In the Wine Country of Chile
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Wed 9 Jun 2010 14:14
We hired a car with a few challengers, as the initial company brought a car
too small and no child seat, so we switched companies. Then the challenge
was on tourist maps how do we get out of Santiago, we had directions looked
up on Yahoo maps, and off we went sure enough in the first 2 miles we had to
turn left onto Pan American highway, but it actually meant going down a
backstreet and then getting onto a small underpass to get onto the main
highway. This took 3 attempts and a lot of horns as I switched to Egyptian
driving manner to take on these streets. But we were out and heading south
with the mountains towering on the left with snow caps, the Santiago smog
settled well in, boys asleep in the back, and small mountains on the right
we headed down this valley parallel with the coast. It did not take long
before we saw wine vines as the vineyards come up to Santiago, but we
targeting a more established area of Colchagua valley about 200 km south
around the town of Santa Cruz. We arrived mid afternoon, to the town, which
is classical Chile, but looking worse for ware as many buildings are been
held up with wood, as this area was heavily hit by the Feb earthquake.
We found a B & B about 10 miles south towards the coast with in the country,
with a nice big room and fire place in the room. The boys can run around,
and we have the hills surrounding us and chickens and horses around.
It is now morning we planning the day out, the boys are running about with a
new soccer ball, chickens are crowing, a horse cart just went past, the
bread for breakfast was delivered on motor bike, and the fire is going. It
is a nice atmosphere and it is nice to get out in the country.
Off today around the valley and some good wines.