Valparaiso & Vina del Mar, Chile

Valparaiso & Vina del Mar, Chile

January 25, 2020

After our busy few days we planned a leisurely first day on board The Jupiter.  We had the included tour with Viking scheduled for 12:45 PM so as to allow us to fully unpack and have a quiet morning aboard ship.

Since we failed to correctly read the Viking Daily regarding our tour meeting time, we arrived in the Star Theater twenty minutes late for departure .  No worries, we were put on the 1:30 PM Panoramic Valparaiso & Vina del Mar excursion.  Seems people prefer the AM tour so there is always extra space on Included PM excursions.  Same as the previous evening, we had to take a port bus to the security terminal in order to get on the tour bus.  We figured that was why there was such an early meeting time.

Viking included excursions are usually panoramic tours by coach with short stops for photos or at a couple points of interest.  We headed out of Valparaiso to the town of Vina del Mar with Rene, our guide, and Hector, the driver.  Following the route along the coast we found we were sitting on the wrong side of the bus as we were facing land not sea.  We hoped the return route would be the same, and it was, enabling Ray to get some decent photos of the shore.

That is the Pacific Ocean beyond that marina breakwater.

I wondered how often the waves crashed over that wall.

We saw pretty beaches, Peruvian Pelicans and seagulls soaring and some sea lions in the water.  We learned that the sea lions became pests in the Winter months when few fishing boats went out.  In the Summer the sea lions enjoyed being well fed with the "leftovers" from fishing.  In the Winter they were hungry and would jump into the fishing boats going after the food.  The sea lions are protected so hunting is not allowed.

Vina del Mar

Flower Clock

Vina del Mar is an upscale seaside resort and very popular during Summer vacation time.  Since it was a weekend in Summer, it was doubly crowded and traffic was heavy.  We drove past seasonal apartment rentals facing the sea which sounded very reasonably priced, big hotels, a stunning 1930's Casino and the famed Flower Clock.  We drove down tree lined Boulevards with upscale shopping and outdoor cafes.  It was interesting to see the locals enjoying their holidays as many were out and about.  Although the sandy beaches were filled with sunbathers, not many people were in the 50 degree water - at least without wetsuits.

Above and below is the park surrounding the Flower Clock
Some very odd characters in the foreground indeed...Star Wars and Ironman.

 Summer rental apartments facing the sea.

The Casino

The Fonck Museum

Our stop in Vina del Mar was to visit the Fonck Museum of Archaeology & History.  Its a great-little museum, small for its facilities but very comprehensive due to the valuable collections it holds.  Notable is the collection about the Rapa Nui culture on Easter Island.   There is an authentic Moai located in the garden outside the museum and it was the first thing that we saw upon arrival.

When we entered the museum, our tour guide handed us over to a woman who was the museum's expert on Easter Island and the Rapa Nui peoples and culture.   We received a brief history of Easter Island as well as a bit of geography before viewing the display cases.

Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world.  The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island.  The nearest continental point lies in central Chile at 2,182 miles away.

Easter Island, named by European's who first saw it on an Easter Sunday, is in the southeastern Pacific Ocean.  Its inhabitants referred to their island as Rapa Nui.  The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 monumental statues, called moai   It is believed that Easter Island's Polynesian inhabitants settled the island sometime between 300 - 1200 CE navigating in canoes or catamarans.  They created a thriving and industrious culture.  By the time of Dutch European arrival in 1722, the island's population was estimated to be 2,000-3,000.  A series of devastating events killed or removed most of the population in the 1860's reducing it to a low of 111 native inhabitants in 1877.  Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888.  In 1966, the Rapa Nui were granted Chilean citizenship.  In 2007 the island gained the constitutional status of "special territory".  A 2017 census registered that half of the more then 7,000 people living on the island considered themselves Rapa Nui.

The moai, human figures carved from rock, were created by the Rapa Nui people between 1250 and 1500 CE and transported throughout Easter Island.   They were believed to be the living faces of ancestors.  Scholars pose several theories about how these massive statues were transported and erected around the island.  In the photo to the left are mini moai.




Our guide led us through the beautifully displayed archaeological finds from Easter Island explaining all the tools, statues, pottery and artifacts as well as their mythological and spiritual significance to the Rapa Nui natives.  Tattoos and body painting was popular among the Rapa Nui and had a fundamentally spiritual connotation as well.

Figures from Easter Island

Southern Patagonia Section of Fonck Museum

The Fonck Museum's exhibition halls also included displays of the pre-European cultures of Continental Chile such as Patagonia populated by the "Aonikenk", Onas, Alacalufes and the Yaganes who settled the southernmost tip of the Americas.  We were reading a book called Rounding Cape Horn by Dallas Murphy which partly focused on the early explorers to the southern-most land of this continent.  These Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English sailors  searched for a sailing route to the Indies either through the continent or around the tip of the South America.  In the course of their explorations, they encountered and wrote about these native peoples.  Although the lecture about Easter Island was very interesting, we were not going there.  Our interest lay more in the Patagonia natives since that was the area where we would sail.  Unfortunately we had only a few minutes to explore that section of the museum.

These photos were from a display of the Patagonia Yaganes natives.   They were a nomadic peoples of the southernmost tip of South America who had no land base, traveled in canoes, harvested mussels from the rocks for food and wore absolutely no clothing even in the Winter.  Yep, read naked!  After reading about them in Rounding Cape Horn, we were excited to see a replica of their canoe in this museum.

Yahgan Canoe Replica Above and Actual Photo Below

Yes, these Yahgan Natives are naked except for body paint.

Yahgan Bow & Arrows used by the men.

While the men hunted, the women's job was to keep the fire in the basket from going out.

We couldn't completely translate the displays because it was in Spanish but recall the information about the Yahgan from the book.  A must read if you are sailing the area:  Rounding Cape Horn by Dallas Murphy

Valparaiso

Valparaiso is often compared to San Francisco with its hilly narrow streets, Pacific Ocean fog and cool climate.  Its upper area, Los Cerros, is a maze of residences from stunning villas to small dwellings that are nestled among 42 hills.  Our panoramic tour took us through these hills with their colorful houses, past the historic funiculars and narrow staircases and by the famed street art.  To really see it well one needs to walk.  However our driver, who was a local man, navigated the winding roads up before descending to Plaza Sotomayer.

Funicular

Valparaiso Street Art

As we descended to the city we learned that, whereas Santiago is the Capital of Chile and the location of Palacio de La Moneda, the presidential place, Valparaiso is the seat of Congress as well as home to the Chilean Navy as evidenced by the fleet of their vessels along the harbor's breakwater.

Plaza Sotomayer

We had free time to walk around the Plaza to view the impressive naval headquarters, government buildings and the Monument to the Heroes of Iquique, for sailors killed in war.  There was also a unique very modern building built inside the base of an historic one.  It appeared to be an optical illusion but was not.  See for yourself in one of the photos below.  Also fronting the Plaza is the striking Hotel Reina Victoria, as well as the Courts building.

Chilean Naval Building

The Chilean Navy

or Armada de Chile

Monument to the Heros of Iquique

Hotel Reina Victoria

It is not an optical illusion.  The modern building is built inside the historic building.

We did not see much protest graffiti in downtown Valparaiso.

From Downtown we were transported back to the harbor where we boarded the ship with some free time before the mandatory Emergency Safety Drill prior to sail out at 6 PM.

Our stateroom balcony opened to a full harbor view where we watched several tour boats pass by and could admire the different buildings clinging to the hillsides.  In the distance, on the breakwater along with all the Navy vessels was a four masted sailing ship.  We learned it was a Naval sail training vessel named the Esmeralda and we were lucky to see her.  She is usually out for a year long voyage but happened to be in port for some work, new cadets and laying on of supplies.  The figurehead on her bowsprit was not the usual bare-breasted woman but an Andean Condor clutching the flag of Chile.

In the water we spotted some sea lions and a beautiful Red-Legged Cormorant diving and fishing. Most Cormorants I have seen are your basic  black with some white.  This lovely bird carried a black and white checkered pattern on its wings, bright orange legs and feet, a large oval white spot along its neck and bright yellow bill with orange base.

Also spotted, floating on or just under the surface, were what we think were jellyfish.  One was a quite unusual striped pattern, all the others were white coils sort of looking like intestines.  When you see the photos, keep in mind that we are seeing these from the fourth deck above the water.  They were quite long and large.

It was a nice day and the only warm one we would have for quite awhile.  It was comfortable to be outside on the decks or a balcony and the roof of the pool deck was wide open.

Port of Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a major city and seaport in Chile.  It played an important geopolitical role in the second half of the 19th Century when the city served as a major stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by crossing the Straits of Magellan or around Cape Horn.  It gained particular importance supporting and supplying the California Gold rush.  It mushroomed during this Golden Age of mostly sailing ships.  The second half of the 20th century was unfavorable to Valparaiso with the opening of the Panama Canal.  The reduction in ship traffic dealt a serious blow to Valparaiso's port-based economy.  However, over the first 15 years of the 21st Century, the city reached a recovery and the port continues to be a major distribution center for container traffic, copper and fruit exports.

Only the smaller cruise ships stop here while the behemoths dock in Port Antonio.  Lucky for us the Viking Jupiter at 745 feet in length is a smaller one and we were the only cruise ship in port.  This would be the last large port city we would visit for two weeks.

For sail away we met our friends in the Explorers Lounge for cocktails, comments and updates on each of our days.  Once at sea we secured a table for dinner in The Restaurant.  By 9 PM, we found seating in the Star Theater for the Viking Welcome Reception to meet the Captain and Officers followed with music by the Viking Band, Synchrony.  It was another good day.