Valparaiso, Chile

Friday the 27th of January we docked in Valparaiso, Chile.  Valparaiso is 74 miles west of Santiago and is Chile's principal port and second largest city.  We had an early tour so breakfast was quick and in La Veranda where we sat with Roz.  She is a widow from Portland, Maine.  She travels a lot by herself.  Regent is good about getting the single travelers together so they can make many new friends and eat with others.  She told us Regent adds a 75% single supplement to her fare and Silverseas only charges 25%.  She is thinking about switching but she has so many perks with Regent that switching is difficult. But Regent is not doing World Cruises any more so several of the real loyal passengers are switching because they do not want to have to fly outside of the US.  And I can't blame them since Silverseas has now decided to do their World Cruise from US ports.

We were docked in a working port so had to be shuttled to the regular buses for our tour.  Today we were on a Virtuoso Voyager Club tour.  We left Valparaiso and headed for the Casablanca Valley region and a visit to the William Cole Vineyard.  The vineyard lies in a flat valley ringed by hills and is very much like the Mediterranean and the Napa Valley.  We got a tour of the winery and cellars and a tasting of two of the wines.  One white and  a red.   Below are two pictures of the beautiful grounds and flowers.

Next we continued to the equestrian center Puro Caballo to experience the country side Chilean traditions and where the Chilean "Huaso" (cowboy) and the Chilean horse are the protagonists.  We were greeted by the owners and treated to a welcome cocktail of a piso sour and empanaditas.  We were served a lunch and entertained by folk music and Chilean dance.

After lunch we watched a equestrian show which included two 14 year old riders.  They demonstrated how to handle the horse and the skills they have developed. The rider in the middle is a 14 year oul girl who is a champion rider.  And check out the spurs on the boots.  Wow.  One must be very careful around them.

After the rodeo, we were able to get up close to the horses and riders. 

We then headed back to the ship.  We went up to swim around 5pm but I found out I had a cut on my leg so I had to head back to the cabin to clean it up and bandage it.  I then went swimming and worked out for 50 minutes.  We cleaned up for dinner and ate in Compass Rose.

We returned to the cabin and watched one episode of "House".  We were told it was funny but this one was about a 9year old with cancer.  Not too funny for us.  Oh well.  Read a bit and then lights out.

During the night, the fog horn started blowing.  I first heard it at about 3am.  It continued and is still blasting now at 8am Saturday.