We are docking in Valparaiso when Dick open the drapes at 6:30AM. It is a grey, foggy morning and the hillside across from us looks much like the hillside in Coquimbo.
We have a 7:50AM departure for our all day trip into Santiago. The terminal where we are to actually board the appropriate bus is a mile or so from our pier and they are running shuttle buses. The female Gestapo agent from the ship is trying to match tour bus numbers with the shuttles instead of letting it all sort out in the terminal when you board your final bus for the day’s trip. To complicate matters, Chile is requiring a filled out customs form from each passenger as they pass through the customs check point, complete with an x-ray machine. This involves much standing around and officious two-way radio use on her part but she finally determines that everyone has their official and signed form that was placed in our cabins last night (with complete instructions!) and we finally get to the terminal and board our bus.
Fortunately, the buses are again the sleeper type with A/C and we are not packed in like sardines so those of us who want to spread out can do so.
We are given a windshield tour of Valparaiso and Vine Del Mar the resort area next to the city,
before climbing the hillside up and out of the town where we pick up an interstate quality, four-lane, divided highway heading to Santiago. We cross three valleys on our trip and tunnel under two mountain ridges. The first valley is full of vineyards and reminds us very much of Napa or Sonoma.
The second produces fruits and vegetables mainly for Santiago’s use.
With one brief potty stop, it takes about two hours to make the drive into Santiago along the modern highway. Once in Santiago, we are greeted with a clean city of wonderful colonial and modern architecture.
We get a windshield tour with a stop at the old Presidential Palace to see the end of the changing of the guard ceremony. This one is much more impressive than the one in Lima with those Disney costumes for uniforms. The men and women in Santiago look like spit and polish military and move with precision (no scratching and dropping of bayonets like we saw in Lima).
From here we continue our tour through various parts of the city with another stop at the main Cathedral for a short walking tour of the Cathedral
and the colonial area around it.
We were suppose to stop at a modern shopping and restaurant area for a hour for lunch and time on our on, but wind up skipping that stop for some reason and head to our stop at Los Dominicos Handicraft Town for an hour of shopping and are told we can also get some lunch here if we want.
This is a very interesting area and we could have easily spent two hours here including getting some lunch.
Carolyn finds a very nice Lapis Lazuli and silver rope/chain to wear as a necklace. She also picks up some enameled copper bracelets. Most of us spend our time shopping per the plan for the tour as there really isn’t any place to get just a quick bite. The guide asked if we ate and we say no, so he says we will stop some where for a snack.
By now it is 1:30PM and we head up to San Cristobal Hill Park to see an overlook of the city
and we then begin our trip back to Valparaiso. One stretch of the interstate highway through the city runs for three plus miles under a river bed still flowing with a large flow of water coming down out of the Andes Mountains. They elected to do this rather than put it above ground and spoil the scenery in the area. What a great idea.
Since most people did not eat at the handicraft market and are complaining about being hungry, we waste an hour at a locally popular road side food operation about half way back to Valparaiso. It is now after 3PM and Dick does not want to eat this late. Carolyn settles for a bottle of coke as they are not interested in serving us what with the large local crowd on hand this Sunday afternoon. On the way back to the ship we pass the local Sunday street market that covers about four city blocks.
We finally arrive back at the ship and walk into our room right at 5PM. It has been a nine hour tour. Carolyn stops to pick up another complaint form because it was not done as described and the lunch stop was a joke! The head of the tour department gives her the form and wants to know what the problem was....My report upsets her and and she heads off the ship to talk to the tour operator. Regent really needs to get control of the tour operations in these last ports or not offer these complimentary tours, they are not what one would expect from Regent or any other cruise line, luxury or not.
Sail away is at 6PM
and we head for dinner about 7PM where we share a table with a lady who had been on our tour and her traveling companion. They are both from Sacramento, CA. We all agree that Santiago was really a pretty city and we enjoyed the visit, but the tour needed some work.
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