Recently, Omi and Granddad flew down to visit us in Santiago. They came on February twenty first to Santiago. They came at about six thirty in the morning to the airport where we picked them up. We walked together over to the airport hotel where we were all staying. They went to bed and we ate breakfast, did school, and went to the pool while they slept. They woke up at about one or two-ish and we headed into Santiago.
In Santiago we went to a Chilean restaurant where we got Chorrillana (I explain what this is in my Patagonia post) and enormous sandwiches. We then went to a sculpture park with a maze to go through. After that we didn’t know what to do but we knew we wanted to get out of the heat. So, we went to the fine arts museum to take a rest. I talk more about this in my Santiago post but mostly Omi and I sat in the “Grand Hall” while the others looked at the rest of the art.
In a park just outside of the museum, there was a really nice looking cafe/restaurant, so we decided to go there for a coffee and a treat. The coffee ended up being wine, but with Omi and Granddad, we all knew it would be. I got a volcano cake with ice cream which was delicious but SUPER rich. We sat and talked and cooled off there for an hour or so, then decided to head back to the hotel. At the hotel we sat in our rooms for a few minutes, then headed down to the bar for dinner. We got a plate of various fancy food and drinks and talked there, also for about an hour or so. After dinner we said goodnight and went to bed.
The next morning we all ate hotel breakfast and packed up. We sat in the lobby for a while as Baba and Granddad went to pick up Omi and Granddad’s rental car. Then, after some parking technical difficulties, we headed towards the Colchagua Valley.
The Colchagua Valley is a wine valley with lots of vineyards and pretty farmhouses. We stayed in an airbnb farmhouse that was beautiful. We actually nicknamed it paradise because it was so great. It was a really basic long house with four bedrooms. It had lots of natural decorations but wasn’t overly decorated. I will put in as many pictures as I can so you can get a sense of what it looked like. It had a big porch with a table large enough for all of us, plus some. It had a fenced in pool and a few swingsets. It also had a ping pong table and since Baba and I love ping pong, we played at least fifteen games.
The house also had a bunch of dogs. They mostly lay around on the porch or in the yard but we loved watching them. They were two small black dogs who were super fast, one big yellow one who was we think a saint bernard, a big black one that looked like some sort of terrier and a white one with a broken foot. Well he didn’t have a broken foot per say, but he did break it at some point and it set sideways, so he basically only has three working legs. He wasn’t in any pain though so that was good. The three big ones lazed around and slept all day but the younger one went somewhere else in the day and came back to our house around dinnertime (smart, huh). They were all super friendly and very pet-able.
Anyways, the first full day we were in Colchagua, we went to a winery. It was called Laura Hartwig and it was fun . . . for the parents. It wasn’t as exciting for me or Syd because we couldn’t really do anything. They showed us the vineyards and let us taste the grapes, which, by the way, were the best grapes I’ve ever had. Then, we went inside and saw the wine storage vessels where they let the wine sit and ferment. We then saw the barrels of wine in the cellar and learned that their wines are actually in Costco, so if anyone wants Chilean wine, go get the Laura or the Laluca wine. After that was the tasting which was especially boring, although we did get to do some coloring pages. We finished it up by buying six, yes SIX, bottles of their wine. If you do get it at Costco, know that you’re probably on the tail end of a rip off though, because a bottle for us was around seven dollars. But, all it takes for seven dollar delicious wine is to fly to Santiago and then drive to Santa Cruz in the Colchagua Valley.
We spent the rest of our time in Colchagua relaxing, swimming and playing Canasta, although there was one other big thing we did there. The Colchagua museum is a museum filled with local history exhibits and it was SO COOL. We went there two days in a row to see all of it but there were likely still some things that we missed. My favorite exhibit was about the thirty three miners trapped hundreds of meters underground at the San Jose mine. It actually made me cry because everyone who was related in some way to the miners looked so happy when they saw that the miners were all alive and safe. It was truly amazing and I definitely intend to look more into it. The museum was so fun and it made our trip in Colchagua go from super amazing to super duper amazing.
After Colchagua we had two more nights until Omi and Granddad left, so we decided to go to the beach town of Pichilemu. Our time there was also great and we all enjoyed watching the waves there. The only downside to Pichilemu was that we lost a phone there. The second day we were there we (as in Mama, Baba, Syd, and I) went to the beach. Mama went on a walk while the three of us stayed back. The boys made an enormous sand mountain and I was just finishing up my sentence in the sand to show to any passing airplanes when Mama came walking towards me laughing. I went over to see what was so funny but then realized she wasn’t laughing, but crying. She told me she’d lost her phone and I ran over to get Baba so we could look for it. We cursed at the ocean (well, the parents did) and walked up and down three or four times before deciding that it was likely in the ocean. Mama was really sad because she thought she’d lost all her pictures, but jumpstart to when she got a new phone with a rainbow phone case (nice touch) in Santiago, she found out that it had backed up recently and she hadn’t lost a single one of her pictures. That was an adventure, not a good one, but an adventure nonetheless. I hope we never have to lose a phone again but other than that, the time we spent with Omi and Granddad was amazing and wonderful and I’m really happy they flew down so that we could have someone to share our time and stories with.
3 Responses
Audrey, your stories are so descriptive and colorful. I like your hint of humor that threads throughout your writings. I hope that you are keeping some sort of journal because it would be hard to recall all of the varied experiences that you have had. Journal writing will give you a greater depth of observation and allow you to relive all of the great things that you have experienced. Your pictures are also very helpful and lend weight to your stories. I look forward to your next post.
I always get such vivid pictures of the places you go and the things you’re doing from your descriptions. I’m sure it was nice to be able to share your adventures in person with Omi and Granddad. No doubt they had lots of questions about the trip so far. Thank you for writing as often as you do for those of us who don’t get to visit in person!
GREAT writing! Your descriptions are easy to follow and are very well put together. If I’m ever lucky enough to head down that way, I’ll know exactly what to expect. Keep enjoying, describing, and living the travel dream!