Day 1
We left Santiago a little later than anticipated, we needed one more stop to Walmart to buy a few accessories I mentioned in the previous post. Getting out of Santiago was a bit of a drag, traffic, smog, and impatient drivers.
Like most of my childhood road trips, we started off with a trip to McDonalds for a late lunch. For those who know me and my love for McDonalds, you can imagine how excited I was. For those who know Steve, and his hatred for McDonalds, you can imagine how much he loves me. I had a chicken sandwich with guacamole… yummmmmm.
We made our way to Santa Cruz, Chile – the heart of wine country! Once we reached the “Ruta de Vino”, we felt like we were back in California’s Sonoma county.
By the time we reached Santa Cruz, it was close to 4pm, and we were in need of some good wine and relaxing. We had read on iOverlander about a vineyard you could sleep at, so we went straight there. We had just missed the last tour of the day, no problem for us. The vineyard, Viu Manent, was quite the sight. They had horse stables, horse jumping arena, carriage rides, and the cutest little café. We settled in right away and bought a few glasses to sample. We tried their Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenère.
During our time there, we made a visit to the horse stables and enjoyed walking around. We had made a new friend, Ruzio, a cute little lab mix dog with beautiful eyes. Turns out, the only thing needed to win his heart is a good belly rub. We were told he lives at the vineyard and the employees share the responsibility of taking care of him. Well, he loved us. After the café closed, we headed back to the van to cook dinner, and Ruzio watched. He didn’t beg, he just enjoyed our company. Our first meal (and a frequent meal of ours) was pasta with sausage. It paired perfectly with our wine. We settled in for the night with Ruzio settling in outside, next to the van, keeping an eye on us for the night. The next morning, Ruzio said his goodbyes to us, and we headed out.
Santa Cruz has many wineries, and we only experienced one. We plan on returning to Santa Cruz on our way back to Santiago and hopefully getting a tour or a blind tasting. We enjoyed our short time here.
Stay Tuned!
