Wednesday, April 15 – 44 miles and 900 feet -sunny and 75

Since we had two nights at the TerraVina, today was a loop ride through the Colchagua valley, which is known for its fertile soil. We visited a vineyard for a tour and wine tasting at mile 30 and then rode three miles to Montes vineyard where we had lunch before riding 10 miles back to our hotel in Santa Cruz.

We started our vineyard tour with a taste of Chardonnay in the aromatic garden.

It is Autumn here, so the leaves are turning – even on the grape vines.

At this vineyard, they do not clean out the growth between the rows of grape vines, as they say that some of the plants add flavor to the wine. Did you know that Queen Anne’s Lace is a wild carrot?

Our lunch at Montes was all grilled on this outdoor grill/oven.

I hear that Purple Angel is a popular wine in the U.S.

We stopped in Santa Cruz for a brief visit to a fascinating museum full of all kinds of historical artifacts from around Chile and a few from Peru and Bolivia. The highlight for us was the exhibit about the 2010 Chilean mine collapse and rescue of all 33 men that were trapped for over 60 days.

There were a few prehistoric displays too.

Here is an interesting lizard, I guess he is called the Jewel Lizard, that was seen along the way.

We were on our own for dinner (not a full group dinner – so we walked through the vineyard to get to an Italian restaurant in Santa Cruz. It is owned by a woman from California and the food was very good!

On our way, we enjoyed the sunset reflecting on the Andes.