Before I start talking about today’s events, I want to point out something I failed to mention yesterday regarding the wine tour. The first thing I noticed when I got out of the bus was the incredible smell. I closed my eyes and drank in the heady aroma of soil and sweetness. I was surprised because the vines are dormant during late autumn (which it is in Chile).
Another thing I noticed was that rose bushes are planted at the base of many of the rows of grape vines. I was told that originally, roses were planted in vineyards as an early warning system. Roses and grapevines typically have the same type of soil and sun requirements. In addition, both are prone to the infestation of a fungus known as powdery mildew. If this fungus appeared on the roses, the vines were sprayed with sulphur to prevent the grapes from succumbing. Another historic reason for the planting of roses dates to when they used horses to pull the plough. The rose’s thorns were thought to deter the horse from hitting the post at the end of the row.
Nowadays, most vineyards use modern methods to monitor carefully the soil and health of the vines and horses are no longer used. Rose bushes are no longer required, so why are they still in evidence? Some believe that roses are tastier than grape vines to pests, so they draw these damaging insects away from the grapes.
I had not signed up for this optional tour but when I found out that I was the only one who had not, I decided to opt in. I am glad I did. We drove approximately two hours to Valparaiso through the countryside. As we were leaving Santiago, most of the “residences” were ramshackle huts–thousands of them. Of course, we did not stop for a photo opportunity and the photos I took as we drove do not show the vast slums.
We did stop for a coffee/bathroom break where they were raising llamas and we drove through an area called Casablanca, one of Chile’s most productive grape regions. Chile is very mountainous and I’m pretty sure the guide said that 80% of the country is mountains. We drove through some VERY long tunnels through these moountains before finally reaching Valparaiso.
Valparaiso is a major city, seaport, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. “Greater Valparaíso” is the third largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about 75 miles northwest of Santiago by road and is one of the South Pacific’s most important seaports.
Valparaíso became a desired stopover for ships rounding South America via the Straits of Magellan and Cape Horn gaining particular importance supporting and supplying the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800’s.. As a major seaport, Valparaíso received immigrants from many European countries, mainly from Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Unfortunately, the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 ended much of Valparaiso’s golden era, causing a major decline in their economy. Today, major industries include tourism, culture, shipping and freight transport. Valparaiso was declared a UNESCOWorld Heritage site in 2003.
The hills are steep but well worth traveling–colors abound. The “graffiti” is beautiful art…
and this was just a very small representation.
We ate lunch at an adorable little outdoor cafe before taking the funicular back down into the city. Early in the day, we had been driven up to the top and dropped off. We then wandered various streets (with our guide as there is no way we could have figured out how to navigate this very congested and vibrant area. In fact, our guide helped several other tourists who lost their way. We then walked down many, many blocks on extremely narrow sidewalks, and finally traversed the remaining hills via the funicular.
Beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean and the city below.
We got back onto our transport and made our way up the coast to Vina del Mar where we were able to get up close and personal with the Pacific Ocean. A beautiful seaside city, it is fortunate to have a Mediterranean climate.
It was a beautiful, relaxing, and informative day. Most of us napped or read on the drive back to Santiago. We had plenty of time to get ready for our final dinner together. Gate 1 (our tour operator) includes several dinners in the tour and, as in Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, and Buenos Aires, the restaurant selected is top notch. We have always been given selections and tonight I opted for Tuna Tartare as my appetizer, Braised Beef Short Ribs as my entree, and Chocolate Mousse for dessert. Mmmmm!
This is the scene I woke up to this morning. Well, actually, that is not completely true. I had awakened a couple of hours prior to sunrise which was at 7:40 AM. Short days down here in Chile as sunset is expected to be at 5:2 PM. Anyway, I had left my curtains open so as to catch the first rays. I was laying in this massively comfortable King-sized bed propped up with about six luxurious pillows, sipping on an espresso, reading my Kindle when I realized the day was beginning. This was my view from my ninth floor room.
One of the things I learned today was that Chile, as a country, has only two police forces, the Carabineros de Chile, the Chilean national police force, who have jurisdiction over the entire national territory of Chile, and Investigations Police of Chile (PDI). The PDI is the principal law enforcement arm of the Public Ministry of Chile in criminal investigation. The police you see in the streets are the Carabineros while the PDI are the ones who check in immigrants and visitors.
Now, on to the wine tour! I was a bit depressed yesterday because our guide said that only I had signed up for the wine tour and they have a requirement that there must be at least two persons or the tour is cancelled. Throughout our travels, I KNEW there were some other winos so I was shocked that I was the only pre-tour signup. Anyway, we did get to go as eight of us decided this was a good tour to go on.
As we got closer to the area where our hotel sits, our tour guide pointed out that we cannot get lost as our hotel is right next door to Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest building in South America. While I did take the picture on the left as we drove into the city, it does not do it justice so I added a stock photo of the skyline on the right so you can see the incredible height of this building. I do have plans to go up to the top either tomorrow or the next day as the views from the roof are supposed to be breathtaking.
Tina had suggested that we lunch at Don Julio Parrilla, a very well-known steakhouse in the Palermo section. It is so popular that, even for lunch, reservations are required months in advance. We arrived on time and were seated at a lovely outside table. We made the decision to order el bife de lomo with sides of queso promolone a la plancha cubierto con pimientos rojos asados as well as calabaza asada, together with a bottle of crisp Argentine wine. We made the decision to order one of each to split figuring that we’d just order more if need be.
I’d like to be able to say that the reason I didn’t post yesterday was that I couldn’t get on to the internet but unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case. After I posted on Tuesday evening in Rio de Janeiro, I went to bed knowing that we had a 3:30 AM wake-up call in order to shower, dress, have breakfast, and make our 7:00 AM flight. I hadn’t slept well Monday night so I actually fell asleep pretty quickly only to be awakened at about 10:00 PM with a rather violent case of CVS (if you can’t tell by the picture on the left what CVS is, google it – not pretty) which continued off and on throughout the night. Needless to say, I got very little sleep. At times, I just laid down on the bathroom floor and, when it was time to leave, it was all I could do to get myself dressed and down to the meeting area. I felt like I was dying. My stomach was still very messed up but I hadn’t upchucked (now you know what it is) for a couple of hours so I thought that with a little sleep on the two hour plane ride, I’d probably be okay.
Hi there! I woke up to yet another beautiful day in Rio! After another fabulous breakfast (this restaurant really knows how to do brekfast!), our tour group gathered together for our drive to Sugar Loaf Mountain, which sits at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. To get to the top, one must take two cable cars. The first leg of the trip is from Avenida Pasteur in Praia Vermelha, the Red beach District, which takes you to the top of Urca Mountain. Once there, you get the first aerial view of Copacabana and the Christ statue.
Finally, we drove through St Teresa, a quirky little neighborhood to Escadaria Selaron, also known as the Selaron Steps. Chilean-born artist, Jorge Selaron, originally started tiling the dilapidated steps in front of his residence using tile scraps from construction sites. He became obsessed and sold some of his paintings just to fund the project, eventually asking visitors to send him tiles from their home countries. The tiles cover 215 steps and include over 2,000 tiles from 60 countries. Many were hand painted by Selaron who was found dead on the steps January 10, 2013. The steps were even featured on Amazing Race 18 where teams were tasked with finding a tile resembling a route sign. I didn’t find that one but I did find Florida and New Orleans!
Meandering Catie 