Valparaiso

The ship’s included tour took us to the neighboring cities of Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar.

Our guide was nice, but a bit of a dud. We’ve had some wonderful guides on this voyage; the ones in Cyprus, Jordan, and Jerusalem are standouts in my mind. Why? Because they painted a picture of daily life in their countries. I came away with a deeper understanding.

This guy, alas, was armed with a few important historic dates, and he knew the names of several tree species, but that was it. We spent 90% of the ride in silence. Oh, well!
Win some, lose some.

My impressions of Valparaiso:
Steep streets with colorful houses stacked on top of each other. Graffiti and murals galore.

An abundance of gingerbread houses speaks of a Victorian Era heyday. Many neighborhoods seemed fire swept.

A condor-topped colonnade caught my eye. Wonder what the story is there? I also got a kick out of an energetic one-man band who played in the intersection for tips.

Our guide told us that Chileans revere copper, so it’s a popular material for buildings and artwork.

He also mentioned that Chile, which is shaped long and thin like a chile pepper, has 16 ethnic groups. I think the black and white figure in my photos is related to one of those ethnic groups, but I’ll have to look it up later.Read more