Freude und Freunde (and some wine in between)

Our Saturday night took us to the center of Chilean high culture, the Teatro Municipal - a fancy, old theater from a century long past.  Last night the old theater was center stage for the production of one of the biggest symphonies in history - Beethoven's 9th Symphony, with its awesome Ode to Joy (An die Freude) finale.  It was a decent turnout, although both Kelli and I felt a little over-dressed as many people came in jeans and casual clothes.  It was a great concert - to hear an awesome symphony in this setting was definitely a treat!

Inside balconies of the theater

The central chandelier

Orquestra Filarmonica de Chile

Today we turned our attention to another aspect of high culture - wine.  We headed out via bus, starting out from the Estacion Central and the massive commercial center that it contains...

"...move along, move along, just to make it through"

...to the Viña Undurraga, one of the many vineyards in the area.  This one was founded in the late 19th century by the family of Undurraga and has been churning out red wines from this particular location since.

Our tour guide, Victor Hugo, first led us around the place and explained to us the history of the valley as well as gave us some info about the local culture and background behind some of the wine concepts.

Victor Hugo and a replica of an indigenous statue

He then led us to the vineyard where he showed us the many rows of vines and grapes that are just starting to turn that red color that makes them ready for winemaking.

The prize of the Maipu Valley

After that he led us to the processing center where he showed us the ins and outs of the massive tanks that hold and separate the grape products after they have been crushed.  He also showed us the wine cellar where the wine, once separated, broods in either American oak or French oak (American oak makes for "stronger" wines, whereas French oak makes for "smoother" wines).

The "small" 10,000-Liter tanks

if there were ever a nuclear attack, I think I'd like to be locked down here...

After our tour in the cellar, we were then taken to the wine tasting portion, where we got to try four wines: a white wine, an American oak red, a French oak red, and a dessert sweet wine.

The process for trying a wine is as follows: first you must inspect the color of the wine, noting its clarity and the hue.  Then you swish it around the glass, stirring up all the aromas and then you smell it by putting your whole nose into the glass and taking a substantial whiff.

...and I think i have a lot of nose to whiff with

Then, you drink the wine, being careful to roll it around on your tongue as to expose it to all parts of your taste buds.  I personally liked the white wine the best - the American oak red wine tasted like mesquite barbecue to me (go figure?) and the dessert wine was about as sickening sweet as you could imagine...  but needless to say, after 4 glasses, you're feeling pretty - errr, happy, which is the reason why they shuttle you towards the gift shop after the tasting...

Hardly a one of us left empty-handed!

So the next stop on our Sunday adventure was to a little town called Pomaire, which supposedly held several ceramic shops and other stalls filled with artisan crafts.  Our journey there was confounded by the bus system...

It can get a little lonely waiting for the one bus in all of Chile that will take you where you want to go.

...which had us hop on a bus outside the vineyard which carried us all the way to the outskirts of Pomaire, and then we had to take another bus into the center.  Little did we know that Pomaire is mostly one long street of busy, crowded shops full of all sorts of stuff you don't need.  Our first order of business though - EAT.  So we went to a charming restaurant called Los Naranjos and dined on some traditional Chilean dishes as well as tried some Leche Asada (custard) for dessert.

lots of Chilean spirit in Los Naranjos

our lunchtime serenade

After lunch, we headed out towards the shops.  But like I said, the shops are FULL of stuff you don't need, or would hardly want.  The ceramic stuff was quite cool and very cheap, but unless you're planning on cooking vats of pastel de choclo it probably doesn't make a good souvenir.  The other stuff... well, let's begin the exhibition, shall we?  And believe me, this ain't exhaustive.

Practical and stylish.  Also notice the zombie hands giving the peace sign in the background.  These were everywhere.

Look closely at these egg things, which bear resemblances of Spider Man, the Simpsons, and other icons.  Pokemon apparently is hugely popular here, too...

Mundo Cactus - nothin' but cactus

So after an hour and a half that felt like 5 of wandering and browsing, we decided to head back to Santiago.  Unfortunately for us the bus system to get back is not entirely self explanatory, and we almost got off the bus on the main road expecting to catch another bus back to Santiago (as we had to take 2 buses into the city), until we were stopped by some friendly locals named Cristina and Oscar, a musical duo (singer and guitar player).  They were nice enough to guide us to where we needed to go to get back to Santiago, which we did successfully!  Thank you again, Cristina and Oscar!
     And so with another weekend down we turn our attention once again to returning to the hospital.  Tomorrow we start a brief rotation through the continuity clinic of the Universidad Católica and then towards the end of the week, we'll be in the hospital for kids with special health care needs, especially chronic respiratory illnesses.  Should be interesting, so we'll let you know how it is!