Day 3: Finishing strong with Concha y Toro

Twas our last day and Chile and what did we decide to do? Visit a vineyard of course! And not just any vineyard, the second largest vineyard in the world, Concha y Toro (Shell and Bull for you non Spanish speakers). This decision basically came down to 1. Us not knowing any Chilean vineyards and 2. This vineyard had a tour in the brochures our hotel provided, but let me tell you it did not disappoint!

But first... we went galivanting off for souvenirs! We headed to Patio Bellavista, a cool collection of artisan shops, unique restaurants, and McDonald's--a winning combo. We had some time to kill before the tour and needed to do some souvenir shopping so this was perfect. We found some lapis lazuli, some adorable little alpacas, and some other cool things that struck our fancy. All in all, a solid couple of hours killed before our tour.

And we managed to find lunch! at McDonald's! I can feel the judgement from here so let the haters hate. We didn't have much time and you know what, sometimes you just want McDonald's (okay not really, but go with us here). I will say, I think the meat is probably better quality than what we get in America and the fries were just as yummy. We even got toys in our kids meal! JK we did not get kids' meals, we got quater-pounders. We are adults.

I made a heart in my latte? Training to be a barista in a future life. And then our lovely McDonald's meal. Save the judgement because...

How can you judge when we look so darn happy?

Once back at the hotel, we changed into appropriate winery attire, aka dresses and tights and awaited our golden carriage (or 18-seater passenger van of which we were the only 2 in seats). It was a little less than an hour out to the vineyard, so we chatted a bit with our faithful guide Manuel. He was quite nice and very funny. Some snippets: he finds the Canadians hardest to provide for because they're so naive and innocent and leave their stuff everywhere thinking no one will steal it, Madonna can fill a stadium but Katy Perry couldn't, we should drop the ugly bus driver (his words, not ours)--all in all, we had a good laugh.

Eventually, we made it to the main Concho y Toro vineyard and (after realizing we were overdressed) were on our way! We accidentally tried to join a Portuguese tour group but our boy Santiago (a person, not the city) had our back and told us the English tour was 10 minutes later. The English tour ended up being Mari, me, and a nice but awkward man from Sweden so essentially we got the VIP treatment. We saw the old summer house of the Concha (very bougie: Italian outside and Versailles carbon copy inside, or so we were told as the majority shareholders no longer allow you to go inside), the gardens which were quite lovely and somewhat inspired by Monet paintings, and then some of the 10,000 hectares of vines they have growing. Being winter, there weren't exactly any grapes on the vines but we used our imaginations :)

Mari posing with the outside sign...

And then it was my turn

We also thought it would be quite picturesque to have our photos taken in front of the barrel. We're all about creativity and being the first to do something.

While we waited the additional ten minutes before the English tour, we decided to get pictures at the front gate. 

This building is the original owner's summer house. He was fancy. And then this is us in his gardens.

This is the dog who is apparently eating all the chickens and rabbits on the property but the tourists love him so they have a hard time keeping him out of the property. Some Monet inspired ponds and water lilies. And all the grapes you could ever wish to see!

I imagine it's quite breattaking in the summer, but it wasn't too shabby a view in the winter either.

Can you tell the difference between all the different grape types? It's the leaves! 

Noted for future winery tours, look at leaves to distinguish grape types.

Some good views of the property. Very Wuthering Heights and gothic with all the rain/fog.

We also got to taste some of the wine, a Sauvignon Blanc from the Casablanca vineyard, a Carmonere from a vineyard just south of where we were, and a Cabernet Sauvingnon from grapes grown right where we were standing (give or take a couple thousand hectares). They were all pretty tasty so of course I bought some, but what was most astounding was how cheap some of the wines were. If you visit Napa, Sonoma, heck even Washington vineyards, you're probably looking at at least $15 for a bottle--and thats a really cheap one. Here, there were SO MANY varieties for under $10 and they were good!


One of the yummy wines, and my favorites of the ones we tasted. And me with the glass we got to keep! (Here's hoping I don't break it between now and returning to the States)

In addition to tasting, we took a tour of the cellars where they store the barrels of wine and some of the best bottles. During this we learned why the cellar is called Casillero del Diablo (Cellar of the Devil). Essentially, when the owner first started making his wine, he put the best bottles down in the corner of the cellar and of course, he was very public with that fact so some hooligans came and stole his best wine! The shock! So naturally, he (or some of his underlings) waited in the cellar for a future attempt and scared the bejeezus out of the thieves by pretending to be a devil. Legend spread of the "haunted" cellar and the bottles have forever been safe since.

Some of the barrels in the air conditioned portion of the cellar.

Mari looking lovely with her wine. And down we go into the "haunted" cellar!

Cellar of the Devil. It certainly looks ominous right?

Although once they started the light show with the story of how the legend came to be, maybe it was a little freaky. And there's the devil himself! 

Our return to the hotel was uneventful (aside from some other fabulous comments from Manuel) and we decided to end the night drinking some of the wine we just bought and some empanadas we picked up at the local market. All in all, super solid and the excuse we needed for an early night since we had a 6AM flight this morning.... ugh.

Day 2: A glimpse into the history of Chile

Given the massive amount of things we did on Day 1, we weren't in a huge rush to begin our second day of Santiago. We took the opportunity to sleep in and got a little bit of a late start.

First stop was La Moneda, the presidential palace (weird name since moneda means coins, but who am I to judge?). You could take a tour but we decided to forego that and instead just walked around and then went on our merry way.

La Moneda! 

And even better, La Moneda with us in front of it.

We found another statue to imitate. I think this was a statue of Mr. O'Higgins who must have been Irish? And a big part of Chilean history (not to be confused with Ben Higgins the bachelor)

The biggest thing we wanted to do with our Wednesday was to make a visit to the Museum of the Memory of Human Rights. I didn't know this (shame on American textbooks for not covering any of this) but apparently there were a ton of human rights violations in South America, and Chile in particular, during the 1970s and 1980s. This museum is dedicated to telling the story of the military dictatorship in Chile and memorializing all of the people who disappeared or suffered due to the violent regime. Truly impactful and left us wanted to learn more about the history of it all. I don't have any pictures of it (photography wasn't allowed), but trust me, it's a must see.

After that we decided it was time for some grub so we headed to the La Vega, another market in the city, which is more of what I would think of when I think market--tons of stalls selling fruit, meat, cheese, and eggs (?). We had (you guessed it) empanadas! This time we went for jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and napolitano (meat lovers, we think) and it was delicious! We wanted to get some juice but unfortunately there weren't any options we saw of just juice. Smoothies, yes, but it was much too cold for a smoothie.

A cool little street truck group we stumbled across. The empanada display, how could we resist!

Frutas y empanadas at La Vega Central!

We also visited the Cemetary in Recoleta (which we'll also do in Buenos Aires so expect some comparisons!). It was full of fabulous mausoleums for the rich and/or famous families. Essentially their hope was to transcend history so that their family name would go on. But from my perspective, looks like they were building their own version of their houses in Heaven and boy were some of these people prideful!

The main entrance of the Cemetario General. The second photo is what used to be horse stables. Those are some nice stables.

Your first look at the forever homes of Santiago's elite. And we might have been transported back in history for a couple of minutes judging by this man's outfits.

It was really cool looking at all the tombs, some are quite old, others have more recent inhabitants.

And here we see a look at some of the 2 million others who are buried in the Cemetario.

Once we were through walking through the cemetary we decided to head to Costanera, the tallest building in Santiago. However, we did not pay money to go to the top because why would we after hiking San Cristobal? Instead, we shopped around in the mall at the bottom. What's a trip without shopping?! We went to the staples of Zara, Mango, Banana Republic--you know all the things we can't get at home ;)

We shopped up an appetite so we left after a bit for our reservation at Bocanariz, a suggestion from my coworkers Tom and Brianna and boy, it did not disappoint. They only have Chilean wines and the menu was overwhelming so we decided to do the winemaker's selection which was essentially three delicious courses paired with equally amazing wines. We had ceviche with sauvignon blanc, beef with cabernet sauvignon, membrillo &goat cheese with a red blend, short rib with a carmenere, tortellini with a riesling, and finally a chocolate torte & ice cream with a sweet moscato. The only thing we didn't like was the sweet wine.. but that's probably down to personal preference. We left fat and happy. I hugely recommend for any other people passing through Santiago!

Not sure I really understand the scale they are using, but we'll go with it. A list of some of the wines available at the restaurant--it's by no means exhaustive of what was actually all on offer. And the logo of one of the best restaurants in Santiago.

We took a fancy to our placemats--but unfortunately it took ill during our meal and got a little dirty. And here we have our first course: ceviche representing the sea, beef representing the land, and membrillo representing the mountains. 

Note to self: that is a real rock. And here we have the delicous pumpkin and squash tortellini (possible the only true veggies we've had so far) and my short rib on top of smashed sweet potatoes. So good.

We were quite happy with our selections. And even were nice enough to share with each other so we both tasted the fabulous entrees.

And finally our chocolate torte, melted in the middle (soooo much goooey goodness) along with some vanilla ice cream.

And of course you have to end the meal with espresso, otherwise you might not be able to walk back to your hotel because food coma...

With that we capped day 2 and headed back to the hotel for another good nights' sleep.

 

Courtesty of snapchat filters, we're loving Santiago!