It’s a small relatively undeveloped wine area. Into fog again, we get sun and cloud for our drive up to Santa Cruz, in the heart of the Colchagua valley. We take the cross country route through lovely woodland, vines, olive groves and rich agricultural land along the rivers. 10km from town we settle into the nice Boutique Hotel Bellavista where we can have a poolside room for 2 nights then have to move into the main hotel. Greeted warmly by Sara, she has arranged out vineyard tours for the next two days.
The first night there are only 2 other guests and we are woken by the rooster and dogs. But nearby we have many. Horses and a few llamas too. Sheep and goats are here too and its lovely rural countryside, where the pace of life seems to be decidedly slower than everywhere else.
We stock up on ham/cheese at the supermarket in the knowledge that after big lunches we won’t want much in the evening.
After settling in, it’s off 10k into the busy little market town. We know from Ali & Rob who visited here a few years back that there is an excellent Peruvian resto in town. WE also see a couple of guys washing buses at the bus depot. I ask what it would take to get the dead bugs and thick layer of Atacama desert off our car. It’s going to be $8 so 15 minutes later, we drive out of there with a car you could see yourself in like a mirror!
The Casita de Barreales resto is easily as good as we have been told, and again, at 4pm we are the only people eating there. But we don’t care. The fish in seafood sauce is divine with a beautiful salad and a couple of nice glasses of local white wine. We really don’t want to be driving in the dark and Ted has been really careful with his drinking, as there is a zero tolerance level here in Chile.
Our room has a big bath....aaaaaah to soak. There is a pool and hot tub here too but I haven’t seen anyone actually brave enough to get in. It’s 9 overnight so I assume it is only heated by the sun.
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