Robinson Crusoe Island - Your 30 Minutes Begins Now

"Sherita, I think we might be a little lost," said Andrea, as we were hiking up a steep hill for the second time this morning.  "I think you're right, but there's a guy over there on that porch that might be able to tell us where the trail starts," I replied.  And so it went.  Andrea and I hopped the first tender to shore this morning at Robinson Crusoe Island, and we were bound and determined to hike up this rather steep but rewarding (we were promised) trail into the National Park here on the island.  We'd already seen the interesting Patriot Caves, had returned to town to acquire our National Park Pass, and had set out again to get on the trail and up the mountain.  Except we kept going the wrong way.  Everyone wanted to send us to the "other" trail, the VERY VERY steep Pass trail, that led to Selkirk's Lookout.  We didn't feel totally up for that strenuous of a hike.

Robinson Crusoe Island used to be called Mas a Tierra (closer to land).  It's an island in an archipelago and is the second largest island of the Juan Fernandez Islands, located about 300 or so miles west of Chile.  It's part of Chile.  We anchored in Cumberland Bay, next to the small (700 population) town of San Juan Bautista, on the north coast of the island.

The island itself was where a marooned sailor and pirate named Alexander Selkirk called home from 1704-1709.  His story is believed to be part of what inspired the novelist Daniel DeFoe's story of Robinson Crusoe.  The government of Chile renamed the island to Robinson Crusoe Island to reflect the literary lore associated with the island and to attract tourists (imagine that) in 1966.

It's a pretty important place to scientists, as over 60% of the native plants there are endemic to the island, as are over 200 species of insects.  It's also home to the very endangered hummingbird called the Juan Fernandez Firecrown.  There's only about 200 left today.

The town derives it's largest amount of income from spiny lobster fishing.  The town is very small and was nearly destroyed in a 2010 tsunami.  16 people died and over half of the town was swallowed up in the water flooding.  If it were not for a 12 year-old girl seeing the water rushing out and recognizing it as a tsunami, and sounding the alarm, more people would have lost their lives.  Today, 9 years later, a good part of the small town has been rebuilt, but there is still much to be done.  We've got about 700 passengers on our ship, so our arrival there basically doubled the town's population for one day.  Unless you're into hiking up mountains, there's not much else to do there, other than to enjoy the beautiful scenery with a walk along the waterfront and perhaps a quick climb to see the caves that sit just above the town square.

Andrea and I had been told different things in terms of how long the hike up into the park would take.  Some said it was 30 minutes up, others said it was 2 hours.  We liked the idea of 30 minutes, for obvious reasons.  So every time we took a wrong turn and then tried a new route, Andrea would say "Your 30 minutes starts now."  It became a bit of a running commentary.  Even a couple of the signs along the trail (the right one, once we found it), had conflicting information about how far the end spot was.  One sign said 1450 meters, another farther along (your 30 minutes starts here again), said 2000 meters.  Eventually, we arrived at our designated spot and were glad of it.  Total hiking for the day - 7 miles.  Half of it up a mountain..............all in all it took up about 3 1/2 hours including our missteps.

Snort gets a new towel buddy every night.

Up at Plazoleta De Yunque, the "end spot" of our hike, there are some beautiful picnic tables and these tree tables.  Isn't that beautiful wood?

This cat hung out with us at the Patriot Caves

Inside the largest of the Caves, there's what appears to be an altar at the back.  These caves were inhabited by banished activists from the war for independence with Spain

Here's that cute cat again.

This is a view from about 3/4 of the way up our mountain.  That tiny thing in the water out there is our ship.

A cave

View on the trail up the mountain

View of the island from our ship

Spiny lobsters - they were huge! And alive...........

Almost to the top!!!

A boardwalk at the Plazoleta del Yunque.  We were on the hunt for the elusive hummingbirds.

3/4 of our hiking trail was this.  It was tough going up and tougher coming back down.  Slippery.

Pretty picnic table and benches

These are cabbage trees.  Endemic to the island.  They produce big red flowers and the hummingbirds love them.

One of several "wrong" trail signs.

The town from the ship

There's one of those big red flowers.

Old cannons

Travel quote:  "Traveling leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller"  Ibn Battuta

Stay tuned for more Pig Tales!!

Valparaíso, Chile

I’ve been to Chile several times and have boarded ships twice in Valparaíso but have never stayed in or visited the city itself. It was always all about Santiago. Until today.

We docked in the port city of San Antonio this time. Ships don’t port in Valparaíso any longer. Apparently the port there doesn’t want cruise ships as they generate much more revenue from commercial ships. But a quick 90 minutes south lies the port of San Antonio and they are happy to have us.

But I still wanted to visit Valparaíso so I found a tour company called Perro Tours who offered a day tour from San Antonio to both Valparaíso and Vina Del Mar, an upscale beach town next door.

Valparaiso is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Chile.  It used to be an important stopover for ships having traveled the Straits of Magellan, and was called "Little San Francisco", among other names.  Wealthy families took up residence there.  However, after the Panama Canal was completed, the city was all but abandoned, the economy from port operations plummeted, and those same wealthy families moved out.  It wasn't until about 2003, when the old quarter of the city was declared a UNESCO world heritage site, that a resurgence truly began for the city.

Today, it's known for it's street art, cobblestone streets and a thriving artist community.  The seaport does a good business due to Chile's copper mining industry.

Our tour took us through the historic district where we saw lots of the street art.  I've got gobs of pictures so forgive me for posting so many.  You might find Snort on one.............

Our guide suggested a group picture when we reached the bottom of one street and before we turned down another.  We agreed, and then we were quite surprised when he showed it to us, as none of could see the word sign below us at the time!

This is a candy shop, above.  On the sidewalks leading up to the shop, there are painted white ants, all facing in the direction of the candy shop!!

This was one of my favorites - the purple VW van.

This reminds me of that baby in the commercials for E-Trade awhile back.

As you can see, Valparaiso is a VERY hilly city..........Look at this skinny house!!  They want to utilize the space as efficiently as possible.

This wall painting above was next to a sushi place!!

See the frog above is sitting there using his smartphone............

Next up, we ventured over to Vina del Mar, a beachside resort city next to Valparaiso.  It's known, of course, for its beaches, gardens and high rise buildings.  It also has a very cool flower clock that uses solar to keep time, and an authentic Moai statue from Easter Island.  Oh, and an interesting street warning sign..........

On the way to Vina Del Mar, we rode 2 funiculars - the steepest one and the longest one.  They are a fun way to get up and down some of the steeper areas of the old quarter. the one above is the longest and I believe, oldest one in the city.

Some cool architecture

And this would be the steepest funicular.

Inside one of the funicular cars.  This is the oldest one.

Check out that grade!!!

I think this is the oldest fire station in either all of Chile or all of South America.

The city is building another funicular.  I made this picture larger so you can see that the road beneath it zigs and zags and it's going to be the only funicular where there is a road beneath the tracks.

The port of Valparaiso looking towards Vina Del Mar

I'm a sucker for old VW bugs.  There's lots of them in South America. 

The wheel house of the first funicular.

That's me on the left!!  And my group of friends for the day - Patty, Debbie and Denise, Rick and Mary, and Judy and Dennis.

These dogs found a quiet place to sleep at an overlook.

This is a statue of a beloved and famous military man - Prat.

The longest funicular track

Looking out over Valparaiso

I am Groot!!!!

The sculpture in front of this government house is one of Rodin's.

Another group photo in front of the Archeological Museum and a Moai statue from Easter Island

The flower clock garden

Don't you just love this sign????

And, our final group photo of the day.  Funny, we're in reverse order of the earlier photo.

Travel quote:  "Travel brings power and love to your life"  Rumi

Stay tuned for more Pig Tales!!