Monday, Dec 7th, Santiago to Talca

     We are on our way south.  We waited until after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel to leave on our journey.  The traffic proved to be very light as tomorrow is a big holiday, so, many people had Monday off too.  Nuvi did an admirable job of getting us out of the city and we started off down Ruta 5, for the town of Talca. We stopped at a service station once we were out of the city for diesel and were amazed how much like a WaWa or a Sheetz it was.  All sorts of foods and services.  Jay took over the driving from Dan and we headed off with the Andes to our left (looking much clearer away from the smog of Santiago) and the coastal range on the right.  All seemed fine until we were signaled by a carbinero (the police) to pull over!  Jay handed over his international license and his passport and had the carbineros quite confused as to how to handle his paperwork. The rest of us all had great fun teasing Jay about how we would be bailing him out.  It seems it was just a routine traffic check so we were on our way after about 10 minutes.

     We decided to try Nuvi's talent at finding a restaurant with very little success.  I don't think it was Nuvi's fault, there just weren't that many places to eat, so Dan checked the FODOR's we had brought along and we decided to try the Miguel Torres Winery and Restaurant after reading a very good write-up.  Up till now we had been very unhappy with Fodor's, but decided it paid for itself for finding Micguel Torres for us.  We thought the food in Santiago was good - - -GUAU this place was terrific.  The setting, in the middle of a vineyard was great and the food plus presentation amazing!  We ended the meal with coffee on the veranda surrounded by thousands of grape vines.

     We arrived in Talca at 4:00 and found the Villa del Tillicana easily.  It's VERY different from the Holiday Inn Express.  The boys call it "a bit of the viejo (old) Chile."  - - -but here I am using their Wifi, so who's to complain.  Dan warned me not to take a shower unless I didn't mind the water turning cold before I was done.  We did have a lovely time out behind the Inn sipping wine sitting in their gardens by the not yet ready swimming pool.  We drove back into town for dinner at the Casino Hotel which proved to be just as fancy as lunch!  Amazing presentations of all the dishes and very reasonable.  We resisted the casino and headed back to our rustic rooms.  Buenos noches, D,M,J,P,B & Grandma Peddie

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~~~_/)~~~D&M

As we were packing this morning we realized we were looking out our window at the American Embassy (upper right-Barb says the moat is to ward off terrorists-ha ha). Our other window looked at the tallest building in Chile (left). The lower right shows the building that will be the tallest in all of S.A. when it is finished.

Some caballeros riding along a service road, we thought they might be on a pilgramage to a special church for tomorrow's Dia del Concepcion Immaculata.

We crossed the River Claro on our way by Curico. Most of the rivers we have crossed look like this - - very wide with very little water and certainly not navigable.

Luckily Jay's charm and great command of Spanish kept him safe from the carbineros. This was just a routine traffic check, and he (we) passed!

Pegg kept talking about the "Mauricio ten" referring to the 10 lbs. we put on eating all the great food while in his care, but we can't blame it on him anymore! Our lunch stop today proved to be most elegant. Each entree was "partnered" with one of the wines produced at the vineyard and all were excellent. Dan's seafood platter, including oyster shooters (in the small goblets) was the most dramatic and he says the best.

Very pleasant cocktail hour (or was it two?) enjoyed out by the pool (not yet operational) at our stop in Talca, just a mile off Route 5 on San Miguel Av. in Talca.