Friday, March 11, 2016

Onto Different Places; Chile

The past week, I've had the good fortune of traveling with my cousins from Denver. Meeting them in the vibrant city of Santiago, Chile, we enjoyed our first days roaming the city and exploring several sites. 
We drove down south to the small town of Caracautín where we visited the nearby Conguillio National Park. Our first experience with the Chilean outdoors was a success and we filled an entire day with 
hiking through a Jurassic landscape- with foreign trees, bright lakes, black stones and conical volcanoes rising up on all three sides of us. We wandered through a seemingly enchanted forest and were enamored by the orange flowers, illuminated from behind their veins were glowing gold on the forest floor. Our experience in nature was beautiful and unlike any landscape than we'd ever seen.
The next day we hit the road again and by noon we found ourselves in the heart of Chilean wine country: the Colchagua Valley. Coincidentally, our timing was impeccable and our first day there was the beginning of Fesival Vendimia, their annual harvest festival. We spent our time touring gorgeous vineyards, wineries, tasting an assortment of wine then going to the festival and trying even more. I learned all about the process of wine making and different varieties of wine. The festival was set up like a farmers market- artisan crafts, wine, and cheese stands. We sat in the grassy park of Santa Cruz and sipped on a Malbec, comparing its taste to the previous carmeneré we tried and taking a delicious bite of goat cheese in between. 
We had a really neat time together during our Chilean visit and as we liked to put it, we feasted on "a plate of Chilean appetizers" -trying a variety of different things. 

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