Dad and Kelly Do Santiago

By divine intervention, my dad had a business trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil last week and visited me for two days after his meetings wrapped up. Without exaggerating, I think I had two and a half of the best days of my life...

It all started with a short but steep hike up Cerro San Cristobol (St. Christopher Hill) to visit the famous statue of Mary (called La Virgen). We were enjoying the perfect weather and general splendor of the hike when all of the sudden my dad cries out, "Kelly! Look out!" I take another step forward and then turn around to see what could have possibly aroused such a concerned yell from my dad. Unbeknownst to me, I had just walked over a very real and very angry tarantula. I don't use the word "angry" lightly. The arana pollito (the chilean name for this beast) had lifted up its two front legs and clearly exposed its (non-venomous, thankfully) fangs. I think he was just trying to say, "Welcome to Santiago."

After that near-death experience, we reach the summit and a bird's eye view of Santiago. From there, we hiked back down and made our way to el Mercado Central (Central Market). We entered an old train station-turned-restaurant for lunch and enjoyed an array of fresh seafood. Right before leaving, one of the workers led us to a picture of Bill Clinton drinking a beer in that very same restaurant. Being such big fans of his, we took a picture :). Then we toured several historical buildings in Santiago including La Moneda (like the White House) and the Plaza de Armas. The day ended with a 5-star dinner at Santiago's top restaurant, Astrid y Gaston. This day had set the bar pretty high for tomorrow so I figured the short trip could only go downhill from there.

I was mistaken. At 8:30am on Friday, Dad and I hopped in a truck to the Maipo Valley just south of Santiago to start our bike/wine tour. We started with a homemade breakfast and then made our way over to the Concha y Toro vineyard where we tasted four different wines, including their signature Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon. Then we mounted our bikes and rode all around the valley for two hours. One of the privileges of this tour was the special access we got to a small private vineyard called William Fevre. We saw every step of the wine-making process, from the grape to the shipping truck, and then concluded the tour with another home-cooked meal alongside two highly-rated wines. We returned to my neighborhood at 6:30pm, just in time for dinner at my house.

Since my dad speaks less Spanish than my family speaks English (that is to say, almost none), I served as the translator for the night. It was both fun and challenging as I tried to decipher my host dad's Chilean Spanish into regular Spanish into English. After a few hours, we explored a few more sites in Santiago and then spent the rest of the night at a local jazz club. We felt right at home when the band started playing "Black Velvet" on stage (it actually sounded more like "Black Belbet" because the "v" sound in Spanish is a soft "b"). By 1:30am, we were exhausted so we headed home.

We shared a few hours together in the morning and then Dad flew back to Sao Paulo. The only appropriate way to describe his trip is to say that it was 52 hours of awesomeness.