Blogs from Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 4

After another unpleasantly long flight across the international dateline we finally landed on our fifth continent in the South American nation of Chile. Exiting the airport we easily found the airport bus which delivered us to the Parajahitas Metro Station where we changed to a coach for the 90 minute trip to World Heritage site and major port Valparaiso. We arrived late in the day checking into the Ibis hotel down on the waterfront, the hotel is modern and comfortable but choice of food is limited. We crashed out at 5pm not waking again till 3am when we watched a creepy pseudo-documentary about serial killers before going back to sleep till 7am. On waking we went down to a buffet breakfast before heading out to explore this strange city which is the home of the Chilean ... read more

Last Saturday night while I was on the computer and my host sister was taking a nap, some robbers broke into my host family's house. I heard a loud crash downstairs which made it obvious that someone was entering who shouldn't. I ran into my host parent's bedroom and woke my sister up and we locked ourselves in the bedroom. Just then they came up the stairs and immediately started kicking down the bedroom door. It sounded like a group of people and they were talking loudly, completely brazen. I thought we were going to get raped, minimum. We had nothing to defend ourselves and we were terrified. We hid in the bedroom closet as I prayed profusely in English. God heard my prayers. They gave up on kicking down the door even though they could ... read more

Valparaíso is probably the dirtiest city that I've ever enjoyed. Even Cerro Alegre, a touristy hill where I stayed at both a boutique hostel and a bed and breakfast, has a serious stray dog and trash problem and nearly every wall is plastered in graffiti. But it's also a vibrant and mesmerizing city, with graffiti artists dipping brushes into plastic cups in narrow pasajes, street musicians playing on most buses and trains; clever ways to deal with the terrain (funiculars, pedestrian stairs, and even slides), naval officers in uniform carrying light briefcases along the muelle, and the buildings painted a mosaic of vibrant colors, often with murals fringed by tags, and some yards of creative reuse of plastic or hubcaps or tires, cradled in the robust vegetation that survive the winter but remind me of Pittsburgh ... read more

Geo: -33.0206, -71.5548Wow. What a unique city. For that reason, Valparaiso has probably been my favorite city on this trip so far. After a days sailing the Pacific, we arrived at our final cruise port this morning. We were off the ship by 9am. Our final day of cruising was largely pretty laid back and relaxing. Gym, alot of drinking, and a final dinner with our friends Perry and Gloria from Texas and Bo and Kristine from Malmo. The saddest part of the cruise conclusion was saying goodbye to these lovely people. Even as I write this, Nat and I are enjoying the bottle of champagne we received as a honeymoon gift from our Swedish friends.Like I said, overall we've really enjoyed the cruise, the destinations, the food and overall experience. 14 nights however is enough. ... read more

This morning we packed our bags for the last time for two weeks because this afternoon we will be moving into a cabins aboard the m.s. Zaandam. Thierry was on hand again this morning to help us with our transfer to the port at Valparaiso. We dropped Gina at the airport on our way out of Santiago. Gina has another tour group in Buenos Aries and then rejoins us there when we disembark. When we arrived in Valparaiso we went for a short drive along the seafront with Thierry pointing out buildings of note. The coach dropped us at the cruise ship check-in building and Thierry arranged for porters to help us with our luggage. Although I'm not entirely sure if they helped because they were pretty rough with our bags!? Once we were in the ... read more