Valparaiso, Chile, South America

We had an awesome day today! From beginning to end, it was perfect! We got up early, had a good breakfast at the hotel, and then caught our bus at 8:30am to go to Casablanca. We had a bike tour starting at 9:45am with our guide Angela, and we were about ten minutes late. We were the only ones on the tour though, so it didn’t really matter. Angela came out an met us on the street, brought us to her house (which is also her office), and got us situated. She is a really nice girl, who is trying to get this tour company off the ground with her best friend. Melissa and I were really happy to help them out.

We got our bikes and hit the road. We rode over toward a small town called Lo Ovalle and stopped on the way at a vineyard (of course!). The vineyard was called Bodegas RE, and it was a GREAT place to see. We got a great tour from a girl named Nicole, and she explained perfectly how they make their wines, what grapes they grow, and all kinds of innovative and classical techniques they are using to create new wines and liquors. Nicole was so excited about her job, that it made it really easy for us to get excited about it too. She showed us how they’re testing out ways to make balsamic aceito, fruit liquors, and some italian sauce that is incredibly expensive. We also saw how they are using massive clay vessels to make their red wines, which is a technique that was used about 300 years ago, but has been recently ignored for the speed and ease of using metal containers.

After the tour, which lasted about an hour, we had our wine tasting. This was definitely the best part. We got to try some of their new wines, like Chardonnoir, which is a mixture of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, but made with the white wine process. It was amazing! We also had a rose wine, and a couple of reds that would have gone perfectly with a steak! If I wasn’t traveling for another four months I would have loved to bring some bottles home. But that’s just not gonna happen.

We continued our bike tour to the small village of Lo Ovalle, and the scenery was beautiful. We were surrounded by vineyards, so it reminded me a bit of Italy, on another perfectly sunny day. So sunny in fact, that Melissa, the Colombiana, got a pretty good sunburn on her shoulders! We got back to Casablanca and Angela showed us the way to get to Valparaiso. Angela and her company, Hoja de Ruta, were excellent, and I will definitely recommend them to anyone going in this direction.

We got a collectivo from Casablanca, which is a shared taxi. Melissa and I were the first two to get in, and then the driver just goes around town until he can pick up two more who also want to go that way so we can share the fare. It was only 1,500 pesos each ($2.75), so it was well worth it. We got into Valparaiso and quickly jumped into another collectivo to get over to our part of the city. We arrived at the bottom of the hill from our hotel, and had to take an old “elevator” to get to the top. It’s more like a funicular, but it’s really small, holding only six or eight people. It was cheap to ride (300 pesos each), and it brought us out right next to Gran Hotel Gervasoni, where we’re staying.

This is a beautiful hotel. It is an old mansion at the top of the hill, with a great view of the port and the rooms are great. Each room is different, and ours has a huge king sized bed, with a little balcony, and then a spiral staircase going downstairs to the bathroom with a small jacuzzi. It’s definitely the nicest place I’ve stayed in for a while.

We had a pisco sour at the hotel, and then headed out to check out the top of this hill. There are a bunch of these hills in Valparaiso, and we’ll see a bit more tomorrow, but tonight we just wanted to get a taste for what’s around here. We found a really nice bar with a terrace overlooking the water, so we went there for a couple of drinks and had some excellent bruschetta. We decided to go somewhere else for dinner and found a hotel/restaurant called the Brighton. We had a great meal in there while watching the sunset over the port, it was beautiful. We had a couple more pisco sours and are now ready for some sleep. It’s been an awesome day, and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!