Day 362, 1 July 2013, Valparaiso, Vina del Mar and Vina Indomita Winery (Casablanca Valley). We found a tour company via Trip Advisor and booked with itours for a day's outing without a care in the world. Usually, given enough time, we'd jump on a local bus and have a budget outing to a spot like this but today, we thought we'd treat ourselves to being driven. We chose a regular or group tour and were lucky enough to only have one other couple with us (who fortunately spoke excellent English... otherwise it could have been a very quiet day indeed). Enjoyed the long drive out to the coast. We farewelled the snow covered Andes (only 1 degree this morning - went to 17 degrees eventually) and passed through a tunnel beneath the coastal range which cradles the other side of Santiago. We were super fortunate to have great weather on both sides of the tunnel - our guide Juan advised that that is very rare at this time of the year (winter here in Chile). Valparaiso is a port town and before the opening of the Panama Canal was "the" port in South America. One of the features of this hilly town (45 hills in total - each a suburb), is the colourful houses clinging to the hillsides. Once the ships get painted, leftover paint has always been sold on cheaply - hence we saw houses in lilac, lime, apricot and many other vibrant shades. If we were to compare this area to San Francisco - it makes San Fran look positively flat. We were driven to Vina del Mar next - a seaside resort town. People come more to look at the Pacific rather than swim in it - 16 degrees or so is the average temp - brrrr. They do however have a cracking casino, modelled on the one in Monte Carlo and opened in the 1930s. Because it's so posh they even keep up the tradition of wearing formal attire. You never know, we might get to visit it one day - or the one in Monte Carlo, that would be fine too. Lunch was seafood at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and then it was time to move on to reach our winery destination. We couldn't figure out why a bus was tooting frantically and trying to overtake us - turned out it was because the driver was kindly informing us of a flat tire that had developed sometime during the lunchbreak. Our driver/guide Juan had a great time fixing that (not). Finally (after a random papers check by the police... seriously?) we made it to the winery and found that a place that pumps out 6 million litres a year in Chile is just a medium sized winery - the big players can produce 200 million litres or more. Boutique winery it most definitely was not - but great wine and great fun. A lovely final day out. And Frank Sinatra is starting to whisper... "and now, the end is near...." NOOOOO!!!!!