Harvest Festival in Santa Cruz

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Unfortunately we had to change our plans slightly at this point. We were planning on going into the Chilean lake district of Pucon, however, the day before we were due to depart we discovered the area had been closed to travellers because of a potential volcano eruption. This proved accruate as it erupted the following day, thankfully no one was seriously hurt.

Next stop Santiago then via a 16 hour bus trip. We spent a couple of days there but it didn't really feel like our kind of place and we quickly moved on, after all the grapes are ready to be picked!

A relatively quick 2 hour bus trip down to Santa Cruz brought us into the heart of the Chilean wine region and just in time for their annual harvest festival. This was a definite highlight of our trip. The small town of Santa Cruz shut down and celebrated the picking of the grapes. There were very few tourists which made the next 3 days all the more special as we felt we experienced and partook in an authentic Chilean celebration. The town park was tranformed into a wine tasting centre with local wineries setting up booths and many people enjoying glasses of vino in the grass and warm sunshine. There was plenty of live music for all ages, accompanied by various food stands throughout the town that had been closed to traffic. As the days festivities came to a close we made our way to the football grounds to enjoy a concert and impressive firework display.

We had so much fun, the locals were welcoming and ever so friendly. It seemed like the entire town was there, enjoying wine, food, music, sun and each other.

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Photos

Wine tasting!
The first of many!

Our friend!
I got hooked on these sausages or choripans, they were fantastic. I ate so many over the festival and became friends with the chef.

Street dancing
Many Chileans took to the streets and danced a traditional dance, very entertaining to watch as people of all ages took part.

Santiago Square
The pictures from this point on are from our couple of days in Santiago.

Fish Market
This was a huge fish market complete with smell. Very impressive, both the market and the smell.

Police car
We were surprised by the fact that all the glass in the police car was protected by a steel mesh.

Slightly used police bus
We now understand the need for the mesh protection, looks like the police vehicles see some action!

Terremoto!
or earthquake, is a Chilean drink made with a sweet wine, pineapple ice-cream and grenadine. Sandra just had the one, her head felt like the name of the drink the next day!