Quintay and Casablanca Valley

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Hello again from somewhat cloudy Valparaiso.I am told it has not been a great summer here on the coast, with more cloudy days than they are used to.Perhaps another sign of the warming of the planet and the movement of the ocean currents that effect these coast lines so much.

I asked Micheal the Pirate to take me out to some vineyards and see some of the country side outside of Valparaiso.Michael suggested we wait a couple of days to see if he could round up a few more adventurers for our excursion but as the time went by no one came forward so off we went with just the two of us in Michaels father in laws car.Michael lives in an apartment building in Vina and has problems with wingnuts parking infront of his car when they head to the beach and leaving him blocked in!!

We decided that we would go to the fishing village of Quintay in the morning,as the weather was cloudy and foggy, and hope the sun burned through for the afternoon when we would head to the Casablanca Valley to visit a couple of wineries.The drive to Quintay was about 40 minutes ,with a swing by to see a house Michael owns but his ex-wife now has.It is a small modern house in a gated community outside of Vina but because of the isolation she does not want to live there so it currently sits empty,much to Michaels chagrin!!

The roads to Quintay are lined with Eucalyptus trees,transplanted here many years ago for their quick growth and wood but now a problem spreading all over so fast and taking more water than native trees.Still they are beautiful to look at as we wound our way down the coast to Quintay,at times very winding road dropping down to the coast.Quintay is a small fishing village today trying to build up a tourists industry to supplement what they can earn from the sea.At one time it was a Whaling Station,processing thousands of whales from the southern ocean but with the moratorium on whaling,of which Chile is a signatory.the town suffered a decline.They are building a whaling museum on the site of the old station but it is much more of an idea and a few old photos on marker signs than a money maker.The ticket taker however used to work at the station so there is hope.

On this Sunday the town was quiet in the morning but the restaurants and parking lots were gearing up for the flood of diners that descend on the town every weekend from Santiago and other places to eat seafood.Micheal was very much aware of the potential for again getting trapped in our parking place by the warf so we made sure to slip out before that happened, and as we drove out along the road we passed a continuous stream of cars with hungry diners smacking their lips.

We left the waterfront and went into an area of the town higher up on the cliffs to visit with Julio Munizaga.You will remember I spoke in a previous blog of Michaels wonderful ability to take you to places seldom seen or found in the guide books and the visit to Julio's house on the cliff was a perfect example.The first indication of something special comes as you walk up his driveway from the gate and see the dome of a celestial observatory on the back of his house! Michael had phoned Julio to ask if we could visit and had been told to come in and use the back door, which would be open.The house itself is perched on the top of a cliff with some chairs on the front lawn just waiting for someone to sit down to stare out on the sea,the rocks and waves and amazing beauty.What a place to have a house!

Opera music floated out of the bedroom and so did Julio,to greet us with a warm smile and a hand.He is 86 years old,birthday coming up in february.In his work life he had been an accountant, but it was his accomplishment beyound the sums and numbers of accountancy that made him so special.Micheal took me upstairs to his workshop in the attic.A large room with a desk and books and windows facing the sea.On one side a workshop with benches,tools,parts,wires,pieces of things.Along one side of the room a huge electric train setup.Mountains,villages,bridges,refineries.rivers,It was amazing and of course all made by Julio in his workshop.Model planes hung from the ceiling and on the work benches were small steam engines and working models of piston engines all constructed by Julio.We went downstairs again and into the obesrvatory where an old wooden and brass telescope stood on a tripod.The domed roof rotated to allow the telescope to track the heavens.All built by Julio,his joke was that in order to get the same rounded shape for each of the metal pieces of the dome he had sat on them and used the arc of his ass as the template.

The main living room of the house was filled with plants and statues, a bird carved by Julio and assorted pictures and displays,including a piece of rock under glass along with a note scribbled on a piece of paper.The note was from the 33 miners who had been trapped all those months under the Atacama.I do not know if it was the original note sent up to indicate they were alive but it was treated as a special artifact.

We left the house and went to the back where Michael unlocked the door to the Museum Julio had built, a three roomed building filled with more of Julio's passions for building and collecting.Inside there were many things each more amazing with the realization that Julio had collected or built them all.The first thing we saw was a large model steam train made of metal.Along with the train was a diary of Julio's visits to the Atacama dessert in the 50's when he had first seen the original train,photos he had taken and diagrams and plans he had made to construct the scale model.Another room contained ship models with small working engines viewable through the cut away hulls,ships of the naval history I spoke of after my visit to the naval museum.There were swords on the walls and uniforms,on one wall were rifles, another had pistols.One of the pistols was a home made one used by a resistance fighter during the Pinochet regime.

In the third room were fossils Julio and his brother had collected in the Atacama,including fossilized sharks teeth that they had used to extrapolate the size of the sharks jaws the teeth had come from.Then they had made a plaster model of the scaled jaw!!He had penguin skeletons and skeletons of birds, he had a small skeleton of a T-Rex that he made using cat,dog and pig bones!! It all was amazing!! I signed his guest book and Michael and I went off to have some lunch.

Lunch was at a small roadside restaurant filled with locals from the valley.A family run business and a warm greeting to Michael by all.I was greeted with a handshake and a question as to where I was from,when told Canada the man switched to english and told me he had once lived in Toronto. We had empanadas and beer for lunch,Micheal drink 0%, then off down the valley and into the now sunny vineyards of the Casablanca.

We visited three vineyards in the afternoon,Casa del Bosques,Vina Mar and Indomita.The Casablanca valley grows short season grapes due to its cooler micro climate so white wines are predominant.The wineries here are considered small by Chilean standards where some of the vineyards produce tens of millions of bottles.The vines here are young and wines fruity,great on a warm sunny afternoon.

I tasted my way through the selections offered and bought a nice Chardonnay from Casa del Bosques.When we arrived at the Vina Mar winery we were greeted by a small reception party.It turned out they were not there for us but were anticipating the arrival of the Ambassador from Slovenia and so had the good glasses out and were ready to pour.They had no problem pouring for us, as again they knew Michael, and so we sipped a wonderful sparkling "Champenois" wine they make there.They are one of the few wineries that makes a champagne ,though they can't call it champagne.We sipped and wandered around followed by a tasting of their wines before the Ambassador and entourage arrived.

Indomita had my tasting outside and the breezes blowing and wine flowing made for a wonderful way to end the wine tour. Michael and I drove back to Vina to change cars and I met his wife and sister in law then we all drove to Valparaiso to listen to the city concert,but that is for another blog. Bye for now xox

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