Santa Cruz, Chile.

This weekend Chase and I traveled to the wine country in Santa Cruz. But before leaving on Saturday we had Andrew over for drinks and Queso on Friday night. I found this incredible queso recipe online, the boys did not have high hopes but it turned out really well. We had not had queso since moving to Chile so we all enjoyed the queso.

Saturday we got up and took the metro to the train station. While Chase bought our tickets I wondered around the station to find some breakfast. I almost had a heart attack when I walked into this tiny restaurant and found that they had the most delicious looking cinnamon rolls. They were not Cinnabons but looked and tasted just like them. Like I have said before Chileans are not big into breakfast, so this was a huge treat. I might have to make another trip to the train station just for a cinnamon roll!

Once upon the train, we rode south for about 2 hours to the very last stop, through the Chilean countryside. It is a great way to see a different side of Chile, you really get to see the rural towns. We finally arrived in San Fernando cold and hungry, so we decided to find a restaurant.

Chase loves the Godfather so he was a little too excited to see this sign and talked in the godfather voice off and on all weekend

After a yummy ave palta (avocado Chicken Sandwichs are all they eat down here) we began walking towards the bus station to catch the bus from San Fernando to Santa Cruz. If you are thinking wow that is alot of different types of transportation you are right. We left our apartment at 10:00 am and did not arrive in Santa Cruz till 3:45.

On the bus from San Fernando to Santa Cruz

Bus station in Santa Cruz

There is a fantastic museum in Santa Cruz called Museo Colchagua. It tells the history of Chile and it is definitely one of the better museums I have ever been to. We knew we did not want to miss the museum, so we headed straight there from the bus station. After about two hours in the museum we were ready to find a place to stay for the night. We had looked up some hostels before the left so we set out to find the David hostel. Yes, we stayed in another hostel this one was much cleaner than the last hostel.

Chase and I wondering the street of Santa Cruz looking for the hostel

There was the most beautiful sunset, I only wish we had had a better view

Chase outside the hostel

Hostel Bedroom, I have no idea why all the hostels like this color green

bathroom, not too bad

For dinner we walked to this Vineyard called Vina La Posada located right in the heart of Santa Cruz, we had heard that they had a great restaurant called Veta. Veta did not let us down it is a very small restaurant but had the most delicious food. I would strongly recommend going if you are ever in Santa Cruz.

About to eat a very good apple crisp

By the end of the night we were the only people left

At nice restaurants they bring the check in a box, kinda like a little treasure. Chase paying for dinner!

We went back to the winery where we ate dinner to take some pictures

Saturday morning we slept in, because well who wants to go wine tasting at 10:00 in the morning. Actually when we woke up on Saturday morning there was no power at the hostel, apparently they were working on the powerlines. But don't worry Chilean breakfast don't require power because all it consists of is bread, cheese and ham.

Eating my bread and cheese

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and started walking around Santa Cruz. Luckily the night before we found a post from a couple who had traveled to Santa Cruz and used a local cab driver and posted his phone number. We thought he might speak some english, so we decided to call Raphael and see if he could take us around to some vineyards. Raphael did not speak English, but we decided to hire him anyways and had a great day seeing some vineyards.

Riding in Raphael's car on the way to Vina Viu Manent

Lunch at the Vina Viu Manent

We ended up having a really nice lunch at the Vineyard, we thought we going to have light sandwiches on the terrace but I guess since it was sunday we had a gourmet lunch. The room was neat with wine bottles in the windows and a thatched roof.

After lunch

After lunch we headed to Vina Montes for a wine tour and tasting. We ended up being the only people on the tour, which was so fun. A funny story is that there was a couple giving us the tour and we figured out that they had been one of the only other two couples in the restaurant from the night before. It was fun to get to talk with them.

Chase outside the Winery

on the tour

This is where they store all of their best wines, there was actually classical music playing to help age the wine better.

Getting to taste the wine. We were looking at all of the wines and Chase pointed to the most expensive wine and asked who do you have to be to drink that? The tour guide went back pulled out bottle a poured us a glass. I must say that was very good.

After the wine tasting we had to hurry back to the bus station to catch the bus back to Santiago. The bus ride was about 3 1/2 hours so we finally arrived back into Santiago around 8:30. The best part is that we arrived to this huge bus station and we had no idea where we were or even if we were close to a metro station. After asking a bunch of people we finally found our way to a metro and home. It felt so good to be home!