We entered the Lake District of Chile yesterday, an region filled with volcanoes, crystal lakes, lush forests, and thermal springs. Into the town of Pucon, where adventure devils delight in the vast array of outdoor activities surrounding this tiny mountain town. Whitewater rafting, trekking, canoying, kayaking, volcano climbing, and more are offered here. The highlight, at least for me, was Villarica Volcano (2847 meters). The 200 meter wide crater of this a...

Pichilemu is known internationally by surfers, and the beach there called Punta de Lobos is said to be the best surfing in Chile. Feeling a bit under the weather today so opted out of the surfing, it´s fall here so pretty chilly, and went for a horseback ride on the gorgeous black sand beach. This is off season here for what would normally be a hopping beach town, so things were a bit quiet but perfect weather for riding. $12 for an hour and pretty informal, ...

My Birthday! We spent a wonderful day at Bodega Carrau´s Harvest Celebration, which consisted of a barbeque, wines, and traditional gaucho dancing. The girls brought me cupcakes and brownies, made with dulce de leche of course, and set me up to dance tango with the dancers. Afterwards we headed to Punta del Este, about a four hours drive from Montevideo. Punta del Este (East Point) is South America`s second most glamorous and exclusive beach resort after Bra...

We haven't left the vineyard in 2 weeks, and Katie and I are getting a little stir crazy so we decided to try to get a cab into town instead of waiting for someone to take us. It is Saturday night after all and tomorrow we get to sleep an hour later We asked Jose Luis in our simple Spanish if he could call us one. This seemed to confuse him, he didn't understand why we wanted to go to town, and we think he said he would call one. Sure enough an hour later, Bru...

Today was a Saturday and there wasn't much to do, the grapes left to pick needed a few more days to ripen. After only a few hours of work, Francisco took us all on a sort of field trip to check out some vineyards in Brazil. Last night we had 12 Brazilian journalists visit the Bodega for a tasting and dinner, of which Katie, myself, and Jose Luis prepared. We tasted Carrau wines of all different varietal and vintages, and listened to news of the Brazilian wine ind...