Valparaiso, Chile

We arrived very early today into Valparaiso.  A large amount of passengers were disembarking here as this was the end of a two-week segment of the cruise.  We were a little concerned with how the day would go since not only did we have an all day tour, we also had to change staterooms.

When we originally booked the cruise, we were unable to get the same cabin for both segments because the 2nd segment was already almost sold-out.  Anyway, our worries were not necessary as it was very simple.  We left everything on hangers as they were and only had to pack up anything loose.  Our cabin steward told us he would move all of our stuff to our new cabin while we were off the ship.  Sure enough, when we returned late in the day, everything was in our new cabin.

We walked off the ship at 8:30 a.m. so that we could meet up with a Cruise Critic arranged tour of Valparaiso.  A lot of people on the ship were going to see Santiago but we had decided that since one day we want to see Machu Picchu and add a cruise segment from Santiago, we would postpone seeing that large city.  We easily found our group of 44 amongst the throngs and luggage leaving the ship.  We were split up into two buses and headed off for a tour of downtown Valparaiso.  Nothing incredibly special about the city but our guide was enthusiastic and showed us a nice panoramic view next to a military museum.

We then drove into the main square before going for a short stroll around what they call their “Wall Street”.  The guide took us up a funicular that locals use to traverse the hilly slopes.  Once up on top, we stopped at a little house where a woman sold us chocolate caramel cookies from her doorway to ease the pain of the walk down.  We came upon lots of beautiful graffiti.  Our guide said that owners hired artist taggers to paint nice pictures on the exteriors of their buildings and apparently there is a “code” amongst taggers where they won’t paint over another taggers “work”.  We also saw lots and lots of obnoxious tagging so obviously these owners had not “paid up” .

The electrical cabling system looks quite archaic and ugly.  I can only imagine what large US cities would look like if the cables were not buried.

The city proudly continues to use tram cars that look like they came from the early 70’s.

We then were taken on a very long drive out of the city and into wine country.  The Casablanca Valley produces excellent Sauvignon Blanc.  We stopped at William Cole winery for a tour (we’re very tired of winery tours but you have to take the tour to get the wine).  Jeff sat in the beautiful tasting room they have while the rest of us trudged through the grapevines and production facility.  Afterwards, we gathered around several shade trees and sipped a wonderful cool sauvignon blanc B.  Then, we were escorted inside for trays and trays of passed appetizers and glasses of Cabernet.  Jeff had already purchased several bottles to take back to the ship, so I’m glad I  liked the samples.

It was a long day and another incredible sailaway.

Good night!