santiago is about 1hr from the mountains (pronounced as "moon-tines" by the locals) and 1hr from the beaches (pronounced as "bitches" by the locals. just kidding, they say "bitch"). such a great city to live in. you can see the moon-tines (los andeas) from the city. right now, they're topped with snow. screw u al gore!
wine country was beautiful, as expected. full of grapes vines and sunshine, as expected. there were four wines we tasted, paired with four cheeses (not expected!). yum. sauvignon blanc paired with goat cheese. merlot paired with parmesan. and, not to be outdone, a blend of french style/american style wine paired with sheep cheese. i polished off my wine and dad's wine, as expected.
lunch was along the coast. it was a seafood extrodinaire, which means i had snails. i like french escargot, where the snail is lost in a butter, white wine, parsley cluster f*ck - i mean symphony. chilean sea snail is a bit like shoe leather - but tougher and not as tasty. i swear that whenever i bit down on the snail, it laughed and said "is that all you got?" (the snail was dead, but tough, in case that was vague.)
now, whenever i've seen shows like "fear factor" or "the amazing race" where contestants have to eat crazy food, i always thought to myself "chew chew. swallow. move on!" but, when it was my turn, u could say, i ate at a snail's pace. (yep, i went there.) not my favorite. it was more like "chew chew. whimper. chew. gather thoughts. chew. find a happy place. chew. maybe no one will notice if i hide this in the balls of butter. chew. drink and swalllow. move on!"
the rest of the lunch was yumscrumliciousastygasmic. salmon ceviche. clams. mussels. octopus. squid. brazilian bbq (roasted argentine beef. roasted chicken.). crab ravioli. shrimp salad. vino. chilean pisco sour (not as sweet as the pervuian pisco sour. further, i believe that the chilean version doesn't have egg white or bitters in it).
the beach was ok. none of us were prepared to take a dip tho we did touch the water. the water is from the arctic, so it's freezing. great cliff views tho.
later that evening we hunted for a place to watch the pacquiao fight.
