Valparaiso City Tour and Fonc Musium - New Passengers - Fantastic Send Off

The ship arrived exactly on time at 6 AM. Almost immediately the tanoy started to call passengers who were leaving the ship to their waiting areas ready for a quick get away. We had said our farewells to Irene and Tony in the Champagne Lounge the night before and also to our great friend Kyle (who definitely DOESN'T eat all the pies <grin>) in the pub, so both of us had "thick heads". 

It seem that the unloading of passengers didn't quite go as planned due to heavy traffic on Valparaiso's ring road and delays in transferring people to the passenger terminal by shuttle bus. All morning new announcements rang out giving new departure times and estimated times of arrival at airports. Quite a few people got upset and vocal at what they perceived as poor organisation.

Our tour of the city didn't start until 2 PM, so we had a "leisurely" breakfast in bed and then went sunbathing and swimming in the deck 8 pool. The view of Valparaiso from the stern of the ship was excellent and the curved bay with surrounding hills fairly glistened in the sun.

After a light lunch we joined our tour and exited the ship to find a long queue for shuttle buses. After about 30 minutes we reached the terminal and officially re-entered Chile.

It took over a hour to get off the port road and into the city. The tour guide said that so many local people had come down to see QM2 that all roads were jammed. Many of the people we passed would see the Cunard sign at the front of the bus and start waving, smiling and even cheering.

Once again we had made a bad decision when booking this tour. Basically, we drove around in ever decreasing circles and were only allowed off twice. I mean, once you've seen one colonial building, new hotel, sandy beach etc... you've seen 'um all!!

The Fonck Museum was probably the highlight of the tour, although we only had 20 minutes to view the remarkable exhibitions of Easter Island and Columbian artifacts. 

At 5:50 PM we finally arrived back onboard, only just in time. I did manage to buy a rather large Alpaca poncho and some really tasty chocolate, so the day out wasn't totally useless.

Because of our late return to the ship, we had missed dinner, so we went to the "sail away party" instead. Hundreds of small boats were circling the ship packed with local people and they too were dancing along to the band's music. It was still very hot and I could see all the newly arrived Brits turning a "lobster red" colour in "real time", especially those with bald heads!

A great noise of small ship's horns, church bells and cheers from the crowd rang out when the ship finally slipped moorings and headed out to sea. The QM2's foghorn let go with 5 or 6 might blasts in reply and all the passengers on the open decks waved and cheered liked mad. 

A couple of tugboats escorted us out of the harbour and used their fire hoses to make great arcs of water, which turned rainbow colour when viewed from some angles.

Without doubt, this was the best send off so far. Some of the little ships followed us right out to sea before giving a final wave and turning for home.

Good stuff!!

Valparaiso's curved harbour a city with many hills

One of many colonial houses on "Great Britannia Street".

Dramatic coastline (taken from the bus window).

A big ship dwarfs the harbour area.

Well... who ate all the pies??? Not that bad, after 3 weeks luxury dining experiences 3 times per day!!!

Ann in action... "So, it's 2 dollars for one or 3 for 5 dollars... How about 5 for 10 dollars... DOH!" Never mind, the seller saw the funny side. He was good fun and even thought England might win the world cup, so I bunged him 20 dollars and only took 3 bracelets... much to Ann's amusement.

A watery farewell to Valparaiso. A warm welcome and noisy send off.

Thank you to the people of Valparaiso.

Visiting Santiago, (from Valparaiso), Chile - Options for an EIGHT hour Visit!
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