Headin' south

“Headin’ south”...sounds good to Canadians. But going south here means going away from the sun and in the direction of winter. The weather is still pretty nice: sunny 20-degree days, nippy at night though – but fall is definitely in the air. Funny thing in countries like this, i.e., it’s cold enough that anyone would consider it cold (e.g., 4-degree nights), but because it’s not Canada cold (e.g. -30), it seems that no one bothers to design or build “warm” houses. The result of drafty, non-insulated houses without a central heating system is that the houses are freezing most of the time. On a sunny afternoon, it’s no exaggeration that inside the house is colder than outside the house. An American guy teaching English in Valpo summarized it by saying “the only times you aren’t freezing here in the winter is when you’re in bed, or in the shower.” Needless to say, Amy’s not a huge fan of the “freezing house” scenario.


The riding out of Valpo has been good, if not uneventful. The terrain is arid and rolling. Not overly awe-inspiring, but not dreary either. The first place we targeted was the town of Casablanca – center of the Casablanca wine valley, and home to Chile’s best Chardonnys, Sauvignon Blancs, and Pinto Noirs – a good cold-climate wine area. We were pretty stoked to get back into wine country, and were really looking forward to checking out the Chilean wine tasting scene. But, like the winds of Argentina, Chile has a different plan for us.


To be fair, we had been warned. Everything we read, and everyone we talked to, said the same thing: wine tasting in Chile is expensive. But, hey, how could that be? You walk in, taste a bit of wine, walk out. Right? Wrong. For some inexplicable reason, the Chilean wine tasting model is unlike everywhere else we have ever been, and costs anywhere from 15 to 40 bucks per session. I’m thinking...no, there has to be more to it...we’re missing something. But nope, first place we went to...the standard 5-sample tasting, nothing special, had me digging in my pockets for 36 bucks (and, we actually “split” one tasting, it would have been 72 bucks for both of us). This, in a country where 4 or 5 dollars buys you a fairly decent bottle of wine! My linear scientist mind cannot get around that one. Someone is on crack back at head office. So anyway, our plan A, to spend the next month or so wine-touring, has been suspended until further notice. The only wine tasting we will be doing is the kind that involves buying bottles in the grocery store. We can afford the 4-dollar tastings J


With our tails tucked between our legs, we rode out of Casablanca and onto Plan B. Essentially we are continuing south, hit some coastal towns, drink some grocery store wine, watch some sun sets, take stray dogs for walks (no choice, they just follow you), until we run into winter. At the moment, on the Ruta del Poeta (Poet’s highway), we found a nice cozy little hostel, Conexion del Poeta Hostel, run by a friendly Chilean woman named Sandra and her 4 street dogs (actually we think another one joined the gang in the past couple days, so now there’s 5). The draw here is basically a quiet, out-of-the-way place on the coast, and, of course, poets. Chileans really celebrate their poets, and specifically Pablo Neruda who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. His oceanfront house is now a museum and just down the road from us.


Being on the coast, and specifically the Pacific coast, means big sunsets. It’s been nice to just relax and watch the sun go down over the infiniteness of the ocean here...while enjoying a 4-dollar bottle of Cabernet Savignon, of course. Cabernet Savignon is to Chile what malbec is to Argentina. Cabernet is Chile’s grape.


To be honest, so far Chile has been underwhelming. The cost of everything – at least twice Argentina; restaurants/cafes are almost Canada prices – is shocking coming from all of the cheaper countries north of here. We think our days of grabbing a cortado in the plaza or splitting a bottle of wine on a patio are over. So far the highlights are avocadoes (which they produce en mass and are delicious) and perhaps normal wind patterns (i.e., no major headwinds thus far).


So that’s it. Our target at the moment is the surf town of Pichilemu, a few days ride from here, which should be good for sunsets and ocean/surf culture. Unfortunately, however, not swimming and water sports unless you own a 6-mm wetsuit. The water here is freezing. We, and the rest of the world, can thank the Humboldt Current for that – a huge ocean current that brings cold water from the south up and along the entire coast of Chile, basically cooling off the entire country from south to north. As always, more on that that soon. Chau.