More winetasting - Valle de Uco, Mendoza

After a scenic bus ride from Santiago we arrived into Mendoza, Argentina.  The main reason for wanting to visit Mendoza was to do a wine tour - we've tried a few Malbecs back at home and have been impressed (Christmas 2009 - Catena from Waitrose - very scrummy with  Roast Beef and all of the trimmings!!).

As I had received some money for my birthday, we decided to treat ourselves to a ''high end'' tour and we weren't disappointed with our choice. Another highlight of the trip for me (but then that isn't hard when a day involves good wine, good food and good company!!)

The wine tour started on a beautiful Sunday morning and as we drove out towards Valle de Uco, the magnificent Andes mountain range became even more visible.  Valle de Uco is a wine area that is being tipped as the new Napa Valley. 

The first bodega we visited (yes get me with the Spanish words!!) was called Andeluna (Ande for the Andes and luna for the moon).  All of the bodegas in this area are fairly young so no old, quaint buildings that you might find in France, Italy, Spain etc. Andeluna was decorated inside like an old converted farm building and felt like being in somebodies house.  The day started with an informative tour of the vineyard and the wine making process, all very interesting but who are we kidding all we were really interested in was the taste of their wines!

Here I am studiously taking notes!!  Like the wine tour in New Zealand, we were going knowing the area's famous wine - in the case of Mendoza this was the Malbec- but we were pleasantly surprised with all the wines we tried (I particularly like the Torrontes - a white wine with Muscat type qualities).  I suppose that's the beauty of winetastings - you get to experience new tastes and hopefully broaden your horizons next time you are buying wine in the supermarket!

The next bodega of the day was Salentein, a prodigious wine producer in the area.  The architecture of the building was particular impressive, as was the fact that the owner had built a church and art gallery for the community. (As an aside the owner is the son of the founder of Lays crisps - the equivalent to Walkers in America).

 This is the barrel room - and yes that is a piano!! Apparently wine likes classical music!!

The barrel room had another special aspect - its acoustics were amazing.  Jon is standing on a spot where if you sing or shout then it feels like you are in a box - slightly odd!!

If you look a bit closer at the labels on these pipes you will see why Jon took this picture!!

Well I suspect you were wondering when you would see some wines - seeing as those this is a post about them!! Well here they are!!

The last bodega of the day was O. Fournier.  The owner also has vineyards in Chile and in Spain.

Like the previous vineyard, O. Fournier had really impressive architecture.  What was also special about the architecture of the this vineyard that it used only gravity and not pumps to produce the wine (e.g. the process starts at the top of the building and continues down through the force of gravity).

These futuristic rooms are the winemakers office, a winetasting room and a ''microbrewery'' (not sure if thats the right word) where new wines would be created and tested before going into production.

Again their barrel room was quite impressive.  The cross was made by natural light and signifies the names of the wines ''Alfa Crux'' and ''B Crux'', the stars that make up the Southern Cross. The room was also a constantly changing art gallery - an interesting use of the space!!

The wine tasting at this vineyard was a little different.  We had 4 wines to accompany 4 of the 5 course we had for lunch.  Just a few pics of the beautiful food ...

One of the desserts with a chocolate that has the vineyard's logo on!!

Just writing this blog is making me want to do it all again.  Jon and I had a lovely day and the surroundings were quite magical!!

Aprendido Español en Santiago!!

We flew back into Santiago with 1 week of Spanish classes booked. The classes were pretty intense as we were in school for 8 hours a day, then we were practising in the evening with our Chilean host lady.

By the end of the first week we realised that we had only really picked up a small amount of dangerous knowledge, and so we decided to book for a further 3 weeks.

Because of our extension we were lucky enough to be in Santiago during their Bicentenial celebrations, 200 years since the removal of Spanish rule. There was a real buzz in the air as the Chileans sure like a party!

Our school put on a fiesta for us where we could eat, drink and be merry!

We also had a chance to try our hand (or feet?) at some traditional dance, the Cueca. These guys showed us the moves and we then proceeded to amaze everyone with our ability, not only to understand all of the instructions, but to show real flair and natural talent... oh wait...no...we were the ones facing the wrong direction and falling over...oh well!

At least we managed to get this pose right!!

After the dancing we had a go at a traditional game, El Emboque, where you need to flick a wooden bell shape with a hole in the bottom, onto a stick that is attached by some string. It was pretty tough! 

Here are Luisa and Luis, two of our favourite teachers. Luisa was absolutely 'loco' and Luis was amazingly patient and a great teacher. 

We didn',t really do too much exploring in Santiago as we were both pretty tired out by the weekends, but we did manage to trek up to Cerro San Cristabel to get some views of the city. 

Thanks to some generous birthday gifts we were able to celebrate Stephs 27th at a nice restaurant in Bellavista (a few doors down from where we were staying) called 'Como Agua para Chocolate'. We even managed a glass of Champagne! 

We did manage a daytrip to Valparaiso, an hour or so outside of Santiago, which is a UNESCO World heritage site.

We took a trip up the oldest funicular in town, and managed to get some shots of it on the way down.

 Valparaiso is known for its bohemian vibe and many of the buildings were painted by local artists.

On the last Friday of our course one of the teachers invited us to her house for some typical cuisine. Believe us, it tasted great, a lot better than it looks!

This was our home for the month, nestled in the artistic area of Bellavista, very close to one of Pablo Neruda's houses.

We had a fantastic time learning Spanish in Santiago, it has helped a huge amount already. But what really made it extra special was being able to stay with a 'real' Chilean lady. 

Mireya was like a surrogate mother to us during our 4 weeks stay. She made us some typical foods that we would not have tried otherwise and tested us nearly every day on our Spanish. 

Thanks Mireya.

Iorana!

After a brief stopover in Santiago, Chile, and collecting a 30+ hour day from our flight from Auckland, we flew into Rapa Nui, (Easter Island).  We landed and went through the easiest airport process ever before being greeted by the friendly Marcel and being given the traditional welcome gift of a flower necklace!

On arrival we got chatting to another guest at the Inn where we were staying called Laura and at breakfast the next day she suggested that along with Roberto, another guest, we all hire a car and explore the island together.  It was an excellent idea - we saved loads of money, met two new friends and also had the use of Roberto's excellent Spanish (don't ever believe an Italian when they say that Spanish and Italian aren't similar!!) to get us around!

These photos were taken at one of my favourite places on the island, Rano Raraku, the volcano from where most of the island's Moais were created. A lot are still where they were left, some just half carved into the rock faces before being abandoned for reasons people still don't understand.

 I think Jon did a better impression than me - having a similar nose helps!!

This guy below was one only a small number of Rapa Nui natives.  He was excellent and very kindly modelled for a photo with me!

 After walking around the outside of the volcano we explored the crater inside, which was beautiful - complete with a lake and another Moai 'graveyard' .  We were the only four people in there for most of the time which gave us a bit of time to have some fun with photos!

From Ranu Rakaru, you get the first tantalising glance of that famous shot - all of the 'heads' lined up with the sea as the backdrop!! It was more impressive than I thought it would be - my particular favourite was the chap with the red headress/hair!!

Most of the Moai's face inland, which is thought to have been to protect villages. Ahu Akivi is unique in that it faces out to sea and after an interesting and bumpy drive to get there (there was a reason why a 4x4 was needed) they were one of our last stops of the day.

After covering most of the island by car in one day, we decided to make our way to Orongo, the site of a ceremonial village, and Rano Kau, another of the island's volcanoes the next day.  Some bright spark suggested that the walk would be good (not sure if it was you Laura, or me!!) and all started off well. However, by the time we made it to the volcano the heavens had opened and the wind was joining in with the show.  We made it to the village but unfortunately didn't see much.  The kind park rangers provided some rest bite from the downpour and even captured the moment on camera for us.  I have to say that this photo does not show the true extent to the soaking we received!! Roberto's wallet got soaked and he had to lay all of his notes out on his bed to dry and both Laura and Roberto's passports suffered as well!! None of us stopped laughing though - an excellent day!

After setting up the perfect shot, checking the lighting, and getting everyone into position, we settled back and waited for the timer to snap the camera into action. Meanwhile, Willie the dog was thinking of ways to be naughty, this is what he came up with!!

  Thanks WIlie... This is a shot of a refurbished Moai, with amazing colours and patterns.

 This chap was quite special because he had eyes unlike a lot of the other Moai on the island.

  The island was magical and our time was even better because we met Laura and Roberto.