January 23 - Santiago (and Valparaiso), Chile - Start of Mini Cruise #3

Today we ported in Valparaiso, Chile. It a beautiful seaport town that is quite colorful and has been built into the hills. More about this town later.

I headed out on a Santiago excursion. I would say because it is the capital of Chili, however, in reality, I just like the way it sounds when you say San - Tiiii -Ago .😀 

It was a 1.5 hour ride and we headed through the heart of central Chile

Agriculture is a big thing in the central valley. They grow and export a great deal of produce. This includes; citrus (oranges, limes & lemons), avocados, corn, almonds, hazels, watermelon, pumpkin and chestnuts. Next time you go shopping, check where your produce is from.

 

Initially it was also an olive (oil) region, but now it has been taken over by grapes and is a premier Wine Country. There exclusive grape is the Carménère. Kind of like the Tennant grape is found in Uruguay. Some of me friends went wine tasting and none of the them were told about this grape

 

A major local winery (and I wonder why I'm geographically impaired)

First we visited the Center city plaza. A unique fact is all points in Santiago are measured from this plaza. These are plaques demonstrating the growth of Santiago over the years



Liberator of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins. Yes, I wrote that correctly.

La Cathedral de Santiago (Catholic)
        


"Another" tallest building in South America
              

A couple of cool structures


Then we were taken to a Urban Mall. I swear I was in the USA, except for this sign.

Variety of residential areas

We then went to a small local handicraft market 

On the way back to Valparaiso I noticed along the highways there were small monuments or memorials to those that lost their lives on that particular road

Also at major highway exchanges they have unique sculptures and art work. I only captured these two along the way.

 

And we were told about this Old copper mine, one of the reasons the area developed


and this Catholic retreat


Back in Valparaiso

As I said, this is a very hilly town and because of it, they have over 17 Vernaculars of which on 7 or eight are working. Here is one

They are also know for the street Murals


Not sure if anyone remembers the February 27, 2010 8.8 magnitude earthquake, which generated a  29m / 95ft tsunami that hit this port town. It was quite devastating to the port. It wiped out almost the whole fleet of fishing ships. It is now 2024 and it's hard to find any remnants of the devastation.

Did anyone notice the Chilean flags resembles the Texas flag. Or I guess I should say that the other way around because the Chilean flag was ratified early than the Texan flag






















































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