Antarctica 2023
Feb 27
I really didn't want to spend another day hanging around in Santiago, so I found a day tour to a sea-side city. One last South American/Chilean adventure...We left our bags with the hotel and were picked up by a small bus right in front.
Valparaiso Port and Viña del Mar Tour
Our guide Mula keeps calling us her little chickens. The first unoffical stop was a small diner with bathrooms. Then it's through a few tunnels and across the vineyard covered hillsides to our first real stop.
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar ("Vineyard of the Sea") is a city on central Chile's Pacific coast, often referred to as La Ciudad Jardín ("The Garden City"). It’s known for its gardens, beaches and high-rise buildings. Our first stop in Viña del Mar is the Reloj de Flores (Flower Clock), when Viña del Mar was chosen as a venue for the 1962 World Cup, the coastal city decided to spruce up its seafront with a large, flowery, fully functioning clock. Originally using a Swiss created mechanism, it was replaced with a GPS accurate digital mechanism from Mexico, after the clock was damaged by vandals in 2013. The clock chimes every 15 minutes and, depending on the season or special events, it plays a variety of different songs.
Wulff Castle is an iconic building built in 1906, it is currently closed due to erosion tearing away the shore below.
Our second real stop is the Fonck museum where an authentic large Moai (Easter Island statue made of volcanic rock) is on display, the only one in mainland Chile. Also a Piedra Tacita (cupped stone) is on display, The tacit stones have shallow holes which have been made in circular shapes. The belief is that these possibly 10,000 year old stones would have been used for grinding plant, mineral or animal resources, and used for ritual or ceremonial use.
The Municipal Casino of Viña del Mar is the first and largest casino in Chile, inaugurated on December 31, 1930. In 2000 it was declared a place of "historical and architectural interest"
Our next stop is Playa Caleta Portales, a nice little beach next to a Fish Market.
We are walked through the Fish Market and fishboat area to a rocky shore where South American Sea lions play in the surf.
As we are heading back to the beach area a large group of dolphins is working its way along the coast.
Our brief visit to Viña del Mar was over, and we got back on the bus and drove in to Valparaiso.
Valparaiso
Nicknamed "The Jewel of the Pacific", Valparaíso was declared a world heritage site based upon its improvised urban design and unique architecture. Valparaíso is located about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Santiago by road and is one of the Pacific Ocean's most important seaports. It has been the headquarters for the Chilean Navy since 1817, and was a major stopover for ships travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by crossing the Straits of Magellan prior to the construction of the Panama Canal in 1914.
Because of the slopes of the hills, many of the surrounding areas of Valparaíso are inaccessible by regular public transport. As many as 28 different funicular railways have served Valparaíso since 1883 at one time or another. Today there is 16 remaining funiculars (called ascensores): 15 public (national monuments) and 1 private (which belongs to "Hospital Carlos Van Buren"). We took one of those Funicular (Ascensor El Peral) up to Palacio Baburizza.
The higher you go, the better the views get, and the more you understand why they need these funiculars.
One of the most famous aspects of Valparaiso is the street murals/graffiti. The graffiti scene in Valparaiso started as a form of protest against the dictator Augusto Pinochet. During that time, self-expression, including art and painting, was repressed. After the dictatorship ended, government officials decided to make street art legal and it blossomed in the city.
Around every corner there is a magical display of colours. Some of the art is amazing, some of it is weird, but all of it is truly unique.
There is some fantastic staircases, including this one with a built in slide.
And some of the artwork is very creepy.
We were given free time in the area to go and have lunch at one of the many nearby restaurants, we chose Cafe del pintor for lunch. It was very good, sitting on a sloped sidewalk eating food with local dogs.
While waiting for the rest of the group to finish their lunches at the places they chose, we checked out a couple art studios. Some art was good, and a lot of the art was very weird. Nothing that we would consider bringing home.
After wandering through some more historic and colourful areas, it was time to head down another funicular and back on to our bus.
Casablanca Valley
Known around the world for its immense wine production, Chile's Casablanca Valley sits between the coastal mountains and the Pacific Ocean in central Chile. This fertile valley is characterized by the refined preparation of white wine in its Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc varieties. Apparently Pedro Pascal (Mandalorian, The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, etc) is the face of a big Chilean vineyard, but we weren't going to his vineyard. We did see many of his billboards though.
We went to Casa Valle viñamar de Casablanca (Casablanca vineyard), a vineyard that has been specializing in sparkling wines since the 80's. They have finally re-opened their tours and samplings as they have been closed since Covid times.
We sampled 3 wines, the first one, a sparkling Rose was ok. The other two, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet Sauvignon had what I call Earthy tones… they tasted like dirt. The two Australians we were with seemed to like them.
After the tasting we were invited to wander their cellars, check out the view from their balcony restaurant, shop at their store, or explore the vineyards and grounds.
The view from their restaurant
We left the Casablanca valley, and they dropped us at our hotel at 6:00pm, a fun and colourful escape from Santiago for the day.
We picked up our bags from the concierge, and grabbed a taxi to the airport for our long day of flying. The taxi driver didn't say one word for the entire drive to the airport except for "Doméstica o internacional?", and we were ok with that, we're on our way home.
We arrived at the airport and cleared security quickly, so we had time for a meal in the airport. Some decent pizza and a giant can of Arizona Iced Tea, I have never been so happy to see Iced Tea, what is with South America and their lack of Iced Tea?
Airport Etiquette 101: If you have been wearing Crocs all day and travelling for some time, do not take your shoes off to air out your feet, while sitting near other people in an airport restaurant. We're both looking around to find the source of the terrible green odour with tears in our eyes, we spotted him beside us. Luckily, he moved further away to another table before we started eating.
As we always do, we bought a couple bottles of water outside of the gate, and they made up a new rule and confiscated everyone’s waters on the gangway after searching everyone’s carry-on. “It’s US regulations for flights to US"... since when? Did someone try to blow up a plane with a water bottle while we were away?
I wasn't sure if Norine was going to be taken away by a Sky Marshall when they told her, the flight is over 9 hours and we'll have no extra water? They better have much better in-flight service than we received on the way down.
We survived the long flight, watched 3 movies and nodded off a couple times. We immediately grabbed a drink when we landed in Dallas for a bit of a layover (4 hours). Dallas Fort Worth is a huge airport, and they keep changing the gates while we are waiting, luckily they have a skytrain system to take you between the different terminals. After 2 train rides to different terminals, we ended up leaving from the same terminal we originally landed at. One last flight to get home.
Vancouver (YVR) really does have a nice airport, I always enjoy seeing our local artists work when we are walking to customs. We cleared customs with no delay thanks to our approved NEXUS travellers cards, and happily our luggage arrived too!
It was snowing when we landed, and we weren't sure how the drive home was going to be, but our taxi driver got us there safely. It's great to be home and sleep in our own bed after 42 days away, but first, I have to shovel the driveway and sidewalks. At least the next time I shovel, I can do it in our new muck boots. Yeah, we ordered some as soon as we got home.
We had three rather troublesome moments as part of this trip, but all in all it was an amazing adventure, the 2 cruises were absolutely unforgettable experiences. We made some great new friends from around the world, and continue to chat with them since we have returned home. What started as a fun idea to cruise to Antarctica turned out to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip that we will never forget.