For a final day in Valparaiso and Chile, this was hard to beat!

After our continental breakfast at Camila 109, we took the 612 bus to La Sebastiana, Pablo Zleruda's magnificent house, overlooking the ocean and port. This guy knew real estate -- location, location, location. The house is now a museo and it is very well done. But, no pictures allowed inside, only outside. 5 floors and each room was meticulously designed by Neruda and populated by him with cosas that are unique, beautiful, functional and international. It is an antique lovers delight from an ancient typewriter, a horse from a Paris carousel, to a map of S. America from the 1600's.

After our tour of Neruda's house ( one of his three in Chile - the others are in Santiago and Isla Negra), we decided to return to the lunch venue of yesterday -- Allegretto in Cerro Concepcion, the quiet neighborhood of lovely shops and cafes that we discovered yesterday.

Today, we met the British guy who owns both this cafe and a nearby B&B that we would seriously consider if we return to Valparaiso. Unfortunately, he is a divorced father of 2 whose ex is a Chilena. But, he seems to be making s real go of it and adopting the Chilean culture if not mind-set. After a wonderful lunch - our last real meal in Chile, we headed back to our hotel via collectivo for final packing.

And, then, a final mini-adventure began -- getting from Valparaiso to the Santiago airport. To save mucho dinero, we opted for a taxi to the central bus station, a $4 bus ride to a stop near the airport and then a taxi from there. Total cost of getting to the airport was $11 per person, a mucho difference from the muy caro cost of $65 per person that we spent 2 nights ago when we arrived late at night in Santiago and opted for the expediency of a cab from the aeroporto to Varparaiso. Our final little excitement was our cab getting a flat tire only a minute or two from the airport. But, the cabbie was a whirling dervish changing the tire in less than diez(10$ minutos) and getting us to the airport in plenty of time for our trip home.

Hasta Luego, Chile. We hope to visit you again pronto!

Mar. 13. Valparaiso has many identities, but it's essence is constant hills and stairs. Amalfi coast anyone? It's quirky - roads follow the terrain and intersect at various angles. The houses and shops are often painted with unusual pastels and very beautiful, artsy graffiti is everywhere. It's a photographer's paradise!

Pablo Neruda built a house here to inspire his writing. He loved Valparaiso and now I entiendo porque. Today, we discovered how to get down to the lower part of Valparaiso by bus even though we intended to use a collectivo (sort of a shared taxi). But the people we were waiting with told us to hop on board and hop we did -- saving maybe 30¢ in the switch.

We then found out how to get to the oldest working funicular ( called ascendors) at La Concepcion which was built in 1883. Man, talk about old and steep!!! We shopped, found a great restaurant with comeda de dia and pizza. Great. Discovered that it's owned by a Brit (more about him later). He has a 100 year old Coca cola frig cosa that he bought at a great price and it works flawlessly. And,an old jukebox from Grand Rapids, MI! And, it too works great. Lot of American oldies. Crazy. But, he told us much of the new stuff you buy there lasts only a few months!! Explains why the La Concepcion funicular is still working like a champ.

Visited many artesania shops in a quiet' beautiful part of town, had Onces while listening to a car alarm which sounded just like a police siren, and returned to a nice shop to buy 2 reasonably priced oil paintings. After Onces and the paintings, we headed back to the top of the funicular, wending our way through unknown streets, alleys and stairs. Along the side of some new construction Barbara yelled "shit, I think a bird pooped on my head".

Upon closer examination, 1. Wasn't bird poop but chocolate milk and 2. Wasn't dumped by an aviary creature but a human one. Some construction hombre had tossed the remains of his hot chocolate out a window! 3. Wasn't just on her head but on her shirt and backpack and leg. Yuk! But, we cleaned her up as best we could and like a good trooper', she carried on and we sort of laughed it off once we discovered what the substance actually was.

Not too much to report today. Caught up a little on posting. Had sort of farewell lunch with Anna from Belgium, who as always, talked our heads off - but she is very well meaning.

Took shared van to Calama airport, where we boarded our last SKy Air flight (sad). Now, we have to get used to the shitty U.S. carriers again - "neither food nor room shall we provide".

At Santiago AeroPorto, managed to negotiate a fairly good deal on a taxi to Valparaiso. Thank God for Google maps on my iphone or we'd still be driving around looking for Camilo 109.

We had at a fairly late moment, request an extra night at Camilo 109 B&B, so maybe it should have been no surprise that at 11:00 pm, we were ushered into one of the smallest rooms on the planet with little to no water and Caliente - forget about it.

However, the next morning, we were put in a much nicer room with a great view of the city and port and where the water worked much better (although far from perfectly). It may not be the owners' fault but the city plumbing which is quite antiquated.

No photos today as this was a travel day after the Skorpios docked in Puerto Montt. A cab to the P. Montt airport, and a Sky Airlines flight to Calama (60 miles NW of San Pedro) with stops in Concepcion and Santiago, where we changed planes. I have to say this about Sky -

1. They serve real food, even on short hops!
2. The seats are roomy and the aisles are wide enough to wheel your carry-on without constantly hitting the seats
3. They are very punctual.
4. There are no first class or business class seats. Everyone is the same!

What concepts!!

At the puny Calama airport, we watched as the luggage was loaded onto carts and wheeled to the terminal for unloading onto the one and only baggage carousel. Wouldn't you know it, our bags were the very last of the entire plane. No problema, right? incorrecto!. Because our bags were last, we were the last hombres to sign up for the Transporte (large van) from the Calama airport to San Pedro. So what, usted habla? Well, it seems that the Transporte drivers have a strange system for how to drop folks off af their hotels. They go in the order you signed up for the van!! So, even though the first stop was 2 blocks from our hotel, we had to wait another 45 minutes while a thunderstorm began, before we were finally dropped off at our very nice hotel - Lodge Terrantai.

Oh yes, the thunderstorm. This is the driest dessert in the world and you are correctly scratching your head as we were. It has not rained in San Pedro in 17 years we were told, but it has rained almost every day or night for the last few weeks. Global warming anyone??

We quickly "unpacked" and headed out to a nearby restaurant where the lights almost immediately. However, everyone made do, power generators kicked in and we had a lovely dinner.

Fortunately, as I will soon report, it has been sunny and beautiful during our days here with an occasional storm in the evening or late afternoon.

It rained all day today, but this did not affect any of the planned activities. We took about an hour (small) boat cruise around the fjords and small islands , spotting sea lions frolicking on one such isla. After the cruise, many of the older folks went to the indoor thermal hot springs. Very refreshing.

During lunch (more about that later), we learned 2 things. Numero uno - the young adults apparently went to the hot springs at midnight the evening before. We had heard that it was available at that time, but had assumed this was some kind of Chilean in-joke. Numero dos: we were informed by our new fast amigos - the Canary Island folks (we call them the Canaries) - that the proper sequence is to go in this order: indoor hot springs, outdoor hot springs, steam bath, and cold shower. (Thank God we did not know this ahead of time, or perhaps we would have been tempted to follow suit and like the Canaries, and would have tambien frozen our butts off walking the 150 meters from the indoor spa to the outdoor one in the cold rain).

Lunch was a traditional Chilean feast! Lambs that had been picked up early on the voyage were roasted over an open fire. Additionally, beef and chicken were also grilled. It was all fabulous washed down with great Chilean red wine (I actually like this kind), followed by delicious postres, coffee and Kahlua. I think I can get used to this lifestyle!

Today, we awoke to brilliant sunshine in preparation for our visit to the fabled, mythic land of Chiloe in the afternoon. The early part of the day was consumed by eating of course and viewing the 350 photos taken by Gonzalo, the ship photographer. Many were absolutely stunning and we chose to compar several.

When we disembarked at Castro, the main port and capital of Chiloe, we decided to bypass the many taxis waiting to provide tours of the neighboring towns of Chonchi and Dalcuehue, opting instead to get some exercise and walk around Castro, gets some dinero and check email after many days being off the grid. That accomplished and Castro being rather disappointing,we inquired at the very nice tourist office on the plaza about visiting Chonchi O Dalcuehue. 'Chonchi, Mas mejor' - so Chonchiit was!

And, then we met our dos young ship doctoras ( one a recent ophthalmologist and the other completing her residency in ophthalmalogy) and decided to tour together and share a cab. We got to know these 2 lovely young ladies -- Karim and Katherine -- much better as we toured Chonchi and then had Onces jungle back on the Skorpios. Kari' is planning to travel around the world and we talked of the places we'd been and where she wanted to go -- Africa, Asia, Australia etc. And, Hawaii -- so we showed them our short movie from our trip to Kauai last July.

And, then the final 'formal' Captain's cena (dinner), which did not get rolling until after 9:00 pm, of course preceded by a lengthy speech by el capitan. It was a shell fish lover's delight!! Barbara was in heaven. My favorites were the salmon ceviche and the chocolate torta! The Uruguayan señor (Ismael) tried oysters for the first time in his life and loved them so much, that was all he ate theentire night! And, when I took his picture eating them, he proceeded to jsbber at mea mile a minute, despite th fact he must have known that my Espanol was extremely limited. Not only that, they seemed to speaka unique dialect. Barbara could not uncerstand a word and even Maria admitted she grokked only about 50% of what they were saying. We had to say adios to our many new friends from the Canary Islands, Chile' Afgentina, Australia and Columbia. I think we will be back.

We were awakened by our Brazilian birds a las Ocho this morning. A Buenos Dias to everyone. This morning, almost everyone came to desayuno on time! For this Latin crowd, that was a first. You can feel the palpable excitement and anticipation in the crowd, although you have to look very very closely to detect any change in countenance in Grandma's face.

Around a las diez menos cuarto (9:45), we disembarked from the mother ship and boarded the small ice cruiser for our trip around the icebergs and to the Glacier (at least as close as to not be Peligro since it is active and moving and big pieces are continually falling off). I must say without exaggeration, the experience was other-worldy and utterly magnifico. The pictures will hopefully be worth a un mil words. At one point, we were fortunate enough to encounter a leopard seal lounging on his favorite iceberg. He was a real ham. I hope the pictures (and the video to be released in April) will give you some inkling of the magnificent scene. I highly recommend this voyage to one and all.

After dinner, the big event was BINGO!! Being mister machismo, I declined when asked if I needed an English translation as they called out the numbers. The grandmother at our table won a fleece vest with the Skorpios logo. At our table no one else won nada, although I am convinced I may have won algo if I understood the numbers quickly enough. I must say my oral number recognition improved during the game. And I came very close to winning the last game - last person standing. A number is called out and if you have it, you lose. In this case, my slow recognition may have been useful.

p.s. Rachel and Scott: Each of these ships carries a ship 'doctor' Ours was a lovely young woman who is still in residency to become an opthmalogist. However, on this trip you must be fluent in Spanish - which you might qualify for. However, on the voyage to the Antarctic, the requirement is to be fluent in English! And the 'doctor' can bring along a companion. Both gratis!

Not a whole lot to report on our first full day at sea - Sunday. We are still motoring along and will be until tomorrow when we reach the glacier! Last night (Saturday) was pretty rough and tumble for a few hours as the crew had advised. We crossed a strait where the Pacific ocean enters the archipelago and this creates the turbulence. We secured all the doors and put breakables on the floor and went to sleep. Great roller coaster of a night of sleep. Woke up very refreshed though and ready for Desayuno. At las ocho y media, brazilian bird music was piped into our room, announcing the opening of the dining room for breakfast. After a delicious desayuno, the sun came out and all of us seemed to eventually materialize on the upper deck. We took pictures of each other, visited the captain's cockpit (notice how I know all the nautical terms?), chatted with the Canary Island folks (more to come), and watched or participated in an impromptu exercise class, led by a very enthusiastic Chilena.

The Canary island threesome consists of esposa and esposo and the esposa's younger sister. He owns three hotels on the Canary islands (nearest land/country is Morocco but it is part of Spain). He (of course) said it is a fabulous place to vacation. We took down his contact info - quien save - may be our next vacation? We call the the 'canaries'.

After tea, the 2 media crew leaders led a presentacion on the highlight of the trip we would experience manana - the San Rafael Glacier. Very informative stuff, although I estimate I only got about 75% of it due to delay in English translation and the interesting translations themselves. E.g. "After we returned on the glacier, we will have some soap" (oh, right - soup!). They showed data on the shrinkage of this glacier over the last 100 years (about 10km) and most other glaciers. Incredible that global warming is still disputed. The slight sliver lining is that there are a handful of glaciers that are actually growing. [see details from B post].

Before dinner, we went to the quitralco (named after the thermal hot springs we will visit tomorrow in Quitralco) lounge for karaoke. They had a million songs in both Spanish and English. Take a guess which were more popular. However, without due modesty, I must say we represented the Ingles speaking world quite admirably, signing duets of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" (seemed appropriate with lyrics like - "the ice is slowly melting") and The King's "Can't Help Falling in Love". We nailed the first, but about half way through the Elvis song, the music seemed to switch to a minor key, which rattled even pros like us. The other participants still yelled "Bravo", "My bueno", etc. Thankfully, after several drinks, they were not so discriminating.

And, the fun did not stop there. After dinner, there was an informal dance (not to be confused with the formal Captain's dinner/dance the last evening). We voted the Canary Islands couple most likely to be invited to "Dance with the Stars".

Manana - we await with great anticipation seeing a real live big glacier.

Today, we embarked on the Skorpios II from Puerto Montt. But, first, I must digress to tell the story of how we arrived at the Skorpios pier.

We had our desayuno around 7:00, very nicely prepared early by our lovely Hotel Elun in Frutillar. During breakfast we met the owner, who insisted in speaking English to Barbara, who insisted on speaking Espanol in return. Very funny. We discovered his Ingles may need a little improvement, when he asked if I was Barbara's wife. Hmm...But, in Espanol, esposo and esposa are very close,so I forgave him He was very solicitous of our needs.

Anyway, after desayuno, we drove to Puerto Montt, being very sure that our lights were on when we entered Ruta Cinco (see earlier post). Our rental car agent in Temuco told us to return the car to the P. Montt airport and we had confirmed the same yesterday via phone call. So, off we went to the airport. We had intended to top off our gas tank, but since the agent never mentioned gas and since we passed nada a gas station, we arrived at the airport sin full tank.

Alas, there was no rental car return signage, so we stopped at the terminal, where a young man approached the car. "David?" He was a First Rent A Car P. Montt agent (probably the only P. Montt agent). When we asked about getting transportation back to P.Montt to the harbor, he asked "Porque no desvolvio (return) car to P. Montt?" "Uh, good pregunta",we thought except we were told to bring it here. "No problema". He drove us and the rental car and our equipaje to P. Montt! Not only that, he stopped at an ATM so we could get some dinero and then we all tried to find out where the Skoprios II was docked. It took several attempts including a stop at the Skorpios office which we stumbled upon, to find the right place. We stepped on board at around nueve y cuarto - one of the first passengers. Mucho kudos to our P.Montt First Rent a Car agent, Julio Barcos!!

We were directed to our cabin in the bowels of the ship aka "the cheap seats". We are on the Athens deck, the one without windows to the sea. But, as a compensation, it is very dark when we try to go to sleep! It's a nice cabin with 2 double beds even. There are only 45 passengers on board (max = 106). So, as the captain said, "we will become a familia!"

We are the only Americans. There is 1 other native English speaker, an Australian woman who married a Chilean guy who emigrated to Australia about 40 years ago. However, some of the crew have passable English and for both the Captain's greeting and a slide show about the Chonos (indigenous people in the area we are sailing through), we were provided with headsets to receive the simultaneous English translation of the Spanish presentation. [Wow, that was too long a sentence, I know. But, I have faith in you to decipher it].

Besides us and the Australian, there are quite a few Chllenos, 2 de Mexico, a few from Argentina, 2 de Columbia, 2 de Uruguay, 4 de Espagna, and 3 from the Canary Islands (part of Spain), who are playing Parchesi on their iPad. I must get some games!

So far, the food is quite good. We are seated with an 80 year old woman from Temuco, Chile and her sweet and beautiful 30 year old granddaughter. The granddaughter makes pastries and wedding cakes. It is almost like being in a scene in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. The other couple are retired folks from Uruguay. No one speaks much Ingles at our table. So, they talk to Barbara who relates the conversation to me, and vice versa. So far so good, Mas o Mano.

Based on lunch and Onces (tea), the food is very good and very plentiful. We are now sitting in the San Rafael lounge, rocking and rolling as we pass through the one rough sea passage crossing the Chonos channel. I battened down the hatches in our room so we should be good to go. Dinner in 5 minutes.

Today we toodled around in the Frutillar area of the Southern Lake Region. It is just as beautiful as the Northern Lake Region. Frutillar and other towns in this area were founded by German immigrants about a 100 years ago. You still see evidence - especially in the menus. Kuchen, Strudel, etc. And every town has a Club Aleman (German club).

After a nice sunrise over lake Llanquihue from our window, and a quick breakfast, we drove around the Lake, counter clockwise. Frutillar is around 9:00 (think clock here). Stops to take photos of the Osorno and Calbuco Volcanoes and then on to lunch just outside Puerto Varas around 5:00 (on the clock). It was another unplanned serendipitous visit to a nice looking but unknown Cafe Lahuel in the middle of nowhere. But, as before, we were rewarded for our risk taking with a marvelous sandwich and Strudel that could have walked out of an oven in Munich.

We had wonderful views of 2 volcanoes as we drove around. Very cool (or should I say very caliente!). After lunch, we on toward the lovely Lago Todos Los Santos (around 3:00 on the clock) with stops at the Saltos de Petrohue (waterfalls). These were quite different - sort of like Great Falls on steroids. The pictures don't do it justice, so I took some video which remain to be edited. Maybe on the boat.

Manana - on to Puerto Montt and our Skorpos cruise to the fjords and the San Rafael Glacier. The ship has no internet, so we will be "off the grid" for about 5 days once we set sail. Hasta Pronto.