Santiago
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2008
1
84
102
Trip End
Mar 20, 2009
Santiago,
Chile
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sundays as we've found in most cities in South America are a quiet day. There's very little open and not a lot happening but there are always an abundance of people out enjoying the green plazas and long family lunches. With very few cars on the roads it was a pleasant time to wander around and explore the city even in the sweltering heat. We came across the Central Mercado, the main area for buying seafood as well as reputedly the best restaurants to enjoy fishy delights. I have to say our experience was disappointing probably due to the fact that we perhaps ordered wrongly, we're not big fans of unidentified seafood parts especially when sampling one that tasted indescribably awful! Needing to get that taste out of my mouth we decided that Helado (ice-cream) was the order of the day, especially as it's seemingly a favourite treat through out South America and not a day goes by where we haven't seen a multitude of people enjoying this treat, so much so I think it could be a staple part of their diets.
Concha y Toro gardens
What we hadn't realized is that the average scoop is the size of one Andes mountain, I kid you not. You would be surprised as to how much ice-cream can physically fit in your average sized ice-cream cup - the sign on the wall says 2 scoops - I think what they meant was 2 shovels! So it's safe to say we've had our ice-cream quota for the year. As Santiago is such a vast city we decided to do a city tour to explore all it's highlights. As far as open bus city tours go this was one of the best. The buildings throughout Santiago I imagine would be an architects dream with so many different styles and very few eye-sores; a rarity for any city. One of the highlights was Cerro Santa Lucia; gardens, with cooling fountains and leafy trees it was a welcome respite from the blistering heat. It also afforded magnificient views over the city. We checked out Latin America's largest and most important mall which was a shopaholics heaven (Gareth had me well restrained before even entering the building). The Vitacura district home of upmarket boutiques and exclusive shops was a stunning area and if you felt like spending an afternoon burning cash then this would be my first choice - all the designer brands worthy of note can be found along this wide tree lined paradise with some great looking cafes to cool your 4'' heels. Unfortunately our plans to scale the mountain 'Cerro San Cristobal' for panaromic views were scuppered as the cable car is out of service until December - it seemed a bit too long to wait around.
Concha y Toro former house
Provedencia was a residential area we really enjoyed and I think we well and truly explored it as we spent several hours wandering around trying to find this great bar we had seen from the bus - we eventually found it and as Murphy's law goes it wasn't worth the effort. By the end of the day our feet were truly walked out. Before leaving this region I wanted to visit at least one of Chile's wineries and we were recommend Concha y Toro, one of Chile's largest wine producers. It was also easily accessible on the metro which was an added bonus as we really didn't want to do a tour. The only thing with taking the metro is that I felt as if we were back on the tube in London, everyone had the same weary dull eyed expressions or had their heads firmly buried in a newspaper or book. Admittedly though it was cooler, faster, cheaper and far more reliable so at no point were we pulling our hair out in hot sweaty frustration. We had very low expectations of the winery due to the fact that probably their most commonly known exported brand is 'Casillero del Diablo'; a wine which is very drinkable and always a safe bet if you are limited for choice. The house was built in the 1800s in the French style which was all in fashion in Chile at that time. The family Concha y Toro had all the furniture sent from France and even had their grounds manicured in the French style. Soon after they bought their vines in France and thus began their wine making history. Casillero del Diablo earned it's name after the owner found that vintages in his private cellar (of course underground) were going missing. He knew that the Chilean people were very superstitious so he told his most trusted vintner that the Devil was living in his private cellar. Rumour spread and after that no wine ever went missing. The original cellar still exists today and now of course for the tourist amusement has the Devil projected on the back wall. Of the wines we sampled our favourite was the Don Melchor 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (although GT preferred the '04) which has been awarded 96 points and in our opinion deserves every merit, it was outstanding. The Amelia Chardonnay is one of the best we've tried so far in South America and with their Late Harvest at $4 a bottle it's hard to go wrong. We didn't try the Baron Rothschild collaboration, at $215 a bottle we wisely decided that we'll try that one back in London. So from our original low expectations we ended up leaving on a high note. This is definitely one of the best wineries we've experienced in South America with some superb wines that fortunately are exported to London so they are on our list for our return. With a vino glow on we veged on the comfy leather sofas back at the hostel with a movie passing the final few hours before our night bus journey to Pucon.
