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| Valparaíso was declared a world heritage site based upon its design and unique architecture. In 1996, the World Monuments Fund declared Valparaíso’s unusual system of elevators (highly-inclined cable cars) one of the world’s 100 most endangered historical treasures. |
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| Old fashioned looking grocery store! |
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| Both Keith and I loved our couple of days in Santiago. The city has a very laid back feel and is filled with beautiful buildings and parks. We took a full day walking tour which was fascinating. This is the view from Cerro Santa Lucia. |
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| Museo Bellas Artes and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo |
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| The smelly but beautiful fish market |
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| There are cafes in Chile known as café con piernas. This translates as Coffee with Legs. They are a type of stand up coffee bar found throughout Santiago and Chile, where business men are served by beautiful, scantily clad women. Very strange! |
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| Chess players in the Plaza de Armas. |
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| Santiago by night from Cerro San Cristobal |
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| Santiago Opera House |
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| Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas |
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| Keith took me to the most perfect place to spend my birthday - Ruca Malen Vineyard just outside of Mendoza. We arrived at 1pm for the 6 course tasting menu with matching wines. It was amzing! The food was delicious and the wines were even better than the ones we had tasted on our cycle the day before. |
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| Merry in the sunshine! It was a very hot day and we spent a couple of hours sat outside after the lunch drinking champagne :) |
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| We were told that we needed to get a bus from the city out to the vineyards and Ruca Malen would be a 20-30 minute walk from the bus stop. After we got off the bus we found ourselves completely lost in the middle of nowhere. After a half hour walk we found a little shop where the owner tried to help us book a taxi. When it was clear that this wasn´t going to be an option he went to ask his friend who had a big red truck whether he would take us and this is how we arrived at the swanky vineyard! |
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| Pretty pretty |
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| We had a really lovely day cycling through the vineyards in Mendoza in a small group of 8 people and stopped at a beautiful winery for lunch. |
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| We visited 4 Bodegas in total and had a tour around each prior to the tasting. |
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| Alta Vista was the largest winery we visited. It is owned by a French family who have a champagne vineyard in France, a desert wine vineyard in Hungary and the one that we visited in Argentina. We were shown the family´s private cellar for which only they have the key. Twice a year the family visits Mendoza to select a few bottles to take back to France! |
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I somehow managed to persuade Keith that it would be a great idea to spend a day at a thermal pool spa in Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes! http://www.termascacheuta.com/spa.html I think he was still a bit sleepy after the 20 hour bus ride from Bariloche and the promise of an all that you can eat BBQ lunch was enough to persuade him. The spa was beautiful with thermal pools from 30 to 47 degrees, a cave like natural sauna and lots of other pools to enjoy. We were picked up from the hostel at 9am and returned at 7pm after a really great day. |
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| The original spa on this site was built in 1904 and became succesful when the Transandine railway line opened in 1910. In 1934 the spa was destroyed when a glacial flood swept through the canyon and it wasn`t until 1984 that the current spa was built with the ruins of the original. |
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| A very green poached pear! |
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| Keith experienced his first mud treatment (twice!). |
