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Published: November 10th 2012
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Diego, our host at Casa del Todoa who sports a truly Elvis inspired hairdo, put on a spectacular breakfast and we felt replenished after being so exhausted, so we planned a last minute day trip to the coastal towns of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, with a wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley thrown in for good measure.
It turns out that breakfast did not keep the exhaustion at bay for long, as soon as we are in our car and the guide begun behind to speak I am fighting sleep. Now if we had been on a large tour bus it may not have mattered, however our very attentive guide had just Rochelle and I to focus on.
Turns out that I have mastered the art of sleeping and listening, as long as you have your sunnies on you can sleep if you retain enough consciousness to nod and mmmmm at the correct times, although sometimes I may have been slow to react to his pauses. I truly have never ever been so tired and every time we got back in the car I was out cold as soon as I had fastened my seat blelt, Jose I
am very sorry and you were very polite towards your impolite tourist.
On our tour of two coastal cities and a winery you would assume that the wine tasting came at the end of the day, very wrong assumption. Thankfully the wines at Emiliana Winery were so excellent that we could justify drinking them at 10.30 in the morning. Boys - please remember to drink responsibly at all times when you turn 18.
We hopped back in the car, I fought the sleep monster but lost again and woke up in Valparaiso, a Unesco heritage listed town and the home of Chile's famous poet Pablo Nervo. We are not quite sure what he wrote but the Chileans love him and it seems he is a national treasure who won the Noble Peace Prize in 1971. Apologies to my Chilean friends for my lack of knowledge I look forward to you filling me in on him over a coffee.
We wandered the city that is made up of seven hills in the shape of an amphitheater facing the sea and Chile's first shipping port. The houses are ancient, a mix of bright colors and English and European architecture,
stacked tightly side by side on the sloping hill sides with funiculars still in us to transport people up the slopes.
After another cat nap we arrive in Vina del Mar for lunch. Afetr politely refusing to leave the car to view the flower clock ( we have one at our zoo) and that we can't lunch in a restaurant that has a large red tourist buses outside, we are hoodwinked by our guide and taken to eat local food, but which was another guide kickback restaurant we are sure - I did get another five minute cat nap in though.
After making a random fish choices from the menu we have a great lunch and are recharged, for the seals, palace and a moai statue that Jose insists we see despite the fact that the following day we are flying to Easter Island tomorrow.
Time for home and Jose suggests that a sleep may be a good idea, yes I felt bad that he knew and that my awake but sleeping act was not up to scratch, but took off my sunnies and sleep again claimed me.
After all that sleep
we were wide awake for the evenings events, watching the sunset over Santiago from the roof top of the W hotel and then dinner at a local plaza. Bags were packed in the world's tiniest hotel room where we had to co ordinate our movements so as to not run into each other.
Tomorrow it's Rapa Nui, or as we know it Easter Island.
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