Hola Chicos! This is Friday, October 2nd 2009! And well today I spent the day out in the country side visiting vineyards! It was fantastic being where they make some of the greatest wines in the world. Also the weather was perfect. I'd say like mid 70's with lots of sun. The day was just perfect and easy going and laid back and I might have been a tad drunk.... I couldn't have asked for anything better! It was my friends' Tucker 21st and what better way to spend it in a foreign country tastings some of the most expensive wines with four friends!
We went to two vineyards! The first was Emiliana. Emiliana is an all organic vineyard. Now typically I'm pretty skeptical of places and things that say they are all organic. I didn't search every nook and granny but i'm going to go out on a limb and say they are legit. From what I understood they are the only vineyard in Chile that is certified organic. And by organic they mean they use animal manure, no pesticides, and no additives like nitrates and such to give the wine a better taste or color. I really could taste the difference even in the cheap $5 dollar bottle I split with a friend. We probably spent a good three or more hours here. We first went on a tour of their vineyards. I found it very interesting that aisle of grape vines running east to west are the ones for white wine. And the ones running north to south are for red wines. It makes sense after you think about it but I would have never guessed. Guess I could never be a wine-o. We also got to see their fertilizing machines! A herd of alpacas. They look like lamas... I would say they were just lamas but our tour guide insisted they were alpacas. I'm calling them lamas. We saw a herd of lamas! Then we had a lesson on how to be professional wine tasters. Our tour guide and his counter part were amazing. Super friendly and their english was really good but we had them speak Spanish for the most part. And then we had lunch on the patio in the sun in the foot hills of the andes mountains and talked about life, love and everything! Yes there was a girl with us! Buy anyway their website is here! The best wine they have however you can't buy in the US. Which just means you have to come to Chile now! It's worth it I promise.
The second vineyard we casually strolled two under a canopy of blue after a bottle wine and a lunch of pan, queseo, y palta was Veramonte. Veramonte seemed to be a lot bigger vineyard. The wine house was huge and the atmosphere was a tad bit more business like. However, the lady that served us our wine was very sweet. I wanted her to be my friend in real life. The wine here wasn't my favorite but they did have an incredible white wine. We later found out that it is world renowned or so she said but I believe her. We didn't go on a tour of this vinyard but I'm kind of glad because it looked like it could be a long tour. I'm kind of bummed now that we didn't get to see the wine cellars at either place but oh well that just means I have to go back! We got to pick four wines to try for four dollars. God that really is a deal! But at the end of those four glasses of wine I was ready for a nap! We even contemplated it outside underneith in the shade of a tree. But we didn't. The website for Vernamonte is here!
The trip home was a tab bit difficult but fun. We had to stand on the side of the road and hitch hike for a bus! Sound dangerous doesn't it? Doesn't it! Well it was! Actually it wasn't. Not unless you think speeding buses are dangerous. I don't! It took us almost a good hour to flag down a bus that had five open seats for us. Finally we got a ride on a double decker with First Class airliner seates! It was the greatest bus ride of my life. In Chile tour buses (ex. greyhounds) have free wifi on them! Why doesn't the US have that? Come on! If the US did have that they'd charge for it too. Mc Donalds here has free wifi! Whats up with that? Anyway it was a wonderful Friday. And tomorrow I get to go sand boarding! It's like snowboarding but in the sand. And then on Sunday I am running in a 10k. If I can break 33 minutes I'll be in the running for the win. But i'm not gonna lie I am really out of shape. But now it's time to go out on the town. I hope you all have had a wonderful week and have an amazing weekend. I'll try to make a video this weekend of the trip to the vineyard. But here are the photos.
Perfect Video for Tonight!
Stra10
Showing posts with label Wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wine. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
End Up September....Yey
Alright, so in 10 minutes it will be October and I have to post this before then! LoL Actually I’m going to cheat a little I hope you all don't mind! Time has been flying. My life is flying by but I’m faster! Next month I’ll be 24 years old! That is crazy to think.....Just the other day I remember when I got my driving learns permit in Morgantown, WV because my sister was in a hospital! And that was 9 years ago. :( I have so much more I want to do with my life that I don't think I will get it all in with just one lifetime. But heck I’m going to try.
Chile has been amazing. I really love every moment down here and I'm already sad about having to go home. But maybe I can find some kind of excuse to come back. If I do not get to come back to Chile I at least want to go somewhere else in South America. After that I need to make it across the ocean. I was reading up on the situation in the Philippines and I think in December or January I’m going to try to go over there and volunteer for a month. I've always wanted to go do relief work for a place that was hit by a natural disaster. I know that’s a horrible thing to want to do but then again there is always natural disaster. And right now I’m scared of natural disasters for some reason so I need to confront my fears.
I just noticed I never went back and corrected some of my other blog post. I should get my dad to do that. He's really good at proof reading and stuff like that. I certainly didn't get that skill from him and it's defiantly one that I am not going to work on. With things like spell check and F7 I am set for life. However, you don't ever want to get something from me that was hand written. You wouldn't be able to decipher that jumble of letters I like to call writing. I've decided I’m going to start playing music more/again. I use to play a lot in high school and I wasn't good but I wasn't terrible! (Like the way I worded that) I have some of the best teachers and people to learn from in my life and I really need to take advantage of that. I love music and the always have so now it’s time..... (ahhhh got to post this)
See look cheating! I posted before midnight and now this post is in the month of September! But I did just notice that the time that the post says it was posted is like 3 hours off. That is retarded and makes me sad.
Most things in Chile I find I can accept. I'm in a different country. The culture is different. Their norms are different. People are different. Bluh Bluh Bluh right! But today I had to go to a bank to deposit money into an account that is setup for a road race this coming weekend. After that I then had to go online to register for the race and hope that registration was still open. Talk about being a pain....do they not have paypal? That was fine; I was able to deal with that. What really got me flustered was the bank! Now I’ve walked by a few banks and always noticed that the lines are usually kind of long but never really thought much of it. I just figured a lot of people banking today. No! I would never bank in Chile!
It went like this. I walk in and get stopped by the security officer that was an extreme prick. I think mainly because I was American. Next there were 3 lines and 4 windows! One line was for the general public with one window. One line was for clients of the bank with two windows. And another line was for professional transactions with the last window. At first I was like wow what a good idea. Then 45 minutes later when I was still standing in line I felt like cursing! At Everyone! In the 55 minutes I spent inside only 3 people were helped by the professional transaction window. Around 10 minutes into wait a lady in the general public line thought she should open a bank account. General public window helped her until I left. The first window for clients of the bank window started taking general public people after 35 minutes. Maybe some of you don't see my complaint... Why are they dividing up the incoming clients? The people who had to wait the longest were the ones that were actual clients of the bank. In general most people that don't have an account with them won't actually come to that bank to do a transaction. Why are the people doing professional transactions more important and can just waltz right up to a window that hasn't helped anyone in the last ten minutes. It might be convenient for that client but you are wasting your money with that employee. Stupid! And when can someone open a bank account at a teller window? WTF There was 4 side offices with people in them doing only god knows what. Two of the offices look like they were meeting with customers. One was on the phone a lot and talked loud enough for us to hear him. And the last one stood by his office door talking with the jerk ball security officer.
How I would fix this! First I would have only one line! All teller windows are equal. If you’re opening an account you go to the office that has the moron talking to the security officer. If you need "professional transactions" you go to the person that talked too much on his phone. I am sure he can help you! First in is First out. Maybe I'm wrong but it was extremely annoying. Cuando en Chile! Viva Chile!
One more thing I cannot come to stand is that the Micro buses pull up as close as possible to the Micro bus in front of them to let someone off. But then when they want to get around the bus in front they honk their horn constantly. While not stop five feet from the Micro in front. And then when you want to pull around you don't have to honk your horn like a complete lunatic. Just Saying....Think About It!
Ok that is my end of the month rant! This coming Friday I’m going wine tasting for my friend’s birthday. I'll be drunk! I am going to try to make a video but it might turn out bad. October has a lot of birthdays... If you do a little subtraction we all know what our parents were doing for February! Yeah February! LoL Thanks Dad! Thanks Mom!
I'm off to bed. In the morning I have to go to a volunteer thing for little kids! Yey But before that I want to get a run in. So I'll be talking to you all in two days.
Hope you have a good rest of the week.
Check this Video Out!
She's either cute or a good singer! Maybe both!
Stra10
Chile has been amazing. I really love every moment down here and I'm already sad about having to go home. But maybe I can find some kind of excuse to come back. If I do not get to come back to Chile I at least want to go somewhere else in South America. After that I need to make it across the ocean. I was reading up on the situation in the Philippines and I think in December or January I’m going to try to go over there and volunteer for a month. I've always wanted to go do relief work for a place that was hit by a natural disaster. I know that’s a horrible thing to want to do but then again there is always natural disaster. And right now I’m scared of natural disasters for some reason so I need to confront my fears.
I just noticed I never went back and corrected some of my other blog post. I should get my dad to do that. He's really good at proof reading and stuff like that. I certainly didn't get that skill from him and it's defiantly one that I am not going to work on. With things like spell check and F7 I am set for life. However, you don't ever want to get something from me that was hand written. You wouldn't be able to decipher that jumble of letters I like to call writing. I've decided I’m going to start playing music more/again. I use to play a lot in high school and I wasn't good but I wasn't terrible! (Like the way I worded that) I have some of the best teachers and people to learn from in my life and I really need to take advantage of that. I love music and the always have so now it’s time..... (ahhhh got to post this)
See look cheating! I posted before midnight and now this post is in the month of September! But I did just notice that the time that the post says it was posted is like 3 hours off. That is retarded and makes me sad.
Most things in Chile I find I can accept. I'm in a different country. The culture is different. Their norms are different. People are different. Bluh Bluh Bluh right! But today I had to go to a bank to deposit money into an account that is setup for a road race this coming weekend. After that I then had to go online to register for the race and hope that registration was still open. Talk about being a pain....do they not have paypal? That was fine; I was able to deal with that. What really got me flustered was the bank! Now I’ve walked by a few banks and always noticed that the lines are usually kind of long but never really thought much of it. I just figured a lot of people banking today. No! I would never bank in Chile!
It went like this. I walk in and get stopped by the security officer that was an extreme prick. I think mainly because I was American. Next there were 3 lines and 4 windows! One line was for the general public with one window. One line was for clients of the bank with two windows. And another line was for professional transactions with the last window. At first I was like wow what a good idea. Then 45 minutes later when I was still standing in line I felt like cursing! At Everyone! In the 55 minutes I spent inside only 3 people were helped by the professional transaction window. Around 10 minutes into wait a lady in the general public line thought she should open a bank account. General public window helped her until I left. The first window for clients of the bank window started taking general public people after 35 minutes. Maybe some of you don't see my complaint... Why are they dividing up the incoming clients? The people who had to wait the longest were the ones that were actual clients of the bank. In general most people that don't have an account with them won't actually come to that bank to do a transaction. Why are the people doing professional transactions more important and can just waltz right up to a window that hasn't helped anyone in the last ten minutes. It might be convenient for that client but you are wasting your money with that employee. Stupid! And when can someone open a bank account at a teller window? WTF There was 4 side offices with people in them doing only god knows what. Two of the offices look like they were meeting with customers. One was on the phone a lot and talked loud enough for us to hear him. And the last one stood by his office door talking with the jerk ball security officer.
How I would fix this! First I would have only one line! All teller windows are equal. If you’re opening an account you go to the office that has the moron talking to the security officer. If you need "professional transactions" you go to the person that talked too much on his phone. I am sure he can help you! First in is First out. Maybe I'm wrong but it was extremely annoying. Cuando en Chile! Viva Chile!
One more thing I cannot come to stand is that the Micro buses pull up as close as possible to the Micro bus in front of them to let someone off. But then when they want to get around the bus in front they honk their horn constantly. While not stop five feet from the Micro in front. And then when you want to pull around you don't have to honk your horn like a complete lunatic. Just Saying....Think About It!
Ok that is my end of the month rant! This coming Friday I’m going wine tasting for my friend’s birthday. I'll be drunk! I am going to try to make a video but it might turn out bad. October has a lot of birthdays... If you do a little subtraction we all know what our parents were doing for February! Yeah February! LoL Thanks Dad! Thanks Mom!
I'm off to bed. In the morning I have to go to a volunteer thing for little kids! Yey But before that I want to get a run in. So I'll be talking to you all in two days.
Hope you have a good rest of the week.
Check this Video Out!
She's either cute or a good singer! Maybe both!
Stra10
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