Travel-Trotter

We left the Colchogua valley on Sunday morning driving seven hours south to lake country of Chile, we arrived at Lago Villarrica which is located beneath the Volcano of the same name and looms over the area with a cap of snow and a wisp of smoke at the top.  We arrived at our cabana for the next 11 days and met the owners who were homeopathic doctors from Seattle.

We settled in and took in the sunset with views of almost the entire lake.  On Monday we completed school and Maddy tried to work at our place but couldn’t get decent internet so she drove down to town; school was very hard after the weekend, nobody wanted to do anything.  We finally finished up school at 2pm which was very late for us, Maddy came back and we all went to the beach.  It was really warm and the lake was nice enough to swim in, the sand was a dark volcanic color which the girls thought was pretty cool.  We had dinner out in Pucon, looked at some options for activities in the area and then went grocery shopping.

The next day after getting situated we grabbed our list of the best waterfalls in the area and hit the best two, Salto Leon and Salto La China, both were amazing, both were located on the northern side of Volcano Villarica and were about a 1 hour ride from Pucan.  Salto Leon was a double fall with quite a bit of water flowing over while the Salto La China was smaller with a more accessible pool.  La China also had a Canopy or zip-line for the kids; yessss check that off the list, for cheap too.  It was Julie’s first time doing the zip-line after refusing last year in Costa Rica, good for her!!

We tried to go to a termas or hot springs but they were cleaning their pools.  We headed back to our Cabana and cooked dinner put the kids to bed and enjoyed an amazing sunset.

We are spending 4 days in the colchagua valley in central Chile, an hour south of Santiago.  The area is somewhat built up with wine infrastructure, there are 15-20 places to taste wine in the valley.  About half of the tastings require you to tour the facilities prior to tasting wine and all of the tastings require you to spent money on the tasting.  Most of the tastings are somewhat expensive but the bottles of wines are very inexpensive at least from the wineries.  I have been impressed with most of the red wines the Carmaneres, Cabernet Savignons, and other other red blends.  Maddy has loved the Savignon Blanc from a couple different wineries.  We are staying at a house that is situated in the middle of several wine fields which makes for enjoyable evening walks and interesting jogging in most mornings.  The smoke is not bad but we still are not able to see the larger more distant Andes range mountains.

We have been averaging about two wineries a day, mostly because the distance of the wineries, the tours usually take an hour or more, the pours of the wineries are substantial ( about ½ glass to 2/3 of a glass) and we are a bit paranoid of the police checks that we have heard of although we have encountered none.  We started near our house at Vina Estampa where we met Phillipe who was great and gave us lots of suggestions and was very friendly, we bought our first wine a sauvignon blanc, which are from grape that come from the coast.  We then went to Vina Mont Gras and had a tasting with a Brazilian Sommelier our host switched between English and Portuguese with ease, it was a blast.  We went down town and had dinner at the Santa Cruz social club it was a complete disaster, Mirabelle was hiding from the waiter and Julie had a meltdown about something that didn’t matter.

The next day we drove out toward the coast to visit Vina Santa Cruz, which had a teleferico and various other museums, we arrived at 1pm but they said we couldn’t start a tour until 2 and said we had to have a tour to do a wine tasting; they were very controlling about the schedule.  We signed up for the tour and left, we found an organic winery down the road who allowed us to taste wine right away, even after Vina Santa Cruz told us there were no other wineries in the area.  We did go back and take the tour which took us up the teleferico and we self-toured several small exhibits on the native people of the area.  We then had to wait until 3 to get our tour of the actual winery, we bugged them enough that they gave us an abbreviated tour and we got to taste wines after 10 minutes.  We were not about to buy any wines though.

The next day we went to one of the more famous wineries in the valley it was called Viu Manet and it has some of the oldest vines in the valley, some close to 100 year old vines that produce less fruit but are more flavorful.  We also learned that the Cholchagua valley was known for really good Merlot prior to 1994 when a grape expert came and told them that they had misidentified the grapes as Carmenere, which was extinct in Europe, so now Chile has the best Carmenere wines.  We had to wait for an English tour so we went to another winery Laura Hartwig, which was near the town of Santa Cruz.  Laura Harwig is more of a boutique winery but they had very good reds.  They also had a polo ground that was used by the nephew of the owners.  We went back to Viu Manet and we got a personal tour with their English speaking guide and got a ride on a horse drawn carriage and a barrel tasting.  The wines were very tasty and they were very cheap when you bought them at the winery.

The next day we went to a part of Santa Cruz in the Colchagua Valley and visited three wineries Vina Montes, Vina Apaltagua and Vina Veyen.  The first Vina Montes had a beautiful winery built with using the concepts of feng shui, lots of pools and they had Gregorian chants for their wines, seemed a bit over the top but it was a pretty area.  Vina Apaltagua was next and it was a brand new winery we were their fourth customers to visit their new tasting room, it was a great time we loved our host and we bought lots of wine.  The final winery of the day was Vina Veyen which was the oldest winery in the valley with amazing old buildings with Chilean style architecture, large barns with a huge barrel rooms, with lots of room for the kids to run.  The wine was Carmenere and Cabrenet Savignon, the wines were great but the prices were steep.  Thus ends our wine tour in Colchagua.

Soccer games

So we finally bought a soccer ball!  Julie has been asking for a ball forever and she has been playing with the boys at recess so she is excited to play.  It was extremely hot in Santa Cruz so we have been playing in the morning and at night.  We have had some epic games; so much fun all five of us.

Vineyard walks

The place we are renting is surrounded by vineyards and we are allowed to go walking around and explore, we have been taking walks during the evenings around sunset when the light is just perfect in the vineyards.  It has been a special time with the kids and with Maddy, I have included one picture and will post a ridiculous video one of me jumping over a stream in slow motion that the kids took, I laugh my head off every time I see it.  We also had access to a telescope which we used for science class every night to check out the moon and other plants, the girls were so into it, we might have to get a scope at home.

On Sunday we woke up late and went to downtown Santiago to the original area where the town was founded in 1541. The city was founded by the Spanish on a hill at the confluence of two rivers.  A castle still stands and the parliament is not too far away at the Plaza Des Armas.  We climbed the castle and then grabbed lunch at a French breakfast place.

On Monday we decided the we couldn’t miss the tallest building in South America located in Santiago.  The kids were very excited even though smoke from the forest fires was very dense and we couldn’t see much of the mountains at all.  It was still a great view of the city and surrounding area.

Our last day we visited the Aracuar park near our hotel and had lunch.  The girls discovered a bird that was wounded and made a nest for it.  We then went to Kidzania which was a strange under ground world where kids can get jobs and do activities, it kind like a Disney imitation of the world but in Spanish and no rides or characters.  It was a bit over priced and the kids had trouble with the language barrier.

Anyway Santiago was great, but onto Colchagua valley and wine country.

On Friday after finishing school Maddy joined us for lunch and we headed to the Cerra de Bellavista, which is the large hill near the center of Santiago but on the far side of the river from the city center.  We rode the teleferico up to the top of the hill where we ate lunch at the Santuario de la Inmaculada Concepcion overlooking downtown, we took the funicular down the hill and got tickets to the zoo.

It was at least 90 degrees out so we all chugged water down and walked around the zoo; it was a very quality zoo, lions and tigers, penguins and elephants as well as many other exhibits, not all that much different from an American zoo. We were all exhausted after a few hours so we went back and crashed out for a few hours at our  hotel, the kids on their ipads.  We had dinner out at a seafood place which was nothing spectacular but a good day all in all.

On Saturday we went to the Museo Interactivo Mirador which was an amazing museum with so many interactive exhibits, they had an earthquake room but we missed our appointed time to go see it.  They had a bed of nails which the kids loved so much they had to go on it multiple times.  After staying at the museum for several hours we were all exhausted and  retired back to the hotel and the pool.

Our first day in Santiago, I took care of getting a small repair completed on the van, the tire bolt that I sheared off.  I tried the firestone shop first and then discovered the street where repairs happen.  I got flagged down by two fellows who said they could get the bolt fixed.  I parked on the street and they went to work.  They wouldn’t give me a price until they got a look at the bolt but after telling them I didn’t want an overpriced brake job They got the job done.  Of course once the job was done the parking guy charged me for parking what a racket.

Maddy took the kids to a park and playground in the morning and saw a peacock.  I got back in time for Maddy to take a call at noon.  The girls finished up Their schooling and we went walking around the Bellevista neighborhood, one of the older areas in Santiago.   One of Pablo Nurida’s houses is in the Neighborhood, the kids rebelled so we didn’t go in.  We had dinner then ice cream and got back to the hotel to relax.

This is kind of a random video but it is one of my favorites, Caroline and I filmed this in Copacabana, Bolivia.   This is Lago Titicaca at sunset.

We spent our last morning on the coast visiting Valparaiso and a Neighborhood known for it’s graffiti and interesting streets and walk ways, we had lunch and set off for Santiago.

On our way to Santiago we stopped at the Casona Viramonte Vineyard.  We had a wonderful wine tasting with the vineyard sommelier, the tasting was very in depth and so much fun, they even didn’t mind our kids running all over the place.

we arrived in Santiago and checked into our hotel at the Marriott in the Las Condes area of Santiago, we got this hotel on points and it was significantly nicer than places we have been staying.  We relaxed in the pool and chilled out until bed time.

My favorite place we have visited so far, Vina del Mar is a city on the ocean at the confluence of a river that enters the sea.  It has funiculars (large diagonal elevators), a casino, beaches and surrounding mountains, sea cliffs, hidden stair cases.  They should set a James bond movie here.  It is only located an hour and a half from Santiago and the ocean is beautiful.  We rented a apartment just outside the city with a view of the harbor and the downtown.  We had two days to do lots of school work and Maddy got some vchiefing done (don’t think that is a word but I don’t care).  The first night we ate dinner down town, I was unable to locate a tv to watch the packers, probably a good thing as the packer got crushed, we walked along the board walk and got some dessert.

The next day we did schooling, Maddy found a co-working space and the girls and I sought out the funicular.  I made the mistake of walking their without food; we had full on melt downs on the the 10 block walk back to car… such a rookie mistake.  We got empanadas and bananas at a corner store and restored peace to the galaxy.  We then drove around the city for a bit which was a bit harrowing, but we once we got out on the north coast of the city the beaches there were a bit less crowded and had tons of playground equipment so we were in heaven, they had slack lining and a bungie trampoline thing which in the kids words was the best thing they have ever done in their lives!!!

The next day mom joined us at the beach before going off to a couple calls, we played in the surf which is not to be messed with, one wave knocked us all down and I had to grab Julie from being swept backwards.  We weren’t in real danger but the kids were excited about it.  We had dinner on the beach and then headed home to rest.  Couple of long days… tomorrow we head to the capital of Chile, Santiago.  We are starting to experience some smoke from forest fires south of the capital and it is clouding some of our views… I know poor us.  It will be interesting to see how it affects our upcoming travels.

After arriving in Coquimbo and after having both trouble finding out where to find our airbnb for the night and getting our host to meet us we finally arrived and relaxed. What a gorgeous view!!  Unfortunately we didn’t have Wifi so we haven’t posted pictures until now; we loved the area and were able to cook in our place so breakfast was a bit less aggravating.  We had access to a pool and plenty of beach time, so the kids were very happy.  I had a run on Saturday morning and discovered lots of rocks and shells at one end of the beach so that was the main activity for Saturday.  Otherwise we stayed near Coquimbo and and beach, there were lots of activities for the kids and tons of people.  The kids always want to eat helado (ice cream) which is readily available on the beach with vendors shouting in loud megaphones.  The girls seem to be eating a bit more but it is still a struggle when we are eating something unusual.  We had a last meal at a wonderful place over looking the Coquimbo Cove and got to hear the sound check to what we assume was wonderful music in the realm of “The Girl from Ipanema” but alas we have children that are screaming and must go to bed.  Ciao until later.

After several days of relaxation in Bahia Inglesia we set off down the coast in search of pinguinos.  We stopped at Punta de Choros where there were boat tours to two islands off the coast that are a national reserve for Humboldt penguins.  We arrived around lunch time and paid for our boat ride and parking, we boarded our boat with a single out board motor, with bench seating without a cover.  The seas were relatively calm so none of the people in our boat got sick which was a minor miracle.  The boat ride out to the island took a half an hour and we just missed seeing a whale, we were able to see a dolphin and an sea otter, sea lions and multitudes of birds, and we were about to give up seeing penguins when we spotted several in a secluded cove.  They were hanging around in a little cluster, looking a bit ragged.

A Cormorant

Caroline and her Penguins

A Sea Otter outside of Monterrey Bay

We were not allowed to disembark on the island due to a quota of how many people per day were being allowed but we enjoyed the boat ride and the marine layer was starting to burn off and it was warming up.  We had lunch back on the main land which was mostly empanadas and veggies; I had a loco variety which was some sort of shell fish.  We set off down the coast to our final destination which was La Serena/Coquimbo a few hours north of Santiago.