Valparaiso, Chile February 6

We were finally able to dock in a port, Valparaiso.  Noel was still battling a cold so Tom turned in his tour ticket (8 hour trip to Santiago) and used Noel's ticket for a four hour tour of Valparaiso.

Pablo Neruda was a Nobel Prize winning poet and the tour visited his home which is now a museum.  We also stopped at a small cafe for and empanada snack and a drink.  Valparaiso is made up of steep hills surrounding the small flat area around the port.  There are over a dozen funiculars with the oldest dating to 1883.  We rode one of these up the hill, had a short walk and rode a different one down.  The port is the largest in Chile and is home to the Chilean Navy.

Steep hillsides are covered with colorful homes

The Mariner as seen from top of hill














Much of the city is in disrepair but there is an effort to refurbish many of the old buildings.  They have also made an effort to cover some walls with murals but the graffiti has taken over.  The graffiti is everywhere.  There are also thousands of stray dogs which are fed by the residents but you have to watch where you
walk!

Even the Starbucks has graffiti

At least some of the graffiti is colorful!














Chile had a large number of Europeans arrive around 1900 and you still see sections where Germans, British, Italian, French and others settled.

Our ship was taking on a lot of provisions (four large containers and several truck loads) and fuel but it took a very long time as there was still a large swell coming into the harbor.  They normally use a fork lift to load the supplies but because the ship was going up and down so much they had to use a crane and man power.  We left the port almost an hour late

We obviously use a lot of bottled water!