Casablanca - the wine valley of Chile

When South America was first explored by the Conquistadores of Europe, the prime goal was to make more money for kings and queens of the old world. One way to make money is by producing good wine, and thus explorers were dispatched to the newly conquered southern lands of South America to look for locations where such business could be successfully conducted. These quests ended up in the discovery of Casablanca Valley - now one of the more known locations for production of, especially, cold climate wine.

We booked this trip following a recommendation by our landlord in Valparaiso. His friend, Englishman Michael Ayandokun, runs Valparaiso Wine Tours (www.winetoursvalparaiso.com), and proved to be an excellent and knowledgeable host.

First he took us to Casas Del Bosque. A relatively new wineyard, but one that already has claimed several international prizes - amongst them "The worlds best red wine". We got a tour of the estate, including an in-depth explanation on the difficulties with growing grapes in Casablanca Valley. There is no running water there for once, so wells have to be dug to ensure growth of the crop. Another thing is the climate that reaches as far down as the freezing point. The way to overcome this is to have huge turbines set up all over the fields to constantly move the air, preventing temperatures from going to low. Sounds like a lot of work? Well, they manage to make a profit all the 13 producers operating out of Casablanca.

Our second stop was with Emiliana Organic. They pride themselves on being the only certified biodynamic wine producer of the Valley. What they do different from the competition is that they try make the environment as natural as possible for the grapes to grow. One thing is having a trolley with chickens that they move around the fields during the day. Another thing is they grow flowers between the wine ranks, making the latter "battle" the flowers for the nutrition in the ground. They also have Llamas, ladybugs, and several other things present in the field, making a trip around the premises quite enjoyable - and something very different.

Another, more questionable thing they do is they use the "powers" of the earth, the moon and the stars with charms and astrology claiming to have impact on the growing grapes. Any effect? Well, the wine they produce is pretty decent but I cannot say the "biodynamic" one was much more different than the "organic" one. Interesting experience though!

Lunch were had in a local restaurant, Macerado,  placed in the middle of the valley and consisted of seafood, an incredible tasty main course with potatoes and pork ribs, and a ridiculous dessert platter. If there is anything I regret about this trip in total is the amount of food consumed during the four weeks. I think I gained in the area of 10-15 pounds - and this just before Christmas where there will be even more food. *sigh* 2014 would be a tough year to get back in shape..

Final visit of the day was at Bodegas RE. Different again from the two previous producers these guys idea is to RE-create and RE-invent the art of making wine. Using clay pots and techniques from biblical times there is little stainless steal to be found around this facility and the results are absolutely on par with today's modern methods. A tour around the bodega is highly recommended - just be advised they have a very friendly dog who eagerly wants to welcome guests. Amongst the three of us, Lars proved to be the favourite:

Being quite the expert on local history Michael told us about the rediscovery of the Carmenere grape. This is a grape that produce red wine, and one that was originally grown in europe. Back in 1863 there was a pest introduced that killed off what was thought to be every piece of Carmenere there was - leaving the Cabernet Sauvignon as this one proved to be immune. Several years later there was some research done on the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, revealing that this indeed was NOT what everybody thought it was, but actually the Carmenere. The wine makers were quick to adjust the process for making the wine to better fit the grape - thus reintroducing the Carmenere to the world in 1994 - some 130 years after it first was thought to be extinct. Pretty exciting! And yes, it is also very good. :-)

After touring Casablanca for a whole day, Michael drove us to Santiago International airport, and our final destination Argentina and the Antarctic. Leaving the continent also meant we had to leave things as Internet and cellphone coverage behind, so sadly no room for blogging along the way. We spent the time taking tons of photos though, so stay tuned. Over the weekend I will shed some light on Fin del mundo (the end of the world), and the great white mystical continent to the south - Antarctica.

Fourth stop - Valparaiso, Chile!

"Valparaiso, how absurd you are.. you haven't combed your hair, you've never had time to get dressed, life has always surprised you". These are the words of poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda - describing the city of Valparaiso. The image below was taken from his study, on the top floor of his Valparaiso residence, now museum, "La Sebastiana":

Back in the 1800s Valparaiso was the leading merchant port on the shipping routes along Cape Horn and Pacific Ocean. If not THE most important city, foreign merchants and capital made it Chile's financial powerhouse back in the day. Disaster struck in 1906 when earthquakes destroyed most of the city. A few years later the Panama Canal opened, leaving Valparaiso as nothing but an expensive and exotic detour. Walking around downtown you can see buildings where construction started before the canal was opened and then just stopped, leaving everything unfinished.

As with La Paz the city is built on a hill. Houses are scattered on top of eachother, climbing steep hills up to the mountain top. One thing "Valpo" has that La Paz doesn't is the "ascencores" - elevators! The first one was built as far back as 1883 and used to run on steam. Now they are all operated on electricity but still fully functional. There are 15 of them in total spread around the city and believe me, after walking the streets and stairs for a while you'll understand why they were built.

We decided to go for one of the "Free" city walks (tour-for-tips) in Valparaiso. We met up at one of the plazas near the harbor and was greeted by screaming gay guide, Austin who wore a "Find Waldo" t-shirt for the occation. The tour started at the pier where we were shown how the shoreline used to be several hundred meters further inland - just like my home town Arendal before the channels were filled! From the pier it was also possible to rent one of many small boats if you fancy a little harbor cruise. I liked how owners not only named the boats after their wives and/or girlfriends, but that they also put "I love" in front of their name, expressing their feelings to the world:

Austin took us back and forth, up and down, and really gave us the grande tour of downtown Valpo. It is amazing with the street art that's everywhere in this city. Even the different steps of long staircases have paintings drawn on them. Food is good everywhere and priced quite reasonabely. We even managaed to find a pizzeria that showed english football, so I got to see Chelsea wipe the floor with West Ham Live! ..

After completing the city walk we decided to go visit Pablo Neruda's old house, La Sebastiana. I have never read any of his poems so to me he is somewhat unknown - but his house on top of the Bellavista hills was simply an amazing spot for taking photos of the Valparaiso harbour. I'm glad I had the wide angle lens on my camera this day as I got several really beautiful shots!

Lars decided to hit the sack early, and me and Chris rounded the day off with some Sushi at a local restaurant. This will be the last time ever I eat sushi on this continent. For some reason they use cream cheese as a compliment to rice on almost anything you order from the menu - making each bite quite the mouthfull. I was completely disgusted after eating a roll of 8 but they kept on coming. If you're into sushi - make sure you order sashimi or spesifically tell the cook NO CHEESE.

In 2003 Valparaiso was declared the cultural capital of Chile. Later UNESCO also gave it a World Heritage status, prompting the tourism to soar. I will probably never return to the status it once had as a financial powerhouse, but tourism is definitely putting Valparaiso back on the map. If you ever fly to Santiago I would strongly recommend leaving the place (like we did) and take the 2 hour bus-ride to Valparaiso. Much nicer city to walk around, much prettier, lots of culture and great food.

Speaking of food; Catering for european tourists they might want to tell the owners of this chain of fast food restaurants to change their logo. It would not pass in Norway and probably run into trouble in most other european countries as well. I must admit though, it made me laugh.:-)

Rapa Nui - the Easter Island!

Finally it was time to board the plane, taking us out in the middle of the pacific to one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world - Rapa Nui. Or the Easter Island as it was named after being discovered by Dutch admiral Roddenveen on Easter Sunday in 1722.

Studies of history claims there once lived as many as 15.000 people on the island, but the huge settlement  led to deforestation and depletion of natural resources, reducing the population to at least one third before it was discovered by the Europeans. They again managed to further reduce this down to just 111 by 1877. When the island came under Chilean administration in 1888 they decided to run it as a sheep farm, confining the 111 indigineous Rapa Nui to the area of Hanga Roa which is the main city of the island.

It wasn't until 1960 they regained access to the rest of the island and the sheep were taken away. Luckily, island life seems to be thriving and according to the 2012 census, Rapa Nui now has 5.800 inhabitants of which some 60% are decendants of the indigenous people. The people in the island are proud of their heritage and very interested in speaking to visiting foreigners and tell them about the island. We caught a show performed by a local dance group showing us some traditional dances:

We had three days to explore the Island. The first one was spent mainly around Hanga Roa, shopping for souvenirs and getting to know our way around the local area. As this village is the only somewhat dense populated area of the Island, navigating by foot became the prefered way of doing things. There are in total 2 ATMs on the Island, quite a few restaurants, and some tiny, charming "supermercados". And of course, everywhere there are souvenir shops - and dogs roaming the streets. :-)

The second day we booked a tour with our french hostess Morgana, who is a resident of the Island on her 7th year now. The number one sight on Rapa Nui is ofcourse the "moai" - the giant statues - that are spread all over the place in a number totalling almost 900. The biggest one that was never finished is as tall as 22 meters and would weigh approximately 1880 tons. Just HOW did the Rapa Nui manage to move these colossal things from the mountain where they were carved to the platforms they were erected? Noone knows for sure even to this date, though several theories are in place.

Morgana drove us west, to Rano Raraku - the volcano which was the "factory" for production of the moai. She told us about the history of the Island - about the "Long ears" and the "Short ears" - and the civil war. In the early days there were many tribes of the island, and each tribe had a system where there was a small group of nobles (long ears), and a large amount of servants (short ears). Apparently the short ears got fed up with making the statues for the long ears and started a riot, killing their masters and pushing most of the statues over, making them fall flat on their faces.

These days there are hundreds of archeological sites spread around the island, learning more and more about life in the early days. However, the very first expedition was led by none less than famous Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl back in 1955-56! Amongst other things his expedition erected one of the fallen statues which is still there today around Anakena beach on the north side of the island. We visited this moai too and it is well documented on our cameras. :-)

The second day we drove to the west side of the island, and the area of "Oronga" - home to the ritual of the cult of the bird men. The "Tangata manu" (bird-man) were chosen for one year at a time after winning a race in the annual ritual. The contestants would jump from a cliff, swim out to the small island of Motu Nui, collect an egg, and return it to shore. After winning, the Tangata manu was sacred for a period of 5 months and his tribe the first to harvest the years supply of bird eggs. The origin of the religion of tangata manu is uncertain, but it was wiped out by christian missionaries in the 1860s. Cave paintings, carvings and the islands itself still stand though and was worth a visit:

Morgana told us she fell in love with the island on her first visit, making her return for a proglonged stay of what was supposed to be 2-3 months. By now those few months have grown into 7 years and it doesn't look like she'll be leaving anytime soon.

For me I think the island life would be a little too simple. The island is to small to explore for a prolonged amount of time, and I guess I would grow restless pretty soon. That being said I absolutely recommend a visit to Rapa Nui as it was a beautiful and exotic place. You're good with 3 days to explore the sights, but add a week if you also like to do some diving which is said to be excellent here. We didn't have the time to try it out, but you'll never know. Maybe some day I too will return on my way to, let's say, Pitcairn Island!