1-22 Valpraiso, Chile

1-22 Day 17 Valparaiso, Chile

We are getting more adventuresome in our old age! We began our S. American cruise a few years ago from Valparaiso, so we didn't feel we needed/wanted a tour of this huge port city. We decided to just roam around on our own and mainly find an Internet cafe where we could spend a lot of time on our computer checking out things and downloading upgrades we hadn't been able to do for a while. So after a lazy morning, we headed out.

Because of new security issues at the port, we had to take the shuttle bus from our ship to the main terminal – which was a long ride – and didn't put us out in the part of town we wanted to explore. So, after some searching around, we found a local train that took us to the part of town we wanted. It was an adventure – no one spoke much English, so we did the best we could and boarded an extremely nice and clean train that 10 minutes or so later delivered us to our destination. - all this for $2 each – roundtrip!

We walked around and found only Internet spots, but no WiFi. When we went to exchange some dollars for Chilean pesos, we found a nice man who gave us a map and suggestion for lunch. And what a great suggestion it was. We walked about 4 blocks through the city down a street that mainly had huge banks on both sides of the street. Since it was Friday, there were lots of people coming in and out. We found the restaurant – called Cin Z Ano. It has been around since it was built in 1896. It had a lot of character and we really enjoyed it. We were the only English speaking people there. The menu was a bit of a challenge, but our server was nice and tried to help us out best he could. We ordered a local beer called Kunstmann which was very good. Doug ordered what he thought would be a Chilean pork sandwich with french fries. I ordered what I thought would be a bowl of chicken vegetable soup. We were a bit surprised when our dishes arrived! Doug's “sandwich” looked like a huge roll of pork – no bread. My soup was a big bowl of broth with ¼ chicken sitting on top along with a huge hunk of potato and hunk of squash. The fries were the only thing we recognized! Well, after we got into the meal, we really liked it. The flavors were good. And I learned to eat soup with a spoon, knife and fork!

Off to find a place to work on our computer – and it wasn't that easy to find. But luck was with us and I spotted a sign advertising WiFi in an ice cream shop. The only thing we had to do was have something to eat – and that wasn't too hard to do at all – great flavors to choose from! So, for about an hour, we did our computer. By this time we needed to get back to the train station to take us back to the terminal to catch the shuttle to our ship.

The streets were so crowded that it was hard to take pictures of “local color” like I enjoy doing. I was only able to get some pics of statues, a clock tower, and some of the city. On the shuttle bus back, we passed the entrance to another ship docked there, and there were tons of local people out enjoying a fair type environment – they had horses for the kids to ride and music and food.

Once back on ship we took pictures of the sprawling city and a huge freighter that came in and docked near us. It was loaded with cargo boxes. We watched as the tugs helped push it to the dock. Very interesting to watch the process from beginning to end.

Dinner options included Chilean selections. Since part of it was what the chef demonstrated recently, I was most interested in trying it. So, I had the empanada (which I had previously tried) and the seafood soup, and the duck. It was all great. The mango sorbet (while not Chilean) was a great way to end the meal.

The show was a magician who had a five year run in Vegas recently. He was also a comedian. He was British and was extremely funny. His magic was VERY basic – it was what Ted did his first year of practicing magic! So, while the magic was disappointing, the humor had us laughing. He is going to do a morning show tomorrow and talk about the mind of a magician. Should be interesting!

The shop was really rocking and rolling as we headed back to our room – and it continues to do so. So, I think I'll now let it rock me to sleep.