Day 13 - Valpariso and vineyards

Today we went on an excursion to Valparaiso and then to the Chilean Vineyards.  In Valparaiso we saw the dockside area and learned of how this city has been key to importing and exporting goods.  We then went up to the hills and saw some of the very colourful houses and graffitti on the walls


 
Naval Headquarters, Valparaiso

 
View from hillside towards sea in Valparaiso

 
View from hillside towards sea in Valparaiso

 
The dockland area

 
Church in Valparaiso

 
Graffitti in Valparaiso


 
Graffitti  in Valparaiso - The letters making up the town name
 are recycled PC monitors.

 
Graffitti  in Valparaiso

 
Graffitti  in Valparaiso

 
View from hillside towards sea in Valparaiso

 
Graffitti on house in Valparaiso

 
Graffitti  on house in Valparaiso

We went for lunch at a vineyard in the Casablanca Valley and had a 4 course meal with different wine tastings at each course.  We then had a tour of the wine making cellars before returning to Santiago.


 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley


 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley 

 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley 

 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley 


 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley 

 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley 

 
Bodegas RE Vineyard, Casablanca Valley 

We had a few hours of daylight left when we got back to the hotel so went sightseeing in the City Centre and visited the Plaza des Armes, the Cathedral and went to see the Presidental Palace.  There were a lot of street markets about which we will come back to just before we leave Santiago at the end of our tour.  We had a drink in a bar at the Plaza des Armes and then returned to the hotel to pack ready for tomorrows flight to the Chilean Lake District.


 
Statue outside our hotel

 
City Hall

 
Cathedral

 
Inside the Cathedral

Flag outside Presidential Palace

 
Presidential Palace

 
Large number of people playing chess at Plaza Des Armes

 
San Francisco Church at night.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 7 - Fernandina Island and Ecuador Volcano

Image
    Map of area Another busy day. We sailed the short distance to the island of Fernandina, which is the youngest island in archipelago. The island is dominated by the Vulcan La Cumbre volcano which is the most active. We landed at Espinoza Point and it was another quite hard walk but we saw Galapagos Hawks, lots of marine iguanas, lava lizards and 3 Galapagos snakes, also known as Racer snakes. Unfortunately my video of the Racer Snake will not upload as it is too big.  There were also some sea lion pups with their mothers. We could see Wolf Volcano, which is on Isabela Island and on the slope there is an area of activity and we could see a plume of steam coming from it. It has been like this since January.   Fernandina Island   Galapagos Hawks   Sea Lion and pup   Lava Cactii   Galapagos Racer Snake   Galapagos Racer Snake   Marine Iguanas   Sea Lion   Galapagos Racer Snake   Fernandina Island   Marine Igu...
Read more

Day 23 El Tatio Geysers, Aticama

Image
  It was a very early start as we were picked up at 5.00 am to go to the El Tatio Geysers high in the mountains. This was our final excursion of the holiday. It was a 90 minute drive and was very cold when we arrived (around 0C) and we saw several frozen lakes on the way up. The reason they do this tour so early is because the steam from the geysers can only be seen while it is cold. It disappears when the temperature rises which happened today at 8.30am and from then on all that can be seen is the bubbling pools. We saw many types of geysers and hot springs. It is the highest geyser field in the world and the 3 rd largest after Yellowstone in the USA and another in Russia.   El Tatio Geysers   El Tatio Geysers and sulphuric pool   El Tatio Geysers and coloured rocks   Paul and a cone geyser   Hot pool of water from geysers   El Tatio Geysers   Selfie in front of one of the bigger geysers   Geysers erupting   Geysers   G...
Read more

Day 17 Torres del Paine National Park

Image
 Today we set out by bus for the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia.  The park has several high snow capped peaks and 3 granite towers after which the park its named and the horn-shaped peaks called Cuernos del Paine.  The guide books say that it is one of the most spectacular National Parks in the world.  It has high peaks, glaciers, icebergs, lakes, rivers, forests, steppe and pampas. We left Puenta Natales and travelled into the National Park.  Many stops were made at viewpoints and our driver also stopped when he spotted an animal or bird of interest. We saw lots of wildlife including a scunk, Grey and Red Foxes, Condors,  Guanacos (alpaca type animals) and Rhias Scunk Scenic view of lake and mountains Glacial Lake Mountain in the National Park River Paine Mountains and lakes Mountains and lake Paul at lake edge Guanaco Rhea Grey Fox Waterfalls Upland Geese Guanaco shrub Condor Mountains Red Fox (bigger than the Grey Fox) Blue and White Sw...
Read more