Valparaiso - Vina Del Mar - Santiago, Chile

We arrived Valparaiso, Chile and disembarked our ship on January 31st.  We pre-arranged an all day tour with a transfer to Santiago with "Michael, the German Pirate," (just a tour we found on-line).  It turned out that 4 other couples from our ship booked the same tour.  Valparaiso is a coastal city known for its steep funiculars and colorful clifftop homes.  Michael took us around Valparaiso to one of the better neighborhoods where we walked around and then took a funiculars down to the city square.

 At the top of the hill to ride the funicular down.

Below are just a few of the many buildings with eleborate street art.

 A row of colorful clifftop houses

Our tour guide (Michael) told us he calls this the "Ship House".

 Navy building in Sotomayor Square

 Michael the German Pirate showing us old pictures of the city square.

 After our tour in Valparaiso, we were driven to the nearby coastal resort city of Vina del Mar known for its gardens and beaches.  Above is a working swiss clock garden made after Switzerland played Chile in the World Cup in 1962.

 A large Moai statue moved to Vina del Mar in 1950 from Easter Island.

 We then drove to the beach area to enjoy lunch at one of Michael's favorite spots.

On our way to Santiago, we stopped at a winery in Casablanca Valley and got to taste some nice  Chilean wine.

 Front garden and fountains at the winery

 Wine tasting

 The following day we were on our own in Santiago.  Michael gave us some tips on riding the subway and a gave us information on a few things to see in the city.  Above is the "La Moneda Palace" which is the presidential palace.

 Side garden of La Moneda Palace

 Santiago Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas

Plaza de Armas

 National History Museum in Plaza de Armas

 Castillo Hidalgo - We just happened to run onto this park with a castle ruins on top of the hill.

 Wonderful view of the city from on top of the castle tower

 Chapel on the castle grounds

 Neptune Fountain on the castle grounds

 Walking down the pedestrian area in the city we came across these tango dancers

 Monument to the Pueblo Indians; the indigenous people of Chile

The Justice Department in Santiago

 Set up on a hill where we took a funicular to the top is the "Santuario Inmaculada Concepcion"

The Garden of Saint Christopher

We left Santiago the next morning and flew to Rio de Janeiro to spend the next 4 days and nights.

Puerto Montt, Chile

Our final port before one last sea day and disembarking in Valpariso was Puerto Montt, Chile.  We arrived Puerto Montt on Sunday, January 29th and tendered to the pier.  Puerto Montt was quite a large city but since it was sunday the streets were pretty calm and much was open. 

 Once off the ship, we walked the boardwalk along the bay

View of our ship anchored in the bay

 This large gawdy statue named "Two Lovers" was right on the boardwalk overlooking the bay.  We tried to look up the meaning of this statue but only found it under "The Worst Statues in the World."  It was definitely an eye-sore along a beautiful boardwalk.

 Old wooden church called "Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral" in the "Plaza de Armas" square.  A church service was going on while we were here.

 We took a taxi and drove out to another small town called Puerto Varas.  It's known as a German community that sits on Lake Llanquihue with a wonderful view of the Osorno Volcano.  Above was a statue in a small plaza on the lake.

 View of Puerto Varas from a lookout point on the lake.

 The clouds were too low to get a good view of the volcano, but you can see the tip of it sticking out above the clouds.

I took this picture from the internet to show the view of this volcano from the town.  There were actually 3 volcanos in this area.  This volcanos last eruption was in 1869, but another one (Calbuco) erupted in April of 2015.

We're back on the ship and enjoying our final sea day before we have to disembark

 Lounging on the lido deck

Our final dinner on the ship - we both ordered the "veal liver" appetizer.

One of the ladies that sat our our table every night really wanted "Baked Alaska" but it was never on the menu.  She asked our waiter for it several times so on our final night, he bought out Baked Alaska for all of us.  It wasn't our favorite dessert, but we didn't mind.

 Enjoying our final sunset.

We had a great 3 weeks on the ship and now we get to enjoy another week exploring more of South America!

Castro Isla Chiloe Chile

We arrived on the Island of Chiloe on January 28, 2017.  Castro is the capital of the Chiloe' Province and is Chile's 3rd oldest city founded in 1576.

 Arriving at the port of Castro, Chile

 There was a bustling Saturday morning market going on near the port with locals selling everything you can imagine.  This is David's favorite kind of invironment.

 It was a little calmer inside this building where more of the market continued

 We headed up the hill to the city square.  The church in the city square is called the "Church of San Fransisco."

 It seemed like some kind of festival going on in the square with several people playing music and lots of booths set up selling things

 Inside the church - built in 1568 although it was burned down several times until its final reconstrution in 1771

 There were many walls of street art throughout the city.  This looks like a protest of the expanding city taking out the local's houses.

 Near the beach for a view of our ship

 Street view showing the colorful houses.  The large brown building on the top of the hill is a small mall.

 A very pink hotel!

 Castro is known for its "palafitos" or traditional wood stilt houses.  This shows the tide out but by the time our ship left the water was all the way under these houses.

 Getting back on our tender we had a good view of the small boats near the pier

Leaving Castro and heading to Puerto Montt