The (not so) Friendly Skies of Valparaiso

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Well more about Sharon’s special memorable greeting by some natives upon arriving in Valparaiso a bit later. Today’s story begins with breakfast at Eurotel, which offered us an ample buffet spread, including scrambled eggs, an egg and sausage soufflé, and very tasty tiny polish style sausages. There was also the typical continental fare, including meats, cheeses, breads and cakes, fruit and cereals. We filled our bellies, having been warned by Yosthon of much walking ahead of us (even more than yesterday). Yesterday would have warranted at least a 3-walker warning on Holland America’s (HAL’s) tour disclosures, so that would mean HAL wouldn’t have a symbol for what was facing us today!



Yosthon arrived promptly at ten, along with Hector, our driver for the day. Later we passed Santiago’s Central Station… I’m pretty sure Yosthon mentioned this as being the largest train station in Latin America. Its massive steel girders supported a steel lattice over-structure. It was not surprising to learn that the building’s designer was Eifel (of Eifel Tower fame). Once we left the urban sprawl of Santiago, Sharon remarked how similar the land looked to driving along highway 14 or Interstate 15 in California, with the land between urban outskirts and dessert. We passed through a long tunnel and on the other side we found ourselves transitioned into wine country. Driving through the Casablanca Valley we took a side trip for some wine tasting at a local winery. The vintners in this valley are more recent participants in the booming Chilean wine enterprises. Many winemakers take pride in building large spacious mansions as evidenced by some imposing homes along the ridgelines.

In the winery, an impressive collection of buildings sharing common beams, we found ourselves escorted into the tasting room. I immediately spotted numerous bottles sporting the hand written name “Bill”, which made sense once informed that this was the William Cole Vineyards. William (or Bill) Cole was a software development entrepreneur from Colorado, who had sold his software business and came to Chile to start this winery and vineyard. He had first gone to Argentina, but decided the conditions weren’t good for starting a business there. Many Gold Medal Awards were on display, despite the winery’s relatively short history. Three wines were offered for us to try. The first was a white zinfandel. I could tell it was a good wine, but for me it has the disadvantage of being a white wine. The second wine was a carmenere. This is a grape, formerly from France, which was thought to have been become extinct in the late twentieth century during a blight of the region in France that grew that grape (probably the Carmenere Region). In the 1990’s it was discovered to have survived in Chile, having been transplanted there earlier from France. I enjoyed this red wine. The final wine I tried was a blend of 50% cabernet Savignon, 25% merlot and 25% Carmenere. This one I enjoyed the most and ultimately bought 2 bottles. I later found out that HAL allows passengers to bring up to 3 bottles on the ship, but I was unaware of that restriction at the time. Sharon didn’t join me in tasting, but she did smell the first wine, wrinkle her noise and utter “Alcohol… Yuch!” when asked what she smelled.



We were back on the road to Valparaiso. Yosthon had mentioned more than once about the War of the Pacific during our previous day’s sight-seeking, when pointing out various statues honoring historic figures. He clearly took pride in this war and the outcome that resulted in in Chile adding to its northern region by adding territories and cities formerly under Peruvian and Bolivian control. The war was fought between 1878 and 1883. At the conclusion Chile gained control of a region rich in salt peter, an important resource of the day, and a number of Chilean fortunes were made from its mining.



We arrived at the seaside harbor of Valparaiso, a bustling working port busy with maritime enterprises. This natural harbor was initially found by accident by a Spanish General who was lost, and put ashore here to reestablish communications with his commander. He named this area the Valley of Paradise, or in Spanish Valparaiso. Some say the general named it after his home town in Spain, which incidentally was Valparaiso.



It was at this juncture that the incident of the unfriendly skies occurred, near a statue commemorating Cristobel Colombo. All I hear is Sharon gasp “What was that?” Yosthon reached immediately into his pocket and pulled out some tissue and pointed at Sharon’s shoulder. I started to clean up the mess on Sharon’s shoulder, when Sharon stammered “My hair!” I started to say “There’s nothing in your hair… oh.” I said something about pigeon poop, but Yosthon corrected, “Sea gull.” Ugh!



Being a city with such a long history, Valparaiso has many older buildings with classic architecture. On the hillsides lining the harbor buildings are densely packed, in all their variegated glory. Immigrants from Britain relished the opportunities of choice available to them in Valparaiso. In Britain they were only allowed to paint their homes red. But here the color palette was unlimited. One downtown building was to be torn down but locals objected, but they were opposed by the mayor. Only after efforts successfully making Valparaiso a World Heritage Site was the matter settled once and for all… sort of. Today, the exterior of the protected building stands with all its historic glory. But a modern multi-story giant stands in the interior space reaching for the sky out of the top of the old building.



We then visited the Department of Justice, and the statue dedicated to it and a gift to the city from years past. We were asked if we noticed anything unusual about Lady Justice. Sharon observed the scales hanging in disarray to the lower left of the statue. Yosthon pointed out also that Lady Justice was not blind folded. He told us the story of the statue. When the Justice Building was first built, a wealthy British businessman had an affair with the wife of a justice. When the judge found out he had the adversary arrested on trumped up charges and jailed. The man however, was not without influence, and was released after just three days. He promptly returned to Britain, cursing the place of his incarceration. Some years later he found himself in France, and related his story to a French artist. That man had the perfect idea for revenge, and the Statue of Injustice was created. It was shipped as an anonymous gift to Valparaiso, where it was gladly accepted and it was installed at the Justice Building, where it stood without remark for 60 years. Three scholars then began to review and research the statue and its true meaning, and the only conclusion that one could come to was that their justice system was being mocked for 60 years. However, another interpretation saved the statue: Justice is found inside the Building of Justice, but outside, where the statue stands, injustice is found.



After much walking among narrow streets, some getting increasingly steep, we were treated to a funicular ride up the side of a steep hill, offering a great elevated view of the city and harbor. At the top we took in the scenic views and then walked down some narrow passageways. Our guide knocked on one door and emerged with a sweet treat for each of us. He described it as containing a local delicacy; like nutella… but not nutella; like peanut butter… but not; like fudge… but not. It was delicious.



Along one street Yosthon pointed out three nearly identical houses. One was yellow, one blue or aqua, and one was red. There once was a man who had three sons. But his sons were constantly bickering, complaining constantly that their father was favoring the other sons. Finally, the father had had enough, and he built three identical houses for his sons, and here they stood side by side. The middle son then complained that his house being on the downhill side of the street had 4 steps to the front door, while the others had two or three steps only… meaning he would have to go up more steps to get into his home than the other sons. Exasperated, the father said “Fine. The youngest son gets the house with 4 steps. The oldest son the one with 2 steps. And the middle son gets the blue house in the middle with 3 steps. And that settled it.



We then drove the upscale seaside neighboring city of Vina del Mar and past the Flower clock. Yosthon took us to a local Chilean restaurant specializing in sea food. Sharon’s concerns were diminished once we verified that they had fried (fish and chips style) fish. Her choices were flat fish or what we heard as Congeria fish. We were told that the flat fish sometimes has spikey bones in it, but the congeria does not, so that is what Sharon chose. I ordered the sautéed flatfish, recommended by our guide. When the plates came and the server holding Sharon’s plate asked who gets the congeria, only this time I heard it more clearly as conger eel, I bit my tongue and hoped Sharon enjoyed it. Rolls were also served, and Yosthon noted that locals eat the rolls with salsa that was also provided. He also requested that some ground chili. As we chatted with our hosts after dining, Yosthon mentioned how they don’t even notice earthquakes in Chile until they exceed 7 on the Richter Scale, and Sharon noted in California we used to take notice at those over 6. Chile has a great earthquake every ten years, and a city such as Santiago will have one in the same place every one hundred years. Their last big earthquake since 2000 (about 2005), so things should be calm here for a while. Yosthon then noted a difference he has spotted between Chileans and Americans, about how in Chile people sit at a table resting their forearms on the table while Americans will sit with their forearms below the table. He said in Chile people will think that people who do that are scratching something.



Our Hotel San Martin was just a few minutes away. We were dropped off and said goodbye, and checked in. We’re not travelling light so it took a bit of doing. We got settled and decided to experience a romantic horse drawn carriage ride before dinner. We crossed the street and walked along the seaside walk, and finally came across a couple of carriages ready for higher. The first had a top, and I foolishly left my cap back in the room and was feeling the sun on my scalp. We were shown the price schedule of 40000 pesos and all of the places it would drive by, and although I am Spanish deprived, my expression must have made him realize he better flip the card over and show the shorter 20000 pesos package, which at least did not exceed the pesos in my wallet. With the number of carriages running about, many with young mothers and children in them, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the tourist rates of $100 or $50. We were off, at a slow walk, and the top was up and things were going well. But the driver started using the whip to make the horse go faster, which wasn’t a concern for us, not being in a hurry, but I guess it is money for the driver how long his trips last for. He banged the whip butt in the holder of the carriage to make the horse speed up, but this caused the top to bang into my head and fall into a position completely exposing my red scalp to the sun. He did try to put it up again, but when he slammed the whip into the holder, down came the top again. Our horse was not energetic, and I thought it might be the heat and humidity, until we saw another horse gallop by in a full trot managing the pace without problems. So maybe we didn’t chose the best horse, but we got our horse drawn carriage ride.



After the carriage ride we decided to try a restaurant across the street for dinner. After nixing the pizzeria (a Pizza Hut, so those American franchises are creeping in) we settled on an Italian restaurant. Sharon found a grilled chicken entrée sans the mustard sauce, and said it was very good. Unfortunately this was a Pepsi joint so she settled for 7-Up. I’m not quite as picky and settled for the Pepsi (it still has sugar in it, but somehow it makes a bigger difference when it comes to Coke). I ordered the asparagus soup, which was wonderful and creamy. The Pepsi only came with 3 ice cubes, and was quickly gone so I ordered a Margarita on the rocks. It also came with only 3 ice cubes, and didn’t go much farther than the Pepsi at stemming my thirst, so I felt I needed something more substantial (and cold) and ordered a beer from the German region in Patagonia. My entrée was the gnocchi and shrimp in cream sauce infused with saffron. It was wonderful and the gnocchi were very light and fluffy. The beer was starting to work, but I needed another before moving on to dessert. We shared a black and white mousse cake, and it reminded us of our friend Ron, the best man at our wedding, whose favorite cake is a black and white cake, and I think he would have enjoyed this. The food reviews are after all for his particularly discriminating palate.

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Photos

Clock
What happened to 4:00?

Comments

[Janet]

Friendly skies of Valparasiso
Ok when I read tunnel I thought I could do without that, hope Sharon was ok with it. Love the pictures esecially the one with John. Sharon I'm looking for your picture! I'm with you Sharon about the alcohol. So you had a new hair style! I have noticed in other countries they do not use a lot of ice! Everything sound very intersting. I'm enjoying the blogs! Janet