Travel with Indigo

After an easy two day cruise, Indigo arrives at the beautiful coastal vacation city of Vina del Mar, meaning vinyard by the sea. Its high coastal hills, eucalyptus and pine trees and balmy climate remind me of Monterey, California, though its culture is more that of Miami Beach. Again with the invaluable help of Tomas Miranda, we are invited to anchor just outside the breakwater of the Higuerillas Yacht Club, Indigo being too large to tie up inside, and use the club’s facilities including its fine restaurant and bar. It is both the largest and finest yacht club in all of Chile and a club where, as luck would have it, Tomas once worked and as a result knows all its members.

Shortly after arriving at the club, we learn that one of the most important sailing regattas is being held over the weekend thus affording us the opportunity to meet many of the club members from Santiago here for the races and festivities. I meet and over the next month come to know Emilio Cousino, owner of the racing boat Pisco Sour, and his entire crew: Rodrigo, Gato, Pillo, Tato, Juanjo and Carlos. From other boats, I meet also Jorge Errazuriz and Marsetta and at dinner one night with these guys I meet Bernardo Matte and his wife.

Other club members who will figure prominently in my stay are Antonio and his wife Rosita, Oskar Aitken and his wife Stanka, and Roberto Murphy (yes, Murphy. His antecedents were Irish who moved to Chile) and his wife Angelica, and Juan Francisco and his wife Alejandra. Also I come to know very well Captain Sergio Bascunan of the Chilean Navy, called the Armada de Chile, and his charming and beautiful wife Paulina, as well as the father of Tomas, retired Navy Captain Rigo Miranda and his wife Marcella, mother of Tomas.

Oscar Aitken, one of the founders and the long time president of the yacht club, invites me to dinner in his fine condo overlooking the club and Indigo. He is an accomplished lawyer and was the financial and legal adviser to General Augusto Pinochet, the long term president of Chile who led a military coup ousting the nefarious communist Salvador Allende. Oskar played a prominent role in introducing into the Chilean economy important free market reforms that have helped drive its economy to the top of all others in South America.

Oskar is a cultured man. He is the chef in his house, and a highly talented one at that, and plays the piano and paints. At a later date, he comes aboard Indigo for dinner and brings along a wonderful ceviche he has prepared from three different fish and mixed with a modicum of coconut milk. He also prepares in Indigo’s galley a fine crepe suzette for dessert.

During the month or so that Indigo is anchored off the yacht club, I attend barbecue dinners at the homes of many of the new friends mentioned above. These are preceded by servings of pisco sour. This is the traditional Chilean drink made from pisco, a clear, power packed distillate of grapes, mixed with lime juice and sugar and served cold in a distinctive stem glass. It tastes much like a margarita and has a similar effect on brain cells. Following the pisco sours, protocol calls for steaks, chorizo, pork and sometimes chicken to be grilled on an outdoor grill, sliced into bite sized pieces and served with Chilean salad, potatoes, and veggies. The meat is far more marbled and fatty than American’s have become accustomed to and as a result is infinitely more flavorful. We, of course, reciprocate with dinners and drinks aboard Indigo. All of these events quickly become festive and often involve music, dancing and occasional wild frivolity. Excessive drinking is the norm, evident from the photos that accompany this blog entry.

On several nights, I am invited out on the town with the Pisco Sour crew and Marsetta. Showing questionable judgement, I accept and next morning pay the price of indulgence. We went to discos in Vina del Mar and, on several occasions, in Santiago. The only difference between a Chile disco and an American version is that in Chile the doors don’t even open until midnight and the party begins winding down at 5am!!

One special afternoon I am visited on Indigo by Emilio Cousino, who brings along as a gift a wonderful coffee table book of his family’s history and estates. We sit and talk and laugh for several hours, and three bottles of wine, about all manner of subjects and hit it off as friends. When he staggers off the boat, I worry if he will rally for the finals of the regatta.

When the regatta ends, we attend the awards ceremony held at the Chilean Naval Academy, which is perched on a promontory of Valpariso harbor offering the finest view of the city at night. As president of the Chile sailboat racing association, the event is presided over by Emilio, who does a fine job despite the wine damage on Indigo the previous night. Emilio’s boat, the Pisco Sour, wins its class as does the boat of Jorge Errazuriz. On the patio of the officer’s club where the event is held it is easy to see why Valpariso is called the Pearl of the Pacific. Its steeply sloped shores are blanketed in city lights that are uniformly yellow and sparkle in the crisp night air.

A few days later, I am invited to a tour of the winery and surrounding estate owned by the family of Emilio Cousino. The wines, Cousino-Macul, are well established in the US east coast markets. The family began its wealth and prominence in the 1800s from coal mining. They then expanded to electrical generating, copper smelting, real estate and much else. Today the family is one of the ten or so wealthiest oligarchs that control most of the Chilean economy. Emilio spends his time developing the vast land holdings of the family, much of it in and around Santiago. He and Bernardo Matte, another oligarch,own most of the prime buildings in the city.

My new friend, Jorge Errazuiz, is a principal in the investment bank Celfin Capital and another of Chile’s oligarchs. In his mid 40s, Jorge is bursting with cheerful energy. His company is booming and recently received a buyout offer from a prominent Wall Street firm. He also owns a fine home on the beach in Zapallar, the Palm Beach of Chile, where Emilio and Bernardo also have homes.

On a lovely early spring day, following a tour of the wine making facilities, Emilio escorts me on a genial walk through the enormous Parque Cousino, a lovely Euro style park of exotic trees, fountains and shrubbery built by his ancestors. Then we drive to his club, the venerable Club de los Leones (Lion’s Club), right in the heart of Santiago, for lunch overlooking the golf course.

One night, I join Oskar, Antonio, Roberto and others at the Club Mediterraneo, where we are entertained by two local guys playing wonderful Spanish guitar music, including rhumba and flamenco, accompanied by conga drums. It’s all great fun until one of the girls in the audience, Sophia by name, invites me to dance flamenco, which, unwisely, I accept. Nothing comes to mind more detrimental to Chilean/American relations than an intoxicated redneck attempting flamenco. It’s not a pretty sight, but plenty of fun.

Now it’s time to leave Vina del Mar and relocate Indigo to the adjoining city of Valpariso, where we can tie up alongside a commercial pier and better facilitate some of the last remaining refit work needed before we set off across the Pacific.