Santa Cruz, Chile
July 16, 2013 – Buenos noches!
I slept great last night…Wayne …well, he never sleeps very well but it was his best nights sleep yet I think. It is so quiet in the mornings here. I don’t think Chileans are early risers. Because the Andes are to the east it blocks out the sun and it stays dark until about 7:30 am. So we got up about 8:15 this morning and got to the breakfast room about 9:45. We had a huge breakfast with all the normal items…bread, jam, meat, cheeses, fruit…but today we were able to enjoy eggs made to order and yogurt as well. The eggs tasted so good and fresh. The yolk was orange….does that mean fresh?
We decided that today we would explore Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas. Santa Cruz is one of the largest towns of the Colchugua Valley. It was founded in the 19th century and has many colonial buildings. In February 2010 there was a giant 8.8 earthquake that devastated the area. Many of the original adobe buildings were destroyed. There are still many signs of the damage that was sustained, ie condemned buildings, collapses and huge cracks in buildings-such a shame. I sure hope the earth does not move like that while we are here…..
We also decided to go to a museum that looked interesting. We weren’t expecting much, but wow…were we surprised. It is called the Museo de Colchugua and we ended up staying there for most of the day. There ore over 7000 objects in over 20 display rooms. It is the largest private natural history collection in the country. The topics covered included evolution, Chilean history and independence, Spanish Conquistadores including swords, armour, guns, cannons and detailed models of their ships, original maps from the 1700’s, early winemaking equipment, early cars/horse buggies, pre Columbian mummies, shrunken heads from Peru, extinct fossils, the history of weaponry, train cars, an exhibit and items from the 33 men trapped in the Chilean mine collapse and soooo much more…too bad all of the information on the items was en espanol, but we were able to get quite a bit of information translated and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed so there won’t be many pics today….It was close to 4 o’clock when we came out of the museum so we didn’t get to explore any of the wineries, which was fine with us.
We walked around the Plaza de Armas which is basically the town center where the church, museum, bank, park and Casino are located. There was also a grocery store there so we went in and explored. It looked just like any modern grocery store in the US. We loaded up on a few snacks for our long drive tomorrow.
Today is a Chilean holiday, the day of the Virgin of Carmen (Chile’s patron Saint), so many small businesses were closed. We inquired at the front desk of the hotel about open restaurants for dinner and were told of 3 that were open. We decided on the Chilean restaurant and were given directions. We never made it to the restaurant as we simply could not find it. We think it was a house, but there was no signage or cars there was a barking dog so we passed on by. We ended up eating at a nice Italian restaurant which was very good. It was housed in an old colonial farmhouse with old wooden open beam ceilings…Beautiful.
We are back in our room enjoying a bottle of wine and planning the day tomorrow…all is well.
Comments
Patty on July 18, 2013
Ohla!
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a week. I love experiencing your trip to Chili from afar and am looking forward to see all of the pictures when you get home. I’m sure there are many, many more.
Have fun!
Susie on July 18, 2013
Love reading the updates and so glad you guys are having a great time!! Enjoy