Bach Travel Diary: Nov. 6, 2011 - Valparaiso ( Santiago ), Chile

I was working on my blog early in the morning as we were coming into Valparaiso. It was a magnificent site with the night lights on the hills surrounding the habour shining on both sides of the ship. We docked early and left on our shore excursion to Santiago at 7 AM. The ride to Santiago was fast on a 6 lane limited access highway with maximum speed of 120 KM. The trip was very interesting as we passed the coastal forests near Valparaiso, the the valleys in between the coastal hills that grow the grapes for the famous Chilean wines, and finally in a dry region before Santiago.
Santiago is a city of great contrasts with buildings from the colonial past and modern high rise office, condominium and apartment buildings. We passed Club Hipico that is the famous manicured horse racing track and went downtown to the presidential palace where we were fortunate to see the changing of the guard. We went to the city's main square where we saw the very large Cathedral as Sunday mass was in progress. We followed the Mapocho River for some time and saw the bohemian Bellavista district. Then for lunch the bus labored to the top of San Cristobal Hill where we had lunch and had a magnificent view of the city and the snow covered Andes Mountains. I took great pictures from this place.
After lunch we visited a market that made Dorothy very happy. We returned back to Valparaiso in short order as we we going down hill all the way as Santiago is 520 m (1,706 feet) higher than the port of Valparaiso. We also passed through 2 very long tunnels that were built to cut over an hour on this journey.
We had a great day. Tomorrow we will have a sea day and travel south to the beautiful city of Puerto Montt, Chile.