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.

Back on the road to Santa Fe

Richard got up early and walked to downtown Lordsburg, to attend the 8 AM mass and then go to the Ford dealer.

The mass was held in a tiny side chapel. When he arrived, there were five older Hispanic men, very pious, some kneeling. A couple of Hispanic women walked in, and then the priest came in. The mass was in Spanish, by an Anglo priest, with a pretty good accent, although he stumbled on a few words. It was not until the end of the mass that I realized that there was no homily, apparently because the priest was not fluent in Spanish. I spoke to one of the men after mass, and he described the priest as "learning Spanish".

After mass, I went to the Ford Dealer. The part was not there first thing in the morning, but it arrived soon. They installed the brake caliper and took the truck for a road test, including a stop from speed on the Interstate. I paid for the repair, and thanked the service manage and the mechanic for their efforts. I bought a 20 pound bag of Lordsburg pinto beans, filled the truck with gas, and we left the KOA at 11 AM.

We started the day with a tailwind on I-10, took the Hatch cutoff, and stopped in Hatch to buy some of the famous Hatch chili and eat at a local restaurant. The Restaurant was fun, with about half and half Spanish and English. When we turned onto I-25, we ran into a headwind which varied from moderate to severe. The rush hour traffic in central Albuquerque was slow, but we got though without much delay.

We arrived in Santa Fe at 6 AM, and pulled into our usual campground, Los Campos. It was cold and dark, 26F. Richard set us up and plugged us in, while Marianne put aluminum windshield covers on the windows for insulation. We are more or less warm. This was a leftovers night. We plan to drive from Santa Fe to Boulder tomorrow, but we understand that it may be windy.

For Want of a Part......

The Good Sam road service arranged for Genesis Towing to come by in the morning and tow the truck over to the Ford Dealership. Hugo was the same guy who had towed our truck the day before.

We have been very pleased with the Good Sam road service; this is the first time that we have used their services. I had read on the internet that people thought that they were very good, and I would have to agree.

The Ford service manager said that it was probably a hub, a $450 part. He called later and said that the truck would be finished today. They called about noon to ask about the truck pulling to the left when you hit the brakes, so obviously they had replaced the hub, put the truck back together and road tested it. I told them that the truck did not pull to the left before. I started walking to the dealership. When I arrived, they were calling me to let me know that the problem was a bad brake caliper, probably due to overheating. Unfortunately, they did not have calipers in stock, and would need to get one out of New York! He thought that the part might come in 8 AM tomorrow. Apparently it does not take long to install the caliper.

Applying 20-20 hindsight, we should have stayed in Benson when we noticed the problem. The caliper was OK at that time. Of course, we don't know if the Ford dealer in Benson could have gotten to our truck in a timely manner. Benson is a nicer place to spend time than Lordsburg.

Marianne cleaned up the camper, took a short walk, and fixed a gourmet dinner. She is enjoying watching the Fiesta Bowl.

Richard went for a lengthy walk through Lordsburg: If you want to know more about Lordsburg, read below.

The main drag of town is Motel Drive, which runs next to the railroad. This was the old main road, bypassed by the interstate highway. Like many areas bypassed by a new road, there were lots of dead gas stations and dead motels. There were a few low-budget motels that were open.

Overall, the town has more boarded up storefronts and closed businesses than active businesses. The houses generally look better than the businesses. But they do have beautiful sunsets, lovely vistas, and big skies.

According to the service manager, the economic base of the town is mining and the railroad. There are a half dozen copper mines in the area. However, all of these mines have closed recently, due to the low price of copper. This has put 5000 people out of work, and explains why they could get my truck into the shop immediately. The population of Lordsburg is declining, he said that there was “A funeral every day”. The Census Bureau shows a 2000 population census of 3379, with a 2007 estimate of 2665, a 20% decline is just a few years.

There are two auto dealerships side by side on Motel Drive, Ford and Chevy. There are various auto parts and repair businesses on Motel Drive.

The NAPA auto parts store sells pinto beans; we are in pinto bean country.

There is a Western Auto store, something that we had not seen for many years. According to Wikipedia, the chain is defunct, but there are a few dealers using that name.

The City Hall was built in 1935 as a WPA work project, and has a brass plaque to commemorate this. The County Courthouse is here also.

The KOA is owned by a Filipino, who has owned it for more than 20 years. He could not explain why his campground had received the awards; “You would have to ask the KOA inspector”, who grades the KOAs. There are two other campgrounds on the east end of Motel Drive, one associated with a Laundromat, which did not look good, and another a block off Motel Drive, that looked OK, $20 a night.

On the east end of town, at one of the freeway exits, there is a Pilot and a Flying J truck stop.