La Esmeralda leaving Valparaiso

The Esmeralda, also known as La Dama Blanca (The White Lady) is the second tallest (48.5m – 159ft) and longest (113m – 371ft) sailing ship in the world. Belonging to the Chilean Navy it is used as the training ship for their cadets (only 50 or so are in training at any one time) and holds up to 333 sailors in total.

On the 3rd of January 2010, the Esmeralda set sail on a journey that will take her over 20,433 nautical miles visiting ports in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Mexico, United States and Panama. The ship won’t return to Valparaiso until the 8th of August 2010, just in time for the Chile’s bicentennial celebrations.

Below is a video of the Esmeralda leaving port that day:



A little history about the Esmeralda

Building of the ship started in Spain in 1946 though was halted many times, only being completed in 1953. In 1951 ownership of the partially completed ship was transferred to Chile as a part of Spain’s debt payment to the country.

During the Pinochet regime the boat was “supposedly” used as a floating jail and torture chamber for political prisoners. The British priest Miguel Woodward was one of those killed aboard in September 1973.
(I bet you won’t find anything about that on the Esmeralda’s official site!)

For information about the Esmeralda and where it is at the moment (in Spanish), check out their official website: www.esmeralda.cl

Videos of New Year at Valparaiso Chile

These videos are part of the fireworks display you will see if you go to celebrate New Year's in Valparaiso, Chile. I videoed the entire show which lasted just over 20 minutes. Have in mind that the video doesn't do the display justice and that I only shot three of the seventeen launch sites.
So, without further ado... here is the complete fireworks display divided into two parts:

Part One:



Part Two with the grand finale:



P.S. If you sit through the entire two videos, I think you need to get out of the house a little more. :)

Hope the year has started off well for you!

Valparaiso New Year Fireworks Celebration

This post is now at Valparaiso New Year

Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso Visit

I had to go to Valparaiso today to give a talk at the Universidad Católica de Valparaiso though unfortunately didn't have time to take photos of the city.

I did take a couple of shots of the architecture inside of the university which I found interesting:

On a side note, if you are driving back to Santiago from Valparaiso, it is easy to get lost since the way is not signposted very well. The secret is when you get to the end of Avda Argentina (the one that you come across having come down the hill from Santiago) you should turn left at the fork instead of the following the USELESS sign that points up the hill towards the right.
We of course took the wrong one (went right instead of left) and did an unintentional (and lengthy) tour of the hills of Valparaiso. It goes up and around and twists and turns like a snake on heat. At least once near the top we had a great view of the cloudy sunset over the land.

The short trip for the day gave me the itch to return again soon for a photo shoot.

Free WiFi on buses

Tur Bus and Claro Chile started a free service last week that lets passengers traveling with them between Santiago and different destination in the 5th region (most typically Viña del Mar and Valparaíso) to have access to WiFi (3G network). Only problem is that only 10 users can be connected at any one time but at least it is better than none.

To begin with 90 buses on the Santiago – Casa Blanca – Valparaíso route will have this free service in place and they look to extend it to other parts over the year.

Apparently the same service has already been running for around a year on the two-floor buses of the “Talca, Paris y Londres” bus company based in Talca.

Does anyone else know of any buses with this service either in Chile or other parts of South America?
Has anyone used the Wifi on any of the buses on the Valparaíso route?