We hopped back on a bus and headed back West to the town of Casablanca. A comedy of errors made us get dropped off on the opposite side of the small town instead of near our destination, but that was fine because we were able to hike through town and note some places of interest to check out later. Sometimes when you’re traveling you miss the local life when you’re just sticking to tourism corridors, but we got to experience a charming small town and culture that would have been comfortable being dropped right in the middle of the Midwest.

We stayed at Umawtu Bed and Wine, a charming little inn with a couple of bedrooms. They had some local wine and snacks laid out for us as we checked in and were very helpful in plotting our stay in the area.

The town itself had live music in the park, lots of markets to enjoy local food and wine, and very charming locals. Grabbing a sandwich or an empanada and doing some people watching in the park is highly recommended.

One of the things Umawtu helped us with was coordinating a driver for our adventures through the wineries. Our drivers were a local taxi driver named Alejandro, and his father “Papi”. These two were characters, and even though we were making our way through the wineries on our own, they were great at giving recommendations and keeping us entertained between stops. We got to spend as much time at each location as we wanted, and when we were ready, we’d call (the wineries were happy to let us use their phones) and one of them would show up with a smile in minutes.

We drank and ate so much amazing food and wine, that I wish we would have had more time to explore more of the famous wine regions of Chile. It was incredible how great every winery we explored was, and how organized the local wine region, and the overall Chilean wine community was. We could have spent a week in the area and still not experience everything the region has to offer.

The Chilean countryside from the side of a winery

On a beautiful sunny, 70 degree day, worked our way through several wineries including:

· Kingston Family Vineyards

· Casas Del Bosque

· Emiliana Organic Vineyards

· Viñedos Veramonte House

· HOUSE Casa del Vino

Anne relaxes in a vinyard checking her wine map

We’ve written in detail about or experience in Casablanca Valley. For more on all the wine and food we enjoyed, you can check out that blog: Casablanca Valley Wine Country. Short Review though: INCREDIBLE WINE COUNTRY, BOOK A TRIP THERE NOW!

After a couple of days enjoying the weather, lifestyle, and wine of Casablanca Valley, we hopped another bus and headed to the capital of Chile, Santiago. We stayed in the heart of the city at the Crowne Plaza Santiago. We had enjoyed all our hostels and bed and breakfasts up to this point, but by then we were very excited to be in a nice modern hotel with all the amenities.

We were referred to a nice local sushi joint where we sat outside and stuffed ourselves on some great maki and dumplings, as well as some sake and more Chilean wine. The freshness of the sushi, and all the seafood that we had in Chile was really striking. It is rare to run into seafood of this quality.

Anne views the moon through a telescope atop the University of Chile

Later, in the evening, we headed up Cerro Calán to the Department of Astronomy at the University of Chile to do some stargazing. Even though it is a major city, Santiago is unique in that it offers great opportunities to view the stars. They started out with a video that explained astronomy in the area, and then we explored some of the older equipment on display. As the sun set over the city, we headed to the observation area and were shown the stars of the Southern Hemisphere, and the knowledgeable staff helped explain where we should be looking, and what constellations we were seeing (the night sky in the Southern Hemisphere is very different from ours). There are more expensive tours around the region, and I’m sure much darker areas on the other side of some of the mountains, but for the price and location, we really enjoyed ourselves.

We spent the next day exploring the Plaza de Armas and the surrounding museums and churches. This area of Santiago reminded me most of the National Mall in Washington, DC with the number of museums and federal institutions all in one area.

Anne views an exhibit at the El Museo Postal y Telegráfico

Anne’s favorite museum was El Museo Postal y Telegráfico. She was able to pour through stacks and stacks of stamps, review ancient telegraphic equipment, and more. We learned about the history of the postal service in Chile. Surprisingly, we were also able to take in some incredible art there as well.

My favorite was El Museo Historico Nacional. There were plenty of pre-Columbian artifacts. There was also art and models depicting the Spanish takeover of the region and shift to Christianity. Finally, we learned about colonial and post-colonial times. Most impressively was the technology the museum employed to aid foreign speaking visitors in understanding the importance of different sections of the museum. We were able to learn about the artifacts and art without having to follow a live guide or trying to translate because they gave us an audio guide that when pointed at spots on the wall would divulge the necessary information. Very cool technology, that I’ve seen showing up more and more at museums around the world.

Out in the plaza we were able to grab some street food and get some people watching in. There were protestors and people celebrating, there were some great sculptures and lots of shade from the trees.

The next day we decided to take a walk down the parks along the Mapocho River. These parks included Parque Balmaceda, Plaza a la Aviación, and Sculpture Park Museum.

It was interesting to see how locals really used the park for every type of activity you can think of. We saw kids playing, adult soccer leagues, people practicing light saber fighting, amazing fountains and more. Later in the evening we saw people on dates and enjoying drinks with friends after work.

Santiago has truly worked natural spaces throughout the city, and the locals really seemed to appreciate and uses these spaces to the fullest.

Sculpture Park Museum, particularly, was another favorite. I’m a big fan of public art, where I live on the Space Coast, we have a big mural movement going on, and these 3D pieces were exceptional. The artists used all kinds of different materials from stone to clay to metal, and you could really feel the difference in the energy and vision of each work.

Anne under a tent skeleton — Anne wanders around Santiago

We finished our time in Santiago in the Italian quarter where we enjoyed some gelato. The next morning, we hopped a plane and headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We were recommended La Brigada, a great steak house, where we were introduced to the wonders of Argentinian meat for the first time. I had a steak that was as big as my head (okay maybe not that big, but it was huge). One of the top 5 best steaks I have ever had in my life, and the rest of the meal was delicious enough to accompany it.

More on Buenos Aires and Argentina’s incredible meat later, but in the morning, we hopped another plane to one of the Natural Wonders of the World, the Iguazú Falls.