Chili, South America #025

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The Port of Valparaiso is located about 80 miles from Santiago’s International Airport "where we arrived" and the drive took about 70 minutes. 

​On our first full-day's tour, we took in the coastal cities from Santiago, visiting the wineries in the Casablanca Valley - viewing Chile’s spectacular countryside taking in the picturesque Casablanca Valley to visit the wineries and taste their wonderful Chilean wine.

​​​​Emiliana Organic Vinyards

​​Founded in 1986 by Chile's Guilisasti family they offer a wonderful tour and wine tasting, a tour of the property, the winery, the huge fields with lots of beautiful flowers and a huge building of wine barrels!.   There were many pictures and you can experience lots of animals in our download about the winery...

The scenery from one winery to the next was quite a drive with many things to see along the way - with many pictures showing a cross section of this terrain.

Located between Santiago and Valparaiso, in the Casablanca Valley, is the relatively young winery Casas del Bosque.  The Winery Tour is a good choice particularly for tourists who have visited other Chilean wineries prior to Casas del Bosque. This was a nice tour that lasted about 35 minutes.

The Casas del Bosque Estate 

When it comes to organic farming, Chile is a natural. Flanked by the Andes to the east and the Pacific to the west, this long, narrow, remote land enjoys a geography and climate uniquely well suited to organic farming. 

Chile’s pristine environment offers exceptional growing conditions in which to nurture world-class organic wines.

Concón and Las Salinas.

Visitors and locals enjoy the parks and water fountains of the city, including a large flower clock (Reloj de Flores) with its numbers made up of flowering plants, near Caleta Abarca beach. In ​Vina del Mar we find the garden “flower Clock”, created on 1962 intended to beautify the landscape for the World Cup.  

Many visitors in the Central Region of Chile focus on Santiago, as the capital having much to offer. 

Up Hill, AND Down! Great View of the Bay/ascend in a vintage cable car!

The city’s most unique features with its system of boxy elevators that ferry people up and down the steep, closely-packed hill. Known as “funicular” elevators, the unusual public transit method consists of a cable car which is pulled up and lowered down a steep incline. Looking like small boxcars that are delicately balanced as the metal cable drags them up the hill.

This is a favorite ascensor in Valparaiso. It goes up near the Naval Museum, the National Naval and Maritime Museum in Valparaiso, Chile and Wheelwright plaza is at the top, home to a local art marketplace where we all went to shop.
Locals as well as visitors go to the Valparaiso Market weekly to shop for fresh local produce, handmade products, and beautiful plants and flowers. You can get good prices on lapis lazuli and silver jewelry here, hand made sweaters, and oil paintings, just to name a few. Great view from the park on top.