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)