Santiago: Cerro Santa Lucía y Viña Cousiño Macul

Today it rained in Santiago, so I decided against the day trip to coastal Valparaíso. I thought a good replacement activity would be to check out one of the vineyards on the outskirts of Santiago. To kill time before my tour, I walked to another mountain park in El Centro called Cerro Santa Lucía and climbed up the ancient stone staircases to a castle overlooking the city.




Apparently, Darwin said in 1833 that the view was "certainly most striking." There were no skyscrapers in the way or smog in the air then, but I would still agree. Then a bit of a commute to the vineyard, Viña Cousiño Macul, which is the oldest in Chile. Now owned by the 6th generation of Cousiños, most of the production has moved to another area of Santiago and what I saw was more of a museum. But, still really cool. I tasted a young white wine with "hints of citrus" and an old red wine with "woody undertones". I'm pretty clueless about wine, but I liked both of them. And for the record, my vineyard tour including 2 tastes and a souvenir wine glass only cost $12. Beat that, Napa!

I'm back at La Casa Roja now, and it might be my last night here. I haven't seen Daniel in a couple days, so I need to check with him about leaving for Pucón from Chillán. I heard that it snowed in Chillán 2 days ago, so I am very excited to go check it out. I just said goodbye to Aileen, but we both agreed that it is not really goodbye because we will be climbing together in 2 months. 1 week down, 8 1/2 to go!