DAY ONE
After 20 long hours with Air Canada we stumbled into the Santiago airport and paid for our Visas. Because it was 3 in the morning, we felt too guilty to wake up Jonathan, the owner of our hostel, Castillero Surfista, so we purchased drinks and napped in the Gatsby restaurant. At 5am we found a taxi and shivered in front of our hostel in the balmy 2 degree weather waiting to be lead to our beds. Sleep was delicious!!!!!!
our hostel
After a few short hours of it we got up and explored the Bella Vista area of the city which is packed with shops and restaurants and has a great almost Annex-y vibe to it. Bordering the neighbourhood is the Cerro San Cristobal which is a massive hill that overlooks the city and has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary at the top. We were advised not to hike to the top and that there was a cable car that can transport you there but we assumed our advisor didn´t realize that we are in excellent shape (and needed a walk after our plane sits and plane ride) so we decided to walk it. Along the way we asked a random to take our picture and it turned out that he was on our tour that would start in 2 days. Small world. At the top of the hill the world got even smaller when 2 guys from Ontario (one from Mike Kilby´s home town of Corunna) approached us seeing Justine´s Blue Jays t-shirt. We ended up having lunch and beers with them for the afternoon.
on the way!
there´s Mary looking over the Chilean people
After grabbing some groceries and another drink with the Canadians, it was straight off to bed for us - we knew we´d need all the energy we could get for wine drinking for the next few days!
DAY TWO
We woke up feeling rested and refrshed enough to pack up our bags, say goodbye to Jonathan (after J wrote him the best review ever on Hostel Bookers) and walk with our packs about 20 minutes over to the hotel where we´d be meeting up with our G Adventures tour! The new hotel, Hotel Riviera, was a bit closer to the Santa Lucia park and therefore a bit closer to the main area of downtown, however it definitely wasn´t a cute and quainte hostel like Surfista. We dumped our packs and walked through Santa Lucia park, which of course, also has a hill, was also full of stray dogs, and was PACKED with couples. Imagine 50 plus dates going on all at once, and all of them are making out. So lovely. We also got used to some Chilean hospitality in the form of whistles, kissing noises, and cat calls (apparently not everyone was making out). We enjoyed the park and its views very much.
view from park
We then wandered, thanks to our handy guidebook, to the Old City for a delicious lunch (and of course, Cristal beers mmm). After lunch we decided to hit the main Santiago attraction (at least for us), the wineries. Trusty guidebook in hand, we headed to the Subway (which is long and very easy to navigate thankfully!), changed trains a few times, and emerged at Tobalaba station. Imagine our surprise when we were in the middle of a commercial district and the first cab we stopped said it would cost $40 to get to the winery, which, per the guidebook, was 5 minutes away. After much confusion and help from some Chilean samaritans, we learned our money was NOT well spent on our guidebook, which had taken us to the commercial office of the winery. Boo. We were still optimistic, and decided to try out the instructions to get to Santa Carolina winery, as we had some time before we had to meet our group. Back to the subway and off at the correct stop, we arrived in a sketch industrial area (sorry moms, it was dangerous), and asked our way with J´s impecible spanish until we found the correct street. Super pumped we finally found a winery, we high fived, took photos, and looked for the entry door. When we found the entrance, we just strolled on in, only to be halted by security, asking us in spanish who we were there to visit. After some confused conversations where all we really confirmed was that we were Canadian, and that the guidebook told us there was a daily 430 PM tour, security phoned a sales rep to come help us who was, thankfully, english speaking.
Strike two guidebook - there are no daily tours. In fact the winery at that location hasn´t even worked since the 2010 earthquake. Oopsies. It ended up, however, that the sales rep who met up with us, was fond of Canada as his largest account is the LCBO! So we scored a great little private tour of the grounds and of the cellar, which opened in 1875, which is a Chilean monument. Watch out Eric, Justine wants to move your wedding to be here...
Santa Carolina´s cellar.
After the tour we went back to old city, enjoyed a glass of wine, and then met up with our G Adventures group. We were pleased to learn they all seemed normal enough, and covered countires including Spain, England, New Zealand and Singapore. Dinner was as a group and was excellent again, and drank Pisco Sours and Cristal Beer late into the night.
DAY THREE
We woke up really ready to taste some wine today, the final day in Santiago. We started the day with some shopping in the Santa Lucia market (guess what, we got some new llama finger puppets!!) and wandered around Plaza de Armas, though the weather was nasty and rainy so we didn´t stay outside for too long. We grabbed a light lunch at one of the cute cafe´s we had spotted in old city and then grabbed the Subway and headed to Concha y Toro. Don´t worry, we left the guidebook at home and googled it instead like the modern women we are. A long subway journey took us to an area that actually looked correct! Yay! A quick cab ride later, we arrived at the very beautiful vineyard and joined the English speaking tour (3 peoplein English group, 50 people in Spanish group ha). The tour was great, we really enjoyed seeing the grounds, hearing the legend of the diablo in the cellar (which is there the name of the wine, Castillero del Diablo comes from)! Of course, we also enjoyed the tasting thoroughly.
about to brave the cellar...
... and we spotted el Diablo!
It freezing cold and pouring and Justine, for the first time ever, didn´t have her poncho at the ready, so we headed to a cafe to enjoy some light reading, chatting and (not so light) hot chocolates to our warm us up. We slowly made our way back to the hotel to meet up with our group, had a dinner of Chilean hot dogs (which we do not recommend), and then took off for the night bus to Pucon, the sight of phase two of our adventure. We loved Santiago, but were hoping this city would have less PDA, fewer cat calls, and less stray dogs. We KNEW it would have lots more good times!
After 20 long hours with Air Canada we stumbled into the Santiago airport and paid for our Visas. Because it was 3 in the morning, we felt too guilty to wake up Jonathan, the owner of our hostel, Castillero Surfista, so we purchased drinks and napped in the Gatsby restaurant. At 5am we found a taxi and shivered in front of our hostel in the balmy 2 degree weather waiting to be lead to our beds. Sleep was delicious!!!!!!
After a few short hours of it we got up and explored the Bella Vista area of the city which is packed with shops and restaurants and has a great almost Annex-y vibe to it. Bordering the neighbourhood is the Cerro San Cristobal which is a massive hill that overlooks the city and has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary at the top. We were advised not to hike to the top and that there was a cable car that can transport you there but we assumed our advisor didn´t realize that we are in excellent shape (and needed a walk after our plane sits and plane ride) so we decided to walk it. Along the way we asked a random to take our picture and it turned out that he was on our tour that would start in 2 days. Small world. At the top of the hill the world got even smaller when 2 guys from Ontario (one from Mike Kilby´s home town of Corunna) approached us seeing Justine´s Blue Jays t-shirt. We ended up having lunch and beers with them for the afternoon.
After grabbing some groceries and another drink with the Canadians, it was straight off to bed for us - we knew we´d need all the energy we could get for wine drinking for the next few days!
DAY TWO
We woke up feeling rested and refrshed enough to pack up our bags, say goodbye to Jonathan (after J wrote him the best review ever on Hostel Bookers) and walk with our packs about 20 minutes over to the hotel where we´d be meeting up with our G Adventures tour! The new hotel, Hotel Riviera, was a bit closer to the Santa Lucia park and therefore a bit closer to the main area of downtown, however it definitely wasn´t a cute and quainte hostel like Surfista. We dumped our packs and walked through Santa Lucia park, which of course, also has a hill, was also full of stray dogs, and was PACKED with couples. Imagine 50 plus dates going on all at once, and all of them are making out. So lovely. We also got used to some Chilean hospitality in the form of whistles, kissing noises, and cat calls (apparently not everyone was making out). We enjoyed the park and its views very much.
park architecture
We then wandered, thanks to our handy guidebook, to the Old City for a delicious lunch (and of course, Cristal beers mmm). After lunch we decided to hit the main Santiago attraction (at least for us), the wineries. Trusty guidebook in hand, we headed to the Subway (which is long and very easy to navigate thankfully!), changed trains a few times, and emerged at Tobalaba station. Imagine our surprise when we were in the middle of a commercial district and the first cab we stopped said it would cost $40 to get to the winery, which, per the guidebook, was 5 minutes away. After much confusion and help from some Chilean samaritans, we learned our money was NOT well spent on our guidebook, which had taken us to the commercial office of the winery. Boo. We were still optimistic, and decided to try out the instructions to get to Santa Carolina winery, as we had some time before we had to meet our group. Back to the subway and off at the correct stop, we arrived in a sketch industrial area (sorry moms, it was dangerous), and asked our way with J´s impecible spanish until we found the correct street. Super pumped we finally found a winery, we high fived, took photos, and looked for the entry door. When we found the entrance, we just strolled on in, only to be halted by security, asking us in spanish who we were there to visit. After some confused conversations where all we really confirmed was that we were Canadian, and that the guidebook told us there was a daily 430 PM tour, security phoned a sales rep to come help us who was, thankfully, english speaking.
Strike two guidebook - there are no daily tours. In fact the winery at that location hasn´t even worked since the 2010 earthquake. Oopsies. It ended up, however, that the sales rep who met up with us, was fond of Canada as his largest account is the LCBO! So we scored a great little private tour of the grounds and of the cellar, which opened in 1875, which is a Chilean monument. Watch out Eric, Justine wants to move your wedding to be here...
After the tour we went back to old city, enjoyed a glass of wine, and then met up with our G Adventures group. We were pleased to learn they all seemed normal enough, and covered countires including Spain, England, New Zealand and Singapore. Dinner was as a group and was excellent again, and drank Pisco Sours and Cristal Beer late into the night.
DAY THREE
We woke up really ready to taste some wine today, the final day in Santiago. We started the day with some shopping in the Santa Lucia market (guess what, we got some new llama finger puppets!!) and wandered around Plaza de Armas, though the weather was nasty and rainy so we didn´t stay outside for too long. We grabbed a light lunch at one of the cute cafe´s we had spotted in old city and then grabbed the Subway and headed to Concha y Toro. Don´t worry, we left the guidebook at home and googled it instead like the modern women we are. A long subway journey took us to an area that actually looked correct! Yay! A quick cab ride later, we arrived at the very beautiful vineyard and joined the English speaking tour (3 peoplein English group, 50 people in Spanish group ha). The tour was great, we really enjoyed seeing the grounds, hearing the legend of the diablo in the cellar (which is there the name of the wine, Castillero del Diablo comes from)! Of course, we also enjoyed the tasting thoroughly.
It freezing cold and pouring and Justine, for the first time ever, didn´t have her poncho at the ready, so we headed to a cafe to enjoy some light reading, chatting and (not so light) hot chocolates to our warm us up. We slowly made our way back to the hotel to meet up with our group, had a dinner of Chilean hot dogs (which we do not recommend), and then took off for the night bus to Pucon, the sight of phase two of our adventure. We loved Santiago, but were hoping this city would have less PDA, fewer cat calls, and less stray dogs. We KNEW it would have lots more good times!
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