Last time we wrote Kelly and I were waiting in La Serena for ocean conditions to improve so that we could finally see the Humboldt penguin, and luckily we did! Our excursion took us up into the clouds and down again where we caught a glimpse of wild guanacos (the real thing, not the water shooting tanks in Valparaiso). They’re a bit like deer, but somehow they manage to find food amongst the cactus and thorny bushes in the desert. Once in the rickety aluminum boat, we and 16 others embarked on our voyage to Isla Damas across the vast ocean. We were glad the tour company had waited for improved weather because even still the waves felt huge. It was some ride. Upon reaching the surprisingly big, barren rock island it felt like we were entering a wild new world, right out of some epic movie. We were there in the off-season but even still it was covered with a huge variety of bird species feeding on fish below. And finally we saw the elusive tiny penguin waddling about. Earlier in the year they come down in thousands to the shore to breed but now their young are high up in safety being cared for by one of the parents while the other goes down to feed on anchovies. Unexpectedly we also saw a healthy colony of sea lions lazily lying on rocks and occasionally play fighting, and on the way back we followed a group of dolphins as they sped across the sea. It was truly unforgettable.
And cold. Juan forgot to mention it was freezing! I had on every layer I could put on, which was just enough, but the thought of it getting any colder was pretty daunting.
We also saw a lot of La Serena while waiting for our tour...
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| Diaguita Indigenous Pottery |
Since we had seen what we had come to see in La Serena, the next day we went to Vicuña. From there we planned to take a trip to the observatory (Vicuña boasts some of the clearest skies in the world) and to Pisco Elqui, home to the alcohol pisco that is used to make a drink you might be familiar with - pisco sour. Unfortunately the observatory didn’t work out because of clouds (winter just happens to be the worst time to visit the observatory), but we did go to Pisco Elqui where we visited Los Nichos, an artisanal pisco production plant. In a way we got lucky, since we only went to Los Nichos because it was free, but the company has a very interesting history. It used to be owned by a mason, who believed that they (the masons) would come back to life and party after they died. They would have drinking competitions in his underground cave/cellar, where the one who passed out first won over a dozen bottles of pisco. Crazy, yes, but very fascinating. We had walked from town to the pisco plant about an hour through the Elqui Valley, which was beautiful and much warmer than the weather we had been getting used to – a nice change, but I thought I was going to melt. Soon enough though we were back in Vicuña, where it was much cooler, making plans to go back to Santiago.
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| The Elqui Valley |
We were only in Santiago 1 night but got a chance to check out a fashion museum, which had a special exposition on 80’s fashion. What an era! It all came flashing back – the bright uncoordinated colours, permed hair, walkmans and Atari, baggy clothing somehow mixed with tight clothing, and of course the music, ever-present at Winnipeg socials. Kelly and I recalled many funny memories of those days growing up. We then took the metro down to another bohemian neighborhood called Brasil to have our 4th pasta meal in a row – pure coincidence. We left Chile overall with a smile. I realized one has to be more alert here. I was swindled out of $17,000 pesos and almost lost another $2000 by a bus driver (caught that one!), and it’s a little rougher around the edges, perhaps more evident since cost of living is much higher here and we had to go on the cheap a little more often which lead us to shadier areas. But the people are nice and courteous – cars actually stop for pedestrians instead of speeding up as in Argentina. We didn’t have much luck with the seafood this time but we really liked the sopaipillas and pastel de choclo (corn cake). We debated doing an excursion to the south of Chile which has spectacular scenery but our pocketbooks were dwindling and we honestly missed Argentina, especially the bakeries, vegetable stands and little shops that dot every street. So off we went, back to Mendoza.
We were only in Mendoza because I (Kelly) decided that I wouldn’t leave the country until I had been to Lujan de Cuyo and in particular to a couple wineries that I read about in my Vino Argentino (by Laura Catena) wine book: Catena Zapata and Belasco de Baquedano. I think I mentioned in our last blog that I had a really hard time organizing our trip to Lujan on my own. Most people pay a pretty penny to let a tour company take them through the region, organizing their tastings and lunch. We couldn’t afford that so I figured out what bus to take and where to rent bikes and made the reservations myself. I felt pretty in control of the situation until we couldn’t find the correct bus stop in Mendoza and ended up having to grab a taxi to Lujan. We arrived with 45 minutes to bike to the first winery and made it just on time…or so we thought! Despite all our asking and double-checking about the time when we arrived from Chile we were running an hour late anyway! We arrived at our 11am tour at 12pm on the dot. It wouldn’t have been funny, but when they saw that Juan’s watch actually said 11:01am they did everything they could to accommodate us. 
The reason I wanted to go to Belasco de Baquedano was for their aroma room. They have a room dedicated to allowing you experience 46 of the aromas you would find in wine. It’s actually pretty fun, because you can smell each and guess the scent before finding out what it is. They also have a sample of the tree that they get cork from. Here we did a premium tasting of four wines, which were all excellent. I hadn’t even realized what line of wine the bodega produced because I was so intent on seeing/smelling the aroma room! 
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| A Re-enactment of Juan's tête-à-tête |
From Belasco we biked to Catena Zapata, a beautiful winery shaped like a pyramid. We were coming here specifically for the wine. Nicolas Zapata was one the first to start making wine for quality not quantity in Argentina. His family has some of the highest altitude vineyards in the country. When we arrived early at the winery, we found it closed! We decided to wait and sure enough, just before 3pm they opened the gates and let us in. Here we tried some fabulous malbecs and I think Juan found his favourite wine yet! All in all, the day was a success and I got to see my wineries!
Since we’d already been to Mendoza for a month prior we didn’t do all that much for the 3 nights we were there. Kelly got her shoes shined again, we ate some delicious rabas (calamari), stocked up on goat cheese at the central market, and met and partied with some American, Dutch and Argentine travelers and workers at Mendoza-Inn hostel. After learning a new drinking game our new friends gave us a tango and salsa dance show. Kelly can’t wait for me to learn some moves – in due time I said. We also learned two unfortunate news items. One was football season is ending, and we won’t get a chance to go to a game in the whole 6 months we’ll be here. A shame indeed. The other is that our trip to Patagonia is cancelled, since the Puyehue volcano in Chile erupted sending a 12km long plume of ash into the air. That ash is now scattered all throughout Patagonia and has apparently made its way all the way to Tasmania. Darn that Pachamama! (Mother Nature) Oh well, instead we’ll be going to Bolivia and hopefully Peru which may actually turn out better (i.e. warmer and cheaper). But for now we were still going a bit south to San Rafael and Malargue.
In San Rafael we stayed at Shanti Hostel owned by a lovely couple with three huge puppies and a cat. It was a great little place, where we once again got to eat asado Argentine style. However, we weren’t there to just laze around and eat, we came to San Rafael specifically to see Cañon del Atuel. San Rafael is very close to the canyon and it wasn’t long before we were driving into a magnificent landscape of coloured rock formations and deep crevices carved by an ancient river. We were able to spend three hours in the canyon itself, of which part of is now filled with water due to the dams that were constructed. We saw flamingos, condors and a grey fox, but that was it for wildlife. We ended the trip with a visit to a farm and artisanal winery, where we saw the biggest pigs ever! These guys weren’t very cute and did little to convince Juan that we should one day have our own (something I’ve been working on for quite some time). There were very few tourists in San Rafael, which meant virtually none in Malargue. We had hoped to do some caving and visit Payunia, an 4500km square reserve with the highest concentration of volcanic cones in the world (over 800)…which would have been a little ironic considering what had just happened in Bariloche. Unfortunately there were no tours, so we couldn't go. 
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| Valle Grande |
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| San Rafael has wineries too! This the Suter Bodega. |
So with Patagonia now a pipe dream, we’re headed up north to Bolivia and hopefully Peru. We took three buses in the span of 26 hours to arrive in Jujuy (just north of Salta). Tomorrow we make our way into Bolivia!
Hasta Luego!
Juan and Kelly
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