Iguazu Falls

Collette is introducing a new concept called modular touring and is launching it with their new Wonders of South America cornerstone itinerary which is on sale now with departures starting in May 2012.

Personally, I think the idea is a good one.

Cornerstone Itinerary

Rio de Janeiro

Essentially, travelers can purchase this 11-day South America highlights tour that will feature Rio, Iguazu Falls, Mendoza and Buenos Aires. Rio de Janeiro is host to soccer’s World Cup in 2014 as well as the 2016 Summer Olympics and Collette passengers can spend three nights in this exciting and happening city.

Spice it up with a bit of Chile

For those who want to delve deeper into the continent, the new 11-day tour may be extended to 16-days with the addition of Chile featuring Bariloche, a Lake Crossing of the Andes, Chilean Wine Country and the sights of Santiago, Chile’s capital city.

Add an Amazon experience or the Lost City of the Incas…or both!

Then there are the pre and post extensions that can be added to either the 11-day or 16-day  itinerary. Choices include the Brazilian Amazon pre-extension where you can spend three nights at the Jungle Lodge and one overnight in Rio; or add on the 7-night Machu Picchu and Peru post-extension to either base tour for a complete South American journey. 

South America – Your Way!

Machu Picchu

You see where I’m going? Not literally…though I have been to Chile and Argentina with Collette and, if time had allowed, I would have opted for some of these add-ons. After all, you’ve traveled a pretty long distance so why not take advantage of seeing more of what the continent has to offer, especially Machu Picchu? I recall on this journey meeting a couple who had been in South America close to a month – they were leaving Santiago, Chile, the next morning to fly to Easter Island. I think having the ability to customize your vacation…to take an escorted tour and add components that make it more personal - (all without having to do too much work) – is the best of both worlds.

Easy for travel agents to custom tailor a group trip

We have already been seeing interest in South America grow. With the introduction of this modular concept of a shorter base tour with many options, Collette has made it easy for travel agents to custom tailor an unforgettable and comprehensive South American vacation for their clients based on budget and desired length of vacation stay.  

“We created this new, flexible tour to be customizable with optional modules that will uncover the many marvels of South America – its beauty, culture, history, cuisine, entertainment, and geography,” says Allison Flint, Collette product manager. “It’s a South American vacation your way – as long or as short as you want and we will definitely have clients interested in the 28-day adventure. These are the same clients who have already traveled on our Complete South Pacific tour.”

Top attractions and off the beaten path experiences

On the cornerstone itinerary, Collette has included the most sought-after attractions like a visit to Iguazu Falls and  Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue with culinary experiences like learning how to craft the famous caipriniha cocktail and indulging in a Brazilian-style barbeque at a renowned ‘Churrascaria’ restaurant. In addition to the experience of viewing Iguazu Falls’ “Devil’s Throat” from a platform perch, other tour highlights include a tango lesson in Buenos Aires; a train ride to the top of Rio’s Corcovado Mountain to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; and a tour of Mendoza, the lovely Argentinean city within the shadows of the Andes Mountains and the ideal base for exploring the Caminos del Vino wine route. Experience the flavor and history of Argentina’s most famous wine, Malbec, during a gourmet wine pairing lunch and visits to bodegas in Mendoza.

The starting at price for the 11-day Wonders of South America tour is $2599 per person, double, land only. For more information and details of the pre- and post-extension options and alternate Chile itinerary, I suggest you call 800-340-5158.

An escorted tour that is flexible enough to fit any budget or length of stay issues. I think this will be a home run with travel agents and travelers and South America is the ideal destination to kick-off this modular tour concept.

I know we are barely a week into summer, but if you don’t already have a summer vacation planned, why not look ahead to travel September through December?

While many Collette passengers do travel in the summer months (the Canadian Rockies are beautiful this time of year), many of our clients opt to travel in the fall when school is back in session and families are less apt to be tourists.

Choosing Collette means all the work is done for you – our escorted tours include hotel accommodations, most meals, sightseeing, and the services of a tour manager – so all you have to do is choose a destination and give your travel agent a call. We can even help with airfare and getting to and from the airport with our complimentary roundtrip home to airport sedan service.

 Here are some suggested destinations and tours to consider in the fall:

 1.)    New England

You may think this is too obvious a choice and while I live in this region, many Americans haven’t experienced the back roads, historic sights and autumnal foliage of New England. The 10-day Cruise the Bays and Railways of New England includes time in all 6 New England states.

 2.)    Ireland 

Renowned for its “forty shades of green”, this country is just right in the fall for donning an Irish hand-knit fisherman’s sweater and enjoying the sights (and a Guiness) on a cool, crisp autumn day. Check out our popular Shades of Ireland tour.

 3.)    Holiday Tours

For those who want to experience the beauty of a destination that has already had its first snowfall and who doesn’t mind the idea of packing a hat, scarf and winter parka, then a holiday tour in December might just be for you. The 7-day Quebec Holiday tour features stays in three Fairmont properties and dinners in quaint local restaurants. 

 4.)    The U.S. South

During the summer months, the heat and humidity of the American South may deter some travelers but come fall, Collette’s Southern Charm tour offers plenty of departure dates when the temperatures are a bit cooler. Featuring Charleston, Savannah and Jekyll Island, this week-long adventure epitomizes true Southern hospitality and charm.

5.)    South America

The seasons in South America are the reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere making spring (September – November) an ideal time to visit places like Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile, when temperatures are mild. I’m partial to our Wines and Wonders of South America tour since I had the opportunity to travel there in 2009. You can read my observations about that tour and the countries of Chile and Argentina here.

Views from the top of Cerro San Cristobal

Santiago, Chile, has been named the top location to visit in 2011 by The New York Times’ list, Places to Go in 2011.

Collette offers two tours that visit Santiago, Chile: the 11-day Wines & Wonders of South America which spends three nights in Santiago, and the 15-day Discover South America tour which spends two nights in Santiago. South America continues to gain international recognition as an affordable, rewarding destination that exceeds expectations.

“Chile is an incredible destination!” says Allison Flint, Collette’s Product Manager for the region. “It is modern, cosmopolitan, with great shopping and full of opportunities to indulge in delicious Chilean wines – Santiago, the capital city of Chile, is the perfect city to start a South American adventure!”

For travelers on a Collette tour, you will find yourself immersed in the culture of Santiago during a welcome dinner, complete with Chilean wine, and a folkloric show interpreting the cultures and traditions of Chile. A locally guided tour of the heart of the city, the Plaza de Armas, provides a great overview of the history of Santiago. I recall the amazing views of Santiago and the Andes when I had the opportunity to ride the cable car up Cerro San Cristobal to admire the larger-than-life Statue of the Immaculate Conception.  With your Collette tour manager leading the way, you’ll view all the significant sights of Santiago including O’Higgins Park, the Palacio de la Moneda government building, and the many culturally rich and historic neighborhoods of the city.

Another highlight for me and a pleasant optional day trip from Santiago is the coastal resort towns of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar including a visit to the Pablo Neruda museum. And on Wines & Wonders of South America, Santiago is the base from which you explore the famous Colchagua wine valley on the Tren del Vino and spend the day learning about carmenere and other famous varietals.  Not to mention the unforgettable gourmet lunch with wine at the Santa Cruz winery!

You can read all about these experience by viewing posts from our South American reality tour. And for those of you who have been to Santiago, I’d love to hear your impressions of the city.

At Collette Vacations there are an array of vacation opportunities that feature birding tours and leisurely bird sightings as groups explore destinations like Australia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, the Amazon, Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the Galapagos Islands and Newfoundland, Canada. Now I admit that I can barely tell the difference between a hawk and a heron, but here are some of my favorite destinations that just happen to be a bird lover’s dream yet are also designed to appeal to less experienced nature lovers like me:

1.  Find the blue-footed booby in the Galapagos.
   

   Blue footed booby

2. Be amused by the Magellanic penguin of Chile.
3. See Machu Picchu’s Torrent duck.
4. Visit one of the world’s largest flamingo nesting grounds in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
5. Keep your eyes open for the colorful scarlet macaw in Costa Rica.

 Activities such as playing a musical instrument, solving crossword puzzles, and visiting museums are all great for keeping your mind active. And, of course, traveling is a fantastic way to learn about new cultures, discover new interests, and pick up interesting trivia that will make you the star of any dinner party. Here are some factoids I picked up in my travels and which, to my amazement, have stuck with me (to be fair some are from recent travels but others go back over 30 years to family vacations close to home):

Did you know…

• It took Michelangelo four years to complete the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?
• There are approximately 1,000 different species of butterflies in Costa Rica?
• Mount Aconcagua is the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres (and North Face brand of cold weather gear named a woman’s jacket after this hard-to-spell and say mountain… go figure the reasoning of marketers)?
• Easter Island, the place with the weird statues immortalized by the phrase “Dumb Dumb want gum gum” is off the coast of Chile, and is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Tahiti and Chile), making it one of the most isolated places on Earth?
• Nineteen people were hanged and one person was pressed to death during the Salem Witch trials in 1692? (o.k., I admit I had to look up the year but I remembered the number of poor victims from a visit to Salem, Massachusetts at age 12!).
• Salzburg, Austria, is the setting for scenes from the movie “The Sound of Music” in addition to being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

As Roman dramatist, philosopher, and politician Seneca said, “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” There is truly no limit to the education you can get traveling the world.

The perception is that as we age our brain cells begin to die off leading to memory loss. From my own experience hitting that watershed moment when you round the bend on 39 and say hello to 40, I admit I felt the stirrings of memory loss (at least I think I did, I can’t remember now).  Ask any of my 3 kids about Mom’s memory and they’ll tell you how I have to tick through their names ─Tess, Kelsey, Clover (that’s the dog), Jim (that’s the husband) ─ aaah, James. Yes, that’s who I want – “Please feed the dog, James.”

But is forgetting my kid’s names really that big a deal? I mean, in today’s fast-paced, hectic world our brains are juggling a ton of information—much of it useless. I rather believe that we can rewire the cerebral hard drive throughout our life, even in our 70s and 80s.

Which brings me to the point of this post…what can we do to keep our minds sharp and vital? Travel is one exercise for the brain that I like to think is stimulating as well as fun. And educational travel like Smithsonian Journeys Travel Adventures tours are noted for engaging travelers in the destination with lectures by experts in their fields. All the new information that comes our way on an escorted tour from local guides and tour managers has to be good for brain stimulation. At the very least, it might come in handy playing Jeopardy or attempting the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Having recently traveled to South America for 12 days, the interactive experiences while on tour were like exercise for the body and soul. Take learning to tango. It’s physical and relies on the body to get us across the dance floor, and it’s social since it is dependent upon interaction among fellow passengers and the instructors. On a cognitive level, we learn something new which is emotionally rewarding…or not, if you have two left feet.

Of course, the reason for my free ride to Chile and Argentina was on account of management’s expectation that I would write a blog about my experience which perhaps made me more vigilant in my cognitive approach to the trip. But looking around the motorcoach at my fellow passengers, I saw many, like me, taking notes and listening with rapt interest. After all, why travel so far to see and experience new sights if you’re not going to learn something about the place you’ve chosen to spend a chunk of your time and money?

So, instead of mourning over memory loss why not think of fun and interesting things to awaken brain cells that are simply dormant. Or in other words, don’t hit the snooze button—get out and travel.  A hypothesis backed by unscientific research? You bet. But I’ve loved every journey and every tidbit I’ve gleaned along the way and while I may forget a name or two, I can play Fox-TV’s “Are you Smarter than a 5^th Grader?” with the best of them. Now if I could just get my kids to respond to my pleas for help with chores — no matter what name I call them.

The first bodega we hit is Norton. It was founded in 1895 by an Englishman (hence the Anglo-Saxon name) who was a civil engineer and came over to work on the building of a railroad. He married the daughter of a farm owner. In 1989 Norton sold to the Austrian firm, Swarovski.

Debbie and I toasting to our first vineyard of the day...Bodega Norton!

Learning about the stages of the wine on our in-depth tour.

Norton is what I would classify as large and modern – producing 22 million bottles of wine, 40% for export and 60% for internal consumption. Inside the fermentation area, our group crossed over a narrow bridge high up and over the tanks. Some opted for another route. At Norton, we tasted wine throughout the fermentation process. Debbie liked the first tasting, which essentially was grape juice!  I liked the final product and purchased a bottle of Bodega Norton Reserva Malbec 2006. With pesos, of course…

Debbie, Marjorie and Maggie posing for a picture.

Ruca Malen was Bodega #2. Ruca Malen is located in the Luján de Cuyo region of western Argentina, set just off national route 7, the road that traverses the Andes from Mendoza to Santiago, Chile. Borrowing its name from a local indigenous legend about an Araucan woman who fell in love with a god, Ruca Malen (literally translated as ‘the house of the young girl’) is what I would classify as small and being only a few years old, modern.

Second Bodega....Ruca Malen.

Here is where we had lunch and what a lunch it was! Five courses of beautifully presented, flavorful food paired with five different wines, our luncheon was a definite highlight of our day in Argentina’s Napa Valley. The setting was in a small, open air restaurant overlooking the Andes although a shroud of clouds kept our view pretty obscured. While the tasting menu changes, this was our menu (if you’re not a foodie, just scroll over this part):

The meal was absolutely amazing...I had to show some pictures.

First Appetizer

Summer Squash, fennel and apple Ceviche, served on a fresh cheese mousse paired with Yauquén Sauvignon Blanc 2008.

Second Appetizer

Beetroot Capuccino garnished with crunchy sweet potatoes seasoned with black pepper and a balsamic reduction. It was paired with Yauquén Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, a fresh fruity wine.

Starter

Smoked pumpkin terrine paired with Ruca Malen Merlot 2005.

Main Course

Grilled beef tenderloin medallion served with grilled polenta, sautéed vegetables, raisins, and a black olive sauce. The main course was paired with two wines – a Ruca Malen Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 and Kinién Malbec 2007.

Pre-dessert

Chardonnay, lemon and mint granitee.

Dessert

Regional fruit pastes and cheeses.

Wish I knew the Spanish equivalent for scrumptious—that would sum up the whole experience at Ruca Malen!

Feeling stuffed and slightly tipsy, we’re off to our final bodega, Lagarde. Ah, here is our traditional, older winery. Founded in 1897 by Capitan Pereyra and his brother, both originally from Spain, they sold to the Pescarmona family in the 1970’s. Lagarde is dedicated to small production of high quality wines and is known for sparkling wine.  We learn on tour that what makes wine sparkling is the sugar and yeast the wine maker adds right before putting the cap (not a cork) on the bottle.

Third and last Bodega of the day Lagarde Winery.

The main building which houses the winery, dates from 1897 and with its adobe walls (a traditional turn of the century construction material made of mud and hay covered with stucco) and original wood beamed roofs lined with reeds it is a one of the last examples of Colonial architecture in Mendoza.

I think leaving Lagarde, most would agree that 3 bodegas in one day is just right!

Click here to read about Collette’s Wines & Wonders of South America tour!

Today we will visit three bodegas (or wineries) – bet this was a tough day to plan, Allison! We will travel along wine roads known throughout the region as Los Caminos del Vino. Diego will be with us as well. And while we have had wine throughout this tour and seen many wonders (hello, Andes), from our itinerary it looks as though today was the inspiration behind Allison’s tour naming, Wines and Wonders of South America!

Here are a few tips that I read regarding a Bodega day in Argentina (we’ll see later if they came in handy):

1.)    Schedule 3-4 bodegas in one day and select a variety of sizes (small, medium, large) and styles (organic, traditional, modern).

2.)    The weather in Mendoza is dry and hot but the wine cellars can be chilly. Dress in light layers.

3.)    Many bodegas only take cash for wine purchases so come prepared if you are thinking of buying.

Click here to read about Collette’s Wines & Wonders of South America tour!

Debbie and I along with Kevin, Pat and Bob, Maggie, and Carolyn and Elizabeth from Texas –those from our group who opted for the Wine Pairing Cooking demonstration– just wrapped up a delightful evening at Bodega Cecchin, a family owned and operated organic vineyard, a short distance outside of Mendoza. Described as a delicious adventure in Argentine gastronomy and enology, I am a little afraid to lay bare my sub-par cooking skills in front of the other passengers (Debbie has already heard about some of the food fiascos my family has had to endure).

Bodega Cecchin, a family owned and operated organic vineyard.

But first a tour and tasting—this is after all Wines and Wonders of South America!—before heading to the edge of the vineyard where a large outdoor brick oven with flaming red coals is being tended to by a young man in a white chef’s jacket. The chef in charge is Ayalen . She has a warm smile and easy going manner that dispels my anxieties – this is going to be fun!

Let the wine tasting begin!

We all roll up our sleeves and don our souvenir aprons emblazoned with the logos of Collette and Bodega Cecchin. Under the watchful eye  of our chef who demonstrates technique, we each take turns to scoop a variety of fillings (like ground meat and mushrooms), plop it onto the dough she has rolled out, and shape into a pretty empanada ready for the oven. Later we enjoy them warm and paired with wine—delicious!

Cooking EMPANADAS...wish this blog had scratch and sniff. The aroma is FANTASTIC!

Kevin, Debbie & I wearing the aprons we received before cooking....GREAT souvenir!!!

We move inside to a rustic barn-like setting for dinner (beef of course) followed by an entertaining performance of traditional dances by two young couples. The owner of Bodega Cecchin is there to make sure we are enjoying our evening. We meet his wife and their two adorable young children (toddlers), both wearing the sleepy countenance of having just woken from a nap (?) to join us. The time:  10:30pm!

One, big, happy group...NOW LET'S EAT!!!!!

Off to bed! Another great day behind me.

-Melissa

Click here to read about Collette’s Wines & Wonders of South America tour!

An afternoon at leisure was the perfect way to absorb the tranquility of Mendoza. Debbie, Kevin and I had lunch at an outdoor café and with our table situated on the outskirts we were in prime position to people watch. Our positioning, however, also made us the target for people coming by asking for a few pesos. We helped the first person to venture over but then had to wave away one or two after that. It’s tough—travel makes you realize how fortunate and blessed you are and is a poignant reminder that it isn’t like that for everyone.

After lunch, Debbie, Maggie and I walked over to the Plaza España (Kevin had to go check on our group’s flight to Buenos Aires in a few days at the LAN office). The centerpiece of Plaza España is a fountain that just kind of sits there and dribbles—but it is backed by a spectacular wall of scenes composed of colorful tiles. The tiles depict the discovery and occupation of the New World.

Pictures of the beautiful tiles and monument at the Plaza España.

The plan was to hit all the plazas on the outskirts and come back at night to photograph the Plaza Independencia. It is pretty hot, however, and we skip the other plazas in search of ice cream!

Click here to read about Collette’s Wines & Wonders of South America tour!