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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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The curse returns and our 8am start didn´t happen. Last night, some of the group headed out to Kamikaze and at 5am Matt turned up at his cabin, collected his backpack and told Kieran and Michael that he was going to watch the sun rise over the beach and find his own way to Santiago. Andy and Michael went to the beach to look for him but couldn´t find him. After waiting an hour we headed off to Santiago, leaving a note and hotel details for him. It was a relatively quiet truck day however we were looking out for Matt in case he was hitchhiking. Stopped for lunch at a service station, where we were parked by a toilet and had the side show of a dog mating session involving 4 dogs and 1 bitch. Tried to get her away and safe but wasn´t to happen. Later stopped at another service station and Overland said they had seen Matt at 8:30 that morning and that he was still insistent on finding his own way to Santiago.
Arrived in Santiago around 5pm and just as we were about to go out on the orientation walk, Matt turned up having getting a bus all the way down. After the walk, went for a group meal at a Chinese restaurant which had interesting descriptions for good. dragons tooth which is beanshouts and doug which we later worked out was dough, and I ordered turnips which turned out to be straw mushrooms. Afterwards we headed to one of the city´s coffee shops. This basically serve coffee and sometimes beer and this is served by woman in thongs and skimpy outfits. It wasn´t seedy and the woman just walked around, sometimes wiggling their bums, but generally just chatting to the customers (men and women equally). I think some can be topless and paying can involve dancing but this particularly one didn´t. We then headed to a bar for a few beers, bumping into Overland again. Got kicked out at midnight when the bar shut so headed home.
After breakfast the following day, Julie, Caroline, Julian, Richard, Steve and myself headed out around the city and visted Cerro Santa Lucia. This is a hill in town with a large old house and great gardens. It offer good views over the city. After this we the girls went to lunch and we then headed back to the hotel and out to the horse races in town. Arrived there and for some reason one of the staff seems to take interest in us and gave us a guided tour of the racetrack, including going behind the stands and into the paddocks to see the horses before and after race. We also got to meet one of the jockeys that would be competing in a the next but one race. Afterwards he showed us how the betting system worked here and we went into the enclosures to watch the races. Julie and I thought we ended up sitting in the wrong section as we kept getting stared at - thought we were in men´s old but we weren´t in the end there just wasn´t a lot of women around. After the raced went back to the hotel for a lie down and then headed out to Providencia for dinner and drinks as it was Richards last night. We took the metro system which was quite modern and even had Wi-Fi connection and TV´s playing music videos on the platform.
The following day started slowly but after breakfast Jessica and I headed to the internet and then to Cerro San Cristobel. This involved the metro and a funicular to the top. There is also a cable car but we didn´t think we had enough time for this and we wished we had more time there as there was a lot to see. Not only were there fantastic views but there was a zoo, japanese gardens, 3 swimming pools, restaurants and various picnic spots, viewing areas and there is even a forest. The entire area covers over 72 hectacres. We then headed back to the hotel and out again via the metro system to Concha y Toro vineyard. This is probably more famous in the UK for its Castillo de Diablo and Sunset brands of wine although it does have more than 8 different brands of differing quality. We had a tour of the vineyard - Concha y Toro is Chile´s and South America´s largest producer of wine and the region we visited concentrates on the red grape varieties. We tasted two types of wine, Castillo de Diablo and Don Melchor (the premium brand and for offer at 50USD per bottle in the shop). We also got to visit the cellars including Castillo de Diablo where the brand and legend of the vineyard originates. It is called this as the family made a premium wine in the area which was reserved for family and friends however because of the high quality many of the estate workers stole and drank the wine for themselves. In order to protect this from them the owner created the legend that the Devil lived in the cellars and from there forward no bottles were ever stolen again. In this part of the cellar you can also see the premoum bottles of wine that are kept for 40 years before selling and guarded by the Devil - a shadow on the wall. After a bit more tasting and a few shop purchases we headed back to the hotel and then about 12 of the group headed out to dinner for great food.
previous travel blog entry
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