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| Colchagua Valley |
On with the journey, now we are off to see what we actually came to Chile for, the wine valleys. We took a one hour bus ride into Santiago, the capital of Chile, where we had to disembark, buy new tickets and find the right platform for the bus to Santa Cruz. We are still a little nervous and feeling insecure after the mugging, but we practiced asking for the tickets and made out just fine. We sat for an hour in a very busy station, clutching our bags, while we waited for the bus. Then away we went to a little town, Santa Cruz, in the center of the Colchagua valley. It was a three hour bus trip from Santiago and once out of the suburbs, the trip was through vast agricultural lands, vegetables, fruits and vines. Not sure about the vegetable and fruit farm holdings but the vineyards are very large compared to the Okanagan farms. Seven hundred hectares of grapes and four million liters of production is classed as a medium sized holding.
Santa Cruz itself is a sleepy little farm town with all the action taking place within a couple of blocks of the central plaza. Have I mentioned every town or city has a main plaza and depending on the size of the place a few more plazas for good measure.
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| Now the top left feeds the middle right, to the front bottom! |
Based on guidance from our trusty Lonely Planet guide book, written by English people, published in English, headquartered in an English speaking country, we booked into a lovely little bed and breakfast, where the staff "was exceptionally helpful to guests". I'm not sure why I expected them to have a bit of English, I just surmised that was what the guide book might of meant - but not a word. They were exceptionally nice, but no English, much to our dismay and to some other folks that had booked there based on the Lonely Planet guide. But things turned out just great, with our trusty little Latin America phrase book and the eight words I remembered from school, we found food, drink and wine tours. All rather good, in fact.
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| Tour Guide, swirling three glasses at a time, on one foot! |
We toured two wineries - Viu Manent and Casa Silva. All the wineries have English speaking guides and some are as much entertainer as a tour guide. The fellow at Viu Manent was an entertainer, he had spent seven years in California, and enjoyed his work. As well as a winery tour at Viu Manent, we were taken for an hour long horse and wagon tour of the vineyards. We were shown how they clone and graft the vines and one area where the white vines originally planted were cut off, a hole drilled in the stump and red Carmenere grafts inserted, now these vines produce Carmenere grapes. Then to the tasting room, where as good little tasters Loreen and I finished everything placed in front of us. Not sure why the other folks took the tour for just a sip! Maybe they had to drive?
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| They always want treats! |
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Wagon Tour
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Then off to Casa Silva, twice as big, and the wines were great, but it did not have the ambience of Viu Manent. The guide was good, but the winery was more upscale and maybe a bit presumptuous. As well as the winery and vineyards, they have a luxurious hotel, one son raises polo horses, another son raises Chilean Rodeo horses, with a polo field and rodeo arena on the property. They also have a fine collection of antique cars stored inside one part of the wine storage facilities.
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| The Courtyard at Casa Silva |
We spent three nights in sleepy Santa Cruz, gaining confidence and looking forward to our next adventure, three days at an Andes Mountain lodge (Tumunan Lodge) an hour by car east of San Fernando on the edge of the Andes. Shades of Longview, Alberta with folks trailing horses down the roads and streets, coming to town for supplies on their favorite "uptown" horse. My goodness, I felt right at home!
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| Loreen, Christina and Soriano |
The lodge itself is very quiet with only four rooms for accommodation. The meals were gourmet and delicious as prepared by Will and Carolina, the owners. We so enjoyed spending time with a young woman, Christina from London, who is traveling in South America for a year and has taken a month to work at the Lodge in exchange for room and board. We spent a lot of time reading at the pool and hiking with the dogs, a big St Bernard that almost knocked you down when he decided you should pet him and a little retriever type dog. They were quite the guide dogs also, every time we went hiking, away they went off up the trail, waited for us at the first two corners and gates, then off into the underbrush looking for bones, or birds, or to chase the mule around the pasture. Anyway the hiking was relaxing and one day we took our lunch and had it by a nice mountain stream that runs through the property. I was not quite as eager as Bernard was to cool off!
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| Bernard, the St. Bernard |
Then we had a half day of horse back riding in the Andes, mostly on dirt roads but some up a switch back trail on the side of the mountain. These are not your polo ponies or rodeo type horses, but sturdy, special bred mountain and ranch horses that are big boned, with good hooves and can climb like heck, similar to our guide outfitter horses on a smaller scale. Our guide, Soriano, spoke no English, but we were able to explain to each other what the various pieces of horse tack were in Spanish and English - reins (reinda), etc. Soriano was born up the valley in a small hut and has never left the area.
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| Loreen, Danny and Soriano |
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Loreen and Christina on the trail
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All in all it was a very relaxing three days, now off to the capital of Chile, Santiago, population about four million.
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