The Ritz Carlton in Santiago upgraded our room to a junior suite. That meant that we got an extra set of chairs and a coffee table in the room. 
We arrived too late last night to enjoy the desserts and the after dinner drinks in the lounge, but we got breakfast this morning! 
This is a better picture of the honey comb. The honey dripped down, and you used the wooden tool to drizzle honey on your croissant or bowl of oatmeal.
Aren’t these flowers in the lobby gorgeous?
We didn’t get much sleep last night as the temperature in our room never got below 23 C, which is 73.4 F. We usually like it best when the room is 67 or less.
We are off to visit the winery in Casablanca. I think that Rick and Ilsa have already departed.
9:30 is a great time to arrive. No one else is here.
We got to look at unripe grapes.
Also some grapes that looked more ripe. I didn’t try to eat any as there were guards everywhere.
Here is our guide JP with the crazy hands trying to explain something to Steve. Steve is just going “uh huh, uh huh. If you say so.”.
I was busy watching the marching ants going off it both directions.
This was in the gift shop. I thought it was pretty cool. You put it in your bottle of white wine and it automatically chills the wine as you pour. It’s great if you forgot to chill your white wine and you need some chilled white wine ASAP! I guess you could be a peasant and just throw some ice cubes in it!
Our table was all set up for our tasting.
Five glasses of wine at ten in the morning. Oh My.
First up were two wines from the Ritual line.
Next were from the Primus line.
This was our last bottle. It is their flagship brand. It is named in honor of the indigenous people, The Mapuche. 
We were given snacks to eat with the wine. I ate the cheese and chocolate. Chopped liver or headcheese are things that I won’t eat. I don’t eat innards. We have a friend M, who is now a vegetarian. When she did eat meat, her favorite dish growing up was liver and onions. Can you imagine? Well if you are M, you can!
Here is our beautiful wine instructor.
You can see that I didn’t drink much. Steve did. Or wine instructor either caught Steve in mid blink or he is besotted with me! Or in other words a “love fog”.
James Suckling really liked their wine. 
This is where some of the packing took place. We had a tasting, not a tour. If you want to goo on a tour you will have to read the rest of this blog post. 
We had never tried Carmenere before we stayed at Coyhaique. We liked it very much.
The vineyards grow halfway up the hillside.
Let’s check out our next winery, shall we? Vina Casas Del Bosque. But you already knew that as all of you can read!
Steve looks like he owns this place doesn’t he? 
Steve fell in love with this chair, and thought that I would look amazingly cute in it. I think that it is wonderful that he still finds me cute. Now if he found me adorable that would be even better as I would likely get away with more nonsense then! I stayed very still so that he could center me in the frame. If the subject is not moving he does very well with his picture taking. Steve didn’t even get his fingers in the picture! 
I know many people that would like this coffee cup. 
We joined a tour already in progress. We started after the guide talked about the grapes. 
Everyone had a good laugh when we realized our tour guide was not saying “Friendship Barrels”, but “French Oak Barrels”! Did you know that China, Japan and Korea are the largest consumers of Chilean wines? Now you do!
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Here is wine being aged in the barrels. There was something important to know about the red lines on the barrels. I did for about twenty seconds, and then promptly forgot. Maybe you should go on the tour next time, and remember for me. Steve’s expression is “Enough already, let’s try some wine!”. 
You can see the wood chucks holding the barrels in place. During the last earthquake there was some damage to the winery. I will allow you one guess as to what is being stored in this barrel. 
We are ready for the wine tasting. Those are neither my legs, nor Steve’s
This is our new friend G from Canada. She is trying to determine if she liked this wine. G and D flew into Santiago from Toronto to go on a cruise form Valparaiso around the tip of South America. They are with five other couples that belong to a curling club. 
G was very much in thought regarding this wine. G and D couldn’t get on their ship until late afternoon as the ship had to undergo deep cleaning due to the presence of a Norovirus on the last sailing. We had a lot of fun hearing about the cruises that they had been on. They advised us to start with a river cruise, and if we like that go on a bigger ship. Steve does not want to cruise until he is every older and more decrepit. I must admit that now a few years have passed since we were on this trip and my body is decrepit enough to go on a cruise. 
Here is D examining the wine’s color. It looked red to me. 
D drank all his wine. 
Our tasting package only allowed us to sample three wines. 
These were the yellow buttons we were given.
D and G had ordered the deluxe package tour and got five wines to sample! I will miss D and G, they were a lot of fun.
Lots of empty glasses after our tasting!
Our Canadian friends hopped on their bus and we went to have lunch at the winery.
A fried bread with cheese inside on the left. Chilean rolls on the right. They were very hard.
Next up was a fried shrimp brie and nuts on a green salad. The waiter would always ask us ten minutes after we got our food if we wanted fresh ground pepper.
Three French fries, and a little filet with a fried egg on top.
My wines with lunch, their level didn’t change much.
Dessert was lavender Creme brûlée.
I thought you might want a closeup of the chocolate branch. I am not sure if it is hard to make or not.
Finally espressso and a little sweet. I promptly spilled my espresso all over after I took this picture!
At the end of the meal the waiter was there quick as a button with a big smile to tell us that tip was not included in the prepaid lunch.
On our way out we saw another bus load of tourists arrive for their wine tour.
Good bye wine tour, and one last crazy pose for Chile!
At one of the toll stations on the super highway there were peddlers selling stuff. Water, candy, soda, and food. Peddling is not allowed, but people love the convenience.
The peddlers would place their wares on the concrete and you would tell them what you wanted.
Sandwiches and in his hidden hand horse jerky.
Before we knew it we were at the airport in Santiago.
At the duty free shop, I found these bottles of Pisco. I wonder if I will find them in Poughkeepsie!
Will I be able to find these in the local liquor store?
When I saw this lady in the line at the airport I thought she was topless at first. No, just in need of a good bra.
Premium Economy on LAN from Santiago to Guayaquil is an empty seat between you and your seat mate.
Good bye Santiago mountains through the haze. Good by JP and your crazy hands!
Hello clouds that look like a snowbank.
Pork, pumpkin risotto, salad and gooseberry mousse.
Our flight path, the trip would take us about four hours.
Sunset in the air.
Somewhere above Guayaquil, Ecuador.
This map will give you a recap of our travels so far. We flew from NYC to Santiago, Balmaceda, Puerto Montt, Santiago, Isla de Pascua(Easter Island), Santiago and then to Guayaquil where we have just landed. We then fly to Galapagos, Guayaquil and then home.
Are you old and decrepit?
Would you rather drink three glasses of wine or five?
What size suite do you prefer, junior, one bedroom, or Presidential?