Cassidy and I spent three days touring vineyards. We went to the big hitters, Concha y Toro, Cousiño-Macul and Underraga as well as a boutique winery called Aquitania. We found at least one wine we really liked at each winery, and ended up bringing some bottles home for the family. Santiago's Maipo valley is really beautiful, lots of leafy acreage within city limits that inched up the Andes foothills and is drenched in sun. But it was also cooler than Santiago, which is averaging about 88 degrees right now. Since Cassidy hadn't been to Mendoza, Argentina when I went in November, we simply HAD to go back for a few days to compare. All very scientific, I assure you. We visited four wineries there as well, Carmine Granata, Weinert, Familia Cecchin and Bodega López. From our extensive studies we deduced that Chilean wines have a smooth and velvety quality whereas Argentinian wines are thornier - more acidic and bold. So my wine tip would be to stick with Chilean wines for now. Argentina needs a few more years to age its vines. Both countries' signature grapes (Carmeneré and Malbec, respectively) need some more work, and their strong points are Cabernet and Syrah. The most exciting visit was our trip to the Argentine vineyard Familia Cecchin, which is both an organic vineyard and winery. Not only was it cool to see an organic boutique producer, they grow non-traditional varietals like spanish carignan and graciana and they tasted excellent!
Okay I know that was a seriously long rant about wine...I'm a nerd. In between these wine tours, Cassidy and I took my godfather up on his offer of a beachfront apartment, and spent a week in Reñaca, a coastal town just outside of picturesque Viña del Mar. The area is famous for two things: cloudy mornings and argentinians. We saw plenty of both. Once the clouds burn off at midday the sun was boiling and the beach was nearly body-to-body, and yes, there were a lot of argentinians. the apartment we stayed at had a rooftop pool so we were really spoiled with luxuries! We wandered around Viña a little, as well as a small town called Concon. But small town here doesn't mean the same thing as it does anywhere else in the world, because Concon was made up of one street lined with seafood restaurants. Not a bad concept really. It also has beachfront, and what is called an "artisan market" but is really a Oriental Trading Company catalog junk sale. So with little to do that week, we really did very little. Instead of returning to Santiago we headed south to Algarrobo (another beach town), where a family friend had invited us for the weekend. Carlos is a Giarda family friend and when he retired he moved to Algarrobo to run an environmental organization. He was a blast for a 60 year old! He and his wife Patricia have an organic vegetable garden in their yard that we ate from every day we were there, and they love to cook, so we sampled a lot of seafood we'd never tried before. My aunt Andrea joined us and we baked on the beach by day, drank beer to cool off every evening, and had a spa night with homemade masks that Carlos wouldn't let us put on him. ah well.
So that's kind of it. beaches and vineyards. that's all I've done this month. well, there were some nice family events too, a farewell party for my sister on Jan 5, my grandmother's birthday on Jan 6, my brother's birthday on Jan 21 and a lot of Sunday family dinners in between. When we leave we will spend some time in Chile's hot desert to the north, Atacama, and then (hopefully) start into Bolivia. After a month basking in familial love, we are ready for the down and dirty traveling to resume. And I have a feeling it is going to be very very dirty.
1 - Andrea, Maru, Isabel, Picha, me, Maria Eugenia, Jorge's mom and grandma 
2 - Me at the Concha y Toro vineyard. yay wine!
3 - Pacific sunset (at 9:20PM) from Reñaca
4 - happy organic grapes at the Cecchin vineyard
5 - my grandmother and me on our way to tea at the Ritz-Carlton!