From Valpo, we headed south along the Panamerican Highway to
the Colchagua Valley wine region. Driving
on the Panamericana is a real pleasure – straight, fast (lot of cops enforcing
the strict 120kpm speed limit), nice rest areas with good food, and no real
traffic, even at the height of summer season.
But the Panamericana can also be lead to deceiving inferences about what
lies beyond. As soon as you get off this
major road, most of the towns are very small, in many cases without even paved
roads.
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| One of many fine Chilean highway rest areas |
Our destination for the day was Tumuñan Lodge a remote
B&B, but only about 30 minutes from the Panamericana along unpaved roads. We arrived in the evening for a quick swim and
an excellent barbeque, the first good meat we’d had since leaving New
York.
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| Mmmm...nothing this good in Ecuador! |
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| Ruby with a big dog |
The next day, my birthday, we set off on a drive through
wine country.
The English owner of our
B&B recommended that we visit the local museum, the personal collection of
a local magnate, which contained “a bit of everything”.
As a New Yorker, I had some serious doubts
that the Colchagua Museum in Santa Cruz, Chile was really worthwhile, despite
the English guy’s exhortations.
After
all, he lives in the middle of nowhere.
Well,
after four full hours there, I really have to say that the Colchagua Museum is
fascinating – it had a great natural history collection, some really
interesting historical artifacts, and a great exhibit on the Chilean mine
rescue of 2011 (?).
All three
generations enjoyed it and if we hadn’t been starving, we could have stayed for
a couple more hours.
From there we
headed to lunch at an Italian restaurant overlooking vineyards and then headed
back to the lodge for dinner, and a long hot tub under the incredibly bright
southern stars.
(The only thing we
didn’t get a chance to do was tour a winery, much to O&Rs
disappointment.)
In all, not a bad way
to turn 47.
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| Big Birthday Lunch |
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| With my girl hottubbing on my birthday! |
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