fighters taking donations.

Besides the regular roadblocks, we ended up chatting more than usual this morning with our host. Chilean time has won once again.

One last kick at the can - trying to find a winery to visit
Santa Alicia - Fail. Open only Monday to Friday.

Vina Undurraga - Absolutely-frustrating-success.
Since this was one of the known wineries to be open, and since it was on the way to Pomaire, we gave it a second shot. Turning off the main route it took forever to find this mysterious street we were supposed to turn off onto, and there was nary a sign to give us a sense that we were even close to being in the right area.

We actually gave up and decided to drive to the next town, when they street we were seeking magically appeared. Finding the winery, they were just finished the tour. However, they must have took pity on me, as I was able to get a tasting! Undurraga makes great wines, so it wasn't anything new, but I was happy for the experience. Oh, plus I get another glass to break on my way home.

Pomaire
Satisfied with getting a winery visit, we left my wine-seeking mission behind and headed to look at some ceramics. We had acquired a couple of pieces on our prior journey, and seeing them used so frequently we decided to go find some more.

Driving into the town is screams tourist trap. The main road is lined with shops and restaurants. Pedestrians fill the one-way street, making parking a challenge. So we parked a bit outside of the main area and walked through millions of the same type of shops. After having our heads swim browsing the same items, we decided to take a break and get some lunch.

Up to this point, getting a meal was never too difficult. Sometimes there has been some confusing discussion, but we always end up with food that we ordered. Of course a first choice was unavailable, so we chose something else the server recommended. We got our first dish, and then she prattled on in Spanish. For the first time we were not able to make sense of anything spoken to us. We looked at our server with wide eyes, confused, shaking our heads, speaking in English.

She kept on in Spanish. Apparently our signals and lack of a Spanish-speaking response meant nothing to her. Finally, not having a clue what to do, we just kept responding "no". It was a light lunch for us.

So we went on our way, picked up our pieces and made our way back to the autopista.

Enjoying the rest of the day
Since it was "siesta time" and everything was closed, we made our way back to the B&B. Dreading the big pack for home, we lounged with our host, chatting.

Mery is a fascinating lady, who owns a beautiful home. She bought it with the intention to run a B&B, close to Concha y Toro with its thousands of tourists. She has also traveled a lot, lived in the US, seen the suffering in Sudan, and finally settled in Chile.

She also has four dogs - one who is her own, and the other three are strays she took in. Around Pirque and onto the road to Canyon de Maipo a lot of people discard their unwanted dogs. Like us, she would take them all in if she could. But at least three dogs have a better life and actually play now.

She likes the constant contact with foreigners, and she finds Chilean ways trying sometimes. A great sense of humour, she is a huge fan of Big Bang Theory, so we had some good laughs together. She was very pleased when we found some YouTube videos of their appearance on eTalk, as she was wondering what they were like in real life. An amazing host who is made to run a B&B, she is easy to talk to.

Tonight she made us dinner, as we had a great discussion on "Pino Empanadas". Directly translated, we could only figure out it was "pine empanadas", which of course made no sense. The truth is that they are more traditional, and are basically pastel de choclo, minus the corn, inside an empanada.

She also laughs at our misadventures and misunderstandings, and likes our foreign perspective on Chile. It was a great way to end our stay in Chile, winding us down before we have to plunge back into real life.

Highlights of our trip
Best pisco sour - Medio Mundo, Algarrobo
Best breakfast - Mar Andio, Rancagua
Best views - Medio Mundo, Algarrobo and Mirador los Volcanos, Pucon
Best wine tasting experience - MontGras and Laura Hartwig, Colchagua Valley
Best wine pairing experience - Casas del Bosque, Casablanca Valley
Funniest thing seen at the side of the road - Kids selling cerveza (beer)

One more crack at wine country

We left the Canyon early in the morning to make our way back to wine country and the outskirts of Santiago.

Concha y Toro
It was due time that I finally did a wine tour, after avoiding it for so long. This is the biggest winery in Chile and makes some pretty darn fine wine, so I just had to give it a visit. Since the only way was by tour, I buckled and became a full-fledged tourist. (Thankfully our B&B was only five minutes away, so Mike dropped me off, so he didn't have to suffer the wait.)

Walking in, it was a mega-tourist trap, drawing in people from all around the world. I also learned that Concha indeed has a restaurant and does some tasting flights and serves by the glass. Bugger!

But I was stuck on the tour, watching the cheesy intro video, roaming the extensive property grounds, and ending with a visit to the Casillero de Diablo cave. I ignored the cheesy Disney-like storytelling for the tourist, and enjoyed the cooler temperatures. Have I been meant to live among the barrels and bottles in oh so perfect temperatures? Hmm, such a life couldn't be bad...

The tour ended with a visit from a "sommelier", who guided us through their Marques line. Knowing how to taste wine, I immediately started my ritual. Suddenly I was in grade school and we were to observe, smell and taste the wine as a group. Ah yes, this is why I hate tours and prefer tastings.

Of course I don't mind talking about the wine I'm drinking, but do so in free-flowing conversation and with less condescending attitude. The funniest part was when a Scottish gent of the group asked what the bottle cost. The sommelier snapped, saying that asking price was like asking a lady's age. And that when you take a lady out, you go to the restaurant focusing on quality, and not being concerned about prices. We were to focus on experiencing the quality of what was in the glass, and nothing else.

Now maybe I'm too much of a Winnipegger, but the price of the bottle has a huge impact on the way I rate a wine. There's nothing better than a wine that tastes like it should cost $30, when instead it costs $15. I told this to my fellow sh*t-disturber and we had some good laughs at how the sommelier was full of bunk.

The "gift" from the tour was one of the glasses we sampled with. While a nice gesture, and certainly more practical if you're not traveling home by plane, it poses quite the quandary for packing.

To make the tour more disappointing, one of the motivators was a mini cheese-board that could be creatively taken as a better parting gift. (I had learned this from friends who went on the tour last year.) Well I'm gathering too many of these wandered off as gifts, as we were served with boring white plates instead. Double bugger!

By the end of it all I felt slightly dirty from the whole experience. I also confirmed that wine tours are the root of all wine evil. Tour the grounds with a glass of wine in your hand and enjoy expressing what you're experiencing. The rest is just filler.

Winding down the afternoon
After the tour Mike came to pick me up and rescue me from the experience. Next to him was some strange lady who started to come towards me for the usual kiss-greeting. Being Canadian my eyes widened with the thoughts of "who the heck are you", quickly backing up. We all had a laugh when I was introduced to our host for the last couple of days in Chile!

We then had lunch at Concha y Toro with a couple of other Canadians on the tour. Of course what I wanted to order was not on the menu, and we were informed that this is quite a common thing in Chile. The advice was to ask before sitting down whether they had what I wanted on the menu. Smart advice from a only fish-eating vegetarian in a put-meat-in-everything country!

Wine tourism
Going back to our B&B, we relaxed a bit, and I asked our host what she knew about the wineries all around us. She told us that very few receive visitors, and those that do only do tours. I was heart-broken and frustrated with the wine tourism once again.

At first blush it seemed that Chile was more advanced than Argentina when it came to wine tourism. But now I've learned that it is not necessarily the case. Both seem to be underdeveloped and support middlemen tour guides. There are two easier options for touring: you can go through a wine touring company, who will set everything up for you; or you can hire a taxi-driver of sorts who can do the same on a smaller scale.

I tried contacting some wineries to set up a visit, but only one ever replied (Casas del Bosque, which was the most visitor-friendly by far.) Now granted I did a lot more drop-in tries than contacting, but as anyone can imagine, it is vacation and it is hard enough to plan your places of stay without having to plan your entire day in such detail.

Planning the last day
So with all wineries closed by 4pm, and Concha y Toro eating up all my time, we just sat back, watched TV and turned our brains off for the day. Discussing plans for tomorrow, we were informed that very few wineries will be open for Saturday.

Mike laughed at how we were at Cascada during the week, when everything was closed (but throngs of tourists were away). And now we're here during the weekend, when everything is closed again. There is something to be said for having the timing of the throngs of tourists.

Running the river

We woke up early, as usual. There has only been the odd morning where we having woken up due to some animal or bird creating noise. The early rising sun also doesn't help. Let's just hope that re-adjusting to our normal time zones + less light + cold doesn't mess us up too badly.

Team Winnipeg!
We woke up with plenty of time for our rafting trip, to meet the other couple of people on our raft. They were from Canada! When we asked where they were from, there was a slight pause, then the tell of "Winnipeg". Of course jaws dropped, as in all the years of traveling I can't recall running across any Winnipeggers.

They were silenced, waiting for us to crack a joke. Of course we all laughed when we revealed our shock, relaying our mutual home town.

So together we climbed in the raft and conquered the class III rapids. The scenery was stunning, the river was cold and the experience amazing. It was much different than other watercraft we've experienced (canoes and kayaks), and would be something worth doing again.

At one slower part of the river we were able to get out swim (alongside the raft). It was a crazy and cold ride, getting water up the nose with the sudden gush of water. When we finally had to re-enter the raft, my butt made some serious contact with an underwater rock.

The interesting note of the tour was talking about last year's earthquake, and how it affected the river. The biggest affect was large rocks in the river, that weren't previously there. Amazing how such shaking can create such change.

Hike to the waterfall
It was the start of the afternoon and it was our only chance to do our "complimentary" hike. (Apparently in this privately owned park you have to pay for everything, unless you're a guest who gets some fees waved.) So with the full sun and lots of heat, we headed up the mountain. At the end was a nice waterfall, surrounded by scrub and cactus.

After our descent we headed to the pool for a refreshing dip. Definitely more pool time than our previous trip!

Rolling the Rrrrs
For anyone who knows Spanish, you have to rrroll your rrrrrs. When speaking to an English-speaking local he was amazed at how well I was able to roll my r's. Thinking about the other language I know well, I realised that Polish also rolls r's. Na zdrowie! Now to just learn more of the language...

Llama
The facilities seem to own a llama, as we encountered one roaming the groups. Never seeing one up close, it was surprising to see that they're shorter and a heck of a lot fuzzier than expected. A bit like sheep with long necks.

On the cheap
If you want to travel on the cheap, Chile is not the place to go. Hotels, restaurants and food at the grocery store are all about the same price at home. Gas is quite a bit more expensive. The things that remain cheap, or cheaper, are fresh roadside fruit and veggies, beer from the store and some bottles of wine.

Trip discoveries
- There is such a thing as too much fruit. 3lbs of cherries, 1lb of strawberries, 1lb of blueberries, plus other fruits either picked off trees or served during breakfast means a lot of fruit. A body can have a hard time handling so much fruit in such a concentrated period of time. Thankfully only five cherries remain.

- Realising how "ll"s are pronounced in Spanish, how would someone Spanish-speaking call Lloyd Axworthy?

- Seeing the constellation Orion in the north sky is a weird thing.

- Screens on windows is a good thing. Chileans have manufactured a weird type of screen that fits on the outside of house windows and on car windows. Think of black pantyhose for a window. Was there really a need to improve over the traditional model?

- Gas jockeys wear auto-racing crew suits. Really? You're just filling our crappy Nissan's tank.

Vineyards and Mountains

We woke up to one of the best breakfast spreads and filled ourselves up. Between the air conditioning, WiFi router right outside our bedroom and the room, we can't really complain much about Rancagua. Sure there is nothing to see in the town, but it is central enough to see some of the main wineries in the country.

See, not visit
Knowing that the majority of vineyards are on the East side of Route 5, we decided to head West towards Isla de Maipo.

Winery 1: TerraMater - semi-fail. They only do tastings on Saturdays, but we did pick up some olive oil they produced.

Winery 2: Santa Ema - fail
Winery 3: De Martino - fail
Winery 4: Viña Tarapacá - fail. And this was after I gleaned off the website that they do lunches. AND we had trouble finding, driving in circles, since the map didn't orient itself with Isla de Maipo.

Winery 5: Undurraga - fail. To be honest we didn't even locate the winery, and at this point we weren't even trying. We were ready to find some food and get onward to our accommodations.

Winery 6: Portal del Alto (I think, at this point my memory wasn't sharp for little-known wineries) - fail
Winery 7: Santa Rita - semi-success. Not realising that it was 3:30pm, we pulled in for lunch...only to negotiate what we could eat, since the oven was turned off. Still, the food was good and I sampled a couple of their premium wines.

Chilean directions
While the signage has been better here than in Argentina wine country, they seem to place the minimum number of signs. They also seem to assume that you are coming from Santiago, and give directions and sign when coming on from that direction.

For example, finding the reception of our accommodations was easy. Finding our hostel - which was four-ish blocks over - wasn't as easy, since its sign was facing away from us. Of course this defies logic, considering all guests will have to go to the main reception before backtracking towards the hostel and should have the sign point towards them.

This also explains why some of the wineries have been harder to locate, (if locating at all). Wineries should realise that they are not the only one being visited that day, so the orientation may not be from the exact entrance off the main route. On maps they really should provide directions based on markers around the winery, so you could locate it from multiple directions.

Horses
While cars are very prevalent here, it is also very common to find horses - sometimes with a carriage - going down the streets. While they may be expected in small towns, we have even found them in larger places like Santa Cruz, Talca, and the like. Thankfully they aren't on the Autopistas, and their only hazard is left behind on the road.

Maipo Canyon
Our destination was back into the mountains, staying in the Maipo canyon. Leaving around the mountainside, it is quite remote. The mountains look a bit like Grand Canyon with its striations, and the weather gets quite hot during the day. Thankfully, it also cools off quite a bit at night.

Dog party
We fell asleep to the rowdiest bunch of dogs I've ever encountered. You may here a dog bark here or there, even setting off other dogs in the neighbourhood. With this, imagine dogs having a party, drinking lots. They get loud, and you hear the mass of them. Now maybe the canyon is making them louder or more plentiful than it sounds. Still, we'll think of the lot feasting on some great roadkill, making themselves fat.

Total KMs traveled to date: Over 2,800 km

Random thoughts and Chocolate

Some random thoughts from the trip. When reading, you should be listening to my new favorite song I've heard on the radio here.

Pisco Sour
Pisco sour is a staple here in Chile and considered a national drink of sorts. It is made with pisco, which is liquor distilled from grapes. It is quite refreshing when hot, but it can vary quite a bit from place to place. Sometimes it really packs a punch.

We've tended to prefer the better alternative - Amaretto Sour, or the newly discovered mango sour.

Patio beware
Like in Europe, sitting on the patio has the hazard of smoking. As a Winnipegger it almost seems like our duty to sit outside and enjoy the weather. However, it is amazing how many people smoke here. Our latest hotel room even came with matches, and I can't recall the last time I came across a place that provided matches!

Hockey pucks
In France and Argentina, they serve types of croissants for breakfast. Here, it is the ubiquitous "hockey puck".

They are these hard little buns of sorts, that are dense and sit in your stomach. Overall not bad, but doesn't compare to croissants.

Bike paths
It is amazing how many bike paths they have here along the main roads.

There are so many people who bike here they are quite well-used. Imagine if we had such bike-paths...

Moving day?
Driving on Ruta 5 we've noticed that people are carrying a lot of crap on their cars. We were wondering if this was the norm, but on TV there was a news report showing all the different overloaded vehicles, so it must be a spectacle for Chileans as well. But this one took the cake - a boat!