Casillero del Diablo

Yesterday I spent the day in one of the local Chilean vineyards outside of Santiago, Concha y Toro. We were treated as first class guests with a personal guide, a special tour of the house and cellar, and a special wine and cheese tasting in a private tasting room where we got to interview one of the owners. We will have a followup visit within the next few weeks and later be touring Chile and Mendoza, Argentina through these wine tastings and interviews as a photographer.
As some of you know my future plans include a road trip from Venezuela to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico where I will join my family for my cousin Shannie's wedding. Afterwhich I will be heading North to CA and OR. Little by little the dream continues to come together. It looks like I will be leaving Chile sometime in April and heading to Venezuela with a friend of mine, Fernando. Fernando has gifted me a '73 VW bus which he toured South America in four times. The motor has recently been reconstructed and the bed and other luxuries have also been rebuilt. The only rule is that when I'm done, I must also gift the car to a fellow traveler. I can't put into words how thankful I am and how lucky I feel to have the friends and family that I do.

Feliz Ano

Happy New Year to all!! I hope each one of you passed it well! They say the first twelve days of the new year represent the twelve months, and I must say my last twelve days have been quite prosperous and enjoyable! I spent the New Year in Valparaiso, a beautiful beach town just outside of Santiago. I went with Ale and Mili and we stayed with a friend of ours who runs local theater programs. We took a bus into the city and spent the afternoon in the plaza drinking white wine from the bottle and basking in the sun. After a lovely lunch and siesta we made our plans for the evening of which the second most famous firework show in the world was to take place.
Before the big show we went to a very popular lookout where we had a perrrfect view of the entire coastline. The full moon sat above crowning the lighted hills and salty ocean. As the last minutes of 2009 nine passed and the first of 2010 began the lights of the city went black, the bottles of champagne popped, and the sky exploded with seven different fuegos arteficiales up and down the coast. It was quite a magical experience. After the most incredible light show I have ever seen we took off to the center where we danced followed by more dancing followed by even more dancing until nine in the morning! We danced salsa, we rocked out, we jumped and sang and laughed and smiled all night long. For breakfast we went to the central market and filled our bellies with the fresh and traditional sopa de mariscos followed by yerba mate we took a collectivo to Vina del Mar and spent the morning on the beach. After a fresh swim we had completos for lunch we exhaustively headed back to the city.

Merry Christmas!