Weekend Adventures, part 1!

Hello dear readers!

I am so excited to report all about my fun weekend! My pictures are locked away on my camera which is now completely out of batteries (the FedEx package from Mom should be arriving early this week, though). Will post them mid-week.

Friday night Annie and I went to a gastropub in our neighborhood, Bar Liguria. The Frommer's author raves about this place, and since she hadn't led us astray yet we decided to try it out (and were not disappointed!). We got there and it was this big, boisterous bistro (sorry for the alliteration) full of Chileans. The place was packed and we had an interesting time trying to explain to the waiters that we didn't mind waiting for a table in broken Spanish while trying to understand their rapid-fire Chilean (Chileans admit that their Spanish is not so great - they use tons of country-specific slang and swallow the ends of their words). But, I think the experience bonded us with the waitstaff because within no time we were at a great table and they were flirting with us ("So, what part of Chile are you girls from?" On to deciphering the menu! Usually we haven't had a hard time of this, since we know the words for most meats, veggies, etc but for some reason we barely understood a thing on this menu. We decided that since we are both pretty easy to please we should just order things that we thought we understood: salmon tartar, pasta with mushrooms, and tuna on a bed of salad. Out came a delicious salmon tartar (score!), a bowl full of mushrooms in white wine sauce, and... a plate of anchovies. I'd give us a 1.75/3 for ordering but the food was delicious (except the anchovies which we just moved around on the plate a bit). The great food, adorable waiters, and fun oldies music will probably draw us back there again,


The next morning we woke up early and met our friend Tyesha (another girl in the program) to get our rental car and go out into the countryside. First stop: Matetic Vineyards in the San Antonio Valley. What a place! I could probably go on and on about the 4 hours we spent here but will try to give you just the highlights:

#1 Antonio, our private tour guide. As Fiona would say, he is "quite a delight" - a musician who studies the effects of playing various types of music (from Mozart to metal) on the wine's maturation, with beautiful green eyes, and a devilish smile. The 3 of us were hanging on his every word as he described how the Matetic family (one of the wealthiest in Chile) made their fortune in copper and has since expanded to a variety of tourism-related ventures. One of the youngest sons decided that he wanted to create a fully organic and self-sustaining vineyard and within a few years created wine that has received lots of international acclaim.

#2 The buildings on the vineyard were all designed to have perfect fung-shui, with a barrel-like room holding a temple to wine.

#3 The wine itself is delicious (especially when being served and described by our adorable Sommelier)! Their premium line, EQ retails for about $40 in the states, and in my opinion that is a BARGAIN.

#4 After our tasting we went to the restaurant on the vineyard and had a delicious lunch (with more Matetic wine, of course!). By far the best meal we've had since being in Chile, the gourmet food was also cheap - my swordfish with seafood risotto was about $15.

Tearing ourselves away from Matetic, we were off to Vina del Mar (known in Chile simply as Vina), a beach resort. When we got there we tried to go to the Museo Arqueologia de Fonck, but sadly it was closed so we joined the many other visitors in taking pictures outside. The museum supposedly holds a fantastic collection of artifacts from Easter Island, but I may never know. Instead, I tried to take a picture picking the statue's nose (pictures to come later)! From the museum we walked to ocean and along a promenade. The beach we finally saw was nothing really to write home about; kinda small and short, and very crowded. The ocean was beautiful but the water is cold. In any event, it was nice to be by the ocean and the fresh air felt much cleaner than the smog in Santiago.

We finally made our way down to Valparaiso, where we spent the night. The hostel Annie and I found online after coming home from Bar Liguria was actually great - very clean with a super friendly staff, and a new puppy: Mafalda, (don't tell Moxie)! And if you want to read more about our time in Valparaiso... read my next blog entry!

ciao-ciao (my new favorite phrase, from the lovely Antonio),
co