SA Cruise: Day 24

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The ship docks early at Valparaíso. We have a few issues with our on-board account to resolve. Eventually we say goodbye to the MS Veendam, which has carried us to Antarctica and back. We sailed 3588 nautical miles, which is 4128 miles or 6645 kilometres.

We board the bus for our tour. Sylvia, our guide, turns out to have dual Chilean/Canadian citizenship. (She spends part of the year teaching Spanish in Montreal, where her daughter lives.) It's a grey, dreary and fairly cool day with occasional drizzle, but Sylvia promises that the weather will be beautiful when we reach the valley.

Valparaíso is a port city built up from the sea into the sides of rocky hills. The way many of the buildings are built into and around sheer cliffs defies belief. The bus starts at the bustling downtown, climbing higher and higher until we finally are rewarded with a panoramic view of the city. Heading north, we descend into a neighbouring city named Viña del Mar. This area is richer, with magnificent hotels, casinos and private homes. We stop a couple of times for photos, and notably have an opportunity to see the city's giant floral clock.

We have an hour's visit at the Fonck Museum. It has one floor dedicated to Easter Island, a possession of Chile. I've read quite a bit about the mostly tragic history of this island, and I enjoy seeing some of its artifacts first-hand. The time is too short, though, because I am called away just as I discover the museum's insect collection on the second floor.

We leave Viña del Mar and head inland. Once again the bus climbs and climbs, and eventually we pass over the hills and descend into the valley of Casablanca on the other side. An instant difference in climate! From wet and cold, we are transported into hot and dry. Casablanca is one of Chile's main wine-producing areas, and most of the area is taken up by vinyards and fields of other crops, including oranges, lemons, corn, and olive trees. One could easily imagine being somewhere in the Mediterranean.

We stop at a farm named Puro Caballo. We are greeted by music and dancing, not to mention wine and pisco sours. This is a horse ranch where the traditions of Chile's "huaso" cowboys are being kept alive. We enjoy a Chilean lunch of empanadas, beef, mashed potatoes and vegetables—and more wine! And it's really excellent, especially the wine. Did I mention that they served wine?

After lunch, a horse-riding show is presented in an outside stadium. Four riders demonstrate the traditional skills developed by a huaso and his horse. The finale features the horses and their riders dancing a Chilean folk dance with each other—and with a girl on foot. Very impressive. And the horses themselves are magnificent beasts, obviously loved and well cared-for.

Time to return to the bus and we are off for Santiago, still much further inland. We pass through two long tunnels drilled through the mountains to link one valley to another. The second is 3 km in length! We emerge from it into the valley of Santiago, with its namesake city spread out in all directions as far as you can see and in the distance a wall of snow-capped mountains, the mighty Andes. Santiago is a huge city of some 7 million people, half of Chile's population, but we are not going to have the opportunity on this trip to see any of it.

We arrive at the airport just before 5 pm and are pleased to find our bags. We have an hour and a half wait for the Air Canada check-in to open, which we pass chatting with other passengers destined for Canada, some from our cruise and some not. A long wait for our flight, Santiago to Toronto, which leaves at 9:45 pm. An even longer overnight flight to Toronto. We arrive back in Ottawa right on schedule at 9:10 am, punch-drunk from lack of good sleep.

This was a fantastic trip from start to finish. Violet and I were discussing favorite moments on the flight home. We both agree that nothing can top New Year's Eve in Antarctica, surrounded on all sides by a slowing rotating natural panorama of majestic snowy mountains, glaciers and ice bergs while we sip our champagne—in broad daylight! The Falkland Islands are probably our second-choice highlight: not only an interesting corner of the Earth to visit, but also the place where we saw a penguin rookery and were able to get up-close and personal with these remarkable birds. Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires are two places that we definitely would like to see more of. And Santiago, where all we saw was the airport. I particularly liked Chile as a whole. It has an incredible diversity of topology and climate, and I for one found its people particularly open and friendly, with a palatable pride in their country and a sense of optimism about its future.

Hope this blog has been a good read and inspires other people in the northern hemisphere to think about the wonderful places in the southern.

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Comments

[Marie-Anne]

SA Cruise
Thank you for your blog, it was interesting and it felt like I was there too. Thanks again