September 23, 2024

Dateline – Millahue Valley, Chile

There’s no cure like travel wrote Cole Porter once upon a time. But then travel in Cole Porter’s day for the well heeled included a leisurely process of well appointed suites on ocean liners, private rail cars, and a small army of porters, bell boys, maids. valets and others to smooth all of the rough edges. Nowadays, even with a high end tour group such as this, a travel day involves hurry up and wait and endless standing in line. Up early for a 7 am luggage pull. Down for breakfast at the buffet where, after having eaten lighter yesterday, I gave the bacon and eggs another go, and on the bus by 8 am. The trip to the airport (the small one on the river as it’s a relatively short flight) was uneventful and it was actually possible to see some of Rio de la Plata as the weather was overcast and not pouring rain as it had been for our arrival.

Multiple lines: Lines for baggage check. Lines for security. Lines for boarding but we eventually made it on board our flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile with a minimum of fuss and an on time departure. Santiago is hosting some sort of religious convention this week and so the flight was very full of excited conventioneers. I was having none of it and slept most of the way. Off the plane in Santiago for more lines for customs, baggage claim, agricultural check, and eventually free to begin to get my bearings in the C of the ABC countries of this vacation. I have a bit of a recurring nightmare when I travel. I dream that I’m pulled out of line by uniformed police speaking a language I do not know into a Kafkaesque nightmare of detention and dehumanization. I’ve never had any issues and my life footprint is such that I am unlikely to be picked up for any sort of international skullduggery but I still keep having the dream. And I’m in Latin America, not North Korea. I can think of one country where I might be stopped at the border due to comments I made about the then ruler to a news organization (stating that his broken hip in the hospital was not a good prognostic sign). But it’s not high up on my list of places to go and as that was more than thirty years ago, they may have forgotten about it.

After getting out of the terminal, we got on yet another bus (this one exceedingly luxurious and painted in a rather astonishing combination of chartreuse and tangerine. MNM would be delighted. And a two plus hour road trip out of the city and into Chilean wine country. Santiago is built in a large flat valley between the Andes and the Chilean Coast mountain range. It’s rather like Seattle – mountains everywhere you look. We didn’t get the best view today as it was quite overcast.

The bus went whizzing south along the highway – which looks a lot like highways anywhere. A brief pit stop at a gas station cum rest area which was most notable for the flocks of golden California poppies growing amongst the grass. I was a bit bemused as it’s entirely the wrong time of year until I remembered that here it’s mid spring as the seasons are opposite. Eventually, we turned off the highway onto a bunch of two lane roads heading up into the foothills. Small towns and rural homes along the highway, all with the Chilean flag out front. (We are just past Chilean independence day which was on the 18th). Eventually we got to a dirt road and the luxury bus could go no further. Quick switch over to a much smaller and cramped oversize van and then up the dirt road cum goat track that switchbacked up a steep hill to our destination, the Hotel Vik. Positive energy prevailed and the clouds parted and the sun came out as we were making the transfer into the van.

The Hotel Vik is a small luxury hilltop hotel deep in Chilean wine country. It’s sort of like being dropped into an Architectural Digest photo layout. It was built by a Norwegian couple, the Viks, about fifteen years ago to indulge their passions for wine and art. Each hotel room is unique, designed by a different artist, and named rather than numbered. I am in ‘Hollywood’ (arranged by Wendy our motherly but efficient tour director who thought it suited my personality). It is adorned with large silk screened canvas prints of classic movie stills. Sean Connery as James Bond is looking down over my bed tonight and Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief are on the side wall. One whole wall is glass giving lovely views of the hills and a lake at the bottom of the one on which the hotel sits.

We had a lovely dinner in the dining room (I had poached fish for the appetizer and lamb stuffed ravioli for the entree) and I think most of us are retiring early after the 9 hour process of getting here. Tomorrow promises to be good weather for doing some outdoorsy type things around this rather stunning place. It’s as if Frank Gehry had designed Edoras for The Lord of the Rings.