Accidental wine tasting...I mean, Pomaire

Erica, Lumy and I packed into Shaniqua (Erica's car) this morning in route to Pomaire, a small village supposedly 1 hour outside of Santiago. Like anything else related to time in Chile, that estimate was a bit off. After driving for 3 hours, we made it to our destination, but for good reason.

 

The wine vats at Undurraga Winery

We decided to take the scenic route an stop through the towns Peñaflor and some town Tara...gata, Tarangaya...I don't actually know what it was called. Along the way, we got so lucky to happen upon the Undurraga Winery. Yes! That's exactly why you take the scenic route.

Empanadas bigger than your head!

After our detour, we finally made it to the little town (more like, street) of Pomaire. Pottery shops lined both sides of the road squished between empanada restaurants and cafes serving pastel de choclo (sort of like a shepherd's pie made with corn). We witnessed what I swear to God is the largest empanada in the world being made and decided we'd have to come back once we'd worked up an appropriately hungry appetite. Shopping has a way of doing that to a girl.

We started to get an understanding of the pricing and quality the various vendors' carried about the time my knee decided it needed a beer. I forgot to mention a devastating skiing accident last week that rendered my ACL useless....more on that at another date. Anyhow, in need of some Kuntsman, we located a restaurant to serve us beer and fries before moving on.


My new dishes with fresh home-made ceviche and Camwiches

Erica found a little gem off the beaten track beyond the more heavily trafficked shops that carried higher quality glazed pottery. I fell in love and bought myself a full set of 8 dishes!

Valparaiso & Viña del Mar

Day two of the Beckham adventure took us to Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. Viña is really not much more than a beach town. We toured the large amphitheater there and walked along the beach to see the sea lions perched above a large rock for a bit before heading to the historical center of Valparaiso.

Our guide, Manuel, showed us the old buildings and what makes the city a UNESCO world heritage site. We enjoyed lunch atop one of the many hills before riding up another in a funicular built in 1894. I think we're lucky we made it!

Vino!!

My parents trip to Chile got off to a great start. We spent the whole day Sunday traipsing around the San Antonio and Casa Blanca valleys wine tasting. Our first stop was Matetic where we were given a private tour of the winery and shown the Ferrari of wine tanks. The vintner taught us all about their process including how they use egg white to remove the solids from the wine as part of the filtration process. Weird.

We went to Casas del Bosque next where I ran into an old friend from High-school, Daniel Martin. The world is too small! We toured the winery there before enjoying an amazing lunch complete with chocolate fondue for desert. Mom was in heaven.

Last stop (and certainly the drunkest) was Indomita where we toured their major production facility and wine cellars before tasting their wines looking over the Chilean hillside.

The Pinot at Casas del Bosque was a winner among all three of us. I also really liked the Syrah at Matetic and the Sauvignon Blanc from both. Indomita was third among all, perhaps because we couldn't taste much by that point in the day...

Morande Wine Tasting

Chile is the fifth largest exporter of wine in the world, and I am pretty sure that I am the fifth largest consumer of wine in Chile, so it is embarrassing that it has taken me so long to venture into the Chilean wine country. The main reason for this is related to the fact that Chile recently passed a zero-tolerance drinking and driving law restricting any of my friends with cars from being able to enjoy the experience and tote me to a vineyard. (When I say zero-tolerance, I literally mean that you cannot even have an ounce of alcohol before they send you to the slammer. Intense!) Luckily, last weekend, my friend Sydni's 26th birthday was occasion enough for us to hire a van and trek into the Maipo Valley. Our stop - House of Morande.

Morande is a lovely vineyard, even in the winter time when there are no grapes on the vine. What makes it even more spectacular, aside from the obvious (WINE), is the restaurant - House. Wine tasting in Chile is a bit different than what I am used to in California. Visiting a vineyard is more than just a flight of succulent liquid touching your lips and ciao - it is a long, lingering, whole-enchilada experience. You arrive, tour the vineyard, and then sit down to enjoy lunch paired with wine grown just meters away. If you are like my friends and I, it may also involve teeter-tottering, swinging and some acrobatics in the fields outside the restaurant.

Teeter-tottering with wine in hand

We planned to visit two vineyards, but lunch took over three hours (due to heavy wine consumption) and were unable to make our reservation for tasting at the second vineyard. To me, all that means, is that I have to make plans for another day of wine tasting in the near future. My parents are coming to visit soon, so I plan to take them out and show them what all the Chilean wine hype is about.

San Pedro de Atacama

Sand boarding in Valle del Muerte

Eric, Jordan and I headed north this weekend to explore el Norte Grande. We got to San Pedro de Atacama late Friday evening just in time to get some dinner and go to bed. Yesterday morning, we woke up and wandered around the little town in the most arid desert on earth and booked some tours for our weekend of fun. After doing a bit of shopping for Andean artisan crafts, we headed out for some sand boarding in Valle de la Muerte. Sand boarding, for those of you who don't know, is snowboarding on sand dunes. Our guide offered skis too, which I switched to after one wobbly attempt down the dune on the snowboard. Eric and Jordan fared better on the snowboards since they have at least used one before.

Valle de la Luna

After a few exhausting hours of fun, we moved on to Valle de la Luna, so named for its resemblance to the landscape of the moon. We watched the sunset over the mountains before heading back into town to catch the Chile-Venezuela soccer match (which Chile won!)

Geysers del Tatio

This morning, we woke up at 4:00 to make the trek across the desert to Geysers del Tatio, the highest geothermal field in the world. The 4,400 meter elevation was easier to bare than the -8 C cold. There are over 250 spouting geysers in the area that eschew boiling hot water each day from about 5 to 10 am. After enjoying breakfast warmed in a geyser pool at sunset, we traveled on to some nearby thermal baths to warm up. We then visited the village of Machuca where we tasted local llama skewers and homemade empanadas. We returned to the hotel around 11 for a quick shower before heading out on our next adventure to Laguna Chaxa in the Flamingo National Reserve. The flamingos were almost a pretty as the sunset, but they sure do smell bad!

Flamingo on Laguna Chaxa

Steaming geysers early in the morning

Typical houses in the countryside near Machuca

Bad luck :(

I'm gonna have to do some backwards blogging given recent events. I wrote a blog each day in the Galapagos last week sharing stories about swimming with penguins and sea lions. Since our boat was charging a hefty $36/ten minutes on the Internet, the entries were saved on my iPad ready-to-publish as soon as I returned to the real world. The "real world" certainly hit me in the face when I got home. Not 24 hours after I returned to Santiago, some greedy ladron (or burglar in Spanish) broke into my apartment and stole my iPad containing said posts, along with the BRAND NEW CAMERA that I bought for our Machu Picchu trip and used to take so many amazing pictures, my computer, beloved Louis Vuitton tote and so much more.

Stuff is...just stuff. The jerks stole a little bit of my enthusiasm about Chile, all the trust I had in my concierges and my post-vacation glow. These things happen anywhere though, so all you can do is smile and be glad that worse things didn't happen. Snickers is the only one that really knows what happened, and perhaps the police can find out more, but at least my kitty is safe and I wasn't home!

Cuy - or as we know it, guinea pig

Our final day in Cusco was more of a travel day than anything else with the exception of fulfilling our goal of trying two of the local Peruvian "treats"...oh ya, and a visit to Saqsahuaman and the Cathedral.

We started at Saqsahuaman, pronounced "Sexy woman," for some more Inca ruin viewing. After that, we visited the Sun Temple that was overtaken by the Spanish in the 1500s that is part Inca/part Spanish. The contrast reminded me of the juxtaposition of the Moorish architecture seen in Morocco after the Spanish conquest of northern Africa. We ended our Peruvian tour with Felix at the Cathedral in Cusco, viewing gold flaked chapels and a very interesting painting of the Last Supper featuring a woman (presumably Mary Magdalene a la Dan Brown) and a main dish of guinea pig rather than what is typically represented in the work.

Before sending the boys off, we needed one last Cusqueño meal to end Peru properly. Trey had been dying to try the Chicha, a fermented corn beverage that quite frankly, sounds to me like Moonshine. Apparently, you cannot order this local drink at nice restaurants without a little bit of a twist to help the flavor. Even so, after two sips of his drink at a restaurant also named after the drink (Chi Cha), he had had his fill.

The other delight we were encouraged by so many Peruvians to try was cuy, which in fact is guinea pig. I know that it's the same thing we have as a pet back home because I saw their little cages in a market right before they were to be grilled a few days ago in Ollantaytambo. They served the guinea pig with purple corn crepes and a tamarind sauce, but based on the expression on my face after bravely trying this adorable creature, nothing can make you feel better about eating a guinea pig. They serve guinea pig at special occasions and on holidays typically in Peru, according to everyone we spoke to. The price tag verifies this, as 1 kg of meat costs about $80! The price tag should be more of a warnig, however, than an invitation in my opinion, in contrast to other fine meats (like yummy lobster) that ring in around the same price.