Curico

On the road again in a super super double decker bus and a seven hour drive northwards to Curico in the central valley. This is the wine growing area of Chile and as we are rather fond of our wine we had to visit it. The scenery changed dramatically.

The road was straight and wide. From our front seat on the upper deck we had very good views.

finally we felt we were arriving.

 Only a few Kms now

 And vines!

But we did not expect this.

 The ruined 15th century theatre. Curico was very near the epicenter of the huge earthquake Chile had last February, we were in New Zealand at the time. The devastation must have been terrible.

All there churches have been ruined. According to the locals they will be repaired, but this one collapsed in the 1986 earthquake.

 But we are now getting into the typical Spaniah colonial style that is the backbone of all the old cities in Spanish speaking countries.

The Plaza des Armas is always the centre  of the city. Ancient trees give welcome shade.

Fountains give the feeling coolness.

Band stands seem to be important in the cities where Germans settled.
This one came from New Orleans and is now a National Monument.

Important people from the past  have statues.

And very Spanish plaques are found everywhere.

And if you are lucky the front door to one of the houses is open and you get to have a glimpse of the inner courtyard garden.

The devastation to the ancient churches was terrible.

This church was built in the 1500´s and has stood until this time last year.

Many buildings were flattened. When we asked our taxi driver how many died - he said thousands, but didn´t know the exact figure. New buildings are appearing - but modern ones.

Some houses did escape.

We ate a delicious pizza with a corn base..

 

And prepared ourselves for the visit to Torres.
We felt we were back in Catalunya!

  The outside fermentation tanks were a surprise.
In Spain they are normally in huge warehouses.

And the sorting area was in the open air too. 

We liked this way or storing a few wine bottles.

The vines spread to the horizon.

Miguesl Torres ´s graddaughter runs this family winery, her Mother in Claifornia
and Miguel still in Barcelona. A good family business!
The family home is beaautiful.

 The storage room did not escape the earthquake and 100.000  litres of wine was lost.

Once a year they hold their fiestas for the workers here,

 the theme is a country , even England was honoured!

The gardens were beautiful.

After the tour we tasted some of their best wines.

A map showed us the different heights of their vinyards.

We then went into the restaurant for our much anticipated lunch.
This is one of the best restaurants in Chile.

 

The food was delicious.

 

We left Torres feeling very complete!

After all that food and wine we rested and then explored Curico a little more.

Finding soem real cowboy stuff!
Just in case you need to repacle your spurs.

Fabulous hats.

Wooden stirrups.

Any kind of stirrups you could wish for.

But look at that carving.

The view from the local hill was fabulous.

Housing estates are springing up everywhere in the suburbs of the cities.

We hope Mary will protect Curico from further disasters.