WEDNESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2016

THE PARTY IS REALLY OVER

Tonight we fly home. It has been a wonderful 4 weeks. We have seen a plethora of beautiful sights and met many wonderful people and made new friends. One thing that we realize is there are alot of nice people in this world. Monday, when we were at the bus station, there was a security guard standing around. I showed him our ticket in order to try and figure out which bus we should get on. Our bus wasn't there yet, but he stood by us for 20 minutes, and even followed me when I walked to look at one bus to see if it was ours, and in our lack of language compatibility, told me it was not the right one. When ours did pull in he guided us to it. We have been very blessed and are ever grateful for another wonderful vacation. I will post a few more pictures of Santiago after we go out today. 

TUESDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2016

A CHEAP BUS RIDE

Today we took the bus to Santiago. When we arrived in Valparaiso yesterday the taxi/tour desk tried to convince us to pay $140 for hotel to hotel transportation. We declined. Funny thing is the cab ride from the B&B to the bus station in Valparaiso cost more than the luxury bus ride from Valparaiso to Santiago. The cab was $8.87, the bus was $8.57 (for both of us). Once we got to Santiago we hired a cab to take us to our hotel. The cab driver, David, spoke little English, but asked us where we were from. When we told him Utah he asked if we are "Mormones". Turns out David is "Mormones", a returned missionary from the Chile Osorno mission. He asked if we would like to hire him for a city tour. Normally we would have declined, but Jim said he was happy to help out a fellow Mormon. We had a nice afternoon with David. He first took us to the large tower that has a huge shopping center in it including the Hard Rock Cafe'. Next a quick stop at the temple, followed by a ride to the top of a hill with a beautiful statue of the Madonna.

There were several painted crosses around the Madonna.

The tower on the left is where the HRC is located.

Pedestrian walkway to get across the highway.

MONDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2016

THE PARTY IS OVER (ALMOST)

We got off of the ship today in Valparaiso, Chile. Valparaiso is the port city to Santiago. It was once a thriving port until 1914-the opening of the Panama Canal. It is built on a hill so there was lots of uphill walking to be done since our B&B was about halfway up the hill.

We ran into our table mates in the square and spent a few hours with them!

Matching colors!