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Trading Cadillacs for Carmenére – Our New Way to Wine Tour

Overlooking rolling hills covered in vineyards with the snowcapped Andes in the background; that’s how we started our day off in Colchagua Valley, Chile. After working at the lodge for 5 days, doing everything from cutting and hauling firewood to devising a marketing strategy to sell private vineyards, we got a day off and took it upon ourselves to get to know the wine country surrounding us.

The Colchagua Valley is the up and coming wine mecca of South America. It has a few established wineries, but is really coming into it’s own now and getting a lot of buzz and awards – becoming Chile’s version of Napa.

But, of course, this wasn’t exactly the Napa experience we had last year for my 30^th birthday. For one, the Colchagua just isn’t that fancied up yet. Moreover, we fall into the cheap backpacker category of wine touring now – which means no private driver, no VIP treatment, not even a rental car.

To get to the first winery, we had to catch a ride with someone from the lodge into the small town near by, then walk about a mile to the bus station, where we caught a locals bus to Santa Cruz. From there, we negotiated for a taxi to drop us off at the first vineyard LaPostolle. The winery had amazing views of the valley and felt like we were walking into a giant art sculpture. The building itself is beautiful. It’s shaped like a modern art wine barrel, with a beautiful deck and granite everywhere. They left in a part of the natural granite mountain inside when they excavated the mountain, which is not only gorgeous, but made the winery stable and survive the massive earthquake that hit Colchagua in 2010. The winery is French owned, and all of the wines are styled that way. The tasting room is out of this world! Perfectly polished walnut lines the rounded ceiling, which is studded with twinkling lights, under the huge glass tasting table is the entrance to the owners private wine collection of over 6,000 bottles.

We chatted with a nice couple from California for a while, they were making a bigger Chilean wine country tour, and only in the Colchagua area for one more day. They were on a private tour, so we didn’t get to chat long before they were whisked away for their own tour and off in a private vehicle. Little did we know, until the next day, that out of the hundreds of places they could be staying, they were staying at the lodge where we’re working. The next day Rick and I are shoveling manure and pulling weeds and we make eye contact with a couple guests across the gardens from us. We both recognized each other, but clearly couldn’t place where. Talk about an awkward moment – they didn’t know we were just lowly workaway workers, and we had no idea they were guests at the lodge. “Can I get you another glass of wine, ma’am?”

Throughout our LaPostolle tour we kept asking ourselves how in the world there was this fancy of a winery in Chile. I mean there are great, amazing wines in Chile, but its just not that upscale of a style. Let’s say it’s more Sonoma than Napa… or more like Texas Hill Country than Napa (not the wine, but the wineries, service, atmosphere). Why and how did this winery exist here?!

Well, at the end of our tour, we got our answer in the gift shop. Along with telling us about all of the different LaPostolle wines they sold there, our guide mentioned that they also sell Grand Marnier in the gift shop… because the owner of the winery owns Grand Marnier. Mystery solved!

From here our transportation got a bit more adventurous…. Taxis don’t pick up at vineyards, so we were on our own to figure out the next step. Fortunately, a kind couple from Colorado took pity on us (after the winery informed us it was an hour walk to the next closest winery) and we bummed a ride to the entrance of Montes Winery where we didn’t have a reservation of course, and the security guard reluctantly let us in after radioing back to base, then was a bit flabbergasted when we got out of the car and the car drove off and we asked which way to walk for the tour.

After a short 20 minute walk up the drive way we found a lovely restaurant. Perfect timing – as we were ready for some lunch. We asked for a tour in English and since we were the only English-speaking people around, it became a private tour, SCORE!

Our serendipitous private tour involved a carriage ride up to hillside through the vineyards talking terrior, hectors and new French oak. After a brief stop at the mirador at the top of the hill it was on to the see the harvest in process. And then onto Rick’s favorite part of just about any winery, the fermentation room, followed by the cellar where we had our tasting. The tasting was amazing. As we were almost finished another tour guide came in and said she had 2 glasses of the top of line wines that had been breathing for a private reserve, extra special, VIP tasting that didn’t show… So the offered it to us! DOUBLE SCORE!

After that tour, we were again stuck. So I got to try my hand at hitchhiking again – this time with SUCCESS!! Rick was a bit dumbfounded as he thought I was joking about hitchhiking and after less than a minute, a very kind Chilean guy pulled over to pick us up, he worked at another winery and we chatted all of way to the Santa Cruz bus station. Where we proceed to board the public bus back to our tiny town, with our bottles of wine, to arrive after dark and wander around town negotiating with taxis to drive us 40 minutes out to the lodge area… where we would get dropped off and have a kilometer walk.

It was quite an adventure… let’s just say it was no Cadillac Escalade waiting for us with a bottle of Champagne, but it was charming, delicious and adventurous – and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

May 10, 2015
Workaway-in’ Our Days Away in Chile

Our time in San Fernando, Chile exercised some muscles we hadn’t worked in a while – from marketing muscles to create brochures for a private vineyard, to our biceps when we were hauling logs for firewood.

We spent the last three weeks working at Tumuñan Lodge in the mountains outside of San Fernando, Chile, as part of Workaway. We volunteered for about 6 hours per day, in exchange for room and board in the worker cabin. The lodge is off the beaten path, about an hour away from the heart of the Colchagua wine valley. It’s an intimate four bedroom lodge, with a vineyard on property.

We split our time between outside work, like moving freshly cut trees to a central area to be chopped up for firewood, or planting grass and weeding, and helping with the guests in the lodge, and working on marketing and graphic design projects. It was fun to dive into the manual labor, but hard work.

We really enjoyed helping with the marketing and graphic design. The owners of the property, Will and Carolina, have a lot going on, and we got to work on their new private vineyards project in addition to stuff for the lodge. I created the ideas, marketing, and copy while Rick designed this brochure for Tumuñan Wine Estates among other things.

There was a total of four of us working at the lodge while we were there – a Chileano name Cristian who is finishing his degree in adventure tourism, and a girl from Argentina. Hopefully Cristian will visit us on his way to Canada later this year, he’s a super renaissance man, it seemed like every day we’d learn a new talent of his – playing guitar and singing, to being a chef earlier in life, having traveled New Zealand. We’ll miss him.

We all shared a cabin on the property (Rick and I got our own room! A big win these days!).It was a really sweet little cabin. Rick made a fire every night to keep us warm. We got fresh produce and groceries and I got to do most of the cooking. In the evenings when we weren’t working, we would listen to Cristian play guitar, swap stories and play cards.

The views around the property were spectacular. Almost every night we walked up to the vineyard or mirador to see sunset.

They also had two horses, Luna and Satellite, which we got to take out riding a couple of times. There was a great trail to a waterfall and then up into the mountains. If we weren’t horseback riding on our days off, we would venture off to tour vineyards in the area.

We really loved our time off the grid at Tumuñan Lodge. Thanks, Will and Carolina for having us! We can’t wait to try your private label wine in couple of years!

May 8, 2015
Things We’re Learning – Lesson 3: Mentality of More

Mentality of More

I have discovered that I have a mentality of more. The answer is always “yes” to more. I didn’t ever notice this back at home, but it’s stood out to me in surprising ways as we’ve been traveling and I think that’s because it’s not the default answer in other countries. I think it’s bit of an American thing.

In America, the answer is always “yes” to more. Why? Because why not. Because I can.

One time it hit me was when, re-packing, for our Annapurna trek, or really any 6+ day trek we’ve done. We only wanted to bring minimal stuff since we were carrying it farther than across town, so we cut down and left the other stuff at a guest house in Pokhara. I had such a hard time paring down. My internal dialogue was going “well what if I want to change clothes? what if that shirt is dirty? what if that top is too warm, but that one isn’t quite warm enough? what if it’s raining, but not that cold? What it’s its raining and cold? What if I want to wear something different at night when we’re just hanging out than what I wore during the day?” I’m so used to “well, why not bring it?” that’s the default. Because I can. But packing for Annapurna was different, because I couldn’t bring it, because I couldn’t carry it up the mountain! And you know what? I was fine. I was great in fact. I was so much happier with less to think about. What if I flipped my paradigm? What if my default answer was “Less! Simplicity! Because why not?” instead of “More! Because why not?”. What if our default was single item, instead of combo meal? What if our default was one car, instead of multiple car households?

How about the simple, minimalist life? No need for decor. No fifty outfits in the closet. Not because I can’t carry it up a mountain, or can’t afford it, or can’t get it. But just because, why should I just get something or have something because I can?

I heard a podcast the other day with the challenge to own less than 100 things. That seems really extreme, but something I’ll be thinking about.

April 15, 2015
Things We’re Learning – Lesson 2: Overthinking Kills

Definitely an “in progress” one for me; I’m really bad about this.. so this post is short 😉

April 14, 2015
Things We’re Learning – Lesson 1: Keep Your Gratitude Higher Than Your Expectations

Keep Your Gratitude Higher Than Your Expectations

I have to give Ray Wylie Hubbard credit for that quote. It was a quote that Rick and I liked before we left, but it’s become even more meaningful to us since we’ve been traveling. It seems whenever we go somewhere with high expectations, thinking it’s going to be amazing, we are disappointed. And then I remind myself that really I am just grateful to get that experience, whatever it is. Expectations can be our worst enemy – not just in travel, but in marriage too! And gratitude is such an easy thing to get lost in the shuffle. It’s something I constantly need to focus on to keep it at the forefront. When I spend my energy being grateful, instead of getting all excited and hyping up my expectations, I always end up happier and enjoying that time.

We are very thankful for Scott Kedersha. He is awesome! We are extremely grateful for his per-marital ministry for helping us understand how gratitude and expectations play out in our lives. We’ve seen it be even more prominent as we’ve traveled.

So for Chile, we’re just thankful that we get to go… no expectations. I’ll keep repeating that in my head for the next few days 🙂

April 13, 2015
Easter in Argentina

As part of our cultural immersion, Pablo thought it would be good for us to visit a number of different churches in town over our stay to get an idea of the different worship styles. Our favorite was the one we visited on Easter Sunday. We walked in to a room clearly divided right down the middle. To the right, the congregation, to the left, the worship band… it was close to half and half, with the edge going to the band. But no this wasn’t a tiny church with a keyboard and guitar, we’re in South America after all. The band consisted of no less than 5 accordion players (ranging in age form 12-60), at least 5 tambourine players, 6-10 traditional guitar players, about 6 people playing a banjo-mandolin hybrid… oh, and then one little boy with a set of bongos. The service was full of music to say the least… like a super-powered mariachi band. And it turns out that the little old lady taking notes at the front table wasn’t there for “minutes” or to take prayer requests, she is where you sign up to sing. Kinda like a open mic night, you sign up there to sign/play/read the following Sunday… Rick’s request to sing Freebird was unanimously declined.

Our favorite activity of the day was teaching Guille and Nathan how to dye Easter Eggs and explaining how they symbolize Jesus’ empty tomb and the new life that comes as a result of His rising from the dead. This was a first for all of us to dye eggs from “scratch” i.e. on or own without any help from a kit. We went the professional way, we hollowed out the eggs by poking holes in the ends and blowing out the white and the yolk, as opposed to the hardboiled route. We discovered Liz is much better at this than Rick (for the record, Rick authored this paragraph. Can’t wait for the comments). The results speak for themselves… clearly, somos artistos.

Apparently no ~~Easter~~ trip to Argentina is complete without a visit from Ratón Pérez, he is the Argentine equivalent of the ~~Easter Bunny~~ Tooth Fairy. Yep the Tooth Fairy here is a rodent, a rat to be more specific. This worked out fairly well as most of what Rick knows how to say in Spanish is about animals (gato this, ratón that, monos get back). None the less he was a constant source of conversation and almost like another member of the family. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that we got to enjoy the company of Raton Perez’s friends during our stay. Rick made big claims to Guille and Pablo about his trapping prowess… convinced them to provide some of Guille’s jewelry wire for him to make snares… it’s been two weeks, we still have two empty rat snares. Rick says he just intimidated them. Which is weird because I swear I can hear them mocking him from the ceiling above our bed. This was one of Guille’s and my, many, “inside jokes.”

April 12, 2015
Life in Argentina

We have been staying with Pablo’s family for the last month in San Martin, and it’s been an amazing experience. We have our own room in the house, but we spend most of our time in the family area with Pablo, his wife Guille, their son Nathan (10), daughter Trinidad (6mo) and Abuelo (the grandfather). It’s been a full cultural immersion, with some comical fails along the way – we’re grateful that the Carli’s have been very gracious with us!

It has been really fun getting to know REAL life in Argentina, not just the tourist or traveler version and getting to know a town… and be known in a town. Now that we’ve been here a while we know people when we walk down the street, people stop us to talk to us, we have our favorite places to eat (Almacen de Flores and La Creperia) and the waitresses ask us about how our anniversary was and if we’ve tried their favorite hang out they recommended to us yet.We even know the names of a couple of dogs in town and they greet us, Carlita the border collie is our favorite.

Pablo and Guille have been so great about showing us the wonderful area they live in. The last two weekends we have visited beautiful lakes. First it was Lago Melquina.We packed a picnic lunch and, of course, three thermoses of hot water, the yerba and our mate – you can never go without mate! The mate starts in the car on the way to your destination, who ever rides shotgun has to be the Cebador (person who serves mate for everyone)… and basically it’s doesn’t stop until, well, ever. We got to be the heroes because we had our camping stove and pot and could heat more water up, right there where we picnicked.

We stopped at the lake first to take in the views, then walked a little ways up a gorgeous river. We lounged all day, taking turns with the fly fishing rod. Rick caught two little trout that day. My accomplishment for the day was saving Trini (the baby) from a gigantic pig that wondered over from the farm next to us. We played in the water, caught crawfish and swapped stories in a friendly soup of Spanish and English.

The next day we went to Playa Bonita at Lake Lolog, the best beach around! It’s sandy and stays shallow for at least 200 yards out, perfect for playing in. We finally discovered something we could tell Argentines that proved the value of existence for futbol Americano (football, vs. futbol which is soccer) to them… You have futbol Americano, so you have something you can play in the water at the beach. It’s really hard to play futbol in even a few inches of water, and impossible in a foot or so.

We’ve visited almost all of the 7 lakes in the region. We’ve come across some very interesting camping recommendations, which Rick tested out.

My big adventure was attempting to feed jello to a 6 month old baby who absolutely did not want to eat, while riding in a car over a rocky 4×4 gravel road. The cup of jello was empty by the end of it… but I’m not sure any of it actually got eaten.

The Carli’s have treated us to delicious asado, and taught us how to cook a proper asado. Rick is convinced we need an asado pit in our backyard someday.

Since we were going to be in the same place for more than 24 hours, Rick thought it would be a good opportunity to get some real Spanish lessons in. So we got an “intensive” Spanish tutor for 2 hours a day for a week. It kinda backfired on him though as I learned much quicker than he did (taking advanced Spanish all through high school and paying attention probably helps). This resulted in Guille and I telling each other jokes in Spanish constantly… occasionally at Rick and Pablo’s expense. They took it in good stride though. (This paragraph was written by Rick in my “voice”, he needs practice understanding 1^st person, 3^rd person, tenses, etc.).

[accordion clicktoclose=true]

[accordion-item title=”Click here to view a translation of this paragraph by Rick”]Nosotros vivamos allí para vente–cuatro horas. Yo sabo es bueno oportunidad para clases Español verdad. Entonces, nosotros compramos un tutor para dos horas un dia de semana. Es abajo enfuego en mi cabeza. Ella empezar mas major, Ella recuerdo esquela atras. Ella y Guille es los chistosas buenas… TODO EL DIA. Yo es bueno coreado. Cuidado para monos bravos; muy peligros.
(feel free to compare that to Google Translate).[/accordion-item]

[/accordion]

Maybe it’s the feeling of getting to know somewhere, or having a little taste of family and friends, or maybe it’s just hitting the six month mark, but we have both been homesick the last couple of weeks, despite being in such a beautiful place.

April 11, 2015
We Got a Gig!

We’ve gone a little radio silent here lately. And I can’t blame a lack of internet this time, we’ve just been busy working.

As of mid-March, for the first time in the last six months, we actually knew where we were we going to be FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS!! I realize that probably doesn’t sound as shocking to you, but for us it’s insane! The first stop has been San Martin, doing volunteer work with a bible school…

and the second stop will be Tumunan Lodge in Chile. We will be working there in exchange for room and board! It’s our first Workaway job. It’s located in the Andes, has fly fishing, horseback riding and it’s own little vineyard. We aren’t sure what all we’ll be doing, but it could be anything from general lodge cleaning, cooking, garden tending, to helping in the vineyard, to helping guide guests on fishing trips. The owner was also excited that we have marketing and graphic design backgrounds, so probably a little of that thrown in too. They have a couple horses on property which they say I can ride in my free time! Oh, and did I mention they do wine tours of the Colchagua Valley? We start on April 15, so more to come. Here’s the website if you want to check it out: http://www.tumunanlodge.com/

Anyway, since mid-March we have been here in San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina. We are volunteering with a Christian ministry here started by a friend of Rick’s, Pablo. Rick met Pablo about ten years ago; Pablo was the translator for a 10 week mission trip Rick went on to La Plata, outside of Buenos Aires.

Pablo saw a huge need in this area of Argentina for people to be able to understand and apply the bible to their lives in a transformational way. Traditionally here the only way people hear the bible is through a sermon on Sunday at church. This area, and Patagonia as a whole, is very cut off from the outside world – mostly due to the government. Importing anything is crazy expensive, sending any kind of package here means you have to pay 50% of its value in import fees (we speak from experience on that – long story!), and outside information or goods are not taken kindly to. So there is just not any resource for people to know how to read the bible, or how it can transform their life.

So Pablo started a bible school here, and we learned earlier this year that it has been struggling to get attendance and really take off. Pablo asked if we were in Argentina if we would like to come help – sort of a consulting job, see what the situation is, what improvements might help, give some marketing advice and redesign the website and materials. So that’s what we’ve been working on for the last few weeks. Rick has designed an incredible website that will really draw people in and engage them! We were able to share with Pablo a lot of the successes we’ve seen with equipping classes at Watermark.

And as we studied the situation, we came to the conclusion that Pablo needed a new target audience, and we got leadership to agree on that!! (ok, marketing nerdiness – but that’s HUGE!). The leadership has even asked that we rethink all of the courses for the year – all new topics – and I’m taking the lead on that! It’s very exciting. So we have developed a whole new marketing strategy, course content, radio ads, Facebook content and strategy, rebranded everything, including the website, logo, flyers, everything!

Pablo and his family have been incredible and generous, they invited us to share their home while we are here. We have laughed and learned so much getting to spend this time with them… so much so that it deserves it’s own post….

April 10, 2015
8 Favorite Moments of Bolson & Bariloche
1. Teaching Cards Against Humanity to new Argentine friends in the middle of nowhere
  We were in the middle of a four-day trek outside of Bariloche and one of the Refugios had Cards Against Humanity. A group of local Argentines asked if we knew how to play and would teach them, so of course we obliged. The funniest part was having to define so many of the cards, things I never really wanted to have to explain to anyone. But we all laughed for hours!
2. Attempting to trout fish in Cajon de Azul
  We didn’t catch anything, but it was such a beautiful place. It was a good thing that Refugio Cajon de Azul had a lamb dinner for us! It was the most beautiful refugio we went to, I could have stayed there for three or four days.
3. Surviving the Haupi Nahuel Traverse
  Our most technical and mentally exhausting hike to date. It involved rock climbing 50m up a narrow rock shoot on the side of a mountain with a 1,000ft drop below us (probably shoulda had a harness and rope) and 4 hours of ridgeline rock scrambling, followed by 3 more hours of tough hiking.
4. Experiencing a real asado
  We stayed in a small guesthouse owned by a sweet family who immediately took us in. After a lot of trekking, and then camping our first night we went to “the locals’ butcher” picked up half of a lamb and learned how you make the perfect asado on your parilla.
5. The hippie market of El Bolson
  We just hung out there for hours. Great people watching, good artenseal beer, organic produce. I also scored some feather earrings. El Bolson is Boulder, CO’s long lost twin sister.
6. Sunrise at Refugio Frey
  The granite peaks in the background turned bright pink and orange and the lake reflected it beautifully.
7. Stopping to pick wild blackberries
  In the middle of our search for a hostel in El Bolson we came across a huge patch of wild blackberries and just stopped for 30 minutes to pick them and eat all we could. They were so sweet, I think I ate a couple of pints there on the side of the road.
8. Staying in The Penthouse with a view over Bariloche
  Best view from a hostel room we’ve ever had
April 7, 2015
6 Things I’ve Learned About My Bride

After 6 full months of travel here are 6 highlights of what I’ve learned about my beautiful bride, Liz:

1) Girl Can Eat an Apple

She has the most amazing ability to methodically eat every last edible bit of an apple. Quite quickly too, she can turn a perfectly whole Honeycrisp to into nothing but seeds and stem in under a minute. I knew she liked apples going into this trip but had no idea she had such a scientific approach to eating them. I was also unaware of how gracious she’s been with sharing bits with me over the years; my bits clearly didn’t fit into her scientific approach, and were never in the right spot, or the right size. She’s since shared her approach with me and shown me how the appropriate time to ask and take a bit of someone’s apple who uses the Liz method is at the very beginning, that way they can work with and correct your incompetent bites.

2) She is a Terrible Hitchhiker

So recently we tried to hitchhike. Liz was gung-ho about it and thought it would be a huge boost to our budget. I on the other hand wasn’t real optimistic about the our possibility of our success considering we were looking at a 1500km journey, but thought it would be fun to try and a great experience if we succeeded in getting picked up. I knew it could possibly be boring just standing on the side of the road waiting for a ride, but what I wasn’t counting on was how quickly Liz would be over it. Maybe it was the cold. Maybe the wind. Maybe it was that there was nothing we could really do to be “better” at it. Maybe it was the ADD. We lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes before one of us threw in the towel. Maybe we’ll try again down the road.

3) She is the Perfect Date

I kinda knew this about Liz but it’s been on display a lot in the last 6 months. She can fit in any situation. Black tie gala? She’ll be joking with the celebrity Emcee by dinner. Hostel Kitchen? She’ll have a family style barbeque planned for dinner with a bunch of gap-years kids she just met. Fine dinning? She’ll be the one whispering which fork to use (Thanks Cotillion). Ska-Punk Halloween Concert in Bangkok? She’s in the front row singing along. Boardroom? Trust me, you want her on your side. Knife-edge of a mountain ridge in the remote backcountry? She can find a trail.

4) She is Super Thoughtful

Over the last 6 months I learned often just how much she puts me before herself. She’s always thinking about me. She is constantly concerned with my preferences and making decisions in light of what she thinks I would like. It is amazing to be loved like that.

5) She is a Loser

Not that kind! She loses stuff. Surprisingly often, especially for how few things we have with us now. She’s not allowed to hold anything important for more than a minute or two. She gets her passport from me when we walk up to the counter then it goes back in my pocket. She’s gotten better lately, but it is still funny because she still thinks she losses stuff all the time and will get so upset with herself when she just forgot which pocket she put something in.

6) Her Attitude is Weather Dependent

If it’s overcast or rainy you can pretty much count on Liz to be a bit of a grump, or at least fighting off the urge. Blue sky and she as happy as can be. This was a bit of a challenge in Patagonia where the weather changes every 10 minutes. And there is almost nothing you can do to change her attitude in bad weather… except putting her on a horse.

After spending almost every second of the last 179 days with Liz I can’t imagine spending a day without her.

She is Perfect for Me.

March 20, 2015