Valparaiso is a word mash-up of “Valley of Paradise”, and the view from the ship of lovely. Even tho we were, once again, in a working dock. I was greeted with the sight of GIANT tires surrounded by shipping containers. The next day the tires were gone, so there is a lot of product movement here.

This was our first port that had a dedicated cruise ship in processing building, while it was a 10-minute shuttle bus ride away. At all the Chilean ports we had some time of customs check – they had fruit smelling dogs at one and here there was an X-ray machine. Can they tune X-rays to detect food?

Like before, our port city is right next to another city, both with beaches. This time it was Vina del Mar, which is where our tour started. Imagine, a tour that doesn’t have a 90-minute ride first. Inconceivable! On the way we were greeted by giant, balloon animals, peeking over the warehouses. Seems there was a parade recently.

Our tour began with a stroll on the beach and boardwalk. As I was raised at such a place, it didn’t do much for me. Even more so with the amount of graffiti and pan handlers. There was a unique metal pier jutting out from the beach. Our guide said the area was a major sugar exporter in the 19th century. We are too far south to grow sugar cane, so this was all due to sugar beets. The pier is now run by the city.

From the pictures you could deduce it was a little chilly and misty in the morning. I forget how far south we’ve come. Only a week or so ago we were sailing thru jungle in the Panama Canal.

On our way to a museum, we passed the Congress building. During one of the Pinochet presidencies the congress was moved from the national capital of Santiago to here, which seems a bit odd. No, I’m not going to talk about Pinochet. This isn’t that kind of blog. Amusingly, so Sunday’s the congress grounds are used as an open-air market. It’s so large it spills out into the streets.

Our museum is focused on Easter Island, which is part of Chile. It is so far away, over 2000 miles (350oo km) that Silversea doesn’t even offer a special field trip to visit. But we have this small, three-room museum. We had a good, guided tour, but there wasn’t much to photograph. So, here’s a mini-moai.

We then explored the surrounding hills of Valparaiso. There are 45 named hills, and the architecture has a kind of San Francisco vibe to it – particularly since they were built at around the same time. So many Edwardian and George townhomes. Our guide says that the hills are so steep that everyone can look into the yard of their lower neighbors, so no real privacy. There were houses where you parked on your roof and walked into your house. They tried to avoid the graffiti by preemptively painting murals and other art.

We then visited an overlook and waited to take a cable car down the hill.

From there was wandered downtown. The Chilean Navy has an impressive headquarters. Across from them is a fire station – Chile has an all-volunteer fire fighting corps – The trucks are supplied, but everything else is not. The volunteers even buy their own uniforms. It’s a big point of pride here.

The customs house is unusual. They kept the historic facade but built a very modern building inside and above.