Day 7

 Today was one of those blissful times where we get 2 lie ins in a row

We had a trip to the Santa Rita vineyard booked but we weren’t getting picked up until 11:45 so there really was no rush

A leisurely breakfast, shower etc then we even had time to sort our bags out for tomorrow before our new guide, Nelson turned up

Nelson was the Chilean version of Danny DeVito and is absolutely stealing a living

Basically he talked to the driver 90% of the way there, dropped us off then collected us afterwards where again he spoke with the driver 90% of the time - Nelson is definitely living his best life

The views to and from the vineyard were stunning

All the way there, Joss kept dropping her water bottle - first it rolled and wedged itself under the guide’s seat then when it worked itself free she dropped it again and it rolled backwards behind our seats

For goodness sake 🙄

When we got there, the views if anything, were better

The first plan of action was to have a 3 course lunch with both white and red wines

Here’s the menu

We both went with carpaccio for starters, the. I went with Chilean pork ribs and rustic potatoes followed by the flan whereas Joss went with salmon and corn pie followed by rice pudding

The carpaccio was all right but I’m not sure if order it again

The main course was bloody amazing and even though Joss started saying she’d eat salmon all the time we both knew I’d won that round

We both liked the puddings and the wine was excellent

Then we were paired up with a Canadian couple for the winery tour in English

Joss took an instant dislike to the woman as she kept on trying to answer the questions Joss was posing and invariably getting the answers wrong

The guy was the quiet type

The tour was very interesting 

But let’s face it, we were all waiting for the tasting

No I couldn’t detect the citrus or the plumb, but all 3 were very nice

As the car park was at least 100m away we took the golf buggy again to the car

We found out that the driver was the same one for tomorrow’s airport drop off so we know we can rely on him

On the way back annoyingly we saw another extent of shops we hadn’t been in - we’d missed it by 1 street - blast

We got them to drop us off at the local supermarket so we could get us some water and me some crisps

After a well deserved lie down we then set off to town for the very last time - we went to Pipiolo’s for dinner

Burger and chips would do just fine

We had the same beer as last time but the waitress convinced us to try 2 other beers to see if we wanted them instead

The amber one tasted a bit smoky/Guinessy to me and the lighter one, which was 7.5% was bloody awful - full of citrus flavours

We decided on keeping to what we liked for one more then headed back to pack ready for tomorrow

It’s been lovely in Santiago - here’s what I have learned:

1 All Chileans like a sandwich 

2 All bars (we found) insist on you eating as well as drinking

3 There are a lot of cyclists here

4 Traffic lights take forever to change

5 The people are tremendously friendly, apart from the female pickpockets, taxi drivers and the gangs that want to rob you blind 

6 The food here is delicious and relatively cheap - same for the wine

7 The views are unbelievable 

8 Firefighters are unpaid as it is an honour to do the job

9 Tipping isn’t mandatory, but it kind of is

10 Nelson, our guide today, needs to up his game