We said goodbye to TB, Lara and the girls around 7:30 AM. They gave us about an hour to get organized. At 8:30 we departed the boat for a final time. It was a cool and overcast day in San Antonio.
The enthusiasm for leaving and flying home was already palpable.
Once through security we found our guide waiting for us. The EP Butners and the Anseth’s loaded up a ridiculous number of bags and boarded our bus. How are we going to kill 12 hours until our plane leaves from Santiago. Our guide decided we should see the beautiful and historic city of Valparaiso which is on the coast of Chile overlooking the Pacific.
On our way to Valparaíso we stopped at the Sanctuary of Our Lady Purísima de lo Vásquez.
The Sanctuary
Inside the Sanctuary. It was Sunday so people we’re actually going to church.
The Sanctuary and the courtyard
Every December 8th people from both Valparaíso and Santiago complete a pilgrimage here The journey is typically on foot and can take a couple of days.
The Virgin
We finally made it to Valparaíso. Valparaíso is a beautiful city that rises right from the Pacific Ocean. The climb up the city is incredibly steep. The roads are filled with switchbacks as you climb from the ocean.
Grandma 🎩 and Ashley above Valparaíso.
According to our guide this is a relatively famous attraction in the older district of Valparaíso.
Valparaíso is marked by many colorful streets covered with murals created by local artist. It makes the steep walk a lot more entertaining.
Butseths are not hippies but we are happy to be off the boat and headed home.
This one is for Grandma Eva... we found a Lutheran Church in Valparaíso, Chile.
Colorful murals. This is one of many that we enjoyed during our walk.
Love the streets in this old section of town. Colorful and narrow with cobblestone. So much character.
Looking back at the Lutheran Church and the hills of Valparaíso.
These are the famous elevators of Valparaíso. Basically they are little boxcars on rails that ascend and descend the steep hillsides of Valparaíso. These elevators were first built in 1911. Over the years they fell in various states of disrepair but thanks to the World Monument Fund they have been restored. A unique solution to the problems facing this city in the early 1900s
So many elevators.
The cable room where the pulley moves the car up and down the hillside. Do you trust 1911 technology? I guess I do?
This is my number through the turnstiles for my ride down the elevator.
Kari and the girls in one of the elevators ready to descend. I have a great video of my ride but still can’t import it directly from my phone to BlogTouch.
At the bottom of our ride. What do you think of this infrastructure, does it need to be updated? There are like a thousand wires running to this pole. Looks like my dorm room plugin back in 1991 with 2 splitters plugin to it.
We made it to the Plaza at the base of the hill where we nervously waited for our ride. We were surrounded by graffiti from the recent protest in Chile. We were also at times surround by packs of roving dogs. These dogs seemed just friendly enough not to attack us. They circled Casey, Sadie and Grace for awhile but eventually wandered off to eat garbage. No one was happier to see our driver than this group of teenage girls.
We grabbed lunch at a local restaurant. We thought it was pasta but it was a thick cheese soup. Which was not what I was looking for. Luckily they have beer in Valparaíso so that made things a little better.
Beer.......
Beer.......
After lunch we stopped by this museum in Valparaíso which has an idol from Easter Island. Supposedly this is the only one outside of Easter island. Not sure how true that statement is.
The Anseth girls and the Idol
The Butner girls and the idol.
After that we started to head back to Santiago. We did stop at a winery for a little refreshment. It was beautiful. The wine was OK. The older wineries are south of Santiago not west like this one.
This photo is so artsy.
From the winery we headed to the Santiago airport to wait. We waited patiently. Well, nobody waited patiently if you were a teenage girl, you complained about the line, the WiFi, the lack of seating and the people. If you are the only 2 dudes with this group you leave them behind go to the restaurant above checkin and pay $20 for 2 beers and get the restaurant to change the TV to the Vikings/Saints game. These same 2 dudes enjoyed about 7 minutes of Zen. Then the check in line started moving and they were texted incessantly by their family to move the mountains of luggage these girls had packed. The luggage was checked and the Vikings won. Everyone made it through security and eventually to our gate. After some McDonalds, we said our goodbyes and took our flights back to the USA. Amazing trip with amazing views and lots of amazing stories.
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