Curico

I took the train from Estacion Central with Aranka and Marja at one-thirty and had a very enjoyable two hour journey to Curico in which we discovered Super 8's (a really long chocolate bar made of waifer)and saw the mountains with snow on them.

Our hostel was called Hotel Prat which I thought was quite amusing and we went there and dumped our bags before heading out to see what Curico had to offer us.

Unfortunately there were no buses to the national park or the nearby town we wanted to visit at a convenient time so we decided to book a wine tour. We sat in the plaza and ate Sahne Nuss (a Nestle chocolate which I don't think you can get in Europe) which Aranka had been obsessing about on the train.

In the evening we walked around the town and went to a cocktail bar where it was 50% off all cocktails but were very restrained and only had one. We went to eat pizza in a restaurant across the road and then headed back to the hostel. We had cable in our TV so we watched a film before falling asleep.

In the morning we were presented with cheese sandwiches (except for Marja who is scared of cheese) and coffee for breakfast and then went to catch the bus to the vineyard.

The driver dropped us off somewhere along the highway and we walked down a bank to get to the vineyard which was called Torres. We had a quick tour where they showed us how the wine was made and then tasted two small glasses.

Afterward we had lunch in the expensive vineyard restaurant which was delicious and I had a glass of Carmenere which is a grape that can only be grown in Chile as a virus destroys it everywhere else in the world.

We got a lift back to Curico from a Chilean couple from Santiago who had gone to some hot springs nearby and had popped by the restaurant for lunch on the way home. We went to a shopping mall which we were very surprised to see as Curico seemed such a small town.

In the evening we went for more cocktails and were entertained by regaton videos all evening on a big screen. They were pretty horrendous but that's the joy of reggaton. It's a bit cringe-worthy but you secretly quite like it and can't help tapping your foot along in time to it.

On Sunday we were given the variation of eggs for breakfast and then took the bus back (there were no train tickets left as it was a holiday weekend) to Santiago. Aranka and I danced to some of her socca music in our chairs for some of the way back much to the entertainment of the nearby passengers. A good time was had by all.