We are in our hotel room in Valparaiso. Tomorrow we board the Crown Princess. It's hard to believe the 1st part of the trip is done. Today I had arranged for a local guide to pick us, and 4 other couples from Cruise Critic, up at various hotels in Santiago, go on a tour of the area, and then drop us off at various hotels in Valparaiso where we board the ship. Michael the German Pirate is an East German ex pat who has lived in Valparaiso for about 20 years. We knew about him from a tour we went on 4 years ago. Michael met us at the hotel about 8:30 and we then picked up the other couples. The drive from Santiago to Valparaiso takes about an hour and a half. On the way we stopped at a couple of wineries. It was early so we only had a glass of wine and then went on to Valparaiso. We stopped for lunch a a restaurant on a terrace overlooking the harbor. Bonnie and I shared 2 grilled fish dishes. Can't remember the names but they were delicious. We then went on a mostly walking two hour tour of Valparaiso. Valparaiso was once a booming sea port. It went into severe decline when the Panama Canal was built. It is now starting to make a comeback mostly based on tourism. Our hotel, The Fauna, is highly rated but quite unusual. It is in an old converted commercial building built on side of a cliff. There is no entry from the street - we had to walk over 100 yards down a walkway just to get to the door. Out room is on the lower level - 2 flights down from the lobby. Thankfully, the staff carried our luggage down. One of the "walls" of our room is the actual dirt cliff with just a wood barrier up to waist level.