We kicked off our South American adventure on Valentine’s Day, which started with some home made waffles (Robyn crossed the waffle iron off her wish list) with our amazing neighbours (Vanessa and Keith). Those said lovely people also dropped us off at the train station to kick start our adventure!
However it was a long journey just to get to our starting point of Santiago (Chile). 3hr train ride, the tube to Heathrow followed by a 14hr and 45min flight to Chile. Whilst we got some sleep on the plane, we were tired when we arrived but also excited for this next adventure.
Unfortunately, it did not start well as the Santander ATM promptly ate one of our bank cards. This was followed by a mission to find a data SIM card that was not on a contract plan… But eventually we found a SIM card and got the bank card cancelled. We settled into our hotel, and found out that we would be spending the next couple nights in a giant wine barrel!!! An empty one, unfortunately. It was great place to just relax a bit in the pool with some cool drinks…. Chilling in Chile.
We only have a short stay in Santiago, with a more cultural focus. I.e. explore the Chilean wines! To that end we got to tour two of the top 3 biggest wineries in Chile: Concha Y Toro and Santa Rita.
Concha Y Toro is Chile’s main exporter of wines, and one of their brands is Casillero del Diablo, which we have definitely have had before. It’s is actually based on a myth that the original owner of the winery started. The tales goes that the devil lives in the estate’s cellars and protects the owner’s wines. This was the owners solution to protecting his wines from thieves, including his own workers. In a catholic and superstitious country it apparently worked very well. Now they have turned it into some great marketing. The main estate itself has a very grand house with immaculate English gardens.
Santa Rita, had a very different feel to it. A more rustic and farm feel to it, with its open homestead type house. On this tour we got to see more of how the wines are prepared, with the fermentation vats, aging barrels and bottling facilities. The winery is also famous for it role in Chile’s independence war (1813 -1826), where the owner at the time sheltered 120 independence soldiers that were just defeated in battle (1814) and that were retreating back to Santiago. This help has not been forgotten, and they even have a wine brand called “120”.
Santa Rita, also has an Andean Museum that has artifacts created by the Pre-Columbian peoples who inhabited the current Chilean lands (including Easter Island) and the surrounding areas. It was interesting to see various artifacts from that time period, for example in the forms of the clay pots (they all had their own personality).
It has been a relaxing start to our adventure. Next stop is a flight to Temuco, where we pick up a car and have a little road trip at our own pace.
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