Thu 23 Jan 2014

We stayed at the hotel at aContraluz in Valparaiso.  The hotel is a boutique hotel which was originally two homes.

It is set high up on a hill and has magnificent views across the city and the bay.

Some of the walls have been demolished to make the space larger and some of the wall framework timbers have been left in place which gives a rustic look.

After a late breakfast we set out to explore Valparaiso on foot.  One of the advantages of the hotel is its commanding position and view.   Unfortunately this is also a disadvantage because it means to get back to the hotel you have a significant climb.  This is one of the streets back to where our hotel is.  Our terrace can be seen at the top right of the photo with a market umbrella.

The most striking thing that we saw on our walk was the prolific street art – and its quality.

For more street art click here to open a new page.

We descended quite a way down the hillside in our wanderings and were mindful that we had to climb back up again.  At this vantage point we could see that there was still a long way to go down if we wanted to but agreed that discretion is the better part of valour and elected to explore laterally instead.

While street art was probably the most catching thing we saw, there were plenty of  other  interesting things to see.

When we returned to the hotel our friends Peter and Lyn, who are also going to be on the cruise, had just arrived so we organized to have drinks on our terrace before going out to dinner.

While we were having drinks, the concierge telephoned to say that a water main had burst in the area that the restaurant we planned to have dinner in was located and they had to cancel all reservations for the night.  Over to Plan B.  The problem was that we didn’t really even have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B so I went looking for my old Army Training Pamphlet, “Managing Dinner Reservations – A Senior Officers Guide”.  Unfortunately Sue didn’t have the foresight to pack that publication in our luggage and I hadn’t got around to converting it to Kindle, so we were in a bit of a quandry until Sue suggested that we get the concierge to sort it out.  We poured another wine and wondered whether tonight’s dinner was going to be the cheese and cold meats selection that was in the kitchen for tomorrows breakfast buffet.  It wasn’t long before we got the word that all restaurants in the area were affected so we settled for the nibbles plate option.  The staff at the hotel did a great job accommodating our change in plans. In spite of a lack of a restaurant we had a very pleasant evening sitting on the terrace enjoying several Chilean wines.

Fri 24 Jan 2014

We were pleased to see breakfast this morning after the night before!  Another beautiful day with hot sun and a cool breeze.  We went for another walk around the town and found some more street art and saw a few significant buildings.

Tribunales de Justicia

Chilean Navy HQ

We caught an ascensior (funicular) down to the flat part of town by the water for 100 pesos each.

and then wandered for a while until we came to the trolley bus terminus.  We got on a trolley bus and rode it to the other terminus and back to the centre of town which cost us 250 pesos each way per person.

From the middle of town we caught an ascensior up the hill to Concepcion.

Unfortunately the ascensior does not go all the way to the hotel but it does cover a significant number of stairs so it was well worth the 300 pesos each it cost us!

In the evening we had dinner at the restaurant that we were booked into last night and luckily we were successful.  We had great pizzas and some wine.  When we went to pay, Peter used his credit card – we aren’t sure whether there was a problem with the machine or whether we were paying for all the customers in the restaurant because the card got swiped about 10 times!

The plan for tomorrow is to get up early and watch the Seabourn Quest come into port; it should dock just below our terrace so we should have a good view.  Watch out for pix of the arrival in the next day or two, depending on how good our Internet connection is on board the ship.