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Saturday, January 30, 2010,

Our last morning of the cruise started as most mornings do, with the sunrise. We were supposed to dock in Valparaiso about 7:30, but the bad weather exiting the strait of Magellan conspired to slow our progress, with us finally reaching the dock about 8:30.

We were scheduled to disembark about 9:30, but 9:30 went, 10:30 went, 11:30 went and we were still aboard. We could watch then unload luggage, receive produce and supplies for the next cruise, and receive a special local crew to clean and sterilize the ship. We noted that no one seemed to have a sense of urgency to move the luggage...

The ship began to shut down services, first the coffee bar, then most of the service on the Lido. as scheduled, a schedule that assumed the passengers had left, which of course, they hadn't. This was not HAL’s best moment…

Finally, about 11:45 our number was called and we disembarked. The port of Valparaiso is a bit weird. we were docked at a container port. customs and immigration was about a mile away in a remote building, so it was a bus ride to the building to claim bags and clear immigration.

We had made arraignments with a local guide, Christian, the Van Man, for a tour and transport to the airport in Santiago. He was waiting patiently for us. we loaded up and left for a tour of Valparaiso.

Valparaiso was special, maybe my new favorite city… It is old (by new world standards) it is elegant as only a now semi abandoned Victorian city can be… It is artistic… It is colorful… It is a weird artist colony, not yet discovered… It has the formality of the Chilean Navy (the Armada, local heroes to this day) It is a one time capital city now in decline… which it of course it denies….

Christian took us to local streets, to walk about.. past buildings, past churches, past hostels and hotels… This is a city I could spend a week or more just exploring….

We took a drive north to Vina Del Mar… the beach city to the north… then inland towards Santiago… via Chile’s wine country…

We stopped at Emiliana Vineyards… an organic and biodynamic winery… Anyone who has tasted at a California Winery would have felt at home… It was beautiful… the wine was really good… we bought some…

We stopped for lunch… It was a traditional restaurant which used small clay ovens… Tina had Lomo, I had pork, others had a corn pie… all was good… really good… Christian and Alex his driver dined with us… The conversation was interesting… I was trying to understand the Salvador Allende overthrow… and the Pinochet Military government which followed… For Christian Pinochet was not the evil man we have been told he was… Nothing is as we have been told it was… Nothing is simple…

We gave up on Santiago… we had lost hours leaving the ship… there was a 30’ tall puppet walking downtown streets… a grand celebration… as the sun set we went to the airport…

The Airport… Lines, long lines… very long lines… just to check in… then another line to pass through immigration… then a shorter line for security… Then lines while boarding to check our carry-ons and pat us down… Security was significant…

Seated aboard… I slept much of the way to Atlanta… Again Delta did well… I was asleep as we landed…

We (all 6 of us) walked from to terminal 1 or A or whatever… instead of taking the tram… time wasn’t an issue…We said our goodbyes and went to our gates…. There was a Starbucks near ours… we had our “special” coffees…. T & I boarded our flight and were off. We slept (again)

We landed a bit early at SFO… about 11:00 am… now Sunday, January 31… We reclaimed bags, our alternate daughter arrived to pick us up…

Home… The dog was excited… some of the cats were excited… others hid… Home…
Piles of mail to be sorted… bags to be unpacked… piles of stuff… Home…

February 1st…

To work… both of us… Tina took Emma (the dog…) I arrived to find we didn’t have water… so no fire sprinklers… we haven’t have sprinklers since soon after I left… we have rules about this… We are on fire watch… I hate fire watch…My budget is due… There are other deadlines… I want to go no vacation….