December 14, 2017
After breakfast, we packed our clothes then checked out of Loft
Waddington and were given a Loft Waddington cloth bag, to add to our Celebrity
Cruises cloth bag. Both may come in
handy if our souvenir sweaters are too bulky to pack at the end of the cruise. The
temperature was 16 C, sunny and a bit of wind. We hefted our luggage on to a Valparaíso
bus #506 to take us to the bus station on the other side of town. The ride was
less than 30 minutes and cost less than $2 for both of us. A fellow passenger
assisted us by telling us at which stop to get off. The bus station was bustling. We exchanged
our tickets for a bus leaving an hour earlier.
We
really got a flavor of Valparaíso sampling the trolley buses, the taxis, the
cable car, and best of all, the transit buses, especially the wild downhill
route 612 blazing through the hairpin turns as it rocketed down the hills. The
rollercoaster ride was almost as much fun as speeding on the Dubai desert sand
dunes in a 4x4 vehicle.
When
we stepped onto the bus for San Antonio, we realized that it was the same bus
and driver that we had taken when we came to Valparaiso from San Antonio on
Saturday. The route was the reverse from
Saturday. We first passed through the vineyards before stopping in Casablanca
(32 km from Valparaíso) at stops to pick up passengers. Continuing to the town of Lagunillas (30 km
from San Antonio), there were more passengers and a few passengers got off. There were some short intervals of road
construction along the way. When we were
about 14 km from San Antonio, we noticed a dark cloud nearby and soon we were
in a light fogbank, but within a few minutes were back into sunshine. Then, as we dropped toward the coast, the
marine layer cloud blocked the sun. The tops of the cranes on the docks, near
the bus station, were enveloped in cloud. The wind is stronger here than in
Valparaíso.
Once
off the bus, it was a cumbersome trek uphill with our luggage the Hotel Puerto
Mayor, where we had spent Friday night. We arrived about 1 pm. This time we
have cabin #1, on the top tier of cabins overlooking the harbour. Although there is Wi-Fi, to get a good signal,
since we are 100 meters from reception, we need to go down to reception where
the signal is strong. The windows are
open to let in the fresh breeze and hear the birds, including sea gulls,
calling. We could see beyond the harbor entrance to the ocean and there were
three distinct colours of water. The temperature was a comfortable 23 C, there
was a wind of about 15 km/hr and the clouds had cleared. Steps 2,929.
The
hotel is located on 21 de Mayo street and in Valparaíso each day we climbed the
21 de Mayo stairway to return to the loft apartment. We went for a walk down the
171 stairs and half a dozen landings, to the flat area near the port and walked
3 km along Avenue Barros Luco all the way to the Lider store. It has the “Star”
symbol like Walmart stores. While in the store saw an email address that ended
walmart.com. In the store there was a
kiosk where over 20 different flavours of gelato were offered. We took pictures
of the modern Torre Bioceania building, the Municipal offices that had a large
Christmas mural, and a picture of the park in front of the Coberracion
Provincial de San Antonio, where there is a statue of the Chilean navy hero,
Prat, who we read about in the naval museum yesterday. On the way there and
back, on the center boulevard, workers for Presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera,
a former president and billionaire, were erecting large campaign signs. On
Sunday is the second round of Presidential elections. Although the front runner is Piñera, there
are two other candidates with a chance, center-left candidate Alejandro Guillier
(some call the Chilean Trump) of the leftwing Frente Amplio (Broad Front) party
and journalist, Beatriz Sánchez. The Chilean population is uncertain of what
the election will bring. Kind of like last year’s American election jitters
with Trump and Clinton.
We
took a slightly different route back to the hotel and stopped at the Tottus
store to buy two bottles of wine. The choice was two white wines from the
Casablanca valley, where we had cycled on Tuesday, Terra Andina Reserva
Sauvignon Blanc 2017 and Santa Rita winery’s Medalla Real Reserva Sauvignon
Blanc 2016. Instead of walking up the road of 21 de Mayo street, we opted for
the stairs so they could be counted. In Valparaíso and here in San Antonio it
is hilly so we had not lost our stair climbing leg muscles gained on the ship
by not using elevators. Steps 12,513.
We
had a nap, before going to dinner. We
retraced our steps down the hill and along Avenue Barros Luco and stopped at
Café del Puerto for a cheeseburger and salad with avocado & shrimp. It was
a small place with a capacity for about 12 people and had comic pencil drawing
of life in a port on the walls. Then we stopped on the Tottus store for some
bottled water on the way back.
During our visit to Valparaíso and San Antonio, there have been no
earthquakes in the area according to the website https://earthquaketrack.com/cl-01-san-antonio/recent?mag_filter=5
We
took the laptop and tablet up to the patio for a stronger Wi-Fi signal and met
a young British couple, Claire and Mike, who are spending 18 months traveling
around South America. They will be on the ship tomorrow. We checked the location of the Zaandam and
found that it is traveling north from Concepcíon, Chile. We were going to send an email with an
attachment to a group of people but the email would not send on the laptop.
Hopefully on Friday it can be sent.
This is the last posting. Tomorrow we start on the Antarctica trip and
a new blog.
Total steps 16,563
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