Here we are celebrating Christmas Eve at the place of our Aussie-Swiss friends, Leisa and Eric. Everything was lovingly decorated and also the food was absolutely phantastic. We really got that midsummer Christmas feeling! Of course we also did a Secret Santa. Florian's bubbling "Love-O-Meters" were a success. And I got some hilarious Possum-fur undies, ...Aussie X-mas at it's best.
Following the festivities, we went south to one of Chile's wine regions: the Colchagua Valley. After 3-4 tastings we started to develop some wine expertise and wine has been Florian's favourite conversation topic ever since. We learned e.g. about the rediscovery of the aromatic Carménère variety in Chile, after the grape was thought to be extinct for over 150 years. The Viu Manent winery does great tours, starting with a horse-cart ride through their property and ending with a tasting in the midst of the vineyard under a roof of grapes. However, the best wines we tried were at Casa Lapostolle. Their futuristic winery is built into a hill and goes 6 storeys into the ground! The whole winemaking process is done by gravitiy, no pumps. The tour begins at ground level, then goes down and down, until you reach a spectacular timber-clad tasting room on the deepest level. We felt like inside an enormous wine barrel! In the center of this "barrel", right underneath the tasting table, lies the owner's private wine cellar. It opens with Star Trek technology: beam up the glass table and walk in!
Crossing the coastal mountain was not the brightest idea: windy, foggy and sooo cold!! A quick walk on the beach of Bucalemu, and we escaped back inland to sunny Mediterranean Colchagua.
Exploring the Siete Tazas national park for a day was a nice alternative to savouring wine in Santa Cruz. The park's main attraction are seven natural pools (tazas), all connected through little waterfalls. I read, that during Chile's big earthquake in February 2010 the waterways changed temporarily, which let to the Siete Tazas drying up. Fortunately, when we visited in December 2010, the water was back where it belonged and beautifully purled from taza to taza.
Unlike the Siete Tazas there is still lots of structural damage visible in Santa Cruz, with adobe houses being the worst affected. Graffiti on the facades give (homeless) people warning of potential colapses.
On the way home we made halt in Puente Negro, at the olive farm of Diaz Guerrero. It's not exactly a touristic place. But when we knocked the door, the owner was there and readily showed us around, laid out the oil extraction process (all Tuscan machinery), and let us try different olive varieties. We left with 6 liters of olive oil and squeezed them in the back of the car, next to 20 liters of Colchagua wine.
On Dec. 31, we arrived back in Santiago and just went to the nearest organised New Year's Eve party. Happy 2011!!
