How time flies. It is now 25 years since I made my first visit to Chile, a wine writer among a very mixed group of journalists invited by the embassy in London to see for ourselves what a happy and prosperous nation this remote outpost of South America was. Our host, officially, was the military junta of Augusto Pinochet. One of our party had an appointment to interview the sinister dictator - who had grabbed power in a murderous coup a dozen years earlier - and was not much looking forward to it. But we were a jolly enough crew, and gladdened at the end of our long flight to be greeted by a large and vocal crowd at the airport near Santiago, the capital. We had a celebrity in our midst, Keenan Smart from the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, which had recently produced a spectacular...
For a week, Mendoza has felt like an eastern outpost of Chile. The streets have been packed with red-shirted fans and it has been all but impossible to find a table at one of the parrillas on Avenida Sarmiento. The border lies only 130 miles west across the Andes, and an estimated 30,000 Chilenos have made the journey. This movement is unique," said the former Chile international Patricio Yanez. "I still don't understand it. In Chile, you see 2000- 3000 fans at a league game, maybe 15,000 for Colo Colo or U [Universidad de Chile].
CHILE, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and the Falklands on one cruise was too tempting a combination to turn down. What I didn't do before booking, however, was take a close look at the map of South America.
ine is a big deal in Chile. WLast week, the nation's President, Sebastian Pinera, followed his visits to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace with an appearance at the Vintners Hall in London, where he thanked the great and good of the British wine trade for their enthusiastic support.
CHILE, October 1813. As dawn broke across the mist-shrouded river banks, the royalists launched their surprise attack. Nearly 20 republicans were killed in the opening minutes. Hundreds more, including the republican commander, Jose Carrera, took to their horses and fled, abandoning the artillery to the enemy. The battle of El Roble looked certain to be a tremendous victory for the royalists, who sought to reassert Spanish control over the troublesome Latin American colony.
How time flies. It is now 25 years since I made my first visit to Chile, a wine writer among a very mixed group of journalists invited by the embassy in London to see for ourselves what a happy and prosperous nation this remote outpost of South America was. Our host, officially, was the military junta of Augusto Pinochet. One of our party had an appointment to interview the sinister dictator - who had grabbed power in a murderous coup a dozen years earlier - and was not much looking forward to it. But we were a jolly enough crew, and gladdened at the end of our long flight to be greeted by a large and vocal crowd at the airport near Santiago, the capital. We had a celebrity in our midst, Keenan Smart from the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, which had recently produced a spectacular...
: Relatives of a Scottish couple caught up in the earthquake in spoke of their relief as it emerged their loved ones were alive. Fears were growing for Kirsty Duff, from Stonehaven, and Dave Sandercock, of Edinburgh, who failed to contact home after the disaster, which killed more than 700 people.
TWO Welsh clergymen yesterday received the highest honour Chile can bestow on foreigners for their part in returning an historic set of church bells to the South American country. The so-called Bells of Santiago survived a devastating fire in Chile which killed 2,500 people almost 150 years ago and were kept in All Saints Church in Oystermouth, Mumbles, Swansea, until last year, when they were returned.
DESTINATION PATAGONIA FAR from civilisation yet with the luxury of a spa, swimming pool and well-stocked bar, the 40-room and suite Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa opens next month in Chilean Patagonia. Sister to Tierra Atacama in northern Chile, the low-lying hotel edges the shores of Lake Sarmiento by the Torres del Paine National Park.
WHILE images of Chilean miners returning from deep in the earth have been beamed around the world, today I'm as far from those pictures as it's possible to get. Standing at the summit of Toco volcano, 5,625 metres above sea level, images of famous climbers Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay race through my mind, and while Toco is no Everest (8,848m), I do feel I've just climbed the highest mountain in the world. Despite the elation, my head is pounding and my lungs scream for oxygen. On high altitude hiking in Chile, the oxygen-depleted atmosphere makes you feel you have the worst hangover ever, combined with a touch of flu.
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