February 10 - Laura's Here

At long last Laura is here!  She arrived yesterday (in her words, dead tired and sore).  We did the bus and subway thing back to VilaFranca.  Laura had a nap, we had a short walk, Laura had a nap, we had dinner (poor selection of restaurants on Sunday), we came back, and Laura went to bed.  The personification of jet lag.

I went out in the evening and one of the places I looked at was the main bus terminal.  Talk about pandemonium!  LOng eople coming back from the weekend or heading back from a weekend in Santiago.  Add to that tourists with backpacks heading out.  If you are on a budget one of the tricks in South America is to book overnight bus trips - sleep on the bus and save on hostel costs.  The buses are new and clean, the seats are assigned and they recline.  

Here's a couple of photos of the terminal. First, a shot of one quarter of the bus bays.  There must have been 30 to 40 of them.

 Outside there was a party going on.  These two fellows were dancing to a boom box, others had a big barbecue going (photo didn't turn out) and vendors everywhere.

Today.  We got up and going and headed downtown for the standard tourist in a day stuff.  The Plaza de Armas, the Fish Market, and various other bits of poking around. You've already been bored with the photos from my first go around, so I'll only throw in a couple more.  

Here's the fountain of the day.

We took the Funicular up the main park. Slightly better visibility, but still not great photos.  This is the church at the top of the hill.  See, proof Laura is here!

 The last couple of photos are the courtyard and breakfast area of the VilaFranca.  Can't say enough about how good a stay we have had here.  Gloria and her staff are wonderful.

Tomorrow we are off to Valparaiso in the coast (using one of those nice buses), so I should have some more photos for you.