Chile’s wine country provides a Napa of years past

Dick Cannon

This past March, my wife Diane and I visited Chile and spent three

delightful weeks with our wonderful friends, the Silva Sante-Banez

family (Koca, Chaco, Alberto, 30, Gonzalo, 20, Paula, 29, and her

5-year-old son Udo).

This was our fifth trip over the years to visit this incredible

country and immerse ourselves in the lives of this special family.

Our relationship and bond began 15 years ago when our oldest son,

Jeff -- then a junior at Corona del Mar High School -- was an

American Field Service exchange student. He lived with the family and

attended their local high school.

Incidentally, their entire family has visited us twice in Newport

Beach where our community, friends and neighbors opened their hearts

and homes to them.

On this latest visit, we spent the first week with the family at

their home in Placilla, a small town of less than 8,000 people about

90 miles south of the nation’s capital, Santiago.

Placilla is in the heart of Chile’s wine producing region, the

Colchagua Valley, which is also prolific in providing the widest

array of agricultural bounty.

Here in Newport Beach, we have all bought and experienced many of

the wines, fruits and vegetables produced in the Placilla area when

we have shopped in our supermarkets and dined in our restaurants.

A week in Placilla and environs might be comparable to, say,

experiencing the Napa Valley 75 years ago -- low key, slow paced with

an incredible quality of life built upon the generosity of the earth

and the love and enjoyment of family, friends and neighbors.

What was our week like? Envision much visiting and socializing

with leisurely meals of the freshest foods and most delightful wines

with much attention paid to camaraderie and friendship while a blinds

eye is paid to the discipline of the clock.

After a great first week in Placilla, we left with the family in

two cars and drove 600 miles south to Puerto Montt through lands of

breathtaking beauty offering continuous scenes of snow-capped

mountains and volcanoes, vast lakes and national forests. The Alps

may be comparable, but not more so in either scope nor grandeur.

Then from Puerto Monte, we flew by jet another 600 miles further

south to Punta Arenas and the area of Puerto Natalas that abuts the

Strait of Magellan and the Torres de Paine National Park, and lies a

little to the north of Cape Horn.

This vast, unspoiled region of plains, forests, fjords, glaciers

and pristine lakes are inhabited by few with nature’s condition as

pristine today as existed thousands of years ago.

This must be one of the most undisturbed areas on earth today and

one can only say to experience vastness on this scale is both

exhilarating and humbling.

After more than a week spent in the south of Chile, we returned to

Placilla for a final round of hugs and tearful goodbyes. Then, via a

night in Santiago and a long weekend in Buenas Aires, Argentina, we

returned home to our own paradise, Newport Beach, whence we reflected

upon our love for our friends and their wonderful way of life and

incredible country.

And, once again, we gave thanks to the American Field Service

student exchange program, where our very stimulating and fulfilling

odyssey was born 15 years ago.

* DICK CANNON is a resident of Corona del Mar.