End in Sight

With just over a week left I have been running around trying to do and see as much as possible. Classes end on May 4th, or something like that, and then we`ll see which route I choose to start my travels. I went to a photo exhibit with my recently-introduced Chilean friend, Max. A friend of his, Sebastián Sepúlveda, brings an interesting eye to fashion. We hung out for several hours talking about Santiago and photography and a mountain of other things we have in common. It´s very annoying that I have just now met several intriguing Chileans. Es la vida. Max also showed me around the photo institute he attends. It is very interesting to compare approaches to photograhy and its teaching...which is exactly what we did.

I also hit up one of several jazz clubs in town to enjoy an erratic night of sax solos and an eclectic pianist. Oddly, all of the jazz clubs have some small variation of the name Club de Jazz de Santiago. What I at first thought would be bad seats, small bleachers squished behindthe band area, turned out to give us plenty of room and great views of the club and the players.

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Before continuing, the beauty of Jacob´s beard should be fully appreciated.

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I´d received enough hate-mail about not appreciating my situation, so I took the painful plunge...I finally toured a winery. Chile is the world´s 5th largest wine exporter, and I only now make it to a winery. Not only a winery...the winery. Concha y Toro is one of Chile´s largest wineries. It is famous for the Casillero del Diablo (Devil´s Cellar) mark, which I believe is quite easily found in the US.

Kristy and I enjoyed a beautiful vineyard and the original estate of the founder Don Melchor de Concha y Toro. After the tour we tasted for quite a while. I suggest the Cabernet Sauvignon, which is Chile´s main wine, similar to how Argentina´s main wine is the Malbec. I also liked the Carmenere. Bottles here are rarely over $4. Woo-hoo. Talk about the lush I´ve become!