Chile, Valparaiso

We continued our tour to Valparaiso, a port city. We had lunch at the wharf in the seafood restaurant on the right in the picture below. The food was good. The view was even better.

Our luncheon and travel companions were fascinating people from all over the world--Czech Republic, Australia, Arizona, Brazil and Malaysia. We enjoyed getting to know them.

We had time to shop for souvenirs and explore the wharf.

We were fascinated by the ancient wooden boat on the left but had no clue to it's history.

We "experienced" the monument to the naval heroes of the Battle of Iquique.

The view of Valparaiso was amazing as we made our way up narrow streets to....

...the home and gardens (pictured below) of Nobel Prize winner for literature, Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet.

We met some interesting characters on our tour.:)

We had to take this picture to prove that we were actually in Chile.

On the way back to Santiago, our tour bus was involved in an accident. Our bus driver was making an illegal turn across two lanes of traffic and a car came up from behind and smashed into the bus, exactly underneath where we were sitting. It was a bit unsettling but no one was hurt and the bus was still driveable. We were able to get back to our hotel later than expected, but unscathed. Our adventures were just beginning!