Valparaiso Tour and on to the ship

Saturday, we signed up for a tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, a good tour, got a good feel of both cities, saw a lot of things that we would not have seen on our own.

On Sunday morning, Richard went to the naval museum, which he was not too impressed by.

we went to church after noon, and then on to the ship. The ship, Celebrity Infinity, is huge, modern, art everywhere, very nice. We took a tour of the ship, but the ship is so large it is hard to get a feel for. We are on deck 8 of 12, interior room, but nice, and adequately big. A lifeboat drill was mandatory.

We had a pleasant dinner with a couple from Montreal, and watched the ship depart after dark. We are still getting used to the motion.

On to the coast - Vina del Mar

In the morning, we checked out of the hotel and went downtown to the prehistoric art museum, beautiful stuff. The picture is of a replica of an inflatable raft used by the prehistoric indians.

The downtown cathedral has a silver side altar, impressive. We then took a taxi to the bus station, took a two hour first class bus ride to Vina del Mar. Our hotel is not as nice as the Hotel Orly, but adequate, and the young men at the front desk are nice.

We had a nice dinner at Delicias del Mar restaurant.

The city is a beach town, lots of young people in shorts and flip flops.

Santiago and Santa Rita Vinyards

We arrived in Santiago in the morning, and headed for the hotel Orly, which was very nice, as are the people. We went out a bit in the neighborhood, an upscale neighborhood with shopping and restaurants, took a nap. We had a good dinner in the hotel. The photo is of an aggressive beggar in front of our hotel.

Arranged a taxi to take us to Santa Rita vinyard on Thursday.


Orlando picked us up Thursday morning, and took us to the huge Santa Rita vinyard. They have an impressive museum of artifacts, Museo Andino, including preshispanic gold. The tour was good, as was the dinner.

In the late afternoon we walked over to the park, and took the telesferico (gondola) to the top of the nearby peak.

MLK and Terracotta soldiers

In the morning we took the subway into the city, and then a bus to the Marin Luther King historic site, including Ebenizer Baptist Church. A black man on the bus told us that was his stop, and that the young people don´t believe that the history really happened. We saw the tomb, as well as a movie. The bad old days that Americans are not proud of.

We had lunch at Thumbs up, a local restaurant suggested by the man on the bus, and then on the bus to the subway. Interesting to be the only white folks on the bus.

The Terracotta soldiers from China were very interesting, impressive, also high quality bronze castings from 2000 years ago.

Back to the airport, and on the flight to Santiago

Making Lemonade

We got up at 3 AM to catch the 3:30 bus to the airport. That went smoothly, but when we got the airport we discovered that we had an unplanned 36 hour layover in Atlanta! Apparently the flight to Chile that day was cancelled, but we did not get the news, and they left us with this overnight layover!

On to juggling a trip replan. I called our hotel in Santiago, and changed our reservation, but found out that they could only accomodate our first night. I was later able to email the Santa Rita Winery to reschedule our tour and lunch.

In Atlanta, Marianne suggested that we go to the Delta help desk and tell our story. They verified that our return flight was not affected, we still have a long layover in JFK. To help us out, they made a reservation at the airline discount price at one of the local hotels, saved us about $50. When we got to the hotel, we dropped off our bags, took the shuttle back to the airport, and took the subway into downtown. We got off at the five points station, to find we were in a bad neighborhood, lots of beggars, poor black folks. We walked on the main street to the CNN building.

The CNN tour was interesting, letting us see how they put the news together. The tour includes some time on a balcony overlooking the news room. The CNN building is huge, and of course we only saw a small fraction of it. The tour cost $13 a person, but worth it.
The statue is of Andrew Young.
We asked for advice about dinner, and the young man sent us to Ted Turner's Montana Grill. It is an old fashioned place, with dark wood, old western music, prints of old western paintings, and buffalo on the menu. We had burgers, and enjoyed it.

We both agree that the people of Atlanta are very friendly and helpful, more so than Colorado. Southern Hospitality seems pretty real.

Our plan for Tuesday is to go the Martin Luther King National Historic Park, and then to the High Museum to see the terra cotta soldiers from China.