Backpacking South America

Unexpected things happen all the time.  Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not so good.  Our first full day in Santiago, Chile wasn’t going exactly as planned, but it wasn’t way off course.  We wanted to visit the city’s largest and probably most interesting park, Parque Metropolitano.

We tried the day before, but the Funicular (a cable car) to take us to the top of Cerro San Cristobal inside the park, was closed.  So, we tried the next day; while waiting for the Funicular, which was supposed to start service at 10am but was still not open at 11am when we arrived, we sat and chatted waiting to catch a ride to the top.

When it finally opened and started taking passengers, we were collecting our things, when a gentleman started talking to us.  We weren’t sure about his objective, but we went along.  After all, everybody has a story to tell.

The short exchange quickly moved to an actual conversation.  We’re in no rush, let’s hear this guy’s story.  Stephen is a three-star chef who runs a catering business in Croatia, where he calls home right now.  As yachts roll in from sea, he’s usually the guy you want to snag when you dock in Croatia and hire him on for a while to cook you up some really tasty meals that are either authentic to the Mediterranean or reminders of home.  He’s worn many hats in his lifetime and therefore has many stories to tell.  Eventually, once the line for the funicular had died down, the three of us made our way into the short queue.   The more we spoke to Stephen, the more we were enjoying his company.  So we spent the afternoon walking through the park (6km).

After the park, Carra and I had planned to visit the Concha y Toro tasting room (big winery in Chile whose wines are widely available). Stephen decided to join us on what turned out to be an hour and a half walk in the heat of the day, much further than it looked on the map.  Needless to say, we had plenty of time to get to know one another.  We weren’t disappointed by the stories Stephen had to tell – from being a chef (a three-star-chef) for famous people to his adventures (sometimes misadventures) of being a lifelong traveler.

When we finally arrived at Vinos CYT (Concha y Toro), they refused us a tasting because the machines that serve the wines weren’t working.  We know well enough that you don’t need a machine to help taste wine.  Yet, they refused to open any wine and provide a tasting, despite being the tasting room.

We were annoyed, but we were willing to shrug it off.  However, Stephen didn’t take too well to this fact.  After all, he is a three-star chef.  Playing his hand throughout a 10 minute back and forth conversation with the inhouse sommelier (whose hands were tied by the manager), Stephen was able to get the sommelier to buy a bottle for us to taste – and we weren’t disappointed.  We tasted a bottle of Marques de Casa Carmenere 2007.  At the opening, it was a bit tight, but by the second glass it had opened up and had a much longer taste.  We were all impressed by the quality and value of the wine.

Somewhere after the top of the cable car and our long walk down the hill and to the tasting room, we decided to do an extravagant dinner paired with wines.  Stephen would take care of the food (again, three-star-chef); we were in charge of the wine.  We discussed the courses during our walk and it was up to us to find the wines.

We parted in the evening with the plan to meet two nights later in a hostel.