Cold toes in San Pancho

Got to stick my toes in the Pacific again today! The second time in a week and only the second time since San Diego in August. What an indescribable feeling. Someday I will have to live on the left coast again (whether it's North or South America, no me importa). The water's a bit colder here than what you SoCal people have. No photos here of my team romping in the waves because I was too busy splashing in them, and then running a bit up and down the stretch of sand available, to get out my camera. But here's a shot of the port city of Valparaiso. Although it's not as active as it used to be (once it was the busiest port in South America) it looks to me like it's still got a lot going on.


We rode the funicular (anyone know what that is?) up to the top of the hill to look down on the coastline.

To the right is a model of the funicular (is that not the funniest word in the English language?) so you can see it's like a little train car that rides the rails up the side of a hill. Above is the view from the window as we ascended. It's so hilly here- really does remind you of San Francisco- that these things are everywhere and not only for tourists; they are actually used by the locals to get around. It cost us about 50 cents to ride up. Some like to call the town of Valparaiso San Pancho because Pancho is the nickname for Francisco and this is like a little San Francisco.



After drinking a pisco sour up on top of the hill looking down on the port, we went down again and had lunch (seafood of course- razor clams a la parmesan and then fried conger eel) at a navy-themed restaurant overlooking the ocean, where a sea lion napped on a rock. Then we had a tour of the Congress and learned all about the legislative process here. Similar to ours but interesting in that there is no joint committee that finalizes a bill after the House and Senate have each passed their version. Here the House introduces a bill, the Senate changes it, and then it gets voted on. Sounds like it would speed things up but our guide said bills often take years to come to a vote. Also there is no way to override a presidential veto; once a bill is vetoed it's dead and cannot be reintroduced for a year.

Tomorrow we present at the Rotary district conference, and then early Sunday morning we board the train headed south to Curico. We'll spend the next two weeks in smaller cities all within about three hours of Santiago. Expect to visit some more wineries and see a copper mine, among other exciting and surprising things. The Rotarians here continue to treat us as if we were visiting dignitaries, and I imagine those in the south will do the same.

Hasta luego, or as they say here- ciao!