Day 30 8th February 2011

Chris's Sweet tonight

Easter Island Statue

We have spent a lovely day in and around Valparaiso. The Aurora is berthed next to half the Chilean navy with ten warships within 100 yards. They were mostly destroyers but also a couple of supply ships. The ship is berthed a long way from the port terminal. It took a ten minute bus ride to reach it which provides you with the scale of this port. It is very large and the bay is full of cargo ships. There is another liner, “The World”, this is the ship in which the super rich buy apartments and it then continuously travels around the world. No surprisingly it got a much better berth that we did. It was right next to the dock entrance so you could walk into the city. This morning was dull and grey but during the afternoon the sun appeared to bring warmth and light.

It is a busy city with the harbour on a small plain with many steep hills surrounding the bay. The town has numerous funicular railways up the hills and these have been given world heritage site status. In the city centre are fine building from the turn of the 20^th century that often surround wide squares. The original people were often very wealthy and built very large houses which are not mostly converted into government offices or for similar uses. We went on a tour of the city that also included a visit to Vina del Mar and a vineyard in the Casablanca valley.

Vina del Mar is a similar size city that also is situated on the bay. It is a holiday resort and was bright, cheerful and full life. We liked its look. The Chilean president has a holiday home in the city. We stopped to see an Easter Island statue outside of a museum. Easter Island is part of Chile. The ship will sail past Easter Island in about a week’s time.  The streets were full of horse drawn carriages for the holiday makers. The local economy is based on shipping, tourism and surprisingly universities with 80,000 students. Thousands of overseas students come here to learn Spanish.

Casablanca valley is the centre of the Chilean white wine industry. It has been founded over the last twenty years and the whole valley is covered in vines. It is a beautiful place. At the winery we were given a tour of the facilities and a chance to taste three wines that they grew. They were Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The two white wines were very good but the red was a little thin. They have many turbines that look like wind turbines to generate electricity but are actually used to stop frost damaging the grapes by creating air movement.

Back at the ship there was a Chilean folk dance group who performed the country dances and played the local music. It was similar to the music and dance we had seen at the rodeo.

We leave tonight to start our journey across the Pacific.