September 24, 2024

Dateline – Millahue Valley, Chile

Today was sort of a spa day, a palate cleanser before the very long day of tomorrow bleeding into Thursday which is the last leg of the journey. Most people are flying out Thursday morning or afternoon. For schedule and cost reasons I am on a red-eye Wednesday night and due back in Birmingham around 8 AM on Thursday. While I am technically working on Thursday and Friday, I am teleworking and I will get things done as I get them done as allowed by jet lag and all of that jazz. The one good thing about all of this is I am going to beat Hurricane Helene to the US by about 15 hours so I should get home without incident. Those trying to fly into the South East the next day may not be so lucky.

There actually is a spa at this chi-chi very upscale boutique mountain retreat in which i find myself, but I’m not particularly a fam of spa services so I took advantage instead of the spectacular views, the abundance of free wine, and a few organized programs that required minimal thought and effort. Those started this morning with a horseback ride through the vineyards. It’s been several decades since I was last on a horse but i was quite a good rider in my youth and I and Illusion, the bay gelding to whom I was introduced, soon came to an understanding about who was boss and the ride through the burning off morning fogs, the slumbering grape vines, and a variety of bird species which I did not recognize. I did see a rather lovely bevy of quail (I looked that collective up-I would have guessed covey and would have been wrong) which are instantly recognizable by their unique body shape and their adorable little topknots. We used to have a lot of quail on the Stanford campus and it was always fun in the spring to watch the mamas leading their little lines of babies around, sort of a live action version of The Partridge Family credits. I did not fall off and my muscle memory for riding returned rather quickly.

Then, after a brief interlude to get the horse smell off, a quick class on wine and chocolate pairing. Just the first of several wine centered activities for the day. Well, when one is staying in the middle of a vineyard on a winery property. Fortunately, I like wine and I’m also smart enough not to drink to much too fast. The cabernet paired best with a dark raspberry chocolate, at least to my palate. Then lunch (more wine) with a crab ceviche/seafood bisque and a fresh caught white fish. (We’re only ten miles from the coast – but then in Chile, pretty much everywhere is about ten miles form the coast. Apres diner, a nap.

Late afternoon we went back down the hill to tour the Vik winery. It’s a very 21st century construction, full of sustainable energy design, very modern architecture, and hundreds of large tanks and thousands of oak barrels. I’ve been through many wineries in the past and that was nothing new but this winery actually makes its own oak barrels and we saw the cooperage which was something I had not really had a chance to look at in the past. Then yet another multicourse meal (even more wine – both with hors d’oeuvres and with the meal itself) in the winery restaurant as the sun set over the hills. We returned up the hill to the hotel in total darkness and I took a few minutes to go out where there were no lights and look up at the southern heavens, identifying the southern cross and getting a really good look at the milky way as we are far away from city light pollution. And now, my last chance to get some decent sleep for about thirty-six hours. The last installment of this travelogue covering Santiago and the journey home may be a bit late depending on how I’m feeling when I finally get back to Birmingham. But I will write it.