Blogs from Chile, South America - page 6

(Note to reader - strap in, here comes a long one) I feel a bit annoyed with myself that I haven't kept these up, and that my posts have been rarer and rarer as our trip here has gone on. Part of this was COVID, as sh*t, what do you talk about when you're locked in the house (we don't talk about COVID no no). The other part of this is that generally when I have been inspired to write has been pointing out the little humourous differences in life between here and Canada. Like the travel experiences are great, but generally it's like, we went here, and we did this. Like great, anyone can write that. The true gold is the ridiculous day to day situations that I find myself in here, based on a ... read more

Friday. 03/04022. Santiago. Our main event was a visit to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights.) It is mainly a museum about the period leading up to the election of the socialist president Salvador Allende, the subsequent coup d’etat by the fascist general Pinochet and the following 17 years of dictatorship. It included information about Truth and Reconciliation Commissions which were established in countries throughout the world, many more than I realized. The experience was moving and troubling but hopeful since Chile managed to return to a democracy. In the afternoon we returned to the Municipal Sculpture Park that is spread along the riverside for a better and longer look at all the art. For dinner we went to the wonderful Restaurant Peumayén Bellavista for their featured ... read more

Wednesday. The nearest metro station was a 10 minute walk away and we took the subway train the Plaza de Armas, in the center of the old city. The large baroque Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral is there. It has a barrel vaulted ceiling and many beautiful stained glass windows. In the plaza we watched a woman lovingly caress the head of a horse who carried a mounted policeman. In another part of the park I was approached by a prostitute. We visited the nearby Chilean Museum of Pre Columbian Art. The upstairs galleries with the largest number of artifacts was closed due to the pandemic, but there is a basement room with artifacts from all the regions of the country. On the ground level facing an interior courtyard are galleries of donated artifacts on tables, most under ... read more

Monday. We sailed from Punto Arenas down to the Beagle Channel with its fjords and Glacier Alley. It was even more spectacular than I remembered from sailing there with Simon, with the mountains, some jagged peaks and glacier after glacier, some high, some reaching down to the water. It was cloudy with occasional patches of blue sky. Nathan and I spent hours on deck, taking photographs and just enjoying the amazing beauty.... read more

Interesting about Chile, where Mr. Mike and I did some serious wine tasting a few years back. Chile is the only major wine country in the world where no phylloxera exists. A lethal insect, phylloxera devastated most of the world’s vineyards in the 19th century, after which vines were necessarily grafted onto resistant rootstock. But most of the vines in Chile today remain ungrafted. Phylloxera’s curious absence is not fully understood.More zin than cab?? Cabernet Sauvignon plantings superseded Zinfandel way back in 1998. Today there are 94,854 acres of Cabernet; but just 40,061 acres of Zinfandel. Most of the Cabernet is planted in Napa and San Luis Obispo counties. Most of the Zinfandel is planted in San Joaquin and Sonoma counties. (Winespeed) PS, I am not a big fan of most zinfandel.... read more