Back from Vacation

Hello All,

I am writing on this second to last official day of winter (gotta love the Southern Hemisphere!) having just returned from a five day vacation. Last Friday, our group traveled to the Chilean wine country near the towns of Curicó and Lontué in Chile's Central Valley. We visited two vineyards, Viña Requingua and Viña Correa Albano. The wine country was picturesquely beautiful with pristine fields fading into rugged hills on the horizon. We saw the large vats in which the wine is fermented (I learned the difference between making red and white wine - the skin is left on during fermentation to make red) and the climate controlled barrel cellar where the reserve wine is aged. Most all of the wine produced at the two vineyards is exported around the world. Viña Requingua exports to Europe, South America and the U.S. If you ever see the Puerto Viejo brand, I visited the vineyard where it was made. Viña Correa Albano exports mostly to China. It was amazing how technology dependent the winerys were with their automated bottling machines and computer monitored fermentation tanks. This is a very recent phenomenon in Chile and a sign of the modernization of Chile's export economy.

The wine country excursion was just a day trip (about 3 hours each way) and when I returned home it was back on the road with my family. As I mentioned before, Sept 18 is Chile's Independence Day, called the Fiestas Patrias. Since it fell on a Tuesday, the government, in one of its most popular decisions ever, decided to give everyone Monday and Wednesday off, as well. My host family and I spent the vacation at the house of a family friend in the coastal resort of Viña del Mar. The house was really nice and a constant stream of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends came and went throughout the course of our trip. The constant conversation was great for practicing my Spanish. I played a lot of small sided soccer games with my brothers and various family and friends, ate delicious grilled meats and drank fine Chilean wine. One of the soccer games took place on the beach itself. After playing in the heat with my host brothers, some friends and their Norwegian exchange student, the Norwegian decided that he was going to go swimming in the frigid ocean. He was from Norway, after all. Not to be outdone, I decided to go in as well, to the horror of my host mother. It was cold, but not as bad as I expected. Nevertheless, I decided I would save the extended swim for later in the year. The night of the 18th we went to a Fonda, which is a traditional Chilean carnival consisting of tons of booths that all contain the exact same things: grilled meat, pisco (Chilean brandy), chicha (a sort of Chilean cider) and dancing. A fantastic experience all together.

My brothers and I came back yesterday on the bus, while my mother is staying in Viña until Saturday when the owners come back. We men are therefore fending for ourselves and doing a pretty good job, although I had to stop my one brother from microwaving metal last night. On Sunday, my group leaves for a week to visit the southern city of Concepción and spend some time in an indegenous Mapuche village. I will post again upon my return. Until then, enjoy the pictures on the blog as well as this Facebook album.

http://rice.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032546&l=be871&id=300462