We bid adieu to Santiago this morning, taking a tour to Valparaiso (an hour or so away, on the coast), which is the embarkation point for our expedition trip.
Our first destination was Vina Del Mar, to see the famous Reloj de Flores, a giant flower clock, which was created in 1962 for the World Cup. It was giant, there were flowers, it was a clock. Truly nothing to get overly excited about.
The next stop was an older part of Vina Del Mar, where a descendant from the peoples of Eastern Island lived (it was actually a museum at this point). Given they were of the people, they were able to bring a Moai to the continent and place it outside of their residence. As the guide said, “this will save you a trip to the middle of nowhere to see one”.
The final stop in Vina Del Mar was a fish market on the coast. The fishermen fish overnight and then peddle their goods the next morning in the market. Some goods, such as the crabs, were so fresh that they were still moving! We saw quite a variety of fish, mussels, octopi, and crabs during our quick tour.
The highlight of the market was watching the feeding of the sea lions. They are massive and look quite lazy, but they quickly come to life when they hear the gate on the dock opening! Their feeding consists of a man pushing a shopping cart full of fish guts, fish heads, and fish carcasses which he tosses over the pier rail to the waiting sea lions, handful by handful.
One gigantic sea lion did not move when the gate was opened, and it turns out he was the smart one. The shopping cart is pushed to the end of the dock, which is where the sea lions get fed. The fat but smart sea lion hangs out on shore waiting for his food. The fisherman saved some fish guts back so he can feed that particular sea lion. Pretty impressive because not only was he the smart one, but he caught his food like a dog catching treats!
Other then the horrendous smell, there was only one other point to note. The birds. Lots of birds. Smelly birds that poop a lot, sometimes on people! Tim was one of the selected few who got special poop treatment from the birds, who then proceeded to laugh about it.
The line between Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar is not obvious, but we next drove over to Valparaiso for a walking tour and lunch. The city is reminiscent of San Francisco – lots of hills! We took a funicular to the top of one of the 25 hills and started our walking tour.
Art is a big part of this community which was evident by looking at the murals painted on doorways, fences, houses, and buildings. Some was definitely unwanted graffiti, but most was quite artistic.
Lunch was at a local restaurant that sources their fish daily from the fish market we visited. The menu was in Spanish, but two lovely ladies who were part of our group tried to translate the menu for us. Nearly everything had something that our resident picky eater wouldn’t eat, so our tour guide arranged for shrimp and chips for us both.
Funny side story about these lovely ladies. They were talking about how much they traveled before they were married. When asked how long they’d been married, they gave two different numbers. Why might you ask? Because they weren’t married to each other… they both have spouses back in the US!!! They were quite amused by the assumption.
More walking tour after lunch, more artistic graffiti, and more nice views of the city below. Here are a good number of the street scenes / graffiti:
With lots of stairs getting you around the hill, there was one famous set (i.e. The stairs were painted by a famous (local) artist that is.)
And other stairs that sometimes local kids (or drunk tourists, as we observed) slide down the “slide” half of the stairs.
And then there were stairs with nice plaza’s in them (yes, we climbed a LOT of stairs).
Even cars and trucks were not immune to graffiti:
Nor was Fido’s dog house immune to graffiti. Although at least they threw a tarp over it before graffiti-ing the pups home (yes, he was in there snoozing away).
Upon finishing the walking tour, we took a different funicular down to meet our driver. After that, we had a straight drive to the harbor.
Checking in with Hurtigruten (the expedition company we’re sailing with) was a breeze! They embodied the phrase “well-oiled machine”, walking you through each required step until you’re fully checked in.
First step – check health documentation, which was a questionnaire which was basically about Covid (have you tested positive recently, do you have symptoms, etc.). Second step – PCR test. Not our favorite part of the day, but a requirement before we could proceed to step 3. Third step was an official documentation check – passport & vaccination card check. Once finished with all checks we boarded a bus that took us to the ship. After much anticipation, we were FINALLY on the ship! That’s it for now, see you tomorrow.