Think San Francisco. It is pretty similar if you ignore the signs being in Spanish. Viña Del Mar is the new and expensive downtown and Valparaiso is the poorer hill district or The Castro. Libby is not too sure she agrees, but that is how it seemed to me.
We went to Viña first. We knew we were there when the flower clock told us so. It was 9 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday morning and not much was happening. After a driving tour to see the expensive real estate and the condos with their own “funiculars” we went to the Easter Island museum, and then on to Valpo.
Valpo is a navy town. The navy seems to get respect. Pinochet was army, wasn't he? The tour guide didn't say a single word about politics, not one. That is a little spooky. Does speaking out still get you disappeared here? I thought all that was over. Maybe he was just avoiding an unpleasant subject.
I thought Valpo was more interesting than Viña. There is something interesting about unusual old places. Victorian houses, hillsides, ooooold funiculars, fire departments named after ethnic groups (Der Fueurwehr, for example), viewpoints and little cafes. I like it.
We left the ship at 7:00 am and they had already started loading food and drinks. They finished at 8:00 pm then we departed. We must have been running low on groceries..... you guess??
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