La Vendimia

 La Fiesta de la Vendimia is a harvest festival that celebrates a very important Chilean crop- wine grapes! All summer vendimias are held all over Chile. Thanks to advice from Karen's former Spanish teacher, we managed to catch the very last one of the season, held in world famous Isla de Maipo!

Isla de Maipo is not an isla- just one part of its mysterious charm

 Of course we also owe thanks to Karen's friend Braian, who went with us; and we all owe thanks to HIS friend Mauricio, who drove us there. The vendimia has a lot more than just wine- the food was incredible. In addition to every type of pastry, there were also strawberries on a stick, cheese on a stick, and at least a dozen different types of meat on a stick.

Meats on Sticks

The man overseeing this whole apparatus insisted that Karen come closer to get a good shot. He was very proud.

This post would be incomplete without Chile's largest empanada.

 Of course this was all just a pleasant surprise. The feature that got us out of bed and into a car that morning was the wine tasting. For between $10 and $15 you could get 6 tastings and a souvenir wine glass. Which doesn't seem like much, but we soon learned that the tastings are very generous pours. All of the wine stands were clustered in two rows together under a tent, and about half the population of Chile was apparently trying to squeeze into the corridor between them.

This photo may be blurry but it is actually a pretty accurate representation of how the tent appeared after a few wine tastings.

I'm surprised at how short this post is considering how fun the vendimia was... But there's not much more to say!

Cheers!

And a bonus video: