Bike&Wine Tour

Chile is known for its great wines that suit any occasion. At home in your jammies, a night out with the girls, for lunch or dinner, with meat or with salad...

La Bicicleta Verde, "the Green Bicycle" offers bike tours in the beautiful Maipo Valley. Our group of enthusiastic freetime cyclists got to spend a wonderful day out in the country side, getting to know the local viniculture, and, of course, tasting wines.


Getting the gear ready.

At least this helmet head supports green tourism!

The process of wine making is still going, hence the glass contains red grape juice.

The assembly line of the tour's first vineyard out of three, a little vineyard called Viña Cardonal. This is where their white wine Don Carlos gets labels.

And is packed for sales.

Lukas cycling on the lands of Viña Cardenal.



Horse carriage and men at work in Viña Perez Cruz.

Chilean climate offers unique conditions for the grapes to grow. Lots of sun and cool nights!

Pedaling to keep up with others.

Viña Perez Cruz has a lot of gorgeous land.



Trial sample number 1. The best part was to get to try the wine - straight from the fermentation tank!

The earthquake harmed the winemakers, too. This year's harvest didn't suffer, but last year's ready wine in the tanks and in bottles was destroyed in many parts.

Viña Huelquen in autumn colours.

Quality check for grapes - - passed!

Nice outdoor serving of wine and cheese was awaiting for us in the garden of the winemaker.

After the tour everyone was naturally hungry - and thirsty - and we enjoyed Chilean specialities accompanied by the wines. After the lunch, I made friends again with the restaurant's mascots, although the white girl was giving me looks for paying too much attention to the "little" 13-month-old baby...

Tired but happy on the way back to Santiago, we spotted more damage made by the earthquake. There the bricks crumbled like a piece of cracker!

A Winter Week In Spain

Before I travelled to Chile in January, I spent one week in Spain with Lukas. He was assigned to spend a month in Alcalá de Henares, some 30 minutes from the centre of Madrid.


Alcalá de Henares

The plateresque facade of the old Alcala University.

The inner courtyard of Alcala University.

La Puerta de Madrid.

The main street, Calle Mayor, in Alcalá de Henares.

The historical centre of Alcalá de Henares is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. It's called La Plaza de Cervantes.

The sun setting on the building created a nice vintage atmosphere.

Near our hotel outside of the centre of Alcala was a little square filled with different tapas restaurants, where you could just pick and choose whatever tickled your fancy. For the most nights after the evening snack, it was Guinness.

We went to the Spanish extension of the famous Irish Temple Bar so often that the girls behind the counter brought us our Guinness without ordering. How great is that!


Madrid

The fountain of Cibeles.

Me in the big big world in front of La Fuente de Cibeles with El Palacio de Comunicaciones in the back.

The beautiful Catedral de la Almudena in night lighting.

You could almost see the horse carridges, men with their tophats and ladies in the crinoline dresses.

A street leading away from Plaza Mayor.

The horses of the Palacio Real on a stroll.

Royal Palace.

Sunset.

Plaza Mayor in daylight.

The most important sight for any guy visiting Madrid - Santiago Bernabeu, the home of Real Madrid football team. And by the way, already the second time for me!

Real Madrid played against Malaga and won.

The must-see match was over faster than thought!

All in all, Madrid is a gorgeous city with great food&wine, beautiful people and places to see, so definitely worth a visit!

Before and After

We consider ourselves really lucky as we didn't suffer as many damages as did the people in the hard-struck regions, who are homeless and still without water and electricity. We do appreciate every day all the things we have and are able to still do. However, media tends to exaggerate the earthquake. The images shown in telly are of course bad, but they do not represent the whole Chile. There are people outside of Chile who are worrying for us and concerned fpr our safety, which is why I wanted to show you how our life was before the earthquake and how it has changed since February 27.

Before the February 27th...

On a sunny Sunday before the earthquake we hiked up the hill Cerro San Cristobal. The scenery in the summer is breath taking.

We found a relaxing little haven on the way up the hill.

As I have learned from the Vorarlbergers, when hiking a mountain, reaching the top is the best feeling.

And even better feeling is the rewarding, cool, fresh beer.


Don Carlos is our favourite steak restaurant. Nothing beats the Don Carlos' steak combined with a delicious wine, in this case Bisquertt's La Joya.


One week after the quake...

... and we wanted to enjoy the warm weather and celebrate life!

Marulean adonis in our rooftop pool.

Lukas's presenting his stylish swan dive.

I went for the more elegant bomb drop.


Two weeks after...

Nobody knows where the penguins come on this tiny island next to Algarrobo's sailboat harbour.

Seagulls' screams covered all the penguin song, but I'm pretty sure I saw the happy feet there.


Viña on a Sunday evening.

A little seaside boulevard with local handicrafts stands.

The beautiful sunset in Viña del Mar.

Do I need to say more?

The Word On Everybody's Lips

This week went fast. Perhaps partly because I mixed the weekdays in my head and until 2pm on Friday afternoon I thought it's Thursday. When I finally realised that it's actually already Friday and I can go home in two hours, you can imagine the joy! Why can't all the weeks be like that?!

Not that the week was otherwise a delight. The aftermath of the earthquake takes up all the energy - worrying for the people in the south or even some here in Santiago, discussing the consequences and problems brought up by the earthquake. There are still people without electricity, food, or connection to the outside world. But when you compare it to Haiti, for example, Chile was extremely lucky even though the quake in Concepcion was a thousand times stronger than in Haiti. Because it hit at 3.34am saved many lives, people were in their homes and already for the most part with their loved ones.

Terremoto. That's earthquake in Spanish. It is not something you expect to happen no matter how much the scientists have been forecasting it to happen. It's a surreal feeling. If you have been reading The Santiago Times, the English language online-newspaper where I have been working already a month (how the time flies!!), you have noticed that all the articles this week have been about the earthquake. Terremoto is what everybody is talking about. "How are you? Where were you when it happened? Were you scared? Did your apartment survive?"

Our building didn't suffer any visible damages, but we were without gas, warm water or lift nearly a week. Which is nothing in comparison to the people who have lost everything because of the quake or the tsunami. The two balconies on the left of the highest floor (7th) are ours.


We were lucky as the damages in our apartment were not that big. We lost a coffee jar and three delicious wines which made the kitchen look like the butcher's workshop. And my wonderful milkshake mixer! But we've replaced it already. Probably the most expensive piece we lost were our Dolby Surround speakers that snapped in the middle. Snif.


The worst damage on our street was this neighbour's wall that crumbled down like a Christmas cookie.


Some buildings had their windows broken. On Saturday after the quake we went exploring and searching for an open restaurant because we didn't have food or gas and the shops were closed. The city was like a ghost town!


One of the churches in Providencia lost a roof.


No other visible damage to be seen on one of the main streets, Avenida Providencia.


Museo de Bellas Artes is another old building, like the church, that didn't survive the tremors unharmed.


Such nature disasters as the earthquake never come alone. It was almost immediately followed by the tsunami at several locations, and now there has even been talk about dangerously smoldering volcanoes that might erupt any moment. Not to mention the people who take advantage of the vulnerable situation and go looting just because they can. It will be a long while before Chile and its people can sleep their nights safe and sound. Fuerza Chile!

8.8

For years the earthquake has been expected in Chile, but when it finally happens, it is hard to believe what is actually going on or how to react to it. The last bad one was in 1985, and now it hit the middle regions of Chile again.

As the 8.8 grade earthquake on Richter scale happened, were we happily in a taxi on our way home after a night out. As we were in a moving car, and the roads of Santiago tend to be in a bad shape, we didn't pay much attention to the bumpy ride nor feel the tremors nearly as bad as the people who were inside their appartments. They must have been scared! Just when we pulled over in front our building around 3.40am in the morning did the taxi driver say that was an earthquake. All of our neighbours were out in their nighties, but remained surprisingly calm. Everybody was waiting that the electricity would come back and hoping that the tremors would be over and the water would be stopped running down the staircase on time before finding its way to the appartments.

Some brave - or foolish - ones (like us) slipped their way back upstairs to get the valuables and some money they could. After returning downstairs we just remained waiting in the hall of the building, because at least from the ground floor it is faster to storm out if the earthquake grows stronger again. The higher up, the bigger the damages, usually. However, especially the newer buildings are built on sort of rubber which enables the building to adjust to the shaking and reduces the risk of crumbling down.

Lukas' office on the 21st floor suffered enormous damages. In some buildings in Santiago the windows broke, the walls were coming off, tiles were falling down - not to mention the material damages to the property inside the appartment. Some were luckier than others. The worst damages (and the victims) took definitely place on the coast in Concepción and Valparaíso.

At times it was a cacophony of sounds - the alarms in the flats, in the buildings and police, rescue and fire department sirens kept on screaming. The news gave constant update but nothing or no one advised us how to react or behave in this situation. After the electricity came back on in the morning after two hours of darkness and the day started to become lighter, also people went back to their appartments and started literally picking up the pieces.

The not-knowing - whether you can return once to your home, whether the worst is already over, whether your friends made it or not - is bad enough. But when you add the worried relatives, the after shock as well as the after shakes, which, by the way, have been going on all day, you can be sure you are not able to sleep one eyefull. No matter how tired you are!

So many questions keep circling in your mind! How are everyone? What's happening next? What if it strikes even harder, what should I do? It's a scary thought that there is no place to go, where we would be safer. As our neighbour from Minnesota said, at least a tornado you see coming and you have enough time to react and find safe. But how do you see when an earthquake is coming?

As soon as the phone lines were working, the Finnish Embassy contacted us to see that we're fine, but we would have liked to have more information about the practical side of the incident: are the shops open? When does the water start running again? Can we use the gas stove or is it dangerous?

Would be actually interesting to follow how the animals behave in such a situation. They sense that something is going to happen, and instictively hide next to a bigger object, not under it. Many people falsely believe that they should hide under a table or bed, but this actually is much more surer way to die. Instead, they should hide next to that furniture, because if the roof falls or a cupboard bends over it, it won't be crushing you under its weight.

We are so happy that nothing more serious happened. Luckily we were able to get the Internet and phone working enough to inform home and calm down the folks. But I think I've never missed home and its secure earth this much. And I pray and hope that the people who lost someone during the quake will make through this.

Dead Chicken in Heat

A week has already passed as I returned from the vacationes in Europe back to Santiago. It was sure nice to come to full summer! The flat was nearly as we left it, except for one little thing: it stunk like a dead chicken. Lovely. The cruel Chilean electricity company had decided to cut off the electricity in our flat because of one unpaid bill (since we were travelling we naturally didn't receive the bill). The amount of the bill: 7 Euros. Of course the chicken that we had left in the freezer had been brewing in there for a month. In the winter it might have not been such an issue, but in the summer, when the outside temperature is +33 Celsius degrees and inside temperature only few degrees less, you can imagine the smell... Well, you live, you learn, right?

Dust gathers really fast in the big city so my paws are constantly black no matter how often you sweep the floors. Anyhow, after cleaning I managed to "install" curtains to the bedroom and living room with a patent mecanism that a very creative and talented friend of mine told me: double sided sticker that you are able to take off and put on again if you will. Great, it works! Thank you Jasmine. :)

The hot air of the city has also driven the urban stray dogs on holidays. There are only a few brave ones in the city to be seen. I would go too, if I could. Yesterday I came back from the beaches of Viña del Mar, and there the weather is 10 degrees cooler as in the city! With the wonderful sea breeze blowing you don't even notice the sunshine. Not that I complain after the weeks I spent in Finnish winter.

As soon as the flat is as ready as it can be I will publish some pictures. Until then, I will continue enjoying the heat of Santiago and the coolness of our rooftop pool!