Valparaiso

I am so far behind that I don’t know where to start but I will try to catch up. The reason I am behind is because I caught a cold and it took the stuffing out of me. I am feeling much better today, so I will try to blog a little. The last port I reported on was Punta Arenas. Our last and first port of call was Valparaiso, which is also in Chile. This city is at about the same latitude south as San Diego is North. It is Chile’s second largest city and it was founded in 1536. The bus picked us up and we were driven round the city. We stopped at the city center and took pictures. The city is built on very steep hills and so they have what they call funiculars. Actually they are like a cross between a cable car and an elevator. They transport people from the bottom of the hill to the top. At one time there were 39 of them, now there are only 4. As they break down or need repair they are not replaced. The bus stopped at the foot of one and we rode to the top and then we got out and our guide led us back to the bottom. There is a lot of construction happening in the down town area. This has been declared a UNESCO heritage site and so the old buildings are being restored. There is a curious mix of the old and the new because of this. On our way down we passed many many buildings with ugly graffiti and some with rather beautiful street art. The guide explained that the owners of buildings that are constantly being defaced by ugly tags eventually give up and they hire someone to do street art on their building. Apparently there is a code and taggers do not mark on someone else’s art work. So if you hire someone to decorate you building your worries with graffiti are over. A lot of it was really quite beautiful. We wound our way along the narrow street and we came to a home where the owners were selling a local cookie called Alfajores. The guide knocked on the door and a lay emerged with a try of these specialties. The lady spoke only Spanish but the guide purchased a cookie for each of us and then we continued on our way. They cookie had a kind of shortbread biscuit covered in chocolate with some kind of a tropical fruit filling. Her sign said 150 was the cost so that would be around 30 cents Canadian. They reminded me of a wagon wheel with fruit instead of marshmallow. We walked along the financial district and I was surprised to see the Scotiabank. They have been in all of the South American countries. This was Saturday and here like it is in so many countries they have a type of flea market and farmers market. It goes for what seems like miles down the center of the city. It is outside in the blazing sun. I really don’t know how they do it. The sun would really do me in. We left the city and our next stop was for lunch and wine tasting at the William Cole winery. It was about a 45 minute drive and it was in a beautiful setting. It was a massive operation but I can’t say that I was terribly impressed with the wine. We had lunch here; it consisted of several kinds of finger food with a very nice dessert assortment. After lunch we headed back to the ship. Our tour had come to an end. Because it was the beginning of the second cruise we expected a lot of delay in boarding but that was not the case. We were able to just walk on with no dely.