A Wild Week in NY...

that ends with doing tequila shots with Oprah Winfrey!

As most of you know, the Traveling Hillbilly typically does not post about work related travel.   I use this to share my personal adventures.   However, this past week, I went to New York on business with clients and it turned out to be quite an adventure, an adventure worth sharing. 

Getting to New York had its own drama!   Given my first meeting was late Monday afternoon, I opted to fly on Sunday, so I’d have time to get a decent night’s sleep before the long week ahead.  I like most of you, check in online 24 hours in advance.   For the first time ever, I opted to use the mobile check in.   That proved to be a poor choice.   When the taxi didn’t arrive on schedule, I called only to discover they had the wrong address.   Rather than waiting for another taxi, I opted to just drive myself.   I get to the airport, show my boarding pass on the cell to at the base of the escalator and head up to security.  Just as I’m about to get to the front of the line, the TSA guy, tells everyone to go down the hall to the other security room. Given I’m next, I try to stay but they make me move down the hall.   Of course, the line is several people deep there and I’m now at the back of the line!  I finally get to the front of the line, a second time, hand the guy my license and cell phone, but for some reason the bar code on the mobile pass won’t scan!    After several attempts, they send me back downstairs to get a printed pass.   We are now 45 minutes out from the flight departure time, so I can’t print a boarding pass at one of the self-service kiosks.  I have to wait in the “check-in” line.  Luckily it is not too long.   I am informed by the American Airlines agent, that they have had some issues with the mobile boarding passes before (good to know).   She prints my pass and sends me back to security.  I have to wait in line a third time.

Needless to say, by the time I get to the gate it is too late to board.  Luckily there is another flight to NY in an hour so they put me on standby for the next flight.   Well it turns out that every flight from LAX to JFK is oversold. After trying to fly standby for the next three flights, I head over to another terminal and buy a ticket on Virgin America to fly out at 9:30pm.  Not the best way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon.

However, the week gets better!   We head over to meet with some folks from NBC.  Before our meeting we are given a quick tour of the Today Show set.  I of course have to take the opportunity to sit on the couch!  As we sit in our meeting about 15 minutes later, Matt Lauer walks in and joins the discussion.    Later that afternoon, we arrive in yet another office building for yet another meeting.   As we are walking to the conference room, we are told there is a tiger in the building.   Of course, we all want to see the tiger.  So we are taken down the hall, where walk into another conference room and meet the tiger and his French bulldog pal!   The tiger cub is only about 4 months old, but his paws are huge!  He looks quite cuddly and I can’t believe he doesn’t just eat the bulldog, but they seem to enjoy each other’s company.  One of my clients is brave enough to have a photo taken, the fear clearly comes across.  I opt to skip having my photo taken with the tiger.   A koala bear is one thing, a tiger quite another. 

We have several more meetings and spend every day running across NY from one meeting to the next.   On Thursday, our last night in NY, we have a nice intimate dinner (about 40 guests) with none other than Oprah Winfrey herself.    Unlike a lot of celebrities, she looks exactly like she does on TV.   She just radiates optimism.  She is a true gem.  And who knew she liked Tequila?

Where else could you, sit in a meeting with Matt Lauer, pet a tiger in an office building and do tequila shots with Oprah Winfrey?   The answer my readers, is none other than New York City! 

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Reflections of a Great Vacation

As I sit here in the Coffee Bean reflecting back on my trip, I realize I’m taking away a lot more than just fond memories of time spent with old and new friends.    I have profound faith in the true goodness of people.    I have a renewed sense of what’s truly important in life.   And I’ve been given a strong reminder of what my true values are.

From the waiter that spent over 20 minutes looking through the bushes under the restaurant with a flashlight to find my friends camera on New Year’s Eve, to the owner of the hotel that personally drove us in his truck to the restaurant, to his daughter, who gave up a Friday night to so show some “gringos” around Valparaiso because she truly loves the city and is proud to show it off!   These are just genuinely good people, who enjoy life and want to make sure others do as well. 

Everywhere we went people were generally warm and friendly.  They always went out of their way to make sure we were having a good time.   I can’t tell you how many times, people apologized to us for not speaking English!    Apologizing to us?  Completely unnecessary!     I mean we are guests in their country.  

I’m sure there is greed, laziness and thievery everywhere, but in general the people in Peru and Chile seem to have found peace and balance.   Regardless of their economic situation, they seem happy and much less harried and stressed than most of the people I know.    They value their families and community and don’t seem so focused on just themselves.

A couple of my friends have already gone back to work and their first day back they were working until midnight, right back into the craziness and stress.   I really want to try and have a broader outlook on life, be more focused on others and the greater good.  Find a way to enjoy work without it becoming all consuming.   How long will it last?   How long will it take me to get completely wrapped up in work again?  How long before this vacation and my renewed outlook is just a distant memory?  A week?  A month?  Three days?  Only time will tell.

For now, I sit at the Coffee Bean with the hope that this is a new and fresh beginning.  That it is not just a fleeting vision that will only be renewed with my next vacation.

The Charming Alvaro at the Casablanca Hotel, Ruta del Vino

After many hours, we finally get the rental car situation finalized and it’s time to head off to our hotel in Casablanca.   We have 4 nights of luxury, wine tasting and beach lounging ahead of us!   After so much traveling about, I can’t wait to get settled into a hotel and relax for a few days!  Given we left during “rush hour” we are expecting a lot of traffic heading out of the city in anticipation of the long weekend  New Year’s celebrations.  We are pleasantly surprised by the lack of traffic and it only takes an hour to get to Casablanca, our home until it’s time to head back to the states. 

I must admit the hotel has all the amenities one could want, a pool, a spa, a restaurant etc.   However, it appears to fall just a little short of the luxury I was expecting based on the website, especially considering I had just come from the W in Santiago. 

It appears to be under expansion and renovation.   It looks like it was a much smaller place with just a few rooms and a couple of cabins.   However, they have added a whole new section of rooms, along with a sauna and another pool.   I think within the next year, it will be beautiful, but right now it’s still in the “construction phase” and not quite up to expectations. 

However, the owners Alvaro and his wife Monica are the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet.  Alvaro greets us and has gone out of his way to make sure we are happy.  He is a very charming man and you can’t help but forgive the place its shortcomings because you can tell he has a vision for the place and is putting his heart and soul into it.   He and his wife run the place together.   It truly is charming but I guess the Traveling Hillbilly has become a little spoiled and was really hoping for a little more luxury the last few days of the trip.

Wine Tasting in Casablanca

So we decided to spend our first full day in Casablanca wine tasting.   We had four wineries we wanted to go to which seemed easily do-able.  However, after 6 hours on the road, we only made it to 3 wineries and we barely made it to the last one!   Wine tasting here is very different here than in California.  It is a more formal presentation and personalized experience.  Plus, it is actually more expensive than most of the wineries in California.   The first winery we go to tells us the tour is 2 hours!   It includes a “rodeo” show, a carriage ride through the vineyards, a tour of the wine museum and of course the tasting.   We are starting to understand why the hotel told is we could visit two wineries today and two tomorrow.   After some discussion with the winery, we settle on just the rodeo show and wine tasting.   We want more time to visit other wineries.   The tasting pours are very generous and they take the time to explain the process of how to truly taste the wine.   You can still get this in a lot of the California wineries, but they’ve just gotten so busy these days, you usually just get a quick pour off the menu. 

All in all it was a good day.   The wines were much better than I expected based on the wines from Chile I’ve had in the states.   I actually found a truly organic wine that I loved at Emiliana. 

The Traveling Hillbilly LOVES Santiago!

Based on what a couple of people had told me, my expectations for Santiago were low.  I was expecting a big city, smoggy, hot and humid!   I was very pleasantly surprised.   I think Santiago is a beautiful city.   The Traveling Hillbilly could live here.   Granted my friends and I stayed in Las Condes the newer business district, not in downtown or other older parts of the city but our experience here was great.   We had great restaurants nearby and lots to see and do, all within walking distance or a metro stop or two.  It is actually a lot like Los Angeles, very cosmopolitan, great weather, lots of outdoor activities and cool evenings.  I stayed at the W Santiago and felt the view from my room looked like the Hollywood Hills.   It was like I was staying on Sunset Plaza, but with better weather!  My only regret is we don’t have more time to spend here.    In hindsight, this would have made a great “home base” for doing day tours of Casablanca, Vina del Mar and Valparaiso.   Oh well. 

I wonder what the quarantine period is for bringing hound dogs into the area?    HHHHHHmmmmmmm, I might just have to look into that.

A Magical & Mystical Christmas Day

Wow!   Words cannot describe what an amazing day I had today.  Today was the day we went to Machu Picchu.   Given our last minute travel plans, it was too late to get a permit to hike the Inca Trail, so we opted to take the train up to Machu Picchu.   I know it seems like cheating, however, we were able to secure a ticket to the Huayna Picchu entrance.   Huayna Picchu is a mountain high above Machu Picchu and they only give out 400 tickets per day to climb it. 

The train ride itself was truly a scenic journey.  The traveling hillbilly loves a great train ride.  The 30 minute bus ride however is quite another story.   The rain made the roads wet and muddy.   As we drove up the mountain, weaving our way around the mountain, the bus was just inches from the mountain on one side and there was just a steep drop off on the other side.  The bus ride two and from was quite a scary adventure!

We arrived at the station, walked to the entrance of Machu Picchu and immediately went to the Huayna Picchu entrance.  We decided we wanted to do that first and then make our way back down to explore Machu Picchu in the afternoon.  We hiked up to Huayna Picchu which is almost 1,200 feet above Machu Picchu!  It was often a very steep climb but luckily there were ropes in some of the steepest parts to help you pull yourself up.  The trail itself was wet and muddy so we were slow going.  The climb up provided the most stunning scenic views!   At times, we were completely shrouded in clouds, which only added to the mysticism of the experience.  I know the pictures will never do it justice. 

We finally arrived at the top, both winded and excited!   The view from up there makes you feel like you are on top of the world!   You realize how high you truly are when you gaze upon Machu Picchu so far below.  

Going down was an even bigger challenge but we knew  we would be rewarded with an depth exploration of Machu Picchu once we got back to the bottom.  We were not disappointed!   On the train ride to Machu Picchu my friend and I were wondering if we would be underwhelmed with Machu Picchu since we’d just done Ollantaytambo the day before.  Would it be just another Inca ruin?  Boy, were we wrong to even think such a thought!   We were completely taken aback and overwhelmed by how magnificent this lost city of the Inca’s is.   It is amazing what they were able to build and how much of this city still stands.   Incredible!

 Only 400 people in the world got to do what I did today.   It truly was a once in a lifetime experience made all the better because I got to enjoy it with such amazing friends!