Category: Travel

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Travel

Muizenberg and Kalk Bay – Beach Towns in the Western Cape South Africa

We stayed in Muizenberg for most of our trip to South Africa as we were doing the IVHQ surfing volunteer program (see our IVHQ post for more info on the surfing program). Muizenberg is about 20-30 minutes south of Cape Town and it is known for its surfing. It is a small beach town with a few surf shops and restaurants. The beach is always packed with people surfing at all times of the day. Along the beach, there is a long line of colorful beach huts that are iconic to the town.

Muizenberg has a great, relaxed beach town feel to it. People are always walking into the shops and restaurants right off the beach in wet suits, swimsuits and flip flops. You can see the Muizenberg mountains from the beach and from pretty much wherever you are in the town. Since you are on the coast the weather is much cooler in Muizenberg than in Cape Town and there is always a pretty strong breeze. Although it is a bit of a drive outside of Cape Town it is a nice place to stay for a few days, especially if you are looking to surf.

Surfing in Muizenberg

We surfed twice per day while we were volunteering with IVHQ, but if you are just there for a visit you can rent boards just across the street from the beach. Multiple surf shops in the town rent for pretty reasonable rates (wetsuits and boards). One thing to note is that there are Great White sharks in the bay and while sightings in the surfing area are rare it can happen. There is an organization called Shark Spotters: https://sharkspotters.org.za that keep a lookout from the mountains and there is a flag and siren warning system to communicate conditions to the surfers/swimmers. There were no warnings the whole week we were there and honestly once you’re in the water you kind of forget about it.

Places to Eat & Drink in Muizenberg:

  • Live Bait for a nice seafood dinner and a view of the beach. This restaurant is on the second story of a building along the beach so it offers great views from the large windows in the dining room.

  • Tiger’s milk for sit down burgers/pub food
  • Easy Tiger for more fast food/quick burgers on the go
  • Bootlegger Coffee Company for the best espresso in the mornings. We walked here every morning and then sat on the beach to watch the waves while drinking our coffee.
  • Lagerchinos – inexpensive drinks and pub food. Nice outdoor seating for a beer after a day on the waves
  • The Striped Horse – Bar with good live music
  • Rolling Wood Surf & Skate – This is a place that was introduced to us by another volunteer the first day. It is a little surf shop that sells really cool boards but also has coffee and some of the best carrot cake we’ve ever had – don’t miss it!
  • Blue Bird Garage & Food Market- we headed to this market with some of the other volunteers on the first day we arrived. It is full of people selling crafts and food/drink vendors selling some amazing food! The market is open every Sunday.

About 10-15 minutes from Muizenberg is Kalk Bay. This is a small beach town with more shops and restaurants- more of a vacation town feel than Muizenberg with a lot more shopping if that’s what you are looking for. The streets are lined with small shops selling clothing, crafts, furniture, and antiques.

Places to Eat & Drink in Kalk Bay:

  • Olympia Cafe- great coffee and great food. We recommend trying the mussels. They were some of the largest mussels we have ever had!
  • The Brass Bell- this place has a wonderful beach view and a small walled-off tidal “pool” area where you can swim in the ocean. This is surrounded by large boulders that you can walk out on when the tide is low. We ate here twice just for the view and the food was also great. On Wednesday nights this restaurant turns into a huge Karaoke bar. We did go to Karaoke night with the other volunteers one night at the Brass Bell (the IVHQ volunteers go every week). Be prepared for a crazy, college bar night experience if you go on Wednesday night.

Links to our other South Africa posts:

Tell us your favorite beach towns, leave us a comment below!

Categories
Travel

IVHQ Surf Outreach: Volunteer Program in Muizenberg South Africa

We were first drawn to Cape Town because we had friends who were living there at the time and wanted to visit before they moved back to the U.S. After doing some research we found a surf outreach volunteer program in the Cape Town area through IVHQ.  As a volunteer, your time is spent teaching and supervising kids as they are participating in an after school surf program. We decided to volunteer for a week and then give ourselves a few days after our volunteer program to visit our friends, explore more of Cape Town and to of course do some wine tasting.

IVHQ/Dreams to Reality Surf Program

The surf program is based in Muizenberg which is about 20-30 minutes south of Cape Town. Muizenberg is a small beach town known for its surfing. The local organization in the Cape Town area is called Dreams to Reality. There are several volunteer programs offered in the Cape Town area; other programs included childcare, teaching, and sports development. We thought Dreams to Reality was a very well run organization that did a good job focusing on the relationships between the kids and volunteers. When we arrived we were picked up at the airport by another volunteer and taken to the house we would be staying at. There are several bedrooms in the volunteer house, each with 4-5 beds. We had people from several of the other volunteer programs in our house. There are several volunteer houses in Muizenberg, all within walking distance of each other so you get a chance to meet a lot of the other volunteers. The other volunteers are awesome. This program was a great way to meet a bunch of people from around the world some of whom we still stay in touch with.

On the first full day we were provided a walking tour of Muizenberg to help familiarize us with the area. We were also given a walking tour of Cape Town and offered several tours through a local tour company- CapeXtreme. We did not book any tours with them so cannot recommend or not recommend them. They did do a nice job of showing us around Cape Town for the afternoon. The tour was more of a brief overview of the city, nothing very in-depth.  We chose to stay after the tour was over and explore more on our own. You can read our Cape Town Essentials post for more details on what to do in the City.

Before this trip, Erika had never surfed and Ryan had done one lesson. You do not have to know how to surf to join this program but you do need to know how to swim. Both of us swam in college so we figured this program would be a good fit for us. On the first day you are given a quick surfing lesson by the instructor and given time to work on your surfing. Each day consists of two sessions, one AM session where you get to surf with the other volunteers. The afternoon session is when the kids come and they get to surf. Most of the kids in the program while we were there were already very good at surfing. As a volunteer, your job is to help the kids get their wet suits on and walk to the beach. Once everyone is at the beach your job is to help keep an eye on all the kids and help out wherever needed. That may mean you get to help push the kids into the bigger waves, help some of the younger kids learn to surf or just play in the water. After surfing everyone walks back to the surf shop and the kids get a meal. Some of the volunteers will be helping kids clean and hang up the wet suits, others will be serving up a simple meal. After the kids eat the volunteers clean up and the kids are picked up and brought home. The program is working to give kids from a local township a good activity to do after school, to learn social skills and responsibility. The leader of the Surf program did a really nice job of relating to the kids and served as a great role model for the program.

When the kids aren’t in school (during the holiday break for example) the times the kids come in may change and on some days they may go to a local park and play basketball or play beach games pending weather conditions and the conditions of the waves.

Check out the IVHQ website for the most up to date lists of programs they offer as they are always adding new opportunities. We would strongly recommend if you do a volunteer trip that you volunteer for more than one week. We are lucky that one week was the minimum requirement needed so that we could do this trip since our time off was limited but it is really difficult to really get to know the kids when you only volunteer for one week. The first day of the week you do spend all day in an orientation so you actually only get to volunteer 4 days if you are there for a week. At the bare minimum, two weeks would be our recommendation so you can do orientation, get your bearings, and also have some time to actually connect with the kids you are there to help.

Link to the IVHQ website: https://www.volunteerhq.org/volunteer-in-south-africa/

Here are the links to our other South Africa posts

Have you ever done volunteer work while traveling? If so where and what did you do? Leave us a comment below!

Categories
Travel

Tulum Ruins, Beach, and Snorkeling

We had heard about how cool Tulum was prior to the trip, but nothing really prepared us for the ancient ruins juxtaposed with the white sand beach and turquoise water. We got off the colectivo from Playa del Carmen and went walked to the entrance. When you arrive at the entrance there will be lots of people trying to stop you and offer tours. You do not have to take a tour, you can pay the entrance fee and walk through the ruins on your own.  We ended up going with a company that offered a boat tour and snorkeling out on the reef for around $10 per person. We first walked through the park on our own to see all the ruins you can see from the land. As you walk through this part you get incredible views of the beach and the water. The ruins are all roped off so you can look and take pictures but you cannot climb on or touch them. We were there on a hot, sunny day and saw lots of Iguana’s laying on the ruins.

After our walk through the park, we headed down to the beach. We found our tour guide and took a small boat out on the water. We were given a brief tour down the shore to see the ruins which face the water and are not visible from land. After that, we were taken out to the reef for snorkeling. All necessary snorkeling equipment was included in our tour cost. We got to snorkel for about an hour. We saw lots of colorful fish, sea turtles and stingrays and got to swim along the reef. After we got back to the beach we decided to walk down the shore for a while. The beach at Tulum is one of the best beaches we have been to. The sand was basically powdered sugar, and the water was clear and turquoise. There are a few restaurants right on the beach so you can sit and enjoy a drink or some food which we would highly recommend. You will need to bring cash because none of them took a credit card while we were there and you need to make sure you have enough cash for the ride back. We regretfully didn’t go into the town of Tulum due to the timing of our trip, but we have talked about making a whole trip to Tulum one day in the future.

For more information on the ruins, visit the website here: https://www.inah.gob.mx/zonas/99-zona-arqueologica-de-tulum

What are your favorite places in Mexico that you have explored? Leave us a comment below!

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Travel

Ek Balam and Cenote Maya through Alltournative Tours

We chose to do an all-day excursion with the Alltournative Tours company. The Alltournative company gives a portion of the fees they charge back to the communities and local people in the area. They work to offer tours that promote cultural awareness and promote conservation efforts in the area. We chose a tour that spent part of the day swimming in a cenote followed by a lunch of traditional Mayan food.

The second part of the day was spent exploring the Ek Balam ruins. The Cenote Maya is the largest cenote in the Yucatan. The area around the cenote is a garden area with traditional Mayan homes so that guests can see how the Mayans lived. We also got to see a traditional shaman ritual before entering the cenote.

You have two options for getting down to the cenote; you can rappel down or you can take a staircase. I am scared of heights so I opted for the stairs. Ryan rappelled down. Once you are in the cenote you can swim, and zip line over the water. The water is fairly cold and also very clear. you can see some small fish swimming around. They will ask that you rinse off in a shower stall before entering the water and to not apply sunscreen before getting into the water in efforts to keep this water source clean.

After lunch, we were off to Ek Balam. There are multiple old ruins at this site, which is less visited than other Mayan ruins. While you are visiting you can walk on and climb through all of the ruins. You are given a tour of the grounds with an explanation of what all the different buildings are. This tour is offered in English, we also had French speakers in our group so they split up from us and were given the tour in French.

After the tour, you have time on your own to walk through the ruins. There is also a small market in the parking lot near the entrance where local people are selling crafts and locally made liquors and other goods. We got to sample a local liquor called Xtabentún. This is made from anise seed and honey. It has a very distinct flavor, we enjoyed it and would recommend trying it while there since it isn’t something we have ever been able to find it in the U.S.  The people in the market are very nice and will offer to show you things and explain to you what they are but they will not haggle with you or pressure you to buy.

Here is the link to the tour we took with Alltournative Tours

https://alltournative.com/servicio/ekbalam-cenote-maya/

For more on Playa del Carmen, where we based ourselves for this trip check out our post: Home-base for the Yucatan

What cenotes and/or ruins have you visited in Mexico that you would recommend? Leave us a comment below!

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Travel

Playa Del Carmen: Home-base for the Yucatan

For a good balance of a beach vacation and great activities, Playa del Carmen is a great place to base yourself to explore the Yucatan. We stayed for a week in a small bed and breakfast in the Playacar area. We were walking distance from the main beach and tourist area full of shops and restaurants. We were also only a short walk from a beach which was less crowded and quieter than the Playa del Carmen public beach.

The bed and breakfast offered a rooftop pool and a backyard pool. We spent several evenings on the rooftop by the pool and were the only guests up there. The host did not speak English but did try to be as helpful as possible. Breakfast included eggs, fruit, and yogurt as well as coffee and fruit juices each morning. This was not a luxury bed and breakfast but it was affordable and the location was great. We would recommend Bed and Breakfast Buen Dia Playa if you are planning to stay in the area.

From Playa del Carmen you can easily get to the city of Tulum and the Tulum ruins, Cancun, Akumal, take the ferry to Cozumel, and many other locations up and down the Yucatan coast. We did not get to all of these areas on this trip.  We did get to the Tulum ruins and also did a day-long tour that included swimming in a cenote and exploring a Mayan ruin site – Ek Balam. Playa del Carmen itself also has lots to offer so we spent several days there enjoying the beach and the food. Playa del Carmen is about an hour south of Cancun, we flew in and out of Cancun so the last day we traveled back to Cancun and spent the day there so we were closer to the airport to catch an early morning flight back home.

For getting around in the area, you can take the ADO bus to/from Cancun/Playa del Carmen. The bus is very affordable, air-conditioned, and comfortable. We used it and would recommend it to anyone traveling in the area.

Taking a Colectivo is also a good, cheap option for getting between cities in the area. These are white vans which you can take for a small fee. They depart from the pick-up point as soon as they are full. There are several specific pick-up/drop-off points in Playa del Carmen. They fill the van with as many people as they can so prepare to be sitting very close during the ride. The vans are full of local people going to/from work as well as other tourists. There is a drop-off point right at the Tulum ruins so we took a colectivo from downtown Playa straight to the ruins and then back when we were done exploring for the day. They run very frequently so you shouldn’t have to wait long for the next available ride.

Things to do in Playa del Carmen: Our time in Playa was focused on the beach and the food!

The Beach

The public beach is lined with small restaurants serving cheap food and beer with a view of the beach. We ate at several of these small places during our stay. We had some delicious ceviche and tacos for lunch without ever having to leave the beach. Señor Frogs- super touristy and we would not recommend eating here but, it is located right next to the pier where the ferry boats leave from to head over to Cozumel. We did stop for a beer on our way back to our bed and breakfast several nights. The location offers tables right next to the water and you can watch the ferry’s come and go. For the location and view it’s worth a stop for a beer or two on the beach.

The Tequila 

While wandering through the shopping area we were persuaded to stop in and do a tequila tasting. This is definitely a touristy place but prices are negotiable so don’t just pay what they initially offer as the price. We knew there would be pressure to purchase a bottle but we wanted to try to find some tequila that we wouldn’t be able to buy back home so we figured we would go in. We got to try several different bottles and were shown a lot of small-batch tequilas we definitely won’t find at home. We ended up buying a bottle that was aged in cherry wood giving it a very different flavor than you typically get in tequila. If you are willing to spend money on a bottle this store does have a good selection and there are several of these stores in the main shopping/tourist area by the beach so you don’t have to go far to find one.

Alux Cave Restaurant 

This restaurant in downtown Playa away from the main tourist/beach area. It is in a cave which was something we had never experienced so we decided to go. This is a nicer restaurant, it was still cheaper than a night out in the U.S but was by far the most expensive meal we ate in Mexico. We would recommend this restaurant for a nice dinner while in Playa, the food was great and it’s a nice atmosphere. The restaurant is quite large, there were lots of other people there the evening we went but also there was a rather empty portion of the restaurant which we wandered through to get more views of the cave before heading out. We would recommend taking a taxi to/from the tourist/beach area to this restaurant as it is a long walk.

El Fogon – Best tacos in Playa del Carmen

We had read from several different travel blogs and reviews online that El Fogon had the best tacos al pastor in Playa del Carmen. Ryan had traveled to Mexico for work many times before we took this trip but I had never been to Mexico and had never had real tacos al pastor. We had tried to recreate these tacos at home many times before and each time they were really good but Ryan assured me that they were not really a pastor. So needless to say tacos al pastor was really hyped up in my mind before we even left for Mexico. We walked to El Fogon one afternoon and it did not disappoint! The restaurant is nothing fancy at all, it has bugs bunny and tweety bird panted and the wall along with some other old cartoons and basic tables with plastic chairs but the food is amazing! You can see the pastor being rotated on the vertical spit and everything else cooking on the grill as you eat your food. The food is also super cheap, we each had two beers, we had multiple tacos and a gringa and the total bill was about $14. Definitely worth a stop or two while you’re in Playa.

La Coronela Restaurant

As we wandered around Playa in the main tourist/beach area full of shops and restaurants we stumbled upon this very small, family-run restaurant. Nobody was standing outside trying to get us to come in and eat, which most of the restaurants in the area will do. This place was amazing, everything was delicious and all homemade. We actually loved it so much we ate there twice during the week we were there. We would recommend the pastor style fish. We did enjoy the coconut shrimp but they were a bit sweeter then we expected.

We spent about 3 days of our trip just relaxing and exploring around Playa del Carmen. The rest of our trip we spent exploring further out in the Yucatan. As we said Playa del Carmen is a great place to base yourself as you are not that far from a lot of other activities/cities. Other things we did on the trip include; the Tulum ruins and snorkeling, swimming in a cenote, and exploring the Mayan ruin site of Ek Balam, and spending our final day in Cancun before flying back to the US.

24 Hours in Cancun

Due to our early morning flight, the last day of our trip we headed to Cancun. We stayed in a small apartment downtown. We took the local bus to the hotel zone which is along the beach where all the resorts are. There is public beach access so even if you aren’t staying at one of the resorts you can still enjoy the beach. The restaurants and shops in this area are very touristy. We were starving and did end up grabbing a quick lunch in this area. The food was okay but overpriced and nothing tasted authentic. We would recommend eating in downtown Cancun then just spending time in the hotel zone if you are looking to enjoy the beach. Our host recommended an Argentine restaurant (Restaurante San Temo Argentino) that had recently opened up just down the street. We walked there for dinner and would highly recommend it. You can see them grilling all the various cuts of meat from all the tables in this small restaurant.

We really enjoyed our time in Playa del Carmen itself and the surrounding area of the Yucatan. We found Playa del Carmen to be a great central location to stay while you explore the region. Links to Yucatan day trips:

Tell us your favorite places in the Yucatan, leave us a comment below!

Categories
Food Travel

Hidden Gem Near Cancun: Fish Market Mar-Bella Raw Bar Grill

This restaurant was highly recommended to us by the host at our apartment on the last night of our trip.  We didn’t make it to this restaurant that night since we decided to go somewhere within walking distance and this was a little further away. But when we went back to the Cancun area for Ryan’s brother’s wedding we were determined to leave the resort and find this place.

The resort staff actually tried to talk us into another restaurant, but we insisted this was where we wanted to go and we were not disappointed. You walk into what looks like basically a convenience store and you would not know that there was a restaurant if you didn’t know to look for it. You walk up a small spiral staircase and once you are upstairs there is a small seafood counter to the left and the restaurant to the right.

The restaurant is right on the water so you see the beach and the small fishing boats as you eat. You order from the list of all the fresh seafood at the counter. Items can be cooked in a variety of ways. Fish is on order by the kilo.  The server can tell you the different ways they can cook everything and offer recommendations.

We were lucky enough to find a waiter who did speak English well and could help us out. Spanish would have helped with the majority of the staff there. We had a group of 5 of us so we ordered a ceviche, a whole fish, grilled and served with risotto and veggies on the side. We also tried a few chocolate clams: a few of us had them raw with a squeeze of lime juice and the others tried them grilled in a butter sauce. Everything was delicious and very fresh. We would highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the Cancun area.

You can visit their website for more information: http://www.mar-bella.com.mx/en/

What are you favorite restaurants near Cancun? Leave us a comment below!

Categories
Travel Wine

A 10 Day Road Trip Through Central Chile

Our first big international trip was to Central Chile in November 2015. We were inspired by our love of Chilean wine, all things food, and wanting to see the Andes Mountains. Due to everything we wanted to get done is such a short trip, we decided to rent a car.

We started in Santiago, and from there went to Casablanca valley for some wine tasting on our way to Valparaiso which is a vibrant port city on the coast. From there we headed to the Colchagua Valley to spend a few days wine tasting and then back to Santiago.

While the roads were overall well marked, we did have some issues with Google maps being in Beta mode while we were there so occasionally our phone would tell us to turn on a road that wasn’t there, once even telling us to get on the highway where there was no on-ramp. One recommendation we have would be that while your in Santiago you don’t need a car and driving in the city is a bit chaotic. Also, we were not able to find an automatic car so be keep that in mind when you are looking for cars.

One note on wine tasting in Chile- reservations are needed in advance for most (if not all) wineries. Tours typically include a tour of the vineyard and winery followed by a tasting at which you are accompanied by a sommelier to help teach you about each wine as you taste.  Everywhere we went had tours were offered in English among other languages (some variation of Spanish, French, German, and English at almost all of them), they were all well organized and responsive.

Here is what we did at each stop

Santiago:
We stayed in Santiago at the start and finish of our stay, and we stayed at the Hotel Altiplanico Bellas Artes, which was a small boutique hotel that was actually quite reasonably priced. It had a great location within walking distance of everything we wanted to do. The people at the front desk were incredibly helpful and allowed us to keep our bags there after we had checked out while we were waiting for our flight. There is a free walking tour of the city which we would recommend, and we did do in Valparaiso later on in our trip but didn’t end up doing it in Santiago. Instead, we explored the city on our own.

We love food so we set off to find the Central Market (Mercado Central) which is the main fish market. Prepare for each restaurant you pass inside the market to try to get you to sit down and eat there. We settled on a small, quiet corner restaurant near the center of the market where we had some sea food and wine. It was good, we got a sampler of multiple different types of seafood – most of which we had never heard of or seen before. It was definitely targeting tourists, and while we did eat there and it was cool to walk around, you can definitely find better seafood somewhere else. Just across the main road, there are a series of markets: the Mercado Vega and the meat market is also a great place to wander through and see all the local fruits and veggies as well as meat. It is full of local people doing their shopping, not very many tourists in sight. We didn’t have any issues in the market but had read ahead of time to just be mindful of your belongings as it is a crowded area and pick pocket is known to happen. As you walk around the city you can see the Andes mountains in the distance.

Be sure to walk around the central square and see the Santigao Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful as are the buildings around it. You can walk inside the Cathedral as long as it is not in service. The Bellavista area is also a nice place to walk around, full of shops and restaurants, a bit touristy but a pretty spot to stop for a snack or a drink. There are also a bunch of vendors and if you are looking for something Lapiz Lazuli (the national stone), you will find a ton of it here. Be sure to try a Pisco sour- there is some debate about whether this drink is really from Peru vs Chile bit either way they are good and something new to try while you are there. We also went to a restaurant and wine bar called Barrica 94, where we had a Chile vs. France wine tasting and Chorrillana (Beef & fried egg loaded french fries!) which you need to try at some point in Chile.

A highlight for most people is getting to the top of Cristobal Hill. I am not so good with heights so the funicular ride up to the top deterred me from going all the way up even though Ryan tried very hard to convince me it was a must do. Instead, we walked part way up the hill and spent some time in the Zoo which is on the hill and offered spectacular views of the city as you walk through. Finally, we walked up Santa Lucia Hill, which is the remnants of a 15 million-year-old volcano and right in the center of the city. There are several lookout points that provide incredible views of the city and snow capped Andes. After a few days in Santiago, we headed west to Valparaiso, stopping on the way in Casablanca Valley to tour & taste at Loma Larga Winery.

Loma Larga Winery:
Our next stop was Loma Larga Winery in the Casablanca Valley. This winery had several options for their tour and taste including a helicopter ride, horseback, or just the tour and taste. We opted for the horseback ride tour through the vineyard followed by a tour of the winery and a tasting. We rode through the vineyard with our guide and two cowboys. Ryan’s horse’s name was Farcas – named after Leonardo Farcas, a Chilean businessman and 2009 presidential candidate due to the similarities in the horse’s mane to the politician’s hair.

The winery and wines themselves were excellent – Casablanca valley has a cooler climate than other regions of Chile due to the moderating effect of the Pacific which shows through in their wines. The whites are crisp, and while the reds don’t get as big and bold, they have a high level of concentration and are able to produce excellent Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

Casa Marin:
Casa Marin is a very small winery and while it is technically in the San Antonio Valley, there are not many other wineries that are very close by. This winemaker here is the first female wine maker in Chile. This place caught our attention because they have several small guest houses in the vineyard where you can stay. We stayed one night in one of these houses which was wonderful.

We arrived and had our tour of the winery and tasting (we were the only visitors there at the time) then we were brought up to our house in the vineyard. We had chosen a dinner menu prior and dinner was pre-made and delivered to the house of us to warm up sous vide when we were ready to eat. The kitchen was stocked with several bottles of wine from the winery which we could drink as many as we wanted and the cost was added to our bill at gift shop pricing. This allowed us to taste more wines than the ones included in our tasting. The living room of the house has large glass windows so you can sit comfortably inside and watch the sunset over the vines with a view of the ocean off in the distance. There was also a giant porch outside overlooking the vines, which we did yoga on in the morning.

Valparaiso:
Valparaiso is a port city and is known for its colorful buildings and many hills. The city is full of funiculars you can take to get you up/down the various hills. We did the free walking tour of the city the first full day we were there. We met at Anibal Pinto Square, look for the Guides with the red shirts that say “FREE TOUR” that is the company name (this same company offers a tour in Santiago as well). Tours leave Monday to Sunday at 10 AM and 3 pm. The tour included a stop at a small empanada shop where you could purchase a snack if you wanted. We would highly recommend trying empanadas while you are in Chile, they were amazing everywhere we had them and you can get them either baked or fried. The tour is free but tips are encouraged if you enjoy the tour which we definitely did – we tipped around $10 USD per person. The tour ended at the waterfront where our guide recommended we take the short boat tour around the harbor (not associated with the free tour).

Our whole walking tour group (about 8 people) decided to do the boat tour together as well. The walking tour was in English but the boat tour was only offered in Spanish. We didn’t understand everything they were saying but we did get to see sea lions and got a great view of the city from the water.

Valparaiso is a great city to walk around and explore. The street art is amazing and is actually “art” not just graffiti tags. While there are some graffiti and issues with buildings being tagged the majority of what you will see walking through the streets is really amazing work by a variety of artists.

  • Valparaiso Stairs

We spent one day after Valparaiso driving north up the coast line. We stopped at a restaurant right on the beach in Vina del Mar for a Pisco Sour and walked along the beach watching the surfers and bodyboarders. After stopping there we continued on further up the coast. The coast line is beautiful, it’s similar to the rocky coast line of California. There are lots of places to pull off and get out to walk on the beach or just watch the waves for a bit.

We also came across some very large sand dunes, Dunas de Concon. We stopped there and Ryan rented something similar to a snowboard and a candle. It was really inexpensive and charged hourly, but it took some charades to figure out that the candle was to wax the board to make it go faster. We climbed the dunes and got a great view of the water far below, and Valparaiso in the distance. Dune boarding as a concept sounds pretty cool, but in reality, it just looks cool. I would definitely do it again, but it is like snowboarding but you can’t turn that well and you have to climb back up on your own.

Overall, this day of driving the coast with no real plan was probably the favorite day of the trip for us both. In Vina del Mar you will drive right past Wulff Castle as you come in from Valparaiso. The pictures we saw before we went made this place seem much larger than it was. It was pretty to see but is much smaller than we expected and probably not worth the trip to Vina del Mar on its own. It also had very limited parking, so you might want to keep that in mind if you are driving yourself. Vina del Mar is a nice beach town to walk through with some nice places to eat or have a drink with a view of the beach. While in Vina del Mar be sure to stop at Empanadas Mauricio for some of the best empanadas we had during our trip.

Colchagua Valley:
This valley is where a lot of the wineries we had heard about in Chile were located so we spent two days wine tasting in this area. The wineries in the valley are fairly close together so you can do more than one in a day. The tours last a couple of hours. We did drive but we did run into a couple who was biking to/from each winery.

Los Vascos: This winery is owned by the Baron Philippe Rothschild family of France. We had heard of their winery in Bordeaux so we were interested in trying their wine while we were in Chile. The tour was interesting, taking us through the vineyard and throughout the winery. They use barrels from the Rothschild cooperage (same as their winery in Bordeaux). The wine tasting here offered large samples of four different wines, and we tasted with the sommelier.

Montes: We were excited about this winery before we arrived because they were one of the first Chilean wines we tried and loved. Costco sometimes has their cheapest line of wines which run about $10 and are a great deal. We were very excited to see the winery and try their higher quality wines. The winery is beautiful and they have a restaurant on site where we had lunch and enjoyed a beautiful view of the valley and mountains. Since we were there, they also added another restaurant that is focused on grilling and smoking meat. The winery and vineyard you tour are dedicated to their ICON wines: Folly, Purple Angel, and M. The rest of their wines are made at a higher volume facility in Central Valley. The entire winery is designed with the principles of Feng shui in mind, and they pipe the sound of chanting monks into the barrel room. The theory is that the vibrations from the sound help with the contact between the barrel and the wine.

Montgras: At this winery, we skipped the tour since we had already toured several of the other wineries. Instead, we arrived for a late lunch which was a four-course meal with a wine pairing for each course. We sat outside in the wineries courtyard area and were the only people eating there at the time which was nice. After our meal, we joined a small group that had just finished their tour of the winery and got to enjoy a tasting with them.

Lapostolle: The sommelier that gave us this tour and tasting was the best. It is the best tour we have had at a winery so far and it is definitely due to the knowledge of the sommelier we had. The building is beautiful and is carved into the mountainside to help protect from earthquakes. The whole winery was designed to move the wine from floor to floor by gravity with no use of pumps. You start on the top of the mountain where the fermentation vats were, then works down to two progressive barrel rooms. In this facility/vineyard, they produce only their ultra premium Clos Apalta wine, which may have been the best wine we have ever tasted.

From Colchagua, we drove back to Santiago for one more day walking around and exploring the city before heading back home. We would definitely recommend this area of Chile for anyone, even if you are not a wino like we both are. Santiago and Valparaiso are great locations with plenty to do. The country is beautiful, and while we just saw a small bit in the center, it has a lot to offer from the Atacama in the north, the Andes in the East, Patagonia in the South, and the Pacific coast in the West.

Have you visited Chile? What were your favorite places, leave us a comment below!

Categories
Travel Wine

A Morning in Parras, and Wine Tasting at Don Leo

The Mexican winery that got the most praise in our internet research was Don Leo – which is about one hour from Parras de la Fuente. It is situated 7000 feet above sea level in its own small valley. Saturday morning we woke up, took a very cold shower (no heat!), and did a quick yoga. We then went into town to see about some breakfast – I had found a gordita place on TripAdvisor, but we were not able to locate it. We did get some gas at the Pemex since we were just under a half tank and the stations are sparse in the desert. After refueling, we continued our search for breakfast, which ended up at Casa Vieja, which was a small family-run restaurant that served some really good Cafe de Olla and huevos divorciados along with some elephant ear-like glazed tortillas. The eggs were great, and both the red and green salsas were very good. After breakfast, we decided to head up to Iglesia de Santo Madero. The curvy path we took was a bit sketchy and precarious, Siri wanted us to go up a steep road that our trusty Nissan March was terrified of (so was Erika). We finally got up to where the walk to the church starts and took a few pictures. The hike up to the church is a pretty wide brick path width steps on one side. You spiral your way around the church on the way up and there are a few benches along the way to take a rest or picture on the way. Where the path ends, steps start to the top of the hill. You can take the path on the left, which is made up of really steep stone steps, or the right, which has more gradual and consistent steps. We took the left route up, and on the way you up there is a short tunnel you walk through with a few places to light candles under a crucifix on either side. Once at the top, you have a great view of Parras below and are up at the small chapel. We took a few pictures and headed back down. There were great views not only of the valley but the surrounding mountain range that Parras is in the foothills of.

After the quick trip to the church, we headed back into town and got some cash before departing for Don Leo. We ended up stumbling upon a more lively market in a square near Las Parras De Santa Maria (restaurant) with a lot of cool stuff. We tried and bought some whiskey cream, but they also had Pecan cream liqueur that was good. They had a lot of wine-themed accessories and decorations. We knew we would be really early, but our map said it was an hour’s drive from our hotel so we didn’t want to take any chances. We were initially under the impression that Don Leo was in the Parras region, and while it technically might be, it is completely different. From Parras, it is about a 45-minute drive closer to Saltillo (but not taking the toll road). Then after a really scenic drive through orchards, desert, eroded river beds, and Don Leo signs meant to encourage you that you are on the right road, you reach the entrance sign for Don Leo. Picture driving through the desert without having seen a building for 25 miles and turning right on a dirt road that leads up the mountain – it was a nice looking sign that told us we were at least on the right path.

It was another 10 km or something up the mountain on this dirt road climbing roughly 2k feet of elevation to be at the roughly 7k ft of elevation Don Leo says they are located. Since we were about 45 minutes early we took the ride really slowly and took a bunch of pictures – it is a really pretty ride up, which ends up in a huge clearing in a high valley that resembles a bowl surrounded by mountains. In the middle, there is a massive field of cattle grazing on grass. In the distance there at other crops that are difficult to distinguish from the distance. You finally veer to the right to end up at the winery with the vineyard surrounding it. It was by far the most refined place we visited. We parked and found our way to the reception desk where we gave them the reservation names and paid. We were lucky that a nice English speaking gentleman that worked there caught our poor Spanish and showed us around for a few minutes since we were waiting. We walked around on the balcony and took in the views, which were great! When it got closer to our tour time, we went back to the reception desk where they corralled us onto a trailer for a vineyard tour. As I had expected, the tour was in Spanish (our communication in setting up the reservation made it sound like there was a chance at English) which wasn’t a huge deal: I can understand a fair bit and we have been to enough wineries to know what they are doing. We just missed some of the specifics of what made Don Leo unique. What I did gather is that they are a bit unique to the other Mexican wineries in that they are situated at a higher elevation. This allows them to grow grapes the others would not, such as Pinot Noir, Semillon, and others. When we got back to the winery after a trip around the vineyard, we unloaded and descended the steps ok to the barrel room – as with any winery, this is usually the highlight that most people get excited about and this one did not disappoint. It actually reminded me of a larger Loma Larga (Chile)- with backlit “Don Leo” signs in an otherwise dark room, all the barrels in neat rows, and ready for the pictures. From the barrels, I saw they used American, European (Hungary), and I heard our guide say French barrels (I didn’t see any though). There was also another tour going through their tasting in the barrel room, so it was a bit difficult to understand him. We then went into the winery – very modern and clean in comparison to the old Casa Madero winery we had seen the day before. He then proceeded to talk through the entire winemaking process from grapes to crushing/destemming to fermentation, pressing, and fining. Well, I am assuming so – my winemaking Spanish vocabulary could be a bit better, but he was very thorough in his explanation.

After another 15-20 minutes we had finally sat around a big table for the tasting (this was about an hour and 20 minutes in and we were getting restless). We sat down to a cheese and meat platter, with three tastings coming up. He then went into the tasting process (See/Swirl/Smell/Sip/Savor) as we stared longingly at our wine glasses hoping for permission to taste. The actual tasting, food pairings, and wine were all very good. We ended up liking the Cab/Syrah the best of the wines we tasted. There was also a Zinfandel rose (thankfully it was dry), and Merlot – which was good, but not as full-bodied after having the Cab/Syrah (I probably would have structured the Merlot before the Cab/Syrah). After the tasting, some of the group went upstairs to have a meal paired with wine, but we didn’t opt for that and just bought a bottle of Syrah, which we hadn’t tried, and started our journey back to Saltillo.

-Overall impression of Don Leo was that they were putting in a lot of effort to educate the people on wine: what it is, what the process is, how to taste it, etc. The guide at Rivero Gonzales had mentioned that they are trying to create more of a wine culture in Mexico since right now people view it more as a mixer (sweet reds, sangria, etc.). In that regard, I think Don Leo is doing a good job on the education side. I would say that the tour, while educational was a bit drawn out – two hours total for a tour and tasting of three wines is a long time. I think a solid hour could have kept people a bit more interested. To be fair, I was listening in a second language that isn’t super strong in an echoey loud room and I was just tired of trying to listen. The winery, vineyard, and surroundings are all really nice, and the wine was quite good.

– Tour- 7/10 English would have been nice, but more points were deducted because it was a bit longer than I thought it needed to be.

– Tasting 8/10 – He did a nice job of walking through the tasting process, the wines were all good, and the pairings were actually really good. For an almost 35 minute tasting, I probably would have preferred 4 or 5 wines (or cut the time down a bit) we talked about the wine sitting in the glass in front of us for 15 minutes before our first taste. The group was probably also about 25 people, which was part of the reason it took so long and made it much less personal. Ideal for this style of tour/taste would have probably been 10-12

– Wines – 8/10 All of the wines we tried were solid, nothing blew my socks off though. That being said, I would have liked to try their premium bottle – which I am guessing received first-use oak and better concentration. We probably also would have bought a bottle of it if we had.

– Winery/Vineyard – 9/10 it is an impressive place. Not a large scale operation, but the whole experience of the drive into the winery itself is on par with some of the better wineries we have been to. The view itself is worth the drive.

After we worked our way out of the Don Leo estate, we took the long backroad to Saltillo since it doesn’t make sense to backtrack to Parras to take the toll road. You are basically crossing the Coahuila Desert and you won’t see many cars, have any cell service, or see a gas station so make sure you are prepared (I preloaded a map before departing Parras). It is a really scenic route though and if you aren’t in too much of a hurry, plan to stop to take pictures.

Here are the links to our other posts about more wine tasting in this area of Mexico:

Rivero Gonzalez Wine Tasting

The Oldest Winery in North America

You can visit Don Leo’s website here: https://www.vinosdonleo.com/home/

What countries have you wine tasted in? Where would you recommend? Leave us a comment below!