Valparaiso

Sunday, 08 Jan 2012 – At 10:00 this morning we found the breakfast room, which turned out to be on the third story (top level) of this building.  It was light and airy up there, with the windows open.  Because of the high ceilings, we climbed a lot of stairs to get there!  (We feel fortunate to have a ground-floor bedroom!)  Our filling breakfast consisted of a fruit plate and yogurt; ham & cheese sandwiches; and scrambled eggs and biscuits (& rolls). We also had juice and coffee.

            We talked with the owner during breakfast and found out that he is from northern Italy, which explains the Italian name and décor of the hotel.  In the early afternoon we climbed the hill and steps to Joyce’s hotel.  Since the sun seemed very warm, we sat in the garden behind her hotel in the shade of a large umbrella talking for quite some time. 

About 3:30 we started walking toward the Casa Museo (House Museum), the house where Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) lived.  He was a writer who won a Nobel Peace Prize.  Before starting our tour, we shared a small pizza and each had a cappuccino.  For the tour, we each carried an audio device which described, in English, each room on the 5 floors.  Every level had a huge, glassed-in view of the city and harbor, including from his bed!  From there, we headed toward an outdoor “museum” where there is artwork on street lamps and buildings; we stopped several times en route so that Joyce could ask directions.  We’re still not sure we were in the right place for that, but we had walked enough!

 And then we headed toward the city center, which looked liked most big cities: lots of cars, busses, and people.  Again, we stopped a lot for directions because we were searching for a place to get on a funicular, rather hidden back from the street.  The funicular turned out to be a large elevator that went up like a cable car to a much higher street – for a charge of 60 cents each.

            When we reached the top, we had come to a restaurant where we had reservations for 8:00 P.M.  However, when we got there, it was closed!  (We found out later that the manager’s grandmother had passed away, and the restaurant had closed after serving lunch.)  But there was another restaurant next door, the Paparazzo, and we ate there instead.  After being overly full last night, tonight we ordered two meals to split between the three of us.  One meal was beef tenderloin with grilled potatoes & tomato; the other was tuna with chopped vegetables and chips.  Besides that, there were some extras brought that we hadn’t expected.  It was more than enough food – all delicious – but of course, Jesse cleaned it up quite well.  When asked just now whether he thought it was even better than last night’s, Jesse said he thought both were good – but wine always makes a meal taste better!

            This is a good time to mention the Chilean peso/American dollar relationship.  The peso amounts are always amusing (and confusing), and Sally is carrying a little conversion chart in her fanny pack to help with the conversion. 

$1 = 512.55 Chilean pesos.  $20 = 10,000 Chilean pesos. 

Tonight the cost of our meal, if in USD, would have bought a very nice house back in the 1960’s.

            After our meal, we walked first to Joyce’s hotel; and by the time the two of us reached our hotel, it was almost 10:40 P.M.  The streets were mostly empty by then, and we held our breath a little for the 5 minutes that it took us to walk as fast as possible downhill to our hotel – but made it safely.

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Saturday, 07 Jan 2012 – Around 9:00 A.M., we disembarked from our “home sweet home” of 30 days in Valparaiso, Chile.  We could see our hotel from our ship’s balcony.   After seeing the steep hill from the coast to our hotel, we were glad that we had decided to take a taxi in lieu of taking the public metro and then walking to the hotel from the metro stop.  We had found our hotel on Google maps, but from the satellite, everything looks flat, so we didn’t know about the hills.  We should mention that the ship docked very near our hotel; however, we were then bussed to the ship passenger terminal, which was another 10 to 15 minute ride from the ship.  We would have needed to ride the metro back to the ship’s docking location.

Going through security in Chile at the ship passenger terminal was unusual.  They aren’t interested in finding guns or knives, or drugs, but they do have food-sniffing dogs circulating among people going through the line; they are most interested in preventing any fresh food from entering Chile.  We each had a form on which we declared any food items, and were told to have in our hand any items that might be construed as being fresh food.  Fines are very steep for smuggling food!  (Our bag contained such things as granola bars, sweetener, chewing gum, etc., which they inspected but allowed in.)

We exited with a woman, Joyce, from New Jersey, whom we had met during the cruise.  She retired from teaching English as a second language to what later became mostly Spanish-speaking students, and she has a good command of Spanish.  We were very, very lucky to find Joyce for a traveling companion!   We had previously located her Valparaiso hotel on the Internet and it was shown to be just a few blocks from ours, which made it simple to share a taxi from the terminal station.  She obtained a large taxi (minivan, because of so much luggage) before we even found all of our suitcases, and we were soon at our hotels.  The driver let her off first, and when he came to our hotel, we understood why.  The street in front of the DaVinci Hotel was completely torn up; the taxi driver had to stop at the corner and lug our suitcases down the street to the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel at 10:30; however, our room wouldn’t be ready until 2:00 P.M.  We talked to a couple who was soon to embark on the Star Princess, and cruise back around Cape Horn to Rio – the reverse of what we had just done; they live in Springfield, IL.  They told us how wonderful the hotel was and we told them how wonderful the cruise was!

Then we walked to Joyce’s hotel.  “Walked” is not the right word; “climbed” is more appropriate.  The Google map shows the distance as being small, but the slope and number of stairs is great!  We found that we could climb to her hotel in 10 to 15 minutes, and descend back to our hotel in 5 minutes.  Joyce’s hotel has a very nice garden in the back, and we sat there with her and some other guests among the flowers.  Those guests (from the Netherlands) were also about to embark on the Princess.  During that time, the sky totally cleared and the sun came out.  It had been cloudy for 3 days, others said (and it had been foggy or cloudy on the ship, too). 

We stayed there until Joyce was able to get into her room.  Then we walked a short distance to La Coco Sangucheria, a café where we had a “bite” to eat (the word used by the woman at the desk of Joyce’s hotel).  We had empañadas (somewhat like calzones) with ham & cheese in them; a large, yummy salad with lettuce, sliced apples, walnuts, crumbled blue cheese; and (for Jesse and me) the largest bottles of beers that we had ever been served!  Joyce had wine.  After that, we rested in our individual hotel rooms for a while.

Later, we climbed back to Joyce’s hotel, where she joined us, and we walked to the Restaurant Café Turri.  It seems to be the first restaurant recommended in Valparaiso.  Joyce was eager to go there, and though it was far above our usual level of eating on trips, it was definitely a great dining experience.  The view of the harbor and city was beautiful from our table, and the food and wine were also excellent.  For an appetizer, we shared a flaming bowl of “scallops and shrimps in whisky and cumin.”  (The bowl looked like a small basket that had been shaped of caramel; after eating the contents, we broke the sweet basket into pieces and ate them.)   Everything was a la carte.  Sally and Jesse both ordered “Squid black ink lasagna with shrimps and scallops” (English translation as it appeared on the menu), Joyce ordered salmon, and we all shared a side dish of a large, sliced tomato.

By the time we were leaving, it was dusk; and lights in city buildings and on ships in the harbor were shining.  We felt in no danger walking back; the streets were well lit, and there were other people out, probably some of them just going to dinner (since people here often eat late).  Also, there seemed to be some sort of celebration or parade in progress, with a policeman directing traffic and parking.  The walk back to our hotel was mostly downhill, except for one hill with a very, very long staircase.  (We stopped and rested half-way up.)

We have our own key to the front door of the hotel and to our room; and after returning from our evening meal, we went into our room for the first time.  It is very small, with a VERY high (maybe 15 ft.) ceiling.  The window area extends out beyond the wall of the room, like a balcony having a width of only about 18 inches.  [Most of that width is taken up by a shelf (seat?) below the outside window.  This could be called a “balcony,” but it is not a balcony that is big enough to stand on, at least when the interior windows are closed.  Both the exterior windows and interior windows can open inward, and (as in Europe) have no screens.  The top of the outside window is about 12 ft. high; Jesse can’t reach the top of the curtains without standing on something – very unusual!  The inside windows are heavy doors.  The view is of the street outside (now torn up).  Like all of the buildings here, this one is built right onto the buildings on each side.

It is obvious that the tiny bathroom is an add-on; the ceiling is lower than that of the bedroom.  There is also a built-in closet that is an add-on.