Vina Del Mar & Valpo, Chile
Since the port of Valparaiso [where our cruise is leaving out of] is about a two and a half hour drive from Santiago, we decided to do a pre-cruise excursion that made this journey with a few extra stops along the way. The bus picked us up at 7:50am, we loaded our luggage, and made our rounds to pick up others. Half asleep, I was a little impatient because our first stop took forever. Basically one couple didn’t sign up and wanted to join the tour even though it was full. By the time we picked up everyone, it was already 10am and I knew that something would be cut from the tour in order to make the ship by 5pm.
Our first stop out of Santiago was Emiliana, an organic winery that uses alpaca shit to ferment their wine. They also have the first approved organic wine in Chile, but I thought the alpaca shit fact was more fascinating. We did another wine tasting, this time with two whites and two reds. Once we left the grounds, we headed for Vina Del Mar.
Vina Del Mar is also known as “The Garden City”. It lives up to the name with the palm tree lined streets and plenty of beautiful flowers. We headed to a seafood restaurant, which is the type of food that the area is known for. The restaurant overlooked the huge ocean waves shooting up as they hit the rocks. Upon arrival, we were welcomed with a pisco sour and then we started with an appetizer. Most everyone got ceviche because the guide recommended it to us. It had fish, onions, and a combination of spices in it. It was my first time ever trying ceviche and I can now say it was delicious! For my main entrée, I had pasta with some mysterious seafood in it. All I could point out in it was squid and shrimp, but I went for it anyways! I don’t have fresh seafood that often so it was a nice treat.
My predictions of cutting something from the tour held true when we were told we weren’t going to have time to explore Valparaiso. Instead, we would take a quick driving tour and make our way to the cruise terminal. I was pretty bummed because Valparaiso is known to have intricate murals on every street corner, which is something that fascinates me, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
We disembarked our pre-cruise tour and headed for the ship. A man named Christian Aguilera checked us in. Yes. Just like Christina Aguilera, but in boy form. Our first stop on the ship: the pool bar. The guy was overly friendly when I ordered a daiquiri and I was overly friendly back and got myself an extra two shots of rum in my drink for free. Winning. We explored the ship and there were a couple things that stood out to me: I am the only person under the age of 40, the hot tub is calling my name, and I am definitely going to gain weight on this trip.
xoxo,
Em