Still Chile´n

Same routine as yesterday. Got up early, got a cab to the bus station, got a cab back to the hotel after finding out the border to Argetina is still closed. They think it will reopen tonight, but they also thought that yesterday. I miss having websites in English or a phone number answered by somebody who speaks English that can tell us if the bus will go or not. I should have taken Spanish in high school like everyone else...Tara is making this trip go smoothly, thanks to her four years of the language.



The good news is that we loaded up on four bottles of Carmenere at Vina Mar Winery from nearby Casablanca Valley. Carmenere is a red varietal, somewhere between a Merlot and a Cabernet. The only place you can get it is Chile, as it was wiped out most everywhere else in the 19th century by phylloxera. While the Andes have kept us out of Argentina, the mountains plus the Atacama Desert in the north and the Pacific Ocean serve as natural barriers to pests and blights. Wine snobs might care http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carménère. It is great to drink, and cheap, like many of the wines here. TD thinks Chile is now the 3rd largest importer of wine to the US and we´re working on finding that in writing.



Promised a recap of the last couple days...

After finding out the bus was delayed again, we did a wine tour of the nearby Casablana Valley. It looks a lot like Napa and the number of wineries is on the rise. Since they are close to the coast, they have conditions more like Oregon and are growing similar types of grapes (white varietals and pinot noir). They´ve been growing grapes here since the1860s, but the tourism portion of the industry is just blooming. There are only a couple hotels in the valley so you have to drink and drive either 30 KM from Valparaiso or 70 KM from Santiago.

The other oddity is that most tours only pour 2 or 3 tastings, unlike the 5+ we´re used to at home. This is actually good for me and my poor alcohol processing capabilities, but kind of a bummer since we can only see a few wineries.



We visited Indomita and Vina Mar, which were both housed in facilities opened in the last 6 or 7 years. Indomita had a very impressive facility in an eyesore of a building. Huge white and mirrored-window structure on a hillside overlooking the valley with a big sign behind it like the Hollywood sign. It would actually fit well in LA. The tour was pretty plain but the wine was pretty good.



Next door was Vina Mar, housed in a slightly more tasteful modern building, complete with helicopter landing pad. We lucked out that we got a private tour with a nice guy named Francisco who has his agriculture degree and is an aspiring wine maker. He had lots of info on the process, shared many of his beliefs about wine, and talked about his own plans to start a winery along with his new wife from Wisconsin! Great to see his entrepreneurial spirit.

The tasting was in the lobby (kind of like drinking in a hotel lobby) and originally they only poured 2 tastings. The Savignon Blanc was solid, but the Caremenere was the best we´ve ever had (and only $10). Francisco also snuck us a pour of Pinot Noir which was great.



Our tour guide was named Marko and he has his own local agency called Adventours...sorry to our friend Graham who might have used a similar name in his endeavors. It was a nice 4 hour tour and it gave TD a chance to practice her Spanish with someone willing to slow down and enunciate. He has family in The OC so he knows how gringos speak...

We´re going to attempt a run on the beach at Vina del Mar (They have exercise equipment here. Circuit training!) and will find a way to amuse ourselves for another day. Tomorrow, we wake up and head to the bus station for the fourth day in a row, crossing our fingers and hoping that the powers that be open the roads to Argentina.