baidacoff

I have a new mission - to spend a Canada Day in each province and territory. So far I have been in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nunavut on July 1st. I might have been in one of the Maritime provinces when I was younger, but I can't remember, so it doesn't count!

We started out the day at a Pancake Breakfast at the local school. As I got into the car Elayne said, "If you don't wanna look like a tourist in Iqaluit, don't wear your seat belt."  We then embarked upon the first of many jaunts around the twisting, mostly unpaved streets of Iqaluit. And after a day or two I'd been reconditioned to ignore the belt altogether. There's nowhere to speed in Nunavut, anyway. They don't even have stop lights!

There was no way you could walk around town that day and not know it was Canada Day. There were Canadian Flags everywhere - even on our pancakes!

There are only 2 airlines that fly from Ottawa to Iqaluit - Canadian North and First Air. Neither fly to Toronto so we had to drive up to Ottawa to catch our plane. We were all flying on points - Jim and Stephen on Airmiles and Jeff and I on Aeroplan. Since there are only 2 seats per plan on the plane, we took up all the "free" seats that day. I had to book 11 months in advance to get them! It saved us a ton of money as the regular airfare is $1300 roundtrip each.

We had to walk across the tarmac and climb the stairs at the rear of the plane. I did ok until about 2 steps from the top. Why do they have to make those stairs see-through? The flight attendant had to reach out to help me "safely" up those last steps!

I checked my camera again and again but I didn't take ANY pictures on Saturday. I guess I was too busy lying on my beach chair getting a tan and drinking pina coladas! I had to help Jim finish most of his, too. Hmmm, no wonder I didn't take any pictures!

On Sunday morning we woke up early enough to head to the beach to see the sunrise. 






Because we were so early, the staff hadn't swept the beach yet, so we found all kinds of things washed up on the shore. We met a young Cuban named Eddie who had already found these 3 beautiful starfish and a conch shell. He wanted us to buy one from him but we told him we were not allowed to import them back into Canada. In my broken Spanish I said Canada, "adouana" which is Spanish for customs - I remembered from the airport - and then I made the sign of slicing your throat. He got the message!



George found this huge jellyfish. He wanted to hug it but we wouldn't let him. Good thing because later on we found out that it was actually a Portuguese Man of War. (There was an ocean warning issued that day because of it)


We wandered around the resort a bit before breakfast. This is the adult pool before all the people arrive.


Look! There is room at the swim-up bar!


On Monday we took the Double-Decker bus (specifically for tourists) into the town of Varadero. 

This was the sign that greeted us as we checked in for our flight. Can you see the line at the bottom that says Temperature at departure: -6, at destination 24? Hooray! It did get warmer over the course of the week but it was quite windy so you didn't feel it too much.


The flight down was great. Jim and I were the first and second person to check in for the flight (the agent even made us wait ten minutes until it was "time"), so we got good seats - the first row of 2 seats behind a row of 3 seats. We had extra leg room as well as extra space at the side of one chair. After we checked in we went across to the Sheraton hotel for a lovely ($$) lunch, and then waited in the comfy chairs in their lobby until it was time to board. 

We've never been on a charter flight before, nor on an all-inclusive vacation. Usually we travel with "The Plan" -  my file folder with all the information you could possibly need for a trip (arranged in chronological order of course!) It was nice to just follow everyone else and know that all the arrangements had been made. The bus was waiting to take us to our hotel and all we had to do was show our passports and they just gave us the room keys when we got there. Check out was even easier - we just handed the keys back - no bill to worry about!

We really liked our resort. It had plantation style buildings and the grounds were beautiful. 

Hola from Cuba!
I can't post much to my blog because the internet is VERY expensive here, so I'm just going to say that we're all having a great time lying on the beach, and Jim is finally starting to relax. George has run away with a Cuban chiquita so we've only caught brief glimpses of him all week. Stay tuned, I'll post more when I'm home.

Adios!

Last night Jim and I took Stephen and Bianca out for dinner to Auberge du Pommier to celebrate Stephen's 21st birthday.
 

We had a wonderful meal - the food was delicious. Three of us ordered the Parsnip Veloute with cardamom and Duck Confit and Stephen ordered the Rabbit Rillette (although I think he liked the soup better). The Galette au Poire was the favourite dessert. It has been a long time since we've been in a classic french restaurant with such excellent service.

It is rare that we all order the same thing but all four of us ordered the beef medallions with peppercorn jus as our entree. Since we were eating french cuisine, we decided that rather than order the Niagara wine that was on special, we would order a good bottle of Bordeaux. Jim asked for my advice (the wine menu was 8 pages long and there were a few bottles that cost over $1000.00!) so I picked one and pointed it out on the menu for him. 

The Sommelier came to our table to decant the wine for us and told us that regrettably it was the last bottle they had. I figured that it was a pretty pricey wine, so we probably wouldn't want 2 bottles anyway. 

Stephen asked if we could see the kitchen so our waiter took us on a tour. I couldn't get over how immaculate it was, especially since it was 8 pm and right in the middle of the dinner service. It was state of the art - one of the best kitchens in Canada. I'm sure it would be Stephen's dream job - I wouldn't even mind working there!

After dinner we had coffee and  "Mignardise", (I learned a new word - "mignardise" is a sweet little bite that they serve with coffee. It comes from "mignard", an old-fashioned french word which means delicate, graceful and pretty). When they brought the bill, Jim again asked for my advice on how much to leave as a tip. I looked at the bill and noticed that they had way overcharged us for the wine. Jim argued that they had not. A quick look at the wine list revealed what had happened - Jim had ordered the wine listed right underneath the one I had pointed to! I have to admit that I was completely shocked that he didn't even question that choice. Suffice to say that the wine cost more than all our food combined (and I'm so glad we couldn't order a second bottle!)

It was certainly a night we will remember. Happy Birthday Steve! I love you and I loved your comment:
"Well, at least the wine was good!" 

  Stephen was invited to compete at the Iron Chef competition held at the Stuffed Olive restaurant on Monday night. Each chef had to come up with an appetizer, entree and dessert that all contained the "not-so-secret" ingredient ~ Ginger. People could buy tickets to the event and would then judge the food. 

Each of the 5 chefs was allowed to have a sous-chef, so at noon on Sunday, Steve and Emmett showed up to do their prep work in my kitchen. Here they are either de-boning the ducks, or frenching the chicken wings. (For those of you who don't know what "frenched" chicken wings are, it means taking the skin off the base of the bone so that it looks pretty and you can pick it up without getting sauce all over your fingers. I didn't know that either!)


These two worked really hard, only stopping for dinner. I took this picture of them making the squid ink pasta (it doesn't add taste - just makes the pasta black) right before I went to bed at around midnight!


They had to get up at 5:30 am to go back to Toronto for their Monday classes, then Jim drove them back here at around 5 pm. Everything was packed up and ready to go to the restaurant. Now remember this ~ Emmett Brett is on the left, Stephen Baidacoff is on the right. When they both become famous chefs, I have proof that they were once cooking in MY kitchen!


As official tasters/judges, the 40 people in the restaurant each received a small portion of each of the 5 appetizers, entrees, and desserts. We were to grade them based on Taste (10 points), Originality (5 points), and Presentation (5 points). 

Appetizers:
Bacon-Wrapped Ginger-Soy Scallops
Shrimp Sui Mai with Tangy Ginger Marmalade
Chicken Ginger Sticks
Baked Honey-Ginger Sweet Potato
Oyster and Ponzu Shooter with Maple-Soy Glazed Chicken Wing



The food was amazing. It was very hard to pick a favorite. I loved the Shrimp Sui Mai (dumplings) and told Mike he should put those on the menu. I had never had an oyster before (much to Stephen's amazement!) but I had to try it. Pretty sure I'll be having them again because it was awesome! I also like the Scallops, Chicken Sticks and Sweet Potato. Wait a minute - that's everything... Well, I told you the food was really good!

Mike let me go back into the kitchen for a minute to take pictures. Here is where each chef "plated" their dish - hard to do with 5 chefs crowded around the same plate, trying to arrange their food nicely for presentation and keep it warm at the same time. 


Steve and Emmett were at the very back of the kitchen. Here we can see who is really doing all the work and who is "supervising"! Just kidding - Steve saw me coming.


Entrees:
Ginger Marinated Pork with Caramalized Ginger Vinaigrette Salad
Ginger Pork Stir Fry
Ginger-Duck Squid Ink Ravioli in Duck Consomme with Enoki and Caviar
Crispy Ginger Lamb
Amaretto-Ginger Salmon

It's a little hard to tell by the picture but the Marinated Pork got full marks for presentation, as well as full marks for taste. Jeffrey said it was the best pork he had ever tasted. The Crispy Lamb was another favorite.

The Squid Ink Ravioli also got full marks for presentation. The consomme was so good that everyone around the restaurant just picked up their bowls and drank from them!


Desserts:
Upside-Down Pineapple Ginger Pumpkin Cake with Ginger Ice Cream
Artichoke Nut Bread
Deconstructed Ginger Cupcakes
Mango-Ginger Mousse with Sweet Pear Chips and Sugared Berries
Lemon-Ginger Berry Dessert

By now it was getting VERY hard to decide how to distribute points. All the chefs outdid themselves.

After dinner Mike gathered up our voting sheets to tally up the scores and the chefs all came out to the bar for a well deserved round of drinks. Hmm, Steve and Emmett look quite calm but Jay, who won last year, looks a little nervous!


Mike told us that this competition was getting really serious. One of his chefs took two weeks off prior to the event just to prepare for it, and another enrolled in George Brown Cooking school just so he could win this year! Here is Mike reading out the final scores and announcing that...


STEVE won the Iron Chef competition and was now the proud new owner of the copper pot!!!


Way to go Steve and Emmett!!!


I can't wait till next year!

We started our first day in Santiago at the Cerro (hill) San Lucia because from the top you can look out over the entire city. It is a lush park with several plazas with fountains and lookout points. I saw it described as "Lovers Hill" in one guidebook, and while we saw couples in every park, this park definitely had the highest concentration! The plazas and wide sweeping staircases were very Baroque, but as you got closer to the top of the hill the staircases became much narrower, much more uneven, and much steeper!



Jim in front of the Neptune fountain


Marian taking a rest at the top of some steep stairs, there were many more to go!


What a view! (Too bad those people are blocking it) We could see the Andes in the distance but they were very faint. There was always morning haze which burned off in the afternoon - we were lucky because there was hardly any smog while we were there.


Plaza de Armas, the central square of Santiago. Everything was so green there (it was their spring)


The National Museum of History, next to an office tower.  Old and new juxtaposed. 


Folk dancing in the street next to Plaza de Armas. The dancers just pulled people out of the crowd to join them, and to my surprise, they all knew what to do! Jim said that they probably learn the dances in school. I have always been envious of cultures that have festivals with costumes, dances, and traditional food and drink. Maybe because I love a good party!


This building is on the Plaza Baquedano. It is the tallest building in Chile, and was built by the Telefonica company to look just like a huge cell phone. It is referred to as La Torre Celular.


The Cerro San Cristobal is much bigger than the Cerro San Lucia so we had intended to take the funicular up and down (see the post on Valparaiso). Unfortunately it was under maintenance, so went to the end of the long line of people waiting for the bus. After about 20 minutes, a bus showed up that was only big enough to carry about a dozen passengers, so we hailed a cab. The ride up took about 10 minutes, and we actually saw many people walking up - whole families! I've said before that this country is very religious, and apparently this is what you do on a Sunday afternoon in Santiago - go up to see the statue of Maria at the top.


The actual church service was over by the time we got there, but there was a priest reciting what I think was the rosary - I did understand that every sentence began with "Hail Mary full of grace".


While Jim was in the little chapel at her base, he ran into a german couple that had been staying at Casa Real at the same as us. We also saw the couple with the blackberry (that worked!) at our hotel in Santiago. Amazing that you can run into people that you recognize in a city of 6 million, but I guess we were all on the "Tripadvisor Tour!"

On the way up in the taxi, I started to worry about how we would find a taxi to take us back down. Jim didn't seem perturbed at all. Little did I know that this was how he planned to get back down! 

(An aside note here - I am extremely afraid of heights - I don't do cable cars!)

Well, after a couple of Pisco Sours, and my new "Freedom Fifty" attitude, (now that I'm 50 I can do anything!) Jim convinced me to try it.


Yes, I am on the "freak"! (short for teleferico)


The view was amazing. I took this picture, so yes, I even opened my eyes!


On the way back to our hotel we passed this park along the river. Again, art is everywhere (and couples too!)


Our hotel was in a residential area, but that didn't mean there was nothing to do there. There were cafes, boutiques, internet shops, and ice cream stands all along the street. 


The Chileans love their ice cream , but "31 Flavours" means something entirely different to them!


I still admire Jim for driving in Santiago. It wasn't as bad as Athens though because the public transit is so good there that most people use it. We only took the car when we were entering or leaving the city, the rest of the time we took the metro or walked. The main streets are divided into 4 lanes each way, and the 2 outside lanes in each direction are reserved for buses and taxis. You may only move into that lane if you are going to turn right. They divide the lanes with these concrete blocks, so you had better know when you want to turn! 


Another thing they do is change the direction of traffic depending on the time of day.

We're not talking a few lanes - the whole street changes direction. The first day Jim went to get the car out of the parking garage he turned right and found he was facing a whole row of traffic coming towards him! Thank goodness he managed to back into the street in time to get out of the way. 

The flight home was great - LAN is a very good airline and we intend to go back to South America with them one day. They have all new 767's and when you lean back, the base of the seat moves forward so you are lying much flatter and are much more comfortable. They gave us all eye masks and ear plugs, and Jim and I slept for over 6 hours until they woke us up for breakfast. Because there was so little time change (only 2 hours because of DST - they are in the same time zone as we are) we didn't feel jet lagged at all, even after the 11 hour flight. I have learned that it is more important to be comfortable than fashionable while flying - I actually came home dressed like this:
Socks and Sandals!!! 

Back to the beginning....

When you arrive at the Santiago airport, citizens of Australia, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have to go to a counter on the left to pay their Reciprocity fee.
Santa Rita Winery:
The next day we took a horse drawn buggy to the winery for a tour

The museums are all closed on Mondays in Santiago, so it was a good day to head to the coast. It was pretty easy to get there, basically we drove to the end of the street, turned right and kept on driving for 90 kilometres. (no turns, no turns, according to the man at the front desk).

The town of Valparaiso is on a U-shaped harbour that rises sharply in a semi-circle of steep hills. To get around the labyrinth of streets and cobblestone alleyways, the residents built a series of “ascensores” (funiculars).




We rode one of the oldest ones up the side of the hill. As I clutched the handlebar and Jim's hand, a lady tried to reassure me that this acensor had been working for over 100 years. I wasn't sure that the fact that it was that old gave me any more confidence.

And of course there were also stairs!



The houses are all brightly coloured, with metal corrugated siding.


This picture is for you Elaine - wouldn't you like to live in an orange house?


We wandered around the streets a bit - some of them several times because of all the dead ends and streets that looped back on themselves. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbour (the flat part with the tall buildings called El Plan) and the hills behind on the opposite side of town.



After lunch we wanted to drive up the coast to Vina del Mar, the resort town, as opposed to Valparaiso the harbour town. We weren't sure how to get to the main road, because almost all the roads were single lane and one way, so we decided to follow a bus. Instead of taking us down, the bus went up. We followed the bus a little while but knew we had to make our way down the hillside at some point. There was a promising road on the map. What I wanted was a road that went directly down the hill, what we got was a road that went straight down the hill. At a couple of points the incline must have been almost the same as the asencore - Jim had to go right down to first gear.
(*An aside note - I forgot to mention earlier that Jim was driving a standard!)

Vina del Mar looks a lot like Miami with rows of apartments all along the beach.


We were interested in only one thing - getting to the South Pacific Ocean!

Here is Jim looking out towards Easter Island, 4050 km away.


George wanted to play in the sand...


and ended up going swimming!


I was there too (Jim gets mad if I don't post any pictures of myself - he insisted I add this one.) Can you tell we're getting a bit sunburned?


On the way home we saw this high end MacDonald's - a McCafe! (The Auto Mac is the drive through)


I've got a lot more pictures... stay tuned!

What Jim remembers:

Sunday was our first day to tour Santiago proper. We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel with spanish omelette, fresh bread, fruit and pie. We then walked to the nearby Metro (subway) to head downtown. The metro here is very efficient and quite cheap, less than one dollar a ride. The city is more compact than Toronto with an efficient transit system. Even at 10:00 am on a Sunday, we couldn’t get a seat.

The first stop was Cerro San Lucia. This is one of two hills in the centre of the city. It was completely cultivated as a park in the 19th Century by Mayor McKenna. His tomb is near the top. It’s actually more like a giant rock than a hill. At the base of the hill there is an elaborate fountain with a statue of Neptune and next to it a terrace where outdoor church services were taking place. I think the first one was catholic and the second protestant. Amazingly we managed to climb all the way to the top where we were met with a wonderful sweeping view of the city.

After our descent we headed to Plaza des Armas which is the central square of the city. Being a Sunday, the business sections of downtown were closed and very quiet. There are a number of streets, however, that have been permantly been given over to pedestrian walkways. These were lined with booths selling all sorts of crafts and the like. There was even a dance group demonstrating traditional country dances that many of the ordinary people on the street were able to join in on. I suspect all school kids here learn traditional dance.

Plaza des Armas is a large open square common to most towns in Chile. It is surrounded by important buildings, such as the main cathederal, central post office, the national museum and the like. People hang out here, talk, kiss and go get fast food from an outdoor fast food mart where plastic replicas of the menu are displayed so you know what to expect. There was an exhibition of goofy bikes there that day, although, as we found out later, more exciting things happen there too.

From Plaza des Armas, we headed towards Mercado Central (Central Market). This was in a slightly sketchier part of town. The market is a traditional fish market with all sorts of south pacific delicacies. Large parts of it have now been given over to tourist restaurants (Donda Augustas seems to dominate). While we were reading through our guide book to decide where to eat we were approached by a burly fellow who warned us to watch out for thieves. Although he had been drinking, he seemed quite nice and concerned for our welfare. He declared all the restaurants in the market were crap and offered to take us to a better place. As we began to be led away from the market Marian and I became a bit uneasy. Marian told me to stand up to this guy so I politely declined his offer. He pretended to be offended but once he realized we had decided firmly he let us go on our way.

We went back to the Plias Blanca in the market, a restaurant we had read about. It was in the corner and looked a little worse for wear, but had a good crowd. We were led to a table upstairs where it was quite a bit warmer. We split a sea bass ceviche (sea bass cooked in lemon juice). Marian had Conger eel (really a fish) and I had the grilled salmon. Again, we were forced to split a whole bottle of wine, but we were getting good at it. Seafood is a staple here, and most places do it well, as did this place. Simple, but good tasting food.

On our way out of the market we passed by several fruit stands and bought a pound of frutillas (strawberries). They were dirt cheap, 300 pesos, (less than $1 a pound), but boy were they tasty.

Another short hop on the Metro and we were on our way strolling through trendy Bella Vista on our way to the other major hill in town, Cerro San Cristobal. Unfortunately, the funicular (hillside tram) was under repair so we took a cab up. As may have been mentioned before, this is a very Catholic country so the top of the hill is dominated by a giant statue of the Virgin Mary, which, of course, you can only approach by climbing even more stairs. The place is not too catholic however, and we found a lovely terrace that served great pisco sours. This is well known as the national drink of Chile and consists of a liquor, pisco, with lemon juice, egg white and sugar. It packs a bit of punch. Another good reason for a good transit system. The terrace afforded us a great view, not just of the city, but the whole valley containing Santiago and its 6 million inhabitants all framed by the Andes mountains.

Another advantage of a couple of pisco sours is that it gave Marian the courage to take the Teleferico (cable car) down the other side of the hill. This would land us near our hotel. After some cajoling I got her to get on, and even got her to look at the wonderful view as we descended. Our final walk was through a swank neighbourhood as we did the evening stroll down avenue Pedro de Valdivia to our hotel (or Valdavaldavidia as I called it while trying to find it during rush hour).

What Marian remembers:

- There were 237 stone steps on Cerro San Lucia (plus a lot of uphill walking) to get to the top!

- If you were to look at Santiago from space, you would be able to spot me immediately. Most of the time there was no one else on the street with white hair. Even the older people still seem to have dark hair. It made us stand out as tourists (or was it Jim's hat that was the giveaway?)

- Chilean strawberries!

- I rode the "Freak"! (what I called the teleferico because I am extremely afraid of heights, and I was sure I was going to freak out riding it) I actually enjoyed it!

I married a crazy man.

Not only is he willing to drive a car in a foreign country, but he is even willing to do it in the dark, with a map that shows only major routes, in a city of 6 million people.

We should really go on the Amazing Race.

We drove into Santiago at about 10 p.m. to get to our hotel. We had the map I mentioned before (with all the gas stations on it) that had a small section showing only the main streets of Santiago. All I knew was that we had to drive north on the highway through the city, then turn right on the main east/west highway. I just had to pay attention to make sure we didn’t miss the turn.

Actually that part wasn’t that hard. We had lots of notice (they have signs above the roads like in Chicago, telling you how many minutes it will take you to get to a certain intersection). We made it to the exit, followed the exit ramp, and drove into a tunnel.

The highway went underground for miles. Miles and miles. We found out later that this highway actually goes UNDER the river the entire length of the city! We were underground for at least 15 minutes before Jim asked, “Should I get off here?” My reply was something like, “I'm not sure where we are." (I may not have been quite that polite) None of the exit names were listed on the map and it was extremely difficult to guess how far we had travelled. After a couple of times of “Do you want me to get off here?” and some “How would I know?” answers, I finally said, “Yes, get off HERE!”

Of course we came out of the never-ending tunnel with absolutely no idea of where we were, and no sense of which direction we were headed (and it was DARK). We were however in a very nice part of the city - there were fountains, palm trees, and beautiful apartments all around us. Jim told me to ask a man on the sidewalk which way Providencia was (the area of town where our hotel was located) but I wasn’t really in the mood, so we just kept driving.

My first impression of Santiago was amazing. I never expected the city to be so sophisticated. There is art (statues, sculptures, fountains) everywhere. Most of the buildings are very modern, and in very good repair, but in between are some wonderful older buildings that remind me of Paris.The people are all extremely well dressed, and as we found out later, very educated and very friendly.

We finally stopped at a gas station to get directions and see if we could buy a proper map. It turned out that we were only about 6 blocks from our hotel, but because of one way streets, we had to drive around a few blocks to get there. We still haven’t found a good map of Santiago and we have asked everywhere - gas stations, bookstores, and tourist info offices. So now we just follow the locals and hope that they know where we want to go!

We had to park the car in the hotel manager’s private spot under a building down the street because they didn’t have room anywhere else. Good thing we called ahead to tell them we had a car and would be late!

We had thought we might go down and sit in the hotel’s sidewalk cafe for a bit to have a drink and “people watch”, but the bed in our room was too enticing, especially after all the excitement (read - drama!) of getting there in the first place! So, good night, more tomorrow.

From Santa Rita, we headed south to the Colchagua valley, " chosen by the Wine Enthusiast magazine as 2005’s Best Wine Region of the World for its ability to produce world class red wines". Do I sound like a wine snob? That sentence is at the top of ALL the literature about that valley! We attempted to find a map but the only one we could find was at a gas station and it basically just showed where all their gas stations are. Luckily the signs for the wineries are all along the roads.

We headed towards Casa Silva because I had read that their restaurant was excellent. Our table was waiting for us next to the fountain in their lovely courtyard. It was difficult to decide between all the tempting choices on the menu, but luckily we had a wonderful young waiter who gave us some great recommendations. Our meal consisted of: (this is for you Steve!) a trio of appetizers - smoked salmon ceviche, crispy calamari, and shrimp/ricotta empanadas. Jim had lamb stuffed ravioli and Marian had Austral Hake (fish) with curried couscous. We enjoyed a Casa Silva Sauvignon Gris with our meal. Yes, a whole bottle! I had to take one for the team and drink more than my share because Jim still had to drive. (What a sacrifice! ; P) Jim and I are still talking about that meal - if we had the time I think we would go back!

We travelled further into the valley on the Ruta del Vino, towards Santa Cruz, the main town in the valley. Along the way we passed several wineries that we recognized from our "research" at the LCBO - Casa Lapostolle, Caliterra and Cono Sur to name a few. Along the roads there are rows and rows of grape vines as far as you can see, and behind them the Andes - it is beautiful.

When we got to Santa Cruz we headed to the main square - Plaza des Armas (I think every town has one!) but we found it difficult to find a parking place because a festival was going on. We lucked out - there were booths all over the square showing different handicrafts from all over South America. These were obviously juried artisans, the quality was amazing but so were the prices! A local gentleman offered to translate for us when we were asking the price of a poncho (for Jeff to wear on his motorbike!) and he was totally shocked to hear they wanted $200 for it! We didn't buy anything - but I was tempted!

Walking around town we realized that the 3 most prevalent type of stores were shoes, pharmacies, and ice cream. There are even McDonalds here that ONLY serve ice cream! I think it is the national dish. At Casa Real the waiter told us that the Chilean word for Dulce de Leche (a sort of caramel) was Manjar, and I decided to order some manjar ice cream. OMG -it was delicious. I tried not to share with Jim but he had to have a taste, and then ate half of it!

On the way out of Santa Cruz we saw a huge cross in a park - made out of wine barrels!

The sun was going down and the snow capped Andes were turning pink - did I already say it is beautiful here?

We can't believe we are in South America.

This country is amazing. It is like Mexico, only way better. On the one hand it is very latin, and of course we are in a semi tropical zone, which makes us think of Mexico and the Caribbean, but on the other hand it is so progressive and modern. Whenever I make a comment about it, Jim says, "That's why I wanted to come here!"

And now the text colour is changing to blue - here's Jimmy!

Marian has told you all about our amazing trip, sites and the people. I'm here to inform you that, yes, indeed, when the toilets flush here, the water rotates counter clockwise. Back to our cultured hostess.

Our first day was awesome.

We picked up the car at the airport, and after only one wrong exit, we made it onto the “Al Sur” highway. (Which means “to the south. To go back to Santiago we will take a completely different highway - the “Al Norte”) We had excellent directions to get to the hotel Casa Real. As we got off the highway in the little town of Buin, we decided that we would look for something light to eat for lunch - we didn’t want a big meal. We drove around a little bit, not really seeing much, until all of a sudden I saw a sign that said “Hoy Empanadas”. The lady inside was extremely helpful, and tried to explain what was in each empanada (even using that internationally recognized sign of flapping your wings to mean chicken!) We know quite a few words in Spanish, queso = cheese, pollo = chicken, huevo = egg, and so on, but sometimes the people are speaking so fast that it’s hard to catch that one word as it flies by in a sentence. After lunch we asked her to write down what we had ordered in Jim’s little black book so we would know for next time.

The gate was down when we arrived at the Santa Rita winery, so we told the man at the gate that we had reservations at the hotel. He told us where to turn to get there, and said that he would call ahead to let them know we were coming. As we drove in, there was someone standing at every turn (3) to guide us. We drove through a beautiful entrance with huge castle-like doors, and saw Antonio waiting for us. We were going to take our luggage out of the trunk but he waved us away to the entrance hall, even telling us that we could leave the trunk wide open because “this entrance is only for you” (yes, there were other people in the hotel, but it didn’t seem to matter) It was a little taste of what it feels like to be royalty!

I’m sorry that I still can’t post pictures yet because my description will not do the hotel justice. We had a room that was bigger that our first apartment, with a sitting room that had doors leading to the inner courtyard. We went for a walk around the beautiful grounds, hardly ever coming across another person. There were roses everywhere, and the trees are some of the largest I’ve ever seen. After our walk we decided to sit on the hotel terrace and have tea and read (Well I read. Jim nodded off!) It was so peaceful, and the perfect way to relax after our flight.

We switched to wine after the tea (well, when in Chile........!) and the head waiter came out to ask us what time we would like to eat dinner, and gave us some choices. It was only after he left that we realized that both our appetizers were seafood and both main courses were fish. Aha - it was Friday!

The meal was excellent (Yes Steve, we took pictures!) and had wine pairings included. The 2 german ladies at the next table and I decided we liked the chardonnay, so the waiter stopped asking if we would would like more wine and just kept coming around filling our glasses! On the way back to our room I had to take off my shoes - well, they were high heels!
;-)

Breakfast the next morning was also amazing, although the eggs tasted so different from ours at home. I’m sure they were “huevos campo” which I think means farm eggs, and the chicken feed is different than in Canada.

At 11 am we were taken on a horse drawn wagon through the grounds to the winery for a private tour with 6 of the other hotel guests. The man who took us on the tour was one of the managers, and we learned everything about the wine making process. (Well I hope Jim was listening - right now the only thing I can remember is that they can bottle up to 26,000 bottles an hour!) We also toured the owner’s museum which is on the grounds (there is apparently a LOT of money to be made in the wine business, this museum was full of pre-columbian artifacts) and of course.............visited the wine store!

We walked back to the hotel through the orange groves, and Jim picked us a couple of oranges that we had as an afternoon snack. Boy, I could really get used to this!

Steve and Jeff - check your emails. Dad can't get his blackberry to work down here (because of Bell - a lady using AT&T got hers to work just fine).

And boys - as your mother I demand that you send me an email every day, just so that I know you are alive. (I'd probably get better results if I asked Bianca and Chelsey to email me!)

XOXO
Mom

I guess I should have posted as picture of a jet in the air!

We breezed through check in and security then waited at the gate for around an hour. We boarded, left the gate, taxied a bit, then STOPPED. Apparently the weather at JFK was bad and they weren’t allowing any planes to land, so the captain announced that we would be waiting on the ground for an hour and a half before we took off. After 70 minutes, he announced that we would have to wait another hour. We finally took off at 6:49 p.m. (our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:35).

I was going to post some pictures here to show you what we did while we were waiting, but Livejournal won't let me right now (or it's the internet connection) (I know, I know, a post without pictures is boring......but I want to keep you up to date)

Anyway, the LAN jets all have screens in the seats, and they also have remote controls that pop out of the armrests. Yes, Jim and I both wondered why we needed remote contols when the screen was a mere 12 inches away, but then we noticed that the remote looked an awful lot like a Nintendo 64 controller. We could play *games*! We played Tetris, Who wants to be a Millionaire, Solitaire, and Alien Invasion to name a few. There were tons of movies and shows you could watch too. Bianca - they even had Wall-E!
(I took a picture for you - insert picture here)

Our plans to have a nice dinner at JFK during our 2 hour layover were squashed. We really hoped that our delay didn't mean that we would have to stay on the plane in New York. If so, I would have been the crazy lady running up and down the aisles! They let us off for an hour, but we had to stay in the Transit area, which was pretty boring, and not very big, so after walking up and down a few times I started to understand what it is like to be an animal in the zoo.

We arrived in Santiago just over an hour late, which was great considering we left NY over 2 hours late. Guess that pilot put the pedal to the metal! It was a good flight - the smoothest flight I have ever been on. I guess in the past most of our flights have been east to west or west to east, perhaps travelling straight south means there is less wind. We both slept most of the way, but at one point I woke up and looked out the window to see lots of lights below. I could see the coastline and some ships in a harbour. According to the flightmap on the screen, we were crossing Panama near Colon. I watched till we got out over the Pacific ocean - it was pretty cool!

We're off to pick up our car rental, then go to the Santa Rita winery.

Adios amigos (rats, I forgot about posting in Spanish!)

No time to post more pictures, Heike is coming to take me to the airport in 15 minutes. We only have 1 suitcase and 1 carry-on ~ we're saving room for all the wine we want to bring back!

Gotta go, my next post will be in Spanish. (Well, at least I'll throw in a word or two)
Adios amigos......

Doing all our research............