26 March – 1 April, 2016

Santiago, Chile Wine Region and Volcan Villarica, Chile

On the 26th of March I took a short flight over the Andes from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile.  I was originally a bit annoyed that I booked a flight because I learned too late that I could have taken a cheaper bus over the Andes but after seeing the ariel views of the Andes I was pretty happy with the flight (in flight meal was pretty good too!).

I was particularly excited about Chile for 2 reasons: 1) I was meeting up with Leia, a wonderful lady from Ohio whom I had befriended in Cusco 2) Wine.  The plan was to meet up Chile and go to a Wine Harvest Festival.  We were mostly successful with this plan.

I stayed at a brand spanking new hostel so it was super clean and well designed (Casa Roble if anyone is looking for a hostel in Santiago).  The owner, Natalia, was really nice too…she is close to my age so easy to relate to.

I asked Leia to meet me at a very authentic Chilean coffee house, Starbucks, and we eventually met up after we figured out which one.  It was a great feeling to see a familiar face.  We decided to go back to my hostel and figure out our plan of action.  After doing some research we realized that all the harvest festivals nearby had already ended so we decided we’d just do a winery tour.  The most thrilling part of our plan was that we were going to rent a car to get to the wineries…freedom from buses!!!  We wanted to visit 3 wine regions but because of cost constraints (automatic cars are way more expensive than manual to rent) we decided to do 2 regions instead.  So we ended up going to the Casablanca area and Colchagua Valley (map below – we came up with our route based on information provided at this site).

Casablanca and Colchagua Valley, Chile

27 March – 29 March, 2106

Starting from Santiago we headed towards Valpariso, Casablanca is on the way.  I drove first and besides the fact that the rearview mirror was detachable the car was pretty nice and driving in Chile was easy.  Our first stop was Casa del Bosque which was a winery and hotel in one.  The place was beautiful with huge grounds with vines, a nice restaurant, and cute tasting area.  We started out with a sneaky car lunch because we didn’t want to pay for the fancy overpriced lunch. Then we rented bikes and biked around the vineyard…super fun, then wine tasting and we ended with a drive up to a mirador house (lookout).  The wine was pretty good.  I honestly can’t remember what we had but it was mix of reds and whites and of course we had a Shiraz.

After Casablanca we headed to Colchagua Valley via the Ruta del Fruta…that’s really what it was called and there were little fruit stands all along the ruta, we even stopped and bought some strawberries.  We checked in to the B&B Weekend and Wine in a little town named Santa Cruz.  The B&B owner was super sweet and she ran the place with her family. We met the daughter and grand daughter.  The town was really quiet, we walked around looking for food but pretty much everything seemed to be closed so we ended up going to a restaurant in a hotel.  I can’t remember what we got but it was yummy.  I think I got some kind of stew.

The next morning over a great breakfast, we spoke to a guy that was biking through wine country and then through the mountains.  He told us he was biking 70km a day…crazy!  He also told us that the Colchagua Museum is amazing and that we should check it out…so we did and he was right it was amazing! It pretty much provided the history of all life, started with dinosaurs, then to the evolution of man, then to the ancient people of south america (Inca, Nazca, Maya and many others) to European colonization to modern day Chile.  It was quite a journey.  Oh and they had special exhibitions on Darwin, who visited Colchagua during this journey and about the 23 miners that were buried in a Chile mine in 2010.  Very cool museum.

After the museum, we checked out another winery, Vina Montes.  This one was not as impressive as Casa del Bosque but we still enjoyed ourselves and got some nice pictures. We also looked for condors and I think we saw some…but we’ll never know for sure. Eventually, we decided that all black birds not flapping their wings were condors…yeah…that worked for us.

And I got to do my best impression of the Iron and Wine CD cover :-).  Not a good angle for me…but funny nonetheless.  I might be too happy and my beard is lacking.

That was the end of wine country and we drove back to Santiago.  This time we both stayed at Casa Roble!  And that night we tried out a really great pizza place in Santiago called Taramisu (Leia and I seem to gravitate towards pizza when we are together for some reason). It was recommended by the hostel owner and her dad was kind enough to walk us through the subway station.  Before we got to the pizza place though we considered all the American classics…

and passed.

The next evening we both planned to head south…Leia was going to Pucon and I was heading to Villarica, two cities that are across from each other around Lago Villarica. Before we headed there we spent another day in Santiago and we went to the MALL!  It was a giant mall…they had a Lush and other fancy American stores.  I bought a way too expensive UV safe shirt and Leia went crazy at Lush!  Before we left that night we went back to the hostel to get our luggage and Natalia was hosting a BBQ, we had a beer, chatted with a couple of American girls that were teaching Engilsh in Chile and Mama Leia made me a nice sammich for the next day…she’s so sweet.

Villarica and Pucon, Chile

29 March – 1 April, 2016

Leia and I took the same overnight bus since we were heading to the same area.  The ride was uneventful. I got off at Villarica, which is a tiny, sleepy town next to Lago Villarica.  I arrived early in the morning and walked over to my hostel.  I think the hostel was owned by a german guy because it was called Hosteria Aleman.  It wasn’t anything fancy but it was nice because I had all of the main building to myself.  The bathroom was mine, all mine!!  It rained most of the day so I just walked around the town a little bit that day.  I was chatting with Leia all along so we decided to meet up for dinner.  She took a bus over from Pucon and we went and had some pizza (plot twist!).  Pizza was pretty good…walk home was interesting because it was pouring rain.

The next day, Leia and I decided to do a tour of the area around Villarica and Pucon.  We started with a view of some of the other volcanoes in the area (ones that had not erupted recently), then we walked through a little garden and saw a waterfall, then some very beautiful blue pools called Ojos del Caburgua (they are a deep blue color because they have glacial water that is apparently super cold)  and we ended with a nice hot spring, yay! The hot spring was a surprise, we thought we would have to go on our own.  Luckily we had brought our bathing suits for after.  The hot springs were a wonderful way to end the tour. After the tour we went back to Pucon for our last dinner together 😦 and then I headed back to Villarica.

My last day in Villarica, I walked around town some more and got some great shots of Volcan Villarica.  I also did an amazing boat tour of the lake.  I thought I would just rent a paddle boat and go out on the water on my own but a guide actually rowed me around the lake.  I told him I thought I would be rowing so he let me practice a bit…I sucked. Apparently, hand-eye coordination is required and I do not have this skill.  Was really nice and relaxing though…the water was calm and blue and the views of the volcano and the surrounding hills were amazing and the goofy birds were quite entertaining.  After the boat ride, I walked around some more, I think I walked that whole town.  I was beat by the end of the day so I found a little restaurant with an outdoor patio and a view of the lake and volcano and had a beer and dinner.  Great way to end my time in Villarica.

Next stop and next blog…La Serena.