Monday in Chile - In search of waterfalls.

Monday morning we got up early. Jeff and I went to Starbucks and then had breakfast at the hotel. We checked out of the hotel and started driving south. We were off in search of Salto de Laja - waterfalls on the Laja River, south of Chillan. On the way, we stopped at Tarapaca winery to see if we could get some bottles of the wine we had at the restaurant the night before. The winery was closed, but when we told the guard that we wanted to buy wine, he called down and they let us in. we drove through acres of vineyards (including an organic section) and made it down to the buildings. The lady there - Claudia Diaz told us about the vineyard. It's actually owned by a company that makes matches and a lot of the families that work there also live there and they even have a church on the property for those families. Someone had stolen their copper lines that let their credit card machine work... apparently copper is getting expensive there so thieves are stealing it wherever they can find it. She told us they cannot ship wine to the US right now because they don't have an importer here, but told us about a really great wine store that can and it turns out it's directly across the street from the Starbucks I'd gone to every day! We then asked her what wine she recommended as the best of the winery and she showed us a bottle. Jeff and I bought two - one for us and one for Dad. Paul and Susie bought some bottles too and we were off again. We tried to find another winery she had recommended, but we couldn't find it (again with the poor markings). We knew it was 5 hours to Chillan, so we decided to keep heading south. We drove down I-5 and not far outside of Santiago, we discovered that people run across the freeway. Our first sighting was of a school bus driver who helped two little kids run across 3 lanes to the center median area! Then he left them to cross the other side. I was shocked. We were driving 70 mph. I saw so many people running across the road it stopped surprising me. At one point, I had to pass a scary big truck with some long rope hanging off of it and bouncing around the road. I was afraid I'd drive over it and have an accident, but thankfully I passed it safely. Another time, we crossed a one lane bridge that was also shared with the train tracks. They have guards at either end of the bridge to tell you when it was safe to pass. Eventually, we got close to Chillan and it started getting dark from the clouds and it rained and rained. When did make it to the falls and it really is beautiful! We were able to walk down to the base of it and walk around. I will try to get pictures up if Jeff gives them to me. After we walked around there for a while, we split up. Susie and Paul were heading farther into the Lakes District and into Patagonia and Jeff and I headed back to Santiago. I hadn't realized how far away Chillan really was and I didn't want to be late for our flight, so we drove. I was so sad to leave Paul and Susie though - we were having such a great time! Later, I found out there were more falls there as well as Alpacas and a fabulous market. Oh well. I'll just have to go back again sometime :) Jeff and I drove straight back to Santiago and arrived about 2 am. We went back to the hotel we'd stayed at before and asked if they had room. Turns out they had one left, so we took it and went right to sleep.