What a Weekend!

What a weekend this has been. I stayed in Santiago, but didn't really feel like I spent anytime at home, seeing as I went on day trips into the outskirts of Santiago Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday (after a Thursday night when we ended up in the same night club as the brother of the incumbent Chilean president!) we started off with an ND program tour to the primary wine growing region around Santiago. Chilean wines primarily come from 7 valleys stretching from several hundred miles north of Santiago to several hundred miles south. We visited 2 wineries, the ever-present Concha y Toro, which is the largest Chilean vineyard and a huge export name, as well as a boutique vineyard William Fevre, which is nearly 100% dedicated to export. Interestingly, this means we sampled from a bottle that was written partly in Portuguese and already had the label certifying which Brazilian company had imported it. I guess we beat them to it! The two setups were decidedly different, ranging from mass industrial production to smaller, more quality conscious production.

We took bikes around this beautiful wine region of Pirque, which despite being less than an hour outside of the hustle of Santiago, has a completely different feel to it. In my further pursuit of wine knowledge, I tasted a couple reds as well as one of the very few whites I have ever liked, a Concha y Toro Sauvignon Blanc Trio wine (made with grapes from three different valleys, hence the "trio" name). It resembled more of a desert than an actual wine, with an incredibly sweet green apple taste. Almost like a jolly rancher! The tour of Concha y Toro also brought us through the famed Casillero del Diablo (Devil's Locker) section, for which a popular line of wine is named. The legend of the name goes that over a hundred years ago one of the principal winemakers had noticed that some of his best bottles of wine were going missing from the cellar. In response, he invented a rumor that this specific section of the cellar was inhabited by the devil. As a result, the robberies stopped! Now there is even a devil silhouette painted on the wall to encourage the rumor (see the above picture). I have since tried the Casillero del Diablo Camenere and can speak for it's quality. Check out my other blog if you're interested in a more in-depth opinion (http://chilewinend.blogspot.com/). On an interesting side note, as this excursion was paid for through my Notre Dame tuition, this marked the first time that my tuition money was used for alcohol. Not that we've been looking for ways to use our dining hall flex points for this use or anything...

Saturday played host to my favorite program excursion so far, a horseback riding tour through the Andes. Part of what made this day trip so much fun was that we weren't riding through any public park, but instead private property. As a result, we saw no more than 5 other people all day, leaving us endless vistas to take in, in solitude. All in all, we rode about 6 or 7 hours, stopping halfway to barbecue some fantastic shish-kebabs next to a waterfall. It was a beautiful day, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. We also got the opportunity to see a handful of Andean Condors, absolutely gigantic birds that circle overhead looking for animal carcases to scavenge. I tried to attract one by playing dead on the top of a large hill, but with no success. Menos mal, as they say here in Chile, or a semi-sarcastic "thank goodness". On top of everything else, I had a great time talking to Esteban, our Chilean Politics, Economics, and Culture professor, about all his experience climbing the mountains in the Andes. I really wish I would have gotten more of this in, especially earlier in the semester when I had more time. I feel like I could spend another 6 months here purely climbing mountains, there are just that many peaks and the thrill is that big! I returned back to Santiago to spend the night with my Linares brother Carlos and his girlfriend Kelsey in their Santiago apartment.

The weather didn't cooperate as much today. When I set of early this morning (after a late night of course!), it was clear that it was gonna rain. Perfect for white-water rafting, right? A huge group of 19 of us ventured up in the Cajón del Maipo, a beautiful narrow river valley to the southeast of Santiago to brave the elements on this freezing cold day that was raining and never rose above 50*. Yet the rafting was incredible. They gave us all neoprene wetsuits, neoprene boots, and a thin jacket. It sure didn't keep us toasty, but it kept us warm enough to forget about the cold during the rafting. The rain probably helped the rapids as well, as they very strong, mainly class 3 with a couple class 4 sections. Man was it fun!

All in all, it's been a fantastic weekend, spent mainly in the outdoors. I've gotten to Sunday night here with a total of 13 hours of sleep the past 3 nights, but all was worth it. I am however going to bed now.