We woke up lazily the next morning, and got ready for our flight to Santiago, Chile: our last destination for the American leg of our trip. The flight left in the early afternoon, so we were easily able to have our breakfast, pack, and lounge a bit before heading off in a cab to the airport. We got to the airport nice and early, checked in, and passed the time watching some tv on Jared's laptop.
The flight was amazing, in that we got fed...well. I am one of those people who love plane food, so I was siked when I saw them serving up lunch. We had a quick stop off in Puerto Mont, but didn't have to get off the plane, and then got fed again on the second leg of the flight!
When we arrived in Santiago, we hopped on a bus, and headed into the city. Our hostel was, thankfully, close to the bus drop off, so we were able to quickly walk over. After a bit of unpacking, we arranged for a tour of a vineyard for the next day, and then set out to walk the city a bit ad grab some cheap dinner.
The next morning, we woke up early, ate the free hostel breakfast, and walked into the center of town for a free walking tour. I loved the one in Rio, and after this second one, was not disappointed. We learned all about the capital, from its founding to its more recent tumultuous history, including those fun details, like the coffee shops/strip joints that popped up in an effort to increase coffee consumption, and that the Nuts 4 Nuts guy is actually Chilean! Jared left a bit before I did, and I got to walk up to a hill with an old castle on it, showing great views of the city from its lookout. After a bit of meandering, I doubled-timed it back to the hostel to make the vineyard tour we scheduled for that late afternoon.
We got picked up by a tourist van, and driven to another location, got on a bigger tourist bus, and drove about an hour and a half outside of the city to the Valparaiso valley, where the Concha y Toro vineyard was located. The tour was pretty cool, set on a gorgeous piece of land with trees imported from all over the world, and a man-made lake with lilly pads. The fields had been divided into large and small plots for each distinct type of grape, including some grapes we had never heard of and even the ancient Carmenére grape, that they thought was extinct until 1996, when a French scientist studied the grape in an effort to see why Chilean "merlot" was so different from the rest of the world's; pretty cool stuff! We got to walk through the cellars where huge barrel upon huge barrel are stored, some wines costing hundred of dollars. We also got to taste a few of the wines, and browse the gift shop, stocked with all the wines, including the Carmenére, which I bought, sorry Mom and Dad for not shipping any home :/ At the end of the tour, we got back on the bus, and headed into Santiago, where we got dropped off at the hostel. We went out again to grab dinner, watched some tv, and went to bed. Jared had to wake up at 2 am for his flight, and shockingly quietly got up; we said out tired goodbyes, and he headed back to the US. My flight wasn't until that evening, so I spent the morning eating and prepping my stuff, and set out for the bus...taking a wrong turn and turning what should have been a 10 minute walk into a 30 minute walk...yes, I had done the walk before. No, I don't know how I screwed it u;, I swear the streets moved, but was still able to make it I the airport in good time to head to Australia!
