15-01-20: Of Crying and Earthquakes

To anticipate, we have not experienced an earthquake so far, although we are in a region where the earth constantly shakes. A few days ago, the earth shook in Argentina, about 35 km away with a magnitude of 5.3. Nothing felt.

Today we only had a short drive to the west to the wine-growing area. Chile is known for its excellent wines, both red and white. We booked the Casa del Campo hotel near Vera Cruz. A very nice hotel, built in the style of the Spanish conquerors, like much of here.

We were recommended to visit the small village of Lolol. Many buildings were rebuilt there after the devastating earthquake in 2010. As we reported in another post, the owners of the houses destroyed in 2010 were financially compensated and built new houses from it. Therefore, you can find many destroyed houses along the streets. Interestingly, the front of the house often remains standing, but nothing exists behind it anymore.

The visit to Lolol was very nice and we also found a nice cafe where we could enjoy our first red wine of the day (at 12:00).

After visiting Lolol, we decided to visit the Santa Cruz winery. Also nice, but the concept is a bit like Karls Erdbeerhof in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Of course, wine is grown on the winery. However, there is an automuseum (?), a winemuseum (okay, understandable), a planetarium (for whatever reason) and a cable car (a retired train from Switzerland) as a connection to the hill with the planetarium. The view of the vineyards is beautiful, but that's about it. There are not many tourists on the way, so the restaurant that belongs to the winery is also not well visited.

We continue driving and decide to visit a typical snack on the side of the road. We actually didn't do that enough this vacation. At these stalls, for example, empanadas, sandwiches and various juices, called jugos naturales, are offered. We choose a Mote con huesillos (a drink with a pickled peach and wheat grains, flavored with cinnamon), a nugo natural made from strawberries, and a jugo natural of wild berries. Everything was excellent. The Mote reminds me of Christmas with the cinnamon. The jugos are great and I (Andreas) have them explain to me how they are prepared. Next summer I will experiment with it.

By the way, the Chilean flag is flying everywhere. At many houses and even at the smallest stalls.

We spend the rest of the day in our beautiful hotel by the pool and on our veranda overlooking the garden.