January 22, 2020

SAN ANTONIO, VALPARAISO, VINO DEL MAR

This morning we sailed into San Antonio, the largest Port City in Chile. After the earthquake in 1985 this port was totally rebuild. This is a very busy port, there were several large container ships in port today. Today we booked a tour to Valparaiso and Vino del Mar, about 1hr drive north of San Antonio. Valparaiso is a city I wanted to visit for a long time. I read about Valparaiso many years ago and never could get it out of my head. Now today, here we are. The landscape on the drive to Valparaiso is quite different what we had seen so far on on our trip. Definately more trees(pine) and rolling hills. On our way we past through Casablanca a major wine region in this area. The highways are very good so far in Chile. When we got to Valparaiso we witnessed all the colourfull houses build on the hillside, many dating back to the 1800’s. Through the years part of this City had been lost through large fires and earthquakes. The City looks in some ways a lot like San Fransisco with its steep streets and houses build on the rocks. It is hard to discribe the views of the narrow winding streets lined with many historical houses pained every colour of the rainbow without seeing it with your own eyes. Valparaiso is also a major Port city and home to several universities. We continued our day trip to Vino del Mar. Vino del Mar is a much more modern city compared to Valparaiso. Nice boulevards lined with palm trees and many flowers and parks. It looks to me much more a beach resort City. After a visit to a local museum, we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. After lunch the bus took us back to San Antonio. After we got back to San Antonio we walked around the market a bit and then boarded the boat. I personally didn’t like San Antonio as much as the other 2 Cities.

Cheers

“South America” “Cruising” “Valparaiso”