We flew into Santiago, Chile, from Vancouver via Toronto a few days before boarding a South America/Antarctica cruise. Some fellow passengers were taking guided tours and day trips to Valparaiso and then they arranged for a separate transfer (with a shopping stop) to the cruise ship port in San Antonio. Since the purpose of arriving early was to counter jet lag and lack of sleep, we just stayed in town and wandered. We wanted to see Valparaiso, so we chose a transfer that included a visit to that city with a winery stop on the way, before taking us down to the port. We had heard that a fire south of the city had caused Santiago to be enveloped in smoke in the days preceding our arrival, but it was mostly clear when we were there.
Wandering Santiago
Cerro Santa Lucía (Santa Lucia Hill) was just around the corner from our hotel and it seemed like a great place to begin our explorations. The small volcanic hill rises roughly 69 meters above the surrounding city and has been a strategic, spiritual, and cultural landmark for centuries.
While wandering up the sloping cobblestone road, I let my eyes wander upward for a few moments and promptly fell into a hole. With a problematic knee rendered a little more problematic and shaky we decided not to climb all the crumbling stone steps to the very top of the hill. We probably ended up doing an equal number of stairs inadvertently as we tried to get to parts of the park that we found were inaccessible after following paths and climbing our way up and down many more rickety steps. Conclusion: Cerro Santa Lucía is a pretty cool place, but it felt in need of a little TLC.
We took a break from the heat to stroll around El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts), enjoying the architecture as much as the exhibits.
Cerro Santa Lucía 
View from the hill – the mountains are silhouetted in what remained of a smokey haze 
A decorative element added during the late 19th century redesign 
Monumento a los Héroes de Iquique in front of the historic stock exchange building 
Historic and modern buildings surround the Plaza de Armas 
El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes 
Inside the museum 
Evolution of a kiss 
Winery
On our last day we were picked up in a van and whisked off toward the coast with our first stop at the winery Casas del Bosque. The scenery was so different on our way there with foothills reminiscent of Sierra Nevada or the South Africa’s Western Cape. Though it was early to be sipping wine, we enjoyed what we tried and picked up a very reasonably priced bottle (7,500 Chilean pesos, or about $12 Canadian) to take onto the ship.
Arid foothills (through the window as we drove the highway) 
Valparaiso
The city of Valparaiso (Valpo for those in the know) is built on about 42 hills. As we continued to drive up and up and up in the van we were thankful that this wasn’t our daily climb–whether on foot or in a vehicle, it would be a challenge. Declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2003, Valparaiso is known for it’s colourful street art and its bohemian atmosphere, where poets, painters, musicians, and students have historically reclaimed the city’s crumbling infrastructure for artistic expression.
Our driver dropped us partway up a steep hill so we could enjoy the views, and then led us down stairs and through alleys to experience the character of the city. We were going to connect with one of 16 remaining ascensores (funiculars) but we must have been too slow and, instead, had to make our way down even more steep roads and stairways to meet up with our transportation. Understandably, I heard lots of complaining about sore knees.
And then we were off to the port to board our ship. Details to come in the next post.
Life: Phase Next 
Please drop us a note!