Valparaiso is the sea port for Santiago, the capital of Chile. It is a steep chaotic maze like city sloping to the port.

We were off early for a tour of Santiago. The main drama was that it was Sunday so everything was shut. We had an informative guide, so it was a bit like a movable lecture topped with a walk around the centre of government.

This area of Chile has a Mediterranean climate and is in the rainshadow of the Andes. Its agricultural economy is supported by subterranean water supply and snow melt and has hydro-electric power systems. They have large tracts of land for wine growing plus wheat and vegetable such as potatoes.

It is prone to seismic activies.

It has been also prone to political unrest. It was first invaded and settled by the Spanish in 1570s. There was continued resistance by the local indigenous population, with the background of floods, earthquakes, disease. Eventual proclamation of the Republic and a path to Independence in 1810. Salvador Allende was the socialist president of the country elected in 1970 and was uprooted by a military putsch by Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Pinochet refused to return the government to democracy and was eventually defeated by a referendum in 1989. Chilean Mothers of the Disappeared were a brave group that protested the brutal dictatorship.

Chile seems to be on the road to sucess with exports of metals, agricultural products, fertilizer and wine, despite its catostrophic world's largest earthquake of 9.8 in 2015.

Made it back to the Vista half an hour after proposed disembarkation. Luckily they waited for us!!