Chilean Cooking Lesson

Wednesday opened up to a beautiful day. We were the only people in the hotel (Casa Higueras) and the breakfast was laid out for us. It was pleasant enough for us to sit out on the patio and eat breakfast as we looked out to the harbor and the surrounding hills

We went to the restaurant where we met Gonzalo, who put us to work chopping vegetables and preparing several dishes. It was a lot of fun.

 He definitely found Anna (who he called Anita - "little Ana") to be his favorite

The restaurant was full of records, but not in great shape (lots of skips and scratches). We put on some Bob Marley (who appears to be quite popular in Chile) and the girls actually figured out how to use the old style telephone without having to be told.

As we enjoyed the fruits of our labor, Gonzalo skyped with his girlfriend and was showing her the restaurant. For some reason, this reminded me of John Cusack the movie "Say Anything"

We had a great coffee and dessert afterwards and Anna was very satisfied

After the cooking class, the girls went back to the hotel to relax and I went around taking more pictures around Valpo - definitely a photographer's dream area

I finally boarded an ascension and they were steeper than I thought.

For dinner, we took a short walk down some stairs and relatively steep streets and ended up at the bottom of Ascension Concepción and took that up to a restaurant at the top of this ascension where we enjoyed a nice bottle of Pinot Noir (which they usually serve chilled). After the short walk back to the hotel, we found that today the hotel was practically full. Quite a change from yesterday when we were the only ones in it. It appeared to be two separate groups, and one had the patio set up for a patio complete with a jazz band. The patio was directly over the hot tub/pool area (the hotel was set up into the hill, somewhat reminiscent of the Austin "Oasis" is set up against the cliffs of Lake Austin). Sara and I spent the evening in the hot tub as the band serenaded us overhead. A very romantic evening.