Mick and Cece in Chile

A year ago, Ximena and I waited expectantly in Santiago, Chile, for the two-week visit of our friends Mick and Cece. Mick is a friend from college and a Delta Upsilon fraternity brother of mine. Cece is a saint, mainly for staying with Mickey all these years, but also because she is a lovely hostess at their home in Roslyn, NY, where Ximena and I have stayed several times while visiting our son David and his family who also live on Long Island. Their trip to Chile was postponed for a year because of the earthquake, but in spite of the fact that Chile has continued to shake and rumble with normal tremors and aftershocks to the major quake last year, Mick and Cece stayed committed to their trip to Chile, and arrived in Santiago one sunny Saturday morning in March of this year. What follows is a short review of their visit:

For a day and a half they rested up from the long plane ride from JFK to Santiago.

Mick went shopping. He helped Cece shop. We drank good Chilean wine. Then, we took off and we visited vineyards. They stayed in an old B&B in the hills of Valparaiso and took in the quaint sights of that funky old city.

They drank pisco sours at the Chiringuito Restaurant in Zapallar. This is not Mick. It is a Chilean pelican that liked Mick enough to pose for him on a rock next to our table. They enjoyed the picturesque views of the coastal vacation town of Zapallar. We then drove half way down the Pan American highway into the heart of the indigenous homelands of the Araucarians, and shopped in the Temuco market. We walked the shore of Lake Caburgua, well into the Andes mountains where both the past and present Presidents of Chile have their vacation homes. We drank more wine. Actually, we drank wine most of the time, when we were not drinking pisco sours. We awoke one morning to a cloudless day and drove up the side of Villarrica volcano, still active and smoking. Mickey bought three bulls carved out of native Chilean wood, hoping they would influence the US stock market upon their arrival back on Long Island. One was not quite finished, so we waited while the carver placed a set of huge wooden balls on one of Mick’s bulls. We had pisco sours at sunset on the lawn of the Hotel Antumalal, one of the prettiest places in Chile. We then drove back north, into the Colchagua Valley where Mick made two friends at the B&B we stayed in. He was not as successful befriending the nice lady who owns and runs the place. We visited the award winning Lapostolle vineyard. And tasted their best premium wine, Clos Apalta. And finally, we sent them on their way, after two weeks of camaraderie, some political bickering, and lots of fun and good times, back to the US with memories of wonderful Chilean wine, Miles and miles of beautiful vineyards, And lovely Andean sunsets.