Monday morning dawns a bit overcast and cool, but we don’t really care. We’re more interested in reuniting with Ada and Renato then sitting on the beach. We meet in the hotel lobby at 9:30 – with hugs & kisses all around – then head off to our little
Suzuki to tour the coast around Vina.
Ed, the #2 driver (yes, Sigis, you are still the #1 driver in todo mundo!!!!), takes over with Renato as our guide and we head off North to explore the coastline of Chile. We work our way through Vina, and thankfully the traffic is light - and we make it out of town in no time.
We head North with our ultimate goal being Zapillar – an old money town of gorgeous homes along the coast. First, however, we cruise through Vina – down the main avenue – Libertad – past the shops, the restaurants, and the mall, as well as the high rise condominiums at the end of the town limits.
Next up is Renaca, where Ada and Renato have their apartment. A bit down the coast, it is a lovely enclave with restaurants and shopping right on the main shore drive, and a fabulous funicular ride up to get to their apartment facing the beach. Their cousins are there visiting, and we’re so early, they are still sleeping, so we can’t visit, but we still went up to the public areas, the pools, the exercise rooms, the cafe, and wandered around completely in awe of the view and the atmosphere!
Next up, we drive through Con Con, another resort area north of Vina. A very pretty community all built into the side of the massive hills facing the water.
Then we head off through the forest to Horcone – an old hippie enclave that is the cutest little fishing village. One road – straight down to the water – where you park and “pay” guys to to watch your car. There is a little Catholic church here where the statue of the Virgin Mary purportedly cried (and as you can imagine, caused quite the stir!). Now the church is only open if you go and knock and ask to come in. We’re happy bypassing it to wander down to the water where all the fishermen are hanging around selling the fresh fish and shellfish they have caught. At night, when the boats come in around 5 pm, the tide is so low that they have horses pull the boats ashore. How cool!
Obviously, we’ll miss that spectacle, but simply walking around the cute little village is quite enough for us! As we continue on our northward journey, we come into Maicenello, a wonderful family beach with thatched roof houses you can rent. We stop at a little area with vendors – fresh fish like you’ve never seen! – and walk out onto this ricketedy walkway to a huge rock over looking the water. Renato (probably wisely) doesn’t join us! But Ada and Ed and I bravely forge our way out to the rock for the incredible views.
Onward we drive – to the northernmost point of our tour – Zapallar. On the way, it is truly amazing how the scenery changes from beach front to rolling hills and valleys to forests and then to urban/commercial zones. In three hours we have seen virtually every type of habitat and flora and fauna, changing constantly and incredibly right before our eyes.
Zapallar is a beautiful enclave filled with amazing homes (almost mansions) and towering trees all perched on the hillsides sloping down to the water. We stop at a little restaurant right on the bay and have Cortado – the Chilean version of Cappuccino. How gorgeous is this – sitting by the water, in hand hewn wooden chairs drinking Cortado under umbrellas to keep us cool in the shade with our friends. Can’t beat this!
Our tour guide, Renato, tells us it’s time to go – no more rest! So back down South we head for lunch. We have a choice of two restaurants – one that can be very busy. and another, Punta del Este with excellent food, but not as good atmosphere. As it turns out, we’re too late for the atmosphere restaurant ( a 45 minute wait), so we settle in at Punta del Este and have fabulous snacks of empanadas (shrimp with cheese, and marisco), chorillos con parmesan (mussels with parmesan for Ed – looked like a soup with 3 dozen large mussels swimming around), ostienses con ajillo for me (scallops – with the red muscle still attached – and garlic butter) and mixed mariscos with papa fritas for Ada and Renato. Fabulous meal – and so inexpensive! We’re all quite satiated by the time we’re done – and they give us an apertif on the house – menta (chilled mint apertif) and manzanillo for the guys (an apple type liquer) – excellent! We’re happy and relaxed on our way home to Vina.
We get to seista until 7, when Ada and Renato come to pick us up for drinks with Ricardo and Alfredo – whom we met on the Constellation Baltic trip as well. They have an apartment here in Vina and stay here the entire summer season. The apartment is adorable – with a lovely little balcony overlooking the tree lined street. We’re greeted with many hugs and kisses and are shown out to the balcony where we catch up over Pisco Sours and fabulous snacks. Ada had told Ricardo and Alfredo no food – we weren’t there for dinner, just drinks, so their version of no food was little canapés of shrimp, smoked salmon and anchovies, followed by some sort of artichoke puree in a teeny tartlet crust, then a mushroom quiche. No food!
We stayed on the balcony eating, drinking and talking well into the evening. We finally took our leave, promising to stay in touch and hopefully see everyone again soon. Renato squired us back to our hotel and we said goodbye for one final time. Talk about a totally delightful day and night!
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