Valparaiso & Santiago

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On this last day of our trip, we had a tour of Valparaiso and Santiago to fill the 10 hours we had to wait to board our plane home. Valparaiso is the sea port and is understandably crowded and somewhat run down. You'll see that in both cities all of the electric and other utilities are run through wires atop telephone-type poles. One can only wonder how the service people solve and fix electrical outages... it must be a nightmare. Valparaiso did have a lot of character and was unique in its own way. By contrast, Santiago -- the capitol of Chile -- is a clean and cosmopolitan metropolis. The amazing fact is the Santiago is nearly as large as New York City with 7 million people, and it dwarfs Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and the other major US cities. It also connects to other cities by a very modern, high-capcity highway system. It combines new an old architecture and design throughout, and has a number of very beautiful spots.
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Docking at Valparaiso	Early morning Valpariso	Valparaiso from the hill	Valparaiso market
Getting the Sunday paper	Bridge Grafitti	Sunday morning street	Stacked buildings
All utilities are above ground on poles	And it's a LOT	Architectural contrasts	Valparaiso Hostal
Plaza Memorial	Vina del Mar flower clock	Vina del Mar Coast	Church
Easter Island monument	One determined lady	Statue along the way	Upscale Vina del Mar
En route to Santiago	Almond orchard along the road	Local flowers	El Molino Ranch
Entertainment at lunch	Plump Patagonian Choique	Howdy!	Above the Ranch
Santiago Park	Santiago Cathedral	On the plaza	Big and Little Warriors
Cathedral reflection	Santiago architecture	New and Old	Reconstruction
In the cathedral	In the cathedral	In the cathedral	Santiago's main cathedral
Sunday in the park	San Cristobal pool	Waiting for the bus	Building detail
Sprawling Santiago		Santiago skyline