Backpacking South America

While visiting Cafayate, Argentina in October, we shared a delicious lunch that included two bottles of wine and picadas at a bodega with a British guy. The time flew by and fortunately, we remembered some of his recommendations. He told us about a cute little town in Bolivia, Tarija, which happens to be the center of their wine producing region. Did somebody say wine? But, in Bolivia? Really? When was the last time you had a Bolivian wine? Well, we had to see for ourselves.

So, after the Uyuni Salt Flat tour, we decided we needed a little wine and relaxation. So, we headed south for Tarija, this “little” city at the heart of a wine producing region. Little is a bit of an understatement. Tarija is a bit bigger than expected, about 120,000 people, but it definitely has a small town feel. The center of town is a bit hectic at times, but its plazas are clean and always full of people young and old passing the day (or night).

Tarija has been called the Andalucia of Bolivia and was once an independent republic before it joined Bolivia (rather than Argentina).

Packed with world-ranking wineries, the Colchagua Valley of Chile is its most famous wine region. On our recent stop in Santa Cruz, Chile, we spent a couple days enjoying Colchagua, including a day-long tour featuring three of its top wineries. Crisscrossing the valley, we were able to get a sampling of why the Colchagua Valley is so highly regarded internationally.

While not quite as extravagant as our day in Mendoza, we did take in our fair share of beautiful wineries, delicious wines and even made some new friends in the process. Working with the Ruta del Vino office on the main plaza in Santa Cruz (recommended), we were able to arrange three tours and a lunch.

In Chile, it seems that all wineries require a reservation at least 1, but sometimes 2 days in advance – which requires the foresight we often don’t have.  The morning after arranging our visits, our driver, Patricio, showed up at our hostal shortly after 10am and we were off to our first stop, Montgras.

Montgras

Now almost 20 years old, Montgras was the perfect start for our day.  We met our guide and first made our way into the vineyard to learn the differences between the leaves, grapes and bunch structure of the grape varieties.

Our date with our new friend, Stephen, finally arrived. After spending the afternoon bustling around town trying to find good deals on wine, we settled on 2 Sauvignon Blancs, 1 Carmenere, and a dessert wine. We checked into our hostel (Andes Hostel, comfortable hostel, disorganized staff) to find Stephen already in the midst of preparing a fume for the entire filet of fish he bought at the market that day.

Aside from being a three-star chef, who by the assistance of Julia Child found himself in culinary school and cooking in top restaurants and for famous people around the world, Boy George included, eventually he took the long rode to Croatia and started a catering company, but is once again on the road seeking out his next culinary adventure.  However, this is only half the story.

Carra and I prepped the rooftop patio for cocktail hour and our first two courses and while waiting for our guest Enrique to arrive, we polished off a bottle of white wine used for cooking…can’t let a good thing go to waste.

Our first course was a super fresh Waldorf Salad with substituted fresh figs for raisins. Surprisingly, for the first course, we moved to the Reserva Carmenere, which paired perfectly well with the figs.

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.

We had such a wonderful time in Cafayate that we decided to take the 3.5 hour bus ride back to spend a few more days, which turned into more than a week.  Cafayate is a town that either wraps you up and makes you want more, or is so small that you’re ready to go after one or two days.  Obviously, we fell into the former group.

On our bus trip, we met a nice family that had made reservations at the hostel we were planning to stay at, the Rusty K Hostel.  The Rusty K is the most recommendable hostel that we have stayed at thus far.  It was well laid out, not overly cramped or large, but with lots of open space on the patio that you couldn’t resist grabbing a beer (quite cheap at this hostel) and lounging for a bit.  It was also extremely clean and well run by a super friendly and helpful family.

Our First Asado

One of the nights, we decided to try our hand at the parrilla with our new found friends.  So we grabbed meat for four people, green peppers, 3 types of cheese (soft, hard and blue), and a bag of carbon (already burnt woodchips).  With the help/guidance of Walter, the owner of the hostel, we got the fire started.