Study study Study!

Last week in Chile calls for studying. Memorizing fungi and viruses is not the cup of tea, but it has to be done. Last day and fun! Today, we just had our lab final which was not to bad, although it was 100% of our grade, so we shall see.
Yesterday, we visited a chocolate store, called "VarsoVienne". You have to try it to see how great it taste. Then I watched some guy stencil out on the street. It's pretty cool. Youtube spacepainting, as it has the same style. I shall try something like that when I get home. Ciao Ciao for now.

Darryl Torculas

Concha y Toro Wine Tour!

Saturday, we went on a wine tour to Concha y Toro. We learned about the vineyard and how they are grown. We visited the main headquarters, but they have vineyards all over Chile.
Don Melchor Concha y Toro brought noble French grapevines from France to the Maipo Valley of Chile. He paved the way for winery and to perfecting his craft for wines.
This wine tour has taught me many things about drinking wine and the different uses for wine. Red wine is for meat, white wine for seafood and fish. White wine should be cold and the cup should be held at the stem as the features of the wine can be deterred. As for red wine, it doesn't really matter. To fully enjoy red wine, one should swirl the wine to allow for oxygenation. This oxygenation allows for the release of the smell of the oak barrels that it was kept in. Swirl, smell, taste is the way to do it!
After the tour, I went to the wine bar to enjoy more wines and to educate myself on the finest wines made by the winery. Such fine wine they make! Anyways, check the pics, pretty happy with how they turned out.

Darryl Torculas

Old school way of aging wine.

The grape stems, but have just been harvested.

Wine Wine Barrels

Red Wine Barrels

12th Floor View

Vaquita Sabrosa

It's Friday. Just chillen. Just had a filling dinner of Bife de Chorizo at Vaquita Sabrosa. Pretty bomb carne, very soft and juicy! Had some pure de patatas (mashed potatoes) on the side to accompany the meal. All that was missing was some red wine, but I opted out for some Fanta Naranja. Good stuff! Next on our list is Gorda Vaca, the mother of the chain of restaurants!
Tomorrow is gonna be a fun day as we are going on a wine tour! Time to bring back the goodies! Hopefully the sun will be out, to take some pics!

What a Beauty!

Demolished!

Darryl Torculas

Los Dominicos Artisan Place

Today was a good day for souvenir shopping. A bunch of us went to this local artisan place at Los Dominicos. It was pretty cool and unique. These stores actually made their own products. Also, you could see them work on their items. It was pretty cool to watch them put their skill and creativity into great pieces of art. The stores were pretty pricey, but one could get a couple of good things for souvenirs.
For a light lunch, I got a pinon empanada at 3 for 1800 pesos. To accompany the meal was Fanta Naranja! The fried empanada was legit!! I was happy with the deal. To top it off, I also got some icecream, chocolate with almonds!
That was pretty much it for today, just souvenir shopping, grocery shopping for some cup-a-noodles, and now studying. See you tomorrow.

Darryl Torculas

Museo de la Moda!

Today was officially the last day of microlab. We played around with fungus and learned how to identify them. Afterwards, we had lunch, which was some good fried fish, rice, and potatoes. Afterwards, we went to the Museo de la Moda, a modern museum featuring the history of the Chilean World Cup, an extravagant and beautiful house, and a 1980s theme.
One thing that caught my attention was the wall of videotapes. It brought back some memories of watching them Disney videos when I was young.
Dinner was at Piccola, a fine Italian restaurant down the street from the hotel. I got myself a Spassettini. BBQ meat, fries, and lettuce. Pretty good for the price. Also had a cafe helado, a drink made of vanilla ice cream and coffee. Dinner was good, and now back at home, studying!

Here are the pics:

Pucon Day 3

The final day was just for hanging out. Nothing too crazy happened. Just cooked some good breakfast for the group, walked around town, and bought some souvenirs! Left around 3pm to go back to Santiago, Chile, only to arrive around 1AM.

Family park

Lake looks like a duck?

Our friend for the weekend!

Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Day 2

Crazy ass day. Hiked up the live volcano Mt. Villarica. There were only 4 of us who went: Elaine, Kent, Denny, and I. Everyone else went onto a tour of Pucon. We got half way until we were told it was dangerous to keep on going. Hike was supposed to take 8am to 5pm, but we finished 3 hours earlier. Damn Argentinian winds. I have a newfound respect for wind. Then, we went to the Hot Springs at night.

Darryl "Dee-rell" Torculas

day 3 coming soon

Pucon Weekend Day 1 Friday

Day 1:
Breakfast
Horseback Riding
Canopy/Zip lining
Mexican Food

Master Bedroom

Cabagaltas

He was such a rebel!

Elaine, Lea, Vyvy

Caroline, Deepa, Sam

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas

Providencia, Cafes, and Bellas Artes!

Yesterday, Monday, we had our first midterm for our microbiology lecture. It was an interesting test,in terms of scoring:
+4 = correct
-1 = incorrect
0 = no answer
Haven't had a test like that since the AP/SAT testing.
After taking our midterm, a bunch of us went to Providencia via the metro. It's a popular street with many stores and cafes. The cafes are what makes this place fun, as there are plenty to choose from. Cafes are the place to be here in chile.

Providencia.

Vienne Latte at Tavelli Cafe.

Tavelli Azucar!

Today, after class, we went to the Bellas Artes Museum near Santa Lucia. The museum is pretty sick, my favorite exhibition being the photography section by a local Chilean by Rene Combeau. His picture are has that Chilean aesthetic feel. Properly setup from lighting to positioning, he is able to convey what it is like to be in Chile. To top everything off, all his picture were in black and white.

After the museum, my roommate Kent and I tried to find wine bottle openers with a Chile logo. There are none to be found as we went through as many stores as we can. For a place that sells lots of wine, they sure don't have the essential tool to drink it. I hope to find one soon. yeee.
During our journey for bottle openers, we went to a cafe called "Cafe Tomodachi" or "Cafe Amigo". I had myself a superlatte caramel.

Super Caramel Latte!

For dinner, a bunch of us went to a restaurant called Domino Fuente de Soda. I ordered the Rodeo Burger with churasco, courtesy of Mayur Mistry and last years travel study group. It's a burger with BBQ sauce, bacon, cheese, churrasco, and onions. It was BOMB!

Rodeo Burger with Churrasco. (Before)

Demolished Burger!

Today was a long day with lots of walking. The Pucon trip will be planned tonight after studying some FUNGI!

-Darryl "Dee-Rell" Torculas