One of our favorite quick weekends away took place in the lush wine growing area of Colchagua, Chile and the town of Santa Cruz.
The adventure began as we drove through the strawberry growing area. (Of course, we had to buy a punnet of strawberries and a bag of palta – avocados – on our way back to Vina!)
After about a 4 hour drive, we arrived at our wonderfully rustic yet elegant hotel, Residencia Historica de Marchihue.
The next day, we visited the eclectic Colchagua Museum – the largest museum in Chile which is owned by the controversial arms dealer, Carlos Cardoen.
The museum had everything Chilean from Mapuche silver, weapons, and cowboy gear
to a recreation of the old Colchagua Railroad station and the 33 miners who were trapped in a copper mine in San Jose.
After a yummy lunch at the Viu Manent vineyard restaurant,
we went to two very local Rodeos, where we saw a show of Sau Sau/ Haka dancers
and Huasos playing musical chairs on horses!
Ben’s favorite part of the Rodeo was the station next to the kid bouncy houses where anyone could step right up and shoot a loaded BB gun in a crowd full of people to win a liquor bottle dangling from a string!
They had lots of BBQ
And my favorite was the huge wine-tasting tent! We were in the major wine region of Chile, of course!!!
The next day, we took a private tour of Viu Manent vineyards
on a horse drawn carriage.
We were given a tour of the facilities,
where we tasted wine out of the barrels
And from the glass.
The grounds were stunningly beautiful with horse back riding next to the vineyards and the Andes in the background.
What a great place for a playground!
Before leaving Colchagua, we had a delicious lunch at Pan Pan Vino Vino
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With one of the best desserts that we had in Chile: a papaya stuffed with blueberry ice cream! Yum!