Ilgonis is writing:
After a tasty breakfast, especially omelette, we said goodbye to the cozy Midsummer house and continued to drive north. And the rain continued to come down from the heaven. Luckily about midday the rain FINALLY ceased and we were able to see mountains still partially covered by clouds. We were joking that the mountains are given back, because on the way to the south when mountains disappeared from the view, Agnes said that they are closed for reconstruction.
We left Panamerican highway and reached Santa Cruz city. At first we visited another Lider supermarket, then it was time for pleasure. Local Eco Bazar does not fulfilled our expectations because it turned out to be a simple craftsman shop.
But the local museum visited by the team of the white car was excellent. There were different fossils, artifacts of Nasca people and other South American Indian cultures. Exposition about colonial times was splendid as well. Unfortunately we had only 20 minutes time to stay there because we had to move forward to wine tasting. One should spend 2 hours at this museum.
We were first tourists who visited Las Ninas winery after a long break. They showed us the vines that of course are not blossoming during the winter, then we admired huge stainless steel and French oak barrels that are used to make and store wine. Then came the most important part, a wine tasting itself. They offered us 5 different wines from the Reserve category – white Chardonnay followed by increasingly thicker and aromatic red wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Syrah grapes.
There was plenty of wine so after the tasting we were in a very good mood and continued our drive to the Santiago arriving there when it was already dark. Our drivers were not so joyful but we kept the tasting wine for them in small bottles. After quite a long drive through the city we reached our accommodation that was very simple where we were sleeping all together in one big room and ate instant soups for dinner. But that’s OK, we are matured travelers.