Monday night we visited
La Flor de Chile for a late dinner. Everyone was happy with this choice and food and drink abounded. A good ending to our wonderful road trip!
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| Arin orders from our friendly waiter with good English (the waiter, not Arin) |
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| Ash and Randy are happy to be back in Vina |
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| Celebrating the road trip success |
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| Randy with his tortilla (eggs, potatoes and cheese) for 2 (or maybe 4 or 5) |
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| Arin ordered the classic "pobre" - meat with grilled onions and fried eggs on top of French fries |
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| Ash opted for the pork with fries - also massive |
This week brought work for Arin and I, and a little for Randy and Ash too. Ash, Arin and I visited the main port of Valparaiso (Valpo) on Tuesday. This is a busy port and quite congested because it is located in the central city. Randy stayed at the university and assisted some students with their English speaking and writing.
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| Randy was gratified and impressive he was termed "Profesor Randy Smith" in the publicity for his English services |
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| The active main port of Valparaiso has five berths |
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| The rubber wheeled landside cranes |
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| They stack them high because of the congested space |
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| The relatively narrow aisles between landside containers |
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| The cranes in operations. The white containers are always "reefers" - refrigerated containers |
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| A crane on a forklift truck moves a container off of a truck |
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| A portable crane (stacker) in action with reefer containers |
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| Stacks of containers either waiting for loading on a ship or a truck |
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| Detail of the massive tires of the wheeled landside cranes |
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| Reefer containers |
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| We could not get out of the van for most of the port tour but we were able to here - Pedro, Jimena, Rosa, Alice, Arin, Ash and Diego |
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| The guys looking dapper |
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| One of the smaller ships in port - they use two to three tugs per vessel to bring them into and out of port |
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| This hard working port is active 24/7 |
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| The gantry cranes on the quay side |
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| On the top of Pedro's building (the port authority) to view the operations from above |
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| An awesome tour of an interesting and important place - thank you, Pedro for arranging this! |
We went to lunch at the nearby restaurant,
Las Brasas Portenas, and then returned to work at the university. Then, Jimena took us all to visit the hills of Valparaiso. We started with a ride on an ascensor, a historic elevator. There are some 14 of these in the city and they are still used daily by the residents to get around in these steep hills. Jimena drove us through both the downtown on the flats and also through the picturesque if a little seedy hill neighborhoods. Of course, everywhere, the views were breathtaking.
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| Our frequent lunch place because it is next to campus and the food is quite good |
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| Waiting for lunch |
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| Ash and Alice choose avocado stuffed with shrimp salad and cheese empanadas |
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| The restaurant's open coal grill was amazing - they cooked the meat and toasted the rolls here. It was kept hot by the chef blowing a hair dryer on it - yes, we saw this phenomenon with sparks flying! |
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| The ascensor, Ascensor Artilleria, we used to ascend the hill near the port |
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| Two cars go simultaneously |
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| Inside the aged cabin - probably dating from around 1900 |
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| The steep rails |
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| This wheel at the top pulled us up |
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| Ash on top the hill after the ride on Ascensor Artilleria |
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| Same view with Arin |
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| The port from this vantage point |
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| The earlier rain (very unusual for this time of year) gave way to a very bright, beautiful late afternoon |
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| Another shop of the port with the city in the background |
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| Last picture of the port with the reefer containers in the foreground |
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| A lazy cat at one of the shops on the hill |
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| The statue commemorating a naval battle in the central square of Valparaiso |
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| This bizarre and huge statue of ?? made from copper is near the central congress of Chile in Valparaiso |
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| The modern congress building with its square opening in the middle |
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| On top one of the hills while riding along the "waist" street - a long road that winds along the hillside and cuts across most of the hills |
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| Randy and Alice with the same view |
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| The lively columns in the park at this overlook |
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| Each was designed and made by a local artist |
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| The mosaics were so nice and fitting with the city |
We spent the evening at the apartment watching some sports and Netflix and eating leftovers. It was nice to chill.
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| The splendid sunset from our balcony on Tuesday evening |
On Wednesday, Arin and I worked all day at the university as there was a colloquium organized where I spoke along with Rosa and Alejandro MacCawley, a professor from Santiago. The colloquium had lunch at the same restaurant and was very international with people from Chile, Argentina, Finland (!), the U.S., Spain and more. There are quite a few people from Spain and Argentina working in Chile because the economies of their home countries are in bad shape. This is true in academics as well as private industry.
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| The department sign announces the entry to the colloquium |
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| Rosa and Cecilia introduce the colloquium |
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| Alice gives her talk with slides in Spanish but speaking in English |
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| Rosa gives her talk in English also with Spanish slides |
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| Alejandro mixed it up with slides in English and speaking in Spanish - he gave a fascinating talk on the effects of temperature during wine transit |
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| The colloquium lunch at the same restaurant, Las Brasas Portenas, naturally |
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| The international group at lunch |
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| Professors came from three or four universities in the area |
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| The student, at right, is from Finland and had previously studied in New Zealand |
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| More of the lunch crowd - from left to right, Finish, Peruvian, Spanish (actually Catalan), and Argentinian |
Ash and Randy went to the other PUCV campus, in the suburbs, where science is located. He had a good visit with faculty from the chemistry department with mutual presentations and a lab tour. Ash is optimistic that some kind of future collaboration can happen. We hope so as we would love for him to return with us one day.
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| The fiery sunset on Wednesday evening |
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| Another shot - and the the photos do not do it justice |
Our dinner Wednesday evening was at our favorite Vina restaurant,
Divino Pecado, with our favorite waiter, Mario. We were hosted in grand style by Ricardo, the department chair of industrial engineering at PUCV. Rosa also attended the festive dinner. We dined well on machas, cerviche, pastas and pisco sours. Ash and Randy finished up with camomile liquor, which they both loved, while Ricardo drank herb tea where they brought a vase of fresh green herbs for him to make his own tea. Very classy! Ash and Arin stayed afterwards, meeting PUCV graduate student Diego, for a late night evening at a local bar and a brief stop at the casino.
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| Ricardo and Alice enjoy a laugh |
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| Ash and Rosa had a good evening too |
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| Randy and Ash enjoyed the exotic camomile liquor |
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| Our sassy but excellent waiter, "Super" Mario, who spent more than a decade in New York City before returning (wisely) to Vina |
Arin and Alice worked all day at the university on Thursday and decided on the project plans for going forward. The ladies (Rosa, Jimena and Alice) had lunch in Jimena's office - tuna and hard boiled egg salads with cheese quesidillas and a half bottle of rose. Very delicious and relaxing - thanks to Jimena. Ash and Randy took a long walk around Vina on this excellent day, weatherwise, and visited the big park in Vina and
La Sebastiana (the Valparaiso home of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, now run as a museum). They most enjoyed their coffee with ice cream in Vina though - a new taste treat.
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| The entry to Alice's office area on the sixth floor |
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| Home, sweet office |
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| View from the window looks over to another engineering building |
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| The Pacific Ocean from Alice's office window |
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| Looking the other way from the office gives a nice city and hills scene |
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| Ash and Randy wait on the second floor courtyard of the engineering building on Thursday evening to pick up Alice and Rosa |
We met up for dinner at Jimena and Pedro's suburban house in Quilpue (their main abode is a city apartment). Their big garden was full of fruit trees, an almond tree, avocado plants and more. Jimena outdid herself with two salads (avocado with shrimp, tomatoes and onions), mashed potatoes and pan fried reinata fish with shrimp sauce. We finished with ice cream topped by home canned peaches from Pedro's mother. Drinks were fresh made pisco sours, local microbrew beers and some very nice red wine. With the clear evening and the details on the half moon easily visible, it was the perfect evening.
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| The house was built by Jimena's parents but they decided to stay in their city apartment |
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| Two of the handsome dogs at the neighbors |
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| A big cactus in the backyard |
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| Ash tries a fresh grape from the arbor in the backyard |
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| Pedro, Agustin and Jimena in the kitchen |
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| Arin and Ash wait pensively for dinner |
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| Jimena decorating the delicious shrimp and avocado salads with homemade mayonaise |
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| The guys await food |
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| Ash, Randy, Diego and Alice take a look at Jimena's large assortment of local beers |
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| And, there was wine too, of course |
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| A close up of the excellent starter |
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| Agustin looks a little tired after his long day at school |
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| Alice and Rosa |
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| The kids enjoyed the meal almost as much as the adults |
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| Jimena with little Arturo |
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| The crowning glory - a clear sky with a sharp half moon |
