Veramonte, Valparaiso and Viña del Mar

we woke this morning to a torrential downpour which meant two things... 1) it was snowing in the mountains and 2) it was snowing in the mountains and if it didnt stop by noonish, we may have to postpone our ski trip until friday. we crossed our fingers that the rain would subside as we boarded our bus to begin our days events. thankfully, the rain disappeared as we left the city and turned into bright, beautiful sunshine. so tomorrow is snowboarding time! were headed to valle nevado and it goes without saying, but im totally excited.

todays events began with a bus trip toward the coast about 1.5 hours west. on the way, it was interesting to learn about their exporting industry and economy. while i wont bore you with the details, i did learn a couple noteworthy things:
1) some Chicago GSB alums became ministers of economy in the 1980s and basically turned the entire Chilean economy around. They became known as the Chicago Boys and in fact, i think one or two of them were at our Alum event on Monday night. Hm, it might have been good to speak with them. i need to get better at this networking thing.
2) Chile exports a lot of food. not meat, like the Argentinians, but fruit. everything from strawberries (1 lb for $2!) and kiwis to avocados and blueberries. weve been drinking a lot of melon and strawberry juice here for breakfast and i sure wish i could take some home.

after some education, we arrived at the winery veramonte. (their sister winery is quintessa in napa.) unlike the wine country in california, it is far from their harvest time which happens at the end of their summer (march) so all the vines were bare but it will still nice to feel like i was back in california. we took a quick tour and then my favorite thing... wine tasting! i love that this trip attracted a lot of wine enthusiasts because we were all equally excited and i was playing this game to pick the fruits i could smell in the wines we tried. i ended up buying 2 bottles of this private reserve merlot that has hints of dried cherries. they had a couple other good wines that can be found in the US -- a light Chardonnay, not heavy or buttery but hints of peach and their Primus blend of merlot, cab sauvignon and carmenere. im only allowed 2 bottles according to US customs and plan to buy 2 more at another winery on Friday (Conche y Toro) so if my wine gets apprehended, i will be very sad.

after the wine tasting, we headed to the seaport city of valparaiso. it was what we had all expected santiago to be like... older, grittier, with a lot more personality and history. i immediately liked the view of the ocean and the way the houses were built into the hills. also like san francisco, they suffered from a big earthquake in 1906 which impacted some of the construction and development in the area. we visited the house of a famous local poet and then ate at Portofino restaurant overlooking the Pacific. it was probably the best meal ive had yet and it was even better because we were all seated at this HUGE table where we could actually hear the people on the other side. there were some funny inside jokes forged.

lunch ran long so we quickly headed to the nearby town of viña del mar. according to our tour guide lorena, viña del mar is incredibly popular in the summer (winter in the US) since it has beautiful beaches and resorts. we took a quick ride around town and made a pit stop in front of the moia (sp?) statue that was retrieved from easter island. if anyone is coming to chile in the future, i definitely recommend valparaiso and viña del mar over santiago and would love to return and check it out more thoroughly.

my time is running out and tonight were going to some VIP party at this castle that some locals got us into. should be interesting. adios for now!