Never Miss An Update

On Saturday we arrived in Coquimbo, Chile. We had a great tour to the Elqui Valley (pretty much due west from the coast).  Chile is a very long, skinny country, and in about 90 minutes our drive brought us to the foothills of the Andes, very close to the border with Argentina.  

Grapes for pisco alcohol are grown in this area, and we toured a very pretty pisco vineyard and distillery (by the way, both Chile and Peru claim ownership of the famous Pisco Sour drink, which is a delicious, tart treat).   

Along the way to the Elqui Valley we passed some pretty beach towns, and many parks and places named Mistral, for the beloved Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, a school teacher who received the first Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to a Latin-American writer (not the first female winner, but the first winner of either gender).  

Gabriela Mistral was an influence on Pablo Neruda, perhaps Chile’s greatest poet and one of MA’s favorites.  (Having read a lot of Mistral’s and Neruda’s works while studying Spanish, MA was happy about this, and Joe’s ears almost fell off listening to her talk about Neruda’s odes and works, including Poema XX, one of the saddest poems ever written.) 

We visited the Casablanca Valley in Chile on Sunday – this is a beautiful valley between the eastern and western ranges of the Andes.   Although Chile has been producing great wines for many years,  wine-making in this region is only about 25 years old.   It was thought by many that the soil and growing conditions in this area were not suitable for wine production.  

Then along came William Cole, an American who reasoned that the Casablanca Valley and Temeculah Valley in California are approximately equidistant from the equator and share many characteristics.  He started a vineyard in the Casablanca Valley, invested several years of work growing the grapes, and now there are about 25 vineyards in the area, many of which rely on Cole for bottling and other capital-intensive aspects of wine production.  

The drive from Valparaiso port to Casablanca Valley was not long (about 50 km) and brought us from the big, colorful, hilly city through lush green hills, with small towns along the way.   

For a skinny country, a drive from the coast inland brings many changes in terrain and scenery.  We are excited to continue southward for more experiences in Chile (and maybe another Pisco sour).  

Also of note: The Chilean Navy is doing some training exercises in the Valparaiso harbor–right near our ship!

JB and MA

After leaving Peru we are heading down the west coast of Chile, headed for Coquimbo and then Santiago. On the way we  stopped off in the relatively minor port cities of Iquiqui and Antofagasta in Chile. 

Nevertheless, these port cities were kind of interesting. Iquiqui had some fairly gritty sections as well as parts that were well developed. No surprise there. But who knew that we would bump into a Croation Social Club? It turns out—at least according to the guide—that Croatia turned out a lot of mercenaries who also fought alongside the Chilean Army. So they decided to form a social club, where they could hang out with their buddies. 

The club is still thriving club. When we visited it we were greeted with the quasi-mandatory pisco sours, which are like whiskey sours. Outside the club is the main square where tourists roam around and where cops ride around on bicycles. 

The next day we visited Antofagasta, Chile which used to be a mining town where nitrates were extracted from the mines. The agenda included a trip a mine site, a museum and a (modern) outdoor theatre in the desert, where the guide shared his thoughts on how the mine workers were treated.

Then we were off to view La Portada, an arch in the Pacific ocean that is a big local attraction. Finally we stopped at a monument to the Tropic of Capricorn where we were offered (what else?) Pisco sours. 

Today is a Sea Day; tomorrow we dock at Coquimbo for a tour, and then we are off to Valparaiso, the port city that is near Santiago. Until then, Buenas Noches…

JFB

It is hard to believe that we have been on our voyage for 3 weeks already – the time is flying by.  We have had excellent presentations about the history, economics, politics and prospects of the places we have visited – in addition to specialized discussions concerning the Aztec civilization in Mexico, the Mayans in Central America and the Incas in Peru in Chile.   

We just spent several days in Peru, viewing the old colonial- era squares and the modern neighborhoods (you can find the ruins of over 300 Incan pyramids in Lima, some of which are right in the middle of these busy neighborhoods). 

Yesterday we visited the peninsula of Paracus, just outside Peru.  We saw some of the thousands of acres which comprise the Paracus Natural Reserve – an ancient desert that was part of the floor of the Pacific Ocean before the rise of the Andes mountains.  This desert sits between the Ocean and the Andes – and the ocean mist that rolls across the land is blocked by the Andes Mountains, so Peru gets virtually no rain.  Hence, a desert and lots of well-preserved pyramids.  In the Paracas Natural Reserve you can see red sand (high iron content) and fossils of snails and other shellfish that lived in the Pacific Ocean ages ago.  

Peruvian cuisine has received global recognition in recent years, for good reason.  The Chinese and Japanese who arrived as workers in Peru and Chile in prior years have greatly influenced the food in this part of the world, especially with respect to fish recipes.  Delicious!  

We will be in Chile tomorrow, where we have several days of exploring planned.   Stay tuned.  

Joe and Mary Anne 

It has been a busy few days. We visited two cities in Ecuador: Manta and Guayaquil. We had been to these cities before, but there was a notable difference. There were police officers everywhere. We actually had a police escort on one of the tours we took. Apparently crime has surged in Guayaquil over the last few years and the government’s response was to put cops on every block—at least where the tourists went. 

While we were in Manta we visited a Panama Hat factory. Panama hats are actually a native Ecuadorian invention. The story goes that when the US took over construction of the Panama Canal from France, Teddy Roosevelt paid a visit to Panama. And he donned a hat he bought from an Ecuadorian street vendor. So the hats, invented in Ecuador, became known as Panama hats. Needless to say, when we visited an Ecuadorian hat factory, we bought a couple. 

Then we made our way to a chocolate farm (where they grow cacao beans) and a chocolate factory where they made the finished products. One of the workers was wearing a Nestle branded apron though. 

After that it was off to the port city Guayaquil. There we took a stroll down the Malecón, a boardwalk of sorts that runs parallel to the Guayas River. According to legend, the city is named after a local leader Guayas and his wife Quil who were symbols of the resistance to the Spanish Conquistadors. 

We finished up with a visit to the Guayaquil Metropolitan Cathedral and then Iguana Park which is full of Iguanas–in the middle of the city. And now we are on our way to Peru. 

JFB