We disembarked the ship for the last time this morning. It's always sad to say "good-bye" to all that luxury at the end of a cruise. But before we headed to the airport, we spent the day touring Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and the Casablanca Valley on one last ship-sponsored excursion.

We drove through Valparaiso seeing the hills of the city and the funiculars that provide service up and down. We stopped at two locations there: an overlook point to see the city and coastline from up high and near the coast for a walking tour of the area. Next we drove through Viña del Mar, passed by the large floral clock that is its centerpiece, and stopped at the Fonck Museum for a tour.

Leaving the cities behind, we drove into the Casablanca Valley known for the wines produced there for two more stops. First, we went to the William Cole Winery for a tour and tasting. The winery, owned by an American, is beautiful and perfectly set up for visitors. The wines were fine and are readily available in the States if we decide we want more. Nice tour guide, too.

Our last stop was at the Puro Caballo Equestrian Center to see a demonstration of Chilean rodeo, the national sport, and to have lunch. We were greeted with refreshing pisco sours and delicious empanadas and entertained with music and dance. Our host for the afternoon also explained about the Chilean horses which are a small breed that has been able to remain pure since Chile is geographically isolated from any other area that has horses. This ranch has been breeding and training horses for 80 years.

Three riders on horses presented a short program demonstrating their best rodeo moves. Lunch was served inside the elegant, yet dirt-floored, event center. After starting with a salad plate served family style, the waiters brought huge plates of roasted beef and potatoes, wine, water, and dessert.

After filling up, we reboarded the bus to head for the airport in Santiago. The trip was quick since we were about halfway there already. When we were dropped at the airport, we found that Seabourn had organized and sorted the luggage and had it all waiting on individual luggage carts for us. We just had to find the one cart with all our luggage. That was a big improvement over the usual scramble to find luggage. As soon as we located it, one of the skycaps came over to help us. He immediately took charge and pushed the cart with us trailing behind into the airport and up to the self-serve kiosk for printing boarding passes. We could have done that ourselves, but it happened pretty fast and we just let him go. We still had some local currency for a tip.

We printed our boarding passes and went to a small cafe to get a drink and wait for the United agent to open a window. We arrived at the airport about 5 p.m. for a flight at 10:40 p.m. They don't open the ticket or luggage drop-off windows until three hours before flight time. This airport is crazy busy although it is not huge. There are very few places to sit while waiting. By 6:30, we decided to get in the line that was already forming at the United window with a number of other people who had been on our cruise. Once the agent arrived, it did not take too long to get through and on to customs and immigration. We had to go though just as much leaving the country as when we arrived although most countries don't do that. Once we finished all the security lines and everything, we headed toward the lounge that we had found when we were here three weeks ago. Again, lots of our fellow cruisers were in the lounge, too.

It's still two hours until the flight leaves, and we have had a small snack in the lounge, but cannot get the wi-fi to work. I'll upload photos and text later.