Someone else has a Birthday

Argentina is also celebrating 200 years of independence from Spain

On our return to the hotel one night, the taxi had to pass several police checkpoints.  The streets around the hotel were closed to all traffic.  This was a little strange.  There was a wedding in the hotel's magnificent ballroom but that was nothing unusual.  Music was booming from around the corner so loud that you could here it in the bathrooms inside our rooms.  My mom phoned us to hurry upstairs as soon as possible to see out their window.  Acrobats were shooting down from adjacent buildings into the park that had some sort of light show radiating through the whole area.  Something was definitely up.  

We hurried out of the hotel, crossed the street and when we got to the center of the park there was something falling from the sky onto the crowd that filled the square.  It wasn't confetti, but millions and millions of feathers.  

It turned out that we happened upon France's bicentenary party, a gift to celebrate Argentina's 200 years of independence.  I think just about everyone was in awe.  I've never seen anything like it.  What luck that we happened to be here with this spectacle literally on our doorstep.  

We got a few funny looks when we returned to the hotel covered in feathers with two pizza boxes for our planned quiet film night in watching Mi Super-Ex Novia on HBO.  Cheesy films and cheesy pizza.  Simple pleasures that make you feel at home and end a surprising night with my parents 

Birthdays in Buenos Aires

The Plaza Hotel - This historic hotel was also celebrating it's birthday of 100 years. Distinguished guests before these two backpackers include presidents from Eisenhower to Chirac, artists from Walt Disney to David LaChapelle, Eva Peron of course, plus royalty from as far as Japan.

Steph and I were so excited to be touching down in Buenos Aires to finally meet my whole family. It was going to be the first time the Zimmermans were reunited since Christmas two years ago. My parents and sister Monica were meeting us to celebrate almost all our spring birthdays (except sister Mono).

We were meeting my parents at the Plaza Hotel overlooking the St Martin park. Calling this accommodation an upgrade would be the understatement of the year. I think our beat up backpacks must have confused the bell and door men.

Jorge Luis Borges, Argenitna´s most renouned writer, lived around the corner in Piso 6B from 1944 to 1986 before moving to Geneva and dying that same year.

We waited for my sister to get there (she is always running a little - 7 days is only fashionable) before opening birthday presents in my parents room, that seemed to be some kind of presidential suite overlooking the rooftops of Buenos Aires.

As if travelling the world was not enough on your birthday, seeing my family in South America was a once in a lifetime experience.

We were so touched to receive presents that Steph's parents had gone to a lot of trouble to deliver through ash clouds and via Washington. What a surprise. They knew exactly what we needed for the Patagonian winter weather only weeks away now - warm, sensible clothes! Gill knitted Steph a beautiful sweater and matching socks that almost brought her to tears. Our friends Cat and Imran even got in on the surprise and sent over Chatwin's In Patagonia with a card that made light of me being an old cheese, which is a good thing of course.

Mom opening a paumou jade ear ings from New Zealand.

The family birthday continued when we went for a splendid steak dinner in Palermo that night. I think we had all been dreaming of Argentine steak and malbec since the idea for this Buenos Aires birthday was first proposed. All of us except Mono the vegetarian who decided to just focus on the wine, dulce de lece and stupendous desserts.

Life is a Pastel de Choclo

Life in Santiago explained - Lunch with a local student for questions, answers and some delicious choclo.

The statue of the Madonna atop the giant city hill of Cerro San Cristobal, named after St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers. It's a fitting name for the view that the hill offers voyagers from afar. It was here that the Pope blessed the city in 1984.

I was charmed by Chile in our two short weeks in Santiago. We settled in so nicely. The walks to school were idyllic if you could ignore the collectivos rumbling by. I just don´t think we could have lucked out with our apartment and a more friendly lifestyle.

On our last day, I was especially looking forward to going to lunch with Gabriel for three reasons. I was eager to learn from him about the Chilean lifestyle (while getting to the bottom of some curious cultural habits...). Second, he requested help with his (nearly perfect) English and I was to prep him for postgraduate life in suburban Minnesota. Finally it was borderline criminal to go two weeks without trying a pastel de choclo. Luckily Gabriel had offered to help with all of these over lunch in Bellavista at El Caramano, which is renouned for traditional food.

Before the bread and pebre came over, I admitted how accomidating city life had been for us. How Santiago had grown on me. What I love here is the paradox between fast and slow, refined and scruffy. People speak fast and walk slow. The cosmoplitan culture is refined but the buildings that overshadow the streetscapes have a polluted crust to their edges. It’s a paradox a little familiar in Spain or Italy.

However there´s a colonial pride, elegence and swagger that is all too Chilean. Our first impression was that English speakers are rare, unlike almost all four corners of Europe these days. Instead Chileans help you with patience. Real patience - one that is almost unheard of in busy cities. We frequently had shopkeepers walk us outside, or even down the street, to point us in the right direction. It was remarkable.

Gabriel then explained that Chileans aren´t as hot blooded as their Argentine neighbors. They are more reserved, even shy sometimes. Chileans are hogareňos (homebodies). It was great to talk to someone so candidly about our observations.

Polution and noise aside, I think he was chuffed that I felt so at home in Santiago. He laughed when I told him that my first sounds in the city were dogs howling in the ally downstairs at night - a common occurance. I learned that the street dogs are indeed a problem in Santiago. Technically they are to be exterminated. However Chileans love dogs too much. They believe in a way that the strays watch over their neighborhoods. Commuters often leave a piece of bread next to the same sleeping dog they see each day on the way to work.

To me, this is not a point of embarassment the city should be concerned with. I then asked Gabriel about the canoodeling teenage couples that are making out on almost every patch of grass in city parks. He admitted that a trip to the park yes, will guarantee that you won’t be able to count the amount of PDAing. I was surprised Gabriel knew what PDAing was, and even more the expression 'get a room'. Apparently an article in the New Yorker had also made this recent observation of a teenage phenomena that is only a recent trend.

Latin blood - Like in all Mediterranean countries, women can expect to receive cat calls. I read about a Belgian woman who recently repatriated to Europe. She missed her tailor in Santiago, an old man who would call her Miss Beautiful because he didn't know her name. She found that there was a void back in cold Europe when she would walk by a construction site unnoticed, or at least unannounced.

Another curiosity worth explaining was the need in Chile to give your passport number for everything you could possibly do. From paying at the supermarket, to entering museums, to the little man that requires that you sign in at his table before entering the public park. Gabriel supposed it was a tradition that has carried on from past governments. I found this big brother "tradition" extremely odd. It certainly wouldn't fly in the states.

Gabriel had already brought up politics asking me what I knew about the president, Sebastien Piniera. I told him that I knew he liked flying his friends around in his helicopter to tennis matches. And that he has changed the Carabineros' motercycles in his motorcarde to Harley-Davidsons. Piniera was a bit of a hotshot businessman, and Gabriel noted that he already been frustrated when trying to run a government like a business.

By now the two men in the table opposite were enjoying the end of their long friday lunch with a pisco sour. Politics are one thing. Catholocism is another thing in South America. But I was about to ask my new friend the mother of all questions. Where did the pisco sour come from Gabriel raised his voice slightly and told me that he will happily talk about anything else, but the dispute with Peru over Pisco was off limits. He did not want to talk about it.

Lunch was a great success. Gabriel later joined our gang from school for a final terromoto at the Piojera. It was filled to the roof with students that evening from the two main santiago universities. I couldn't believe how readily we were adopted by the largest group in the bar, only after blushing to chants of 'gringo' from what seemed like one hundred people.

Santiago was indeed a great city to us. I certainly wouldn't mind a return trip to Chile soon...

Cachai?

The Good, the Bad, and the Chileno - My case for Santiago living.

Santiago children's drawings always have a line of snow-capped mountains in the background, and it's easy to understand why.

Over the past decade, Santiago has become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in South America. It's a good place to call home. The Californian climate makes the stroll down leafy avenues a joy. Crime rates are so low that Santiago is a big city where you can let your guard down. Here are the strong suits, follwed by areas for improvement, and a few curious traits.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

• Corruption - If you try to bribe the Carabineros you will go to jail. What´s more the cops will even change your flat tyre.
• Friendly Aambassadors - Well-put-together citizens with the patience of sainthood.
• Wifi - Everywhere, including designated hotspots in the metro
• Cycling - The Velib-style public bike system
• Good Produce and Affordable Restaurants - Honest local restaurants where everyone can dine.

The family restaurants seem like 1950s diners from a time that America has bulldozed past into the Starbucks era.

THE NOT-SO-GREAT

Smog - unfortunately a green city is a long way off. The Andes mountains form a tight circle that will trap smog in snugly until major infrastructure changes are made.
Sports - Unlike their sportif Argentine neighbors, few Chileans play sports, greasy food is everywhere and child obesity rates are high.
Drugs - Chile has among the highest rate of pot smokers in the southern hemisphere.
Noise - Chileans are car people. Traffic is unbearable. A lot of improvement is needed to ease congestion if Santiago wants to avoid competing with Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires for worst
Books - Paperbacks are poorly made and expensive, however there is a commendable effort to make books available in parks.

ONLY IN SANTIAGO

It's the differences that make travelling both challenging and interesting. There were no real challenges here in Santiago. It was great just to sit and observe for two weeks. Here are some unique finds.

Overemployed: Businesses seem to have double the employees necessary. Meter maids are an odd example. In Chile, they actually serve as the parking meter who wait on each block. In case you need to park, they will take your payment and look after your car (sometimes).

Slot machine shops - Tacky but very popular, I found this to be an odd key feature on most Santiago streets.

The Segway I-site - When I turned around to a friendly "May I help you?" I thought I was having a chat with a man in an information booth. Then the whole booth spun around and he zipped away on his segway. Necessassry? Why not.

A time for Chilling in Chile

I have left the majority of the Chile blogging to Chris who was able to see far more than I was. After all, I spent much of my time here at school and didn´t have the chance to go off on any excursions. (Thanks Chris for your fab blogs! It´s been great to be able to just read passively for a change and have a few weeks off writing myself. Good job Christophe). Having said this, I still spent two weeks in the capital city and therefore had a few, brief reflections of my own. People we met here were, without fail, incredibly helpful and patient. This really helped us find our way around town and slowly, we began to learn the correct way to ask for things in Spanish. The fast-paced Spanish that followed in response, well, we´ll get there eventually - we hope!

Jose was the kind of lovely that sometimes makes me cry (!!). When the apartment was too cold, he brought a heater and extra blankets round for us. He left a mobile phone with us which held not only his number, but the numbers of the friends and family we should call if we had an emergency and weren´t able to reach him. He had written a three page guide to the city which detailed his favourite restaurants, bars and places to go for the day. Because this new apartment hadn´t yet been installed with the internet (we were the first guests in this particular apartment, he having signed the papers for it only the day before we arrived), he gave us keys to his apartment upstairs. We were able to use the internet there wheneve we wanted; this was extremely kind of him and really, above and beyond what we expected. His warm and friendly manner made us feel immediately welcome in this city and made a real difference to our stay. Thanks so much Jose! As Chris has mentioned, the street dogs here really are something. It´s incredible wathcing them cross the street at crossings, waiting for the green man just like their human friends. What´s also interesting is the way the Santiagan people respond to them. You certainly wouldn´t find many people back home stroking a stray dog - here it is very different. People in Santiago really care for these dogs and seem embarrassed that they should have so many roaming their city. We would often walk past a sleeping dog who had had a piece of bread placed by its nose, left there by a caring passer-by for when it woke up.

The Lomito...

With us having an apartment for once, we managed to eat in much of the time. I would take a packed lunch to school leaving Cris to explore Chile´s lunchtime culinary delights alone. I thus didn´t sample much traditional cuisine here but when I did have the occasion, my main options were a hot dog (completo) piled with tomato, guacamole and mayonaise or a Lomito - a huge, greasy pork sandwich with the same toppings. Both of these I sampled on more than one occasion and, perhaps unfairly, both of these will remain my living memory of what constitutes a Chileno meal. My dad asked me whether the food here was spicy as he had always imagined it would be, but no, from what I can tell, the everyday meal out will be greasy, fatty, deliciously tasty and as Chris described it, resembles what any man would cook when left to his own devices without a girlfriend or wife looking over his shoulder.

I have some great memories from here in Chile and what makes them so special is that they were shared with Chileno people themselves. One such experience was when I went for a haircut (my second during the whole trip). Armed with instructions written in Spanish by Annie, the amazing receptionist at school, I walked into a local hairdressers. What the employees must have really thought as I stumbled my way through the instructions for 'a trim with a few layers at the back' in terrible Spanish, I'll never know, but they were incredibly kind and humoured me by laughing with me instead of at me. I walked out a contented customer while they were left bemused at what on earth I had even asked for.

Chilenos are an incredibly sociable species! They are keen to socialise with Jonny Foreigner and there were a few occasions here where I was reminded of my Erasmus days in Switzerland, especially when we attended a ¨Tandem Party¨ one evening. The idea of this was for Chilenos to meet up with foreigners and practice their English or German while we foreigners practiced our Spanish. It was an incredibly popular evening with the locals and we met some really interesting people. Following this evening, Chris managed to arrange a day out around Santiago with one of the people we met there, Gabriel.

Though I haven´t seen as much of Santiago as Chris, visited as many places or tasted as many foods, I can still appreciate the warmth and friendliness of this city where, if we were to live here, I know we would have no problem meeting friends and mixing with the locals. People are so concerned with taking care of you and ensuring that you enjoy their city that for the lone traveller, this is an exceptionally easy place to spend time for a few weeks, months or even years.

Muchas Gracias, Santiago de Chile for welcoming me with open arms and ensuring I enjoyed my calm and relaxed stay here.

A Top Day in Santiago de Chile

My top day in Santiago starts with a coffee in my local park at Cafe Literario, a library-cafe-bookshop in the middle of the long Parque Balmacea. What an amazing quiet retreat this is from the noisy Plaza d'Italia only a hundred metres away. Santiago is fond of free reading parks as well as free wifi here and everwhere. You can conduct your business on the terrace overlooking dogs playing in the fountain with your own picnic breakfast from the bakery, perhaps even an empenada at this early hour. E-mails sent, it is now time to aprovechar and take advantage of a every opportunity in the day.

Central Santiago and the Santa Lucia hill.

Plaza d'Italia is pretty much the geographical centre of town. From here I would head down boulevard Bernardo O'Higgins which is the main throughfare named after a Chilean-Irish independence hero. It's more popularly known as the 'Alemada' an arabic word for an avenue with trees and green recreational space. The first stop is a quick hike up the central hill, Cerro Santa Lucia, for a great overview of town. Then continue on the Alemada past the national Library and Club de la Union, both grand old buildings. Next to the San Francisco Church, stroll down the incredibly charming Paris and London streets winding your way to La Moneda for 11am where every other day there is a changing of the guard. Show your ID for a snoop around this predidential palace before going down into the beutiful underground museum for the latest hot exhibit in town.

Centro Cultural de la Moneda, the underground museum

Now it is time to hit the real centro. Take any of the pedestrian shopping streets from here to Plaza de Armas. For some local flavor, pick up a sweet huesillo corn drink en route, from pretty much any street corner. The drink may look strange, but you'll be glad you tried it I'm sure. The Plaza de Armas is always active with chessplayers if you are up for an impomptu game.

Plaza de Armas – the plaza major – if the giant gazebo is not filled with old men playing chess, a police ban sometimes plays music Thurs-Sunday.

You might now be getting hungry as the sun is shifting it's shadow along the square's palm trees. Make tracks north to the Mercado Central, a small but very interesting fish market. Here you may be solicited to some of the bigger restaurants in the fish market. These are the expensive ones so be sure to make your own choice among the smaller restos for a fresh seafood lunch to remember.

Some of the rarest seafood in the world is on offer in Chile. You have not been to Chile if you have not tried the fried eel. Pablo Neruda even confessed his love for congrito frito in his poetry. Try the menu del dia at small restaurants. It is usually an excellent value and comprises three simple but traditional corses often with a drink included.

Luckily for you the best neighborhoods are still to be explored and walk off that eel. I would head directly for the Museo Bellas Artes, carrying on through the Parco Forrestal. Both bear a leafy resemblence to Paris that is uncanny. Now duck into the little neighborhood of Lastarria that feels so perfect it could almost be a movie set. Lastarria is like a secret neighbourhood right in the centre of the town. It is quiet and peaceful - there are few cars. On the actual Lastarria street you will find many cafes. This is an ideal time to stop for a Pisco Sour at any of the leafy street cafes. Or, take an ice cream from Emporio La Rosa across the street and into the Parisian style park. My pick is the chocolate and chili.

Patio Bellavista - a regenerated area of slick restaurants, cafes and live music bars.

Around 6pm, I would double back to the Piojera for a truly local experience with hundreds of Chilenos who are trying their luck with the Terremoto - a dangerous drink that is a pint of wine with a scoop of pineapple ice cream and splash of sherry. Limit yourself to one by using the excuse that you must leave to see the beautiful bohemian streets of bellavista in search for dinner.
It´s only a short walk through along the river and through the park to Bellavista. For international cuisine you could go to the always popular Como Agua Para Chocolate on Constetucion. But if you are here for one night only I would rather dine with the locals in El Caramano where they have traditional Chilean fare and one of the best Pastel de Choclo's in town.

Either way, start the nightlife off with somewhere along the hordes of student cafes that line Pio Nono. Order a pitcher or maybe a piscola to get your night moving. This street can get a little rowdy towards midnight. So head over to the other side of the Bellavista to one of the new and spacious live music bars in Bellavista 'Patio', or perhaps Bar Consticucion for dancing till dawn - par for the course in Santiago.

Tomorrow I think I'll take a full day trip to Valparaiso by the sea, if only to long lunch on the terrace of cafe Turri again.  Either way I can assure you I will end my Santiago visit at a traditional neighborhood greasy spoon for a Lomito, like the one they serve up in the Fuente Alemana, right back where you started at Plaza dÍtalia.  Heaven on earth.

Buen Provecho!

This blog highlights food from the street, home, restaurant and of course some quintessential souveniers to take home. I am paying homage to the Completo, Bife de Pobre, and the Lomito in their own blog posts.

With excellent produce, fresh herbs and fantastic seafood, you would think that Chile may be a gastronomic paradise. Well, not exactly. The Chilean kitchen has taken a more simple and humble course. What it may lack in complexity and spice, it compensates with delicious honest food. Most dishes are largley based around hearty combinations of corn, meat and potatoes - the potato was actually discovered here 13,000 years ago, according to scientists. There is even an indeginous tradition of cooking potatoes and veg underground, like at our Maori Easter dinner, a tradition that spread all the way across the pacific islands to New Zealand. Like with the preservation of the Carmaniere grape, Chile has historically been isolated from livestock disease by the wall of the Andes mountains and the pacific coastline. There are ancient breeds of horses, for example, that live to this day.

SANTIAGO STREET FOOD

Empenadas: I am sure you are already aware of this savory pastry turnover. However I just cannot stress how important they are to daily life here in Santiago and greater South America. They are cheap, filling and empenadas are absolutely everywhere. The larger pastry version is more popular in Chile than the fried version and the best place to go is your local panederia, or bakery. You can distinguish which ones are meat, cheese, vegetable, or even seafood by how the baker has folded or shaped his empenadas. The only problem is that each baker has his own shapes that you must learn.

The classic Chilean meat empenada is filled with meat, gravy, onion, one olive and half a boiled egg. However an empenada can also be filled with leftovers from whatever was cooking yesterday.

Humitas: These are the Chilean equivalent of tamales. Here the humita always contains mashed corn instead of the meat you find in other South American countries. The ancient precolumbian recipe combines basil, milk and smoked chili wrapped in a corn leaf for steaming.

Huesillo: Go to any street corner and you will find this sweet syrupy drink in a large plastic cup for 400 pesos. At the top is a boiled, dried peach or two. At the bottom is a bead of toasted wheat corn. The combination is bizzare to say the least - you must try it.

CHILEAN COMFORT FOOD

Chances are that the first thing you will see on your table is a lovely basket of breads with the addictive Pebre sauce, as seen in the photo below. This salsa-like dipping sauce almost always arrives on the table when you order food or drink. It's finer and simpler than salsa, more like a pico de gaillo with corriander, onion, oil, garlic and ground or pureed Aji pepper. It can also be spread on sizzling meats from the bbq. Pebre is a good representation of the simplicity in chilean cooking in general where food is not complex, nor spicy.


Cazuela: I first learned about this hearty meat stew in the Spanish classroom at Tandem. To my great fortune, our teacher spent an entire morning lesson teaching us about food and restaurants. I was STARVING by lunch hour and went immediately around the corner to Bar Liguria to try their Casuela. I joined a businessmen up at the bar and before you knew it they brought over this fragrant, steaming sea of goodness that was the perfect reviver from our partying the night before. The bowl of stew may contain pumpkin, potato, half a cob of corn, peppers or other juliened vegetables, with a bed of rice and chopped cilantro on top. Que rico.

A rich, rustic mash - Pastel de Choclo is the one and only Chilean recipe to be inculeded in the Larousse encyclopedia of food.

Pastel de Choclo: This is the iconic Chilean dish and a bastion of comfort food. It is served in homes and restaurants alike. The best way to describe it is a little like a cottage pie but with corn instead of potato. The clay pot bake starts with a mince meat base at the bottom that may or may not include a hard boiled egg, olives, chicken or even raisens. Then comes the mashed corn layer, sometimes with sugar sprinkled on top. I would suggest having this hearty bake for lunch because you may need to walk off the comatose aftereffects.

Torta Milohas - The torta milohas is the Chilean take on a millefeuille cake. You will find them in bakeries and on the desert menu. We opted for the freshly packed ones from the supermarket that are delicious, cheap and big enough for two.

SUPERMARKET SOUVENIERS

The supermarket in Chile is not unlike the one you shop at regularly back home. The only difference is that Chile does not have real milk. An outbreak of TB in cows has caused everyone to drink UHT shelf milk for now. However, like in France, there is an obsession for yogurt and yogurt drinks manifesting itself in an entire dedicated supermarket isle. There is also a love for everything strawberry - even a tinned variety.

Aji Chileno - This is the condiment Chileans hold close to their heart. It's a thicker and saltier version of hot sauce. Originally this came from Merken, a spicy red Mapuche paste. Chilis were hung, roasted and mixed with garlic and cilantro. Today the Aji coindiment contains a surprising amount of heat for an otherwise tame south american cuisine. - I realise this is ironic for the country's name. I personally liked mixing this with butter and dipping it into the broth dishes.

Cordial - As for soft drinks, I connot downplay the Chilean obsession for freshly squeezed fruit juice in cafes and restaurants. Everything from kiwi to strawberry juice is available everywhere. When Chileans cannot squeeze their own juice at home each day they use powdered drink cordials like this one from the Chirimoya fruit. In fact there is an entire isle of different flavors of powdered drink packets, a little like in cereal-obsessed America.

Wine - an obvious souvenier is a bottle of Carmaniere. See the previous blog on Chilean wines for affordable supermarket labels to take home.

Pisco - Capel is the major brand. A decent bottle will go for only 1,500 pesos. You may want to invest the few dollars in a bottle to make some of those pisco sours back home (see recipe on previous post).

The Completo

From Street Dogs to Best in Show

Clip your bag to the table and watch the world go by with a first class hotdog and without worrying about high street bag snatchers.  

I would go as far to say that you are never more than a few doors away from a completo in Santiago.  There are major chains like Don Pepe or Schopdog, independent shops, delis, confeterias and greasy spoon diners on every block.

There is however one address that is the King of the Completo.  Domino's fuente de soda is at Agustinas 1016, opposite Cafe Caribe on this main shopping street.  When I first walked in I wondered what 30 some chefs were doing in the kitchen all yelling orders at each other.  Puzzled, I went back outside to sit on the terrace before one of the many stout waiters in full chef uniforms came to take my order.  I took the Domino Completo which he promptly delivered with a schop of beer.  If a hotdog can be so formally presented, this proves that professional and loyal service do not need to be limited to the white table cloths of restaurants.  It also further proves my point that services in Chile require an astonishing number of employees.

 
The Completo, as elegantly served here, is a hot dog with the works.  The amount of toppings - fresh onion, salsa, mayo and sometimes guacamole - make it a bit of a mouthful.  Add a dollop of mostaza fuerte to add spice... if you can.   It is the beef that makes Domino's by far the tastiest completos in town. The quality of bread and fresh toppings are also in their own league, since let's be honest, most completos manage to be pretty bland even as they are doused in mayo and guacamole. 


Domino's Fuente de Soda
Agustinas, 1016, Santiago

Cómo llegar

(0)2 673 3541

I think my waiter could tell how much I loved the schop and completo by the frantic scribbling in my moleskine, as he insisted I take his photo.

Vino Chileno

The Metro to the Valle de Maipo - Carmenere Country

Chile now produces over 700 million litres of wine per year.

I must say I have never taken a metro so far out of town that I was gliding through vineyards. This is what will happen when you take the yellow line in Santiago from end to end. When Max called last night to go out to Concha y Toro, I was not keen on paying the 30,000 pesos to get a tour van to pick us up and babysit our guided tour. So we decided to meet the next morning near his apartment and try with public transport at a fraction of the cost. We set off after a coffee in Tobolaba and catching up on tales from New Zealand.

Like a mouthful of smokey chocolate – I was excited to sample this rare wine on location. It turned out Max had a personal reason to be excited. He had worked for Conch y Toro from his advertising job in London. They were a client for whom he tested market penetration across Europe.

The lure was the elusive Carmaniere wine that is now unique to Chile. The ancient varietal was a great success for French wine in the past. The vines had already been brought over from Medoc when the Carmaniere grape was all but wiped out by a grape disease in the rest of the world. Except for isolated Chile where the Andean mountains kept disease from crossing over. It was missold as Merlot by unkowing vineyards until 1994 when the genetic link was made to Carmaniere.

Upon arrival in Pirque, one of Santiago's poorest neigborhoods. It took a good while to find the right little collectivo bus that would take us to the dusty gates of a mass market wine giant. Thanks to Max's spanish we eventually found the right bus. An old man actually came up to us, after nobody else seem to have even heard of Chile's biggest vineyard.

Personally I felt the tour was good, but a bit disneyland. We both liked the devil's cellar whose legend is so successfully used to promote the wine. I also found it nice that they walk you through the palatial gardens, and give you a wine to walk around with. The price however was a bit much for two small tastes and a guide who might have only just started.

A cellar frequented by the devil was a rumour spread by the owner to keep his bottles from dissapearing into the hands of thieving locals.

Either way we were proud to have made it out their on our own. I was then very lucky to try Max's housemate's new Mexican restaurant on its opening day. Max had bought him a Jeobaum as gesture of thanks for letting him stay. Next week all these fun and games will be over as I buckle down to learn Spanish inside the classroom with Steph.

Steph and I sampled as many supermarket Carmaniere's as decently possible. My favorite was the Missiones carmaniere (found almost everywhere) and the Oveja Negra merlot blend.

Wine can be had for 1000-2000 in supermarkets, but 2000 to 3000 will get you a very good bottle ($3-5).