Saturday, November 9, 2024
This warm day in Chile would be dominated by our half day tour to one the Santiago areas finest wineries, Viña Concha y Toro.
This winery tour would take up most of the afternoon so in the morning after breakfast in our 45 by Director Hotel, we opted for some restocking of much needed provisions left behind in Camarillo in the chaotic rush to leave the dangerous fire zone.
Now, it must be reported that we found Koreen in remarkably good spirits this morning after last night's purse theft incident.
While canceling her lost credit and debit cards late last night she found out that the thieves had already tried to make two purchases at two different liquor stores, one for $650 and the other for $900.
Both had been rejected by her credit card company.
Thank goodness.
45 by Director Hotel lobby chair
The cutting edge of beanbag seating technology.
The cool façade of our hotel situated
in the quiet, up-scale Las Condes sector
I was wearing my Camarillo Stingers
t-shirt in solidarity with Jacob's
team's Super Bowl game tonight
Interesting sculpture garden on
our walking tour to shopping
What is that man doing?
The Gran Torre Castanera
includes a six level Mega-Mall
The Mall was fully decked
out for Christmas
Remember, Thanksgiving is purely an American holiday, thus we had no problem with this motif so early in November in Chile.
This Christmas Tree soars through
five stories of the Mall
We grabbed some awesome empanadas for lunch and then it was time to board our mini-tour bus for the one hour drive to the suburban village of Pirque that the Viña Concha y Toro calls home.
We found these huge pots just outside
the mai entrance to the winery
We had ample time to shop in the
winery's store before our tour started
Viña Concha y Toro seemed to be proudest of their Casillero del Diablo brand of wine.
Casillero del Diablo translates as Devil's Locker.
I just had to have one of these
Casillero del Diablo ski hats
It matches the color of my soul.
Laurie and Koreen doing what
they do best, SHOP!
It was almost time for our tour
that would start through this gate
We still had time to sit at a patio table in the winery's bar to enjoy some of Concha y Toro's wines.
My Carménère red was
DELICIOUS!
The ladies were ready . . .
. . . heck, we were all ready to enjoy
what turned out to be a GREAT tour!
The lady on the left was part of a
group of group of ten MBA students
from Notre Dame University spending
a Quarter Abroad to improve their skills
We wound up bonding with them over the next 90 minutes while strolling through our pristine surroundings, fun people!
The residence of the original family
that built the Concha y Toro empire
The residence had lots of imported
European statuary adornments
The winery grounds were
IMMACUALATE!
In those orange boxes were souvenir wine glasses for each member of the tour.
It must be noted that our guide, Jose, was a wealth of information that made our tour experience top-notch!
Casillero del Diablo white wine
easily my favorite
a solid choice, but we all ranked it #3
Well, truth be told, we were
both a bit giddy by this time
Our tour now took us underground
into the cold wine cellars
As we went farther underground
the cellars got even more interesting
Finally, there we were at the
Devil's Locker with Old Scratch
himself at the far end
After seeing this actual Casillero del Diablo, our tour was over and we headed back to our hotel in Santiago de Chile.
For dinner, we opted for this
nearby restaurant
After spending all afternoon at the Casillero del Diablo, we thought that we should hedge our bets by dining at a restaurant that was named La Virgen.
It was a good choice, that included good food, good service and, most importantly, no negative drama.
The mural across from our hotel
Another solid day of exercise
It was late but at least mentally, our night was not over.
I put my Camarillo Stingers t-shirt back on once back in our hotel room to, hopefully give positive vibrations to Jacob and his team that was due to play at 10:00 p.m. Santiago de Chile time.
Back home, at Santa Barbara City College at 5:00 p.m., our grandson Jacob's #8 seeded Camarillo Stingers Junior Blue team (8-2) was playing the #2 seeded Simi Valley Bulldogs Black team (8-1) in the Gold Coast Youth Football League's Junior American Conference Super Bowl game.
When these two fine squads played during the regular season at Camarillo H.S., the Stingers only home game of the year, the Bulldogs took the measure of the Stingers, 20-8.
But not today Bulldogs!
Jacob is proudly holding the Super Bowl trophy for a reason.
Final Score
#8 Camarillo (9-2) -14
#2 Simi Valley (8-2) - 12
From all we heard, Jacob had a great game at Defensive end that included a QB Sack and two Tackles for Loss plus 100% good long snaps in a game where the Stingers Punting unit proved their metal in high fashion!
Jacob came a long ways this season thanks to his determination, maturation and positive coaching.
2024 GCYFL Junior American
Conference Super Bowl Champions
WAY TO GO STINGERS!
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