During the week, I taught a short course on fuzzy logic and fuzzy systems. It was a quick trip through a lot of material and attended by a few faculty and about 10 graduate students. As I still had a bad cold, it was a little draining to teach it but I was glad it was well received.
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| Working with Diego, Felipe and Jimena (with Erhan on Skype) on our port project in Jimena's office |
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| We ate a very reasonable and delicious lunch at this place near the PUCV campus - the restaurant is located upstairs |
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| With my fuzzy logic class at PUCV |
On Thursday we drove to Santiago to pick Rosa Gonzalez up for our weekend road trip. We visited her university -
University of the Andes (not related to the one in Bogota). This is a new campus located in an upscale suburban area to the east of Santiago. The university is a conservative Catholic one affiliated with Opus Dei. The campus is very nice but the facilities for Rosa's departure are very limited - small and crowded. We had a quick lunch at the student canteen and headed out of town before the rush hour traffic.
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| Students enjoy the sun and pretty new campus of University of the Andes |
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| The main administration building took a chapter from the modern pyramid of the Louvre Museum |
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| At University of the Andes in Santiago - this is the library where Rosa has her office |
Rosa was teaching all afternoon at University of Talca at Curico. Curico is a small city south of the major wine valley of Colchagua, where we chose to stay. I arranged rooms at a bed and breakfast we had stayed at a few years ago,
Bellavista, located south of the main Colchagua town of Santa Cruz. As it was winter, restaurants and lodging places in the area were fairly empty. Going south, it got colder and Curico was bitterly cold (a damp cold).
We checked into Bellavista and were upgraded to two adjoining new rooms. Both were splendid - large with comfortable beds and big bathrooms. And, importantly, wood burning stoves. We relaxed with some wine (we brought our own) and watched some of the America Cup soccer before heading to Santa Cruz to eat the best Peruvian restaurant there. This is
La Casita de Barreales, where we ate last year with Ash and Arin. We had a fine meal and turned in with the wood fire blazing in the stove in the room.
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| Randy and I stayed at the Carignan Room, name for a grape varietal |
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| Our blazing wood fire - we went through a lot of wood during our two days at the Bellavista |
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| Our dinner spot - good Peruvian food in a charming setting |
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| The fun roasted corn served as a complimentary nibble - Rosa loves this |
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| Rosa enjoyed a mango Pisco Sour while I stayed with the original version |
I got early and enjoyed exploring the grounds of Bellavista in the morning sunshine. The two friendly dogs kept me company.
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| The swimming pool of Bellavista - would be great in the summer |
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| One of the house dogs - so happy to see me on this wonderful morning |
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| So adorable! |
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| The fruits on the tree at Bellavista - not sure what these are |
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| The amazing grasses (and all landscaping) of the Bellavista |
After breakfast in the friendly main house of Bellavista, we drove an hour through very pretty and rural countryside from Bellavista to Curico. We could not find the small campus of the university immediately but eventually located it and dropped Rosa off. We then drove to the Miguel Torres Winery located just south of Curico. It was very cold but we enjoyed a tour of the winery. We had a small tasting, bought some of their well priced wine (including an organic line named after their mule mascot) then ate lunch at the winery restaurant. This is an elegant place with really tremendous food. Best thing in the Curico area by far!
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| Our guide at Miguel Torres Winery explains the many different kinds of grapes they grow and bottle |
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| Miguel Torres Winery keeps chickens |
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| And their mascot, a mule |
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| These birds are always found at Chilean wineries |
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| Working with the forklift truck |
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| It was bitchin' cold - glad I bought that jacket in Vina |
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| The large central storage area |
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| The lights over the central barrel storage area included shades made of wine bottles |
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| A guest house on the winery grounds is available to spend the night there which could be enticing. The owners' house is next to it but they only come infrequently from Spain. |
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| This is Miguel Torres' organic line and it is a tasty and very well priced |
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| Lunch at Miguel Torres - the complimentary appetizer |
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| My soup was really special and so well presented |
We then drove to the city center to use up the rest of the afternoon. The city center is noted for its large and tree laden central square. We walked through this and could see its charms but it was too cold for us to really enjoy it.
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| The central square at Curico with its mature palm trees |
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| The church on the square was damaged by a recent earthquake as was most of the structures in central Curico |
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| A weird statue of a native Chilean in the square |
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| The New Orleans style bandstand that is randomly in the square |
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| Trying to stay warm in cold Curico - a town we were glad to visit but not anxious to revisit |
We then drove to their mall, located near downtown. This was a big disappointment with hardly any stores and nothing of interest to us. With the possibilities in Curico exhausted we drove to the University of Talca Curico campus. We sought a place where we could read and I could do some editing work. We found this at the library and were reasonably comfortable (though it was still cold even inside as there was no heating) until 6 PM when it closed. We wandered and found a sort of central student area which had a few space heaters and many students talking and studying at large tables. We got an empty table and continued our killing time until Rosa was done with her class about 45 minutes later.
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| The pretty little campus of University of Talca at Curico |
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| We spent a happy hour or so here |
The drive home was in the dark and the first 20 minutes was scary as it was extremely foggy. We eventually drove out of the fog and decided to go straight to dinner in Santa Cruz. This was at
Vino Bello Restaurant, a nice Italian restaurant. We ate quite well there and had a bottle of the local wine then went back for the second night at the Bellavista. We stoked up the wood fire (which was pleasant and a life saver in this cold night) and slept well.
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| Dinner at Vino Bello after a long and cold day |
After another Bellavista breakfast we drove to
Montes, where our friend Alejandro MacCawley had arranged a tour and tasting. The tour was nice in that we took a small bus up the hill into the vines. The tasting was quite deluxe in that they served us only four wines but they were quite expensive ones. All in all, it was a classy experience at a winery we had visited before but never tire of.
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| Our vivacious hostess at Bellavista brings us breakfast |
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| The other adorable house dog outside in the sun |
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| At the Montes Winery - a cold but beautifully sunny morning |
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| On the open air van with our guide driving up the steep hill to vines - the other guests are a U.S. couple - she works in Santiago and he was visiting |
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| Views from the Montes hill |
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| The modern and huge winery |
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| The beauty of the Colchagua Valley |
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| At Montes - note the historic car in the background (red) |
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| The famed Purple Angel icon |
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| The fine wines aging to Gregorian Chants (not kidding) |
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| Wine tasting before noon? Well, in Colchagua Valley, it seems mandatory. |
After the tasting, we parked in central Santa Cruz and enjoyed walking around the square. It is charming and had some interesting vendors. I also peeked in the town church on the square which is simple but sophisticated. We ate lunch outside at
Restaurant Reyuela, the fine restaurant of the Vie Manent Winery which we always visit when we are in Santa Cruz.
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| The fetching central church of Santa Cruz |
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| A Byzantine style Madonna |
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| Someone who was important is immortalized at the Santa Cruz square |
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| Flowers at Viu Manent Winery |
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| Lunch with views across the winery - great road trip! |
We hit the road and took Rosa back to Santiago, dropping her near a large bus station where she could easily connect with the subway. We arrived to Vina in time to go to Jimena and Pedro's country home. They were hosting a BBQ on this Father's Day. Pedro grilled some amazing meats - sausages, chicken and beef while Jimena provided salads and other sides. We drank some Pisco Sours, beer and wine. The guests included a couple of the PUCV faculty and Tim Mattis, the visiting professor from Texas Tech, and his visiting girlfriend Melissa. It was chilly so we ate indoors but all enjoyed the friendly atmosphere. The men seemed to especially enjoy the meat centric menu as is fitting on Father's Day.
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| Pedro, our pit master - what a grill! |
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| Melissa and Tim chill out with Pisco Sours |
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| The beautiful neighboring dogs smelled the BBQ |
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| An interesting plant in the garden - part flowers and part cactus |
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| Randy and Ricardo catch up outside |
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| The BBQ in progress included blood sausage (far right) |
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| The kids chilled out inside |
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| My delicious and pretty healthy dinner included sausage, Chilean Salad (tomatoes and onions), rice and corn and, my favorite, pebre |
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| Jose's kids chow down with Pedro - one of the best Father's Day get togethers ever |
