Valparaiso Harbour Scenes

Another day at sea with not much of photographic merit, so I decided to make a collage of some of the sights in Valparaiso harbour as we made our exit the other evening.

The boat filled to the brim with party-goers looked like a disaster in the making -- there's no way the United States Coast Guard would ever allow such an overloaded vessel to ply the waters!

The elegant four-masted ship is named Esmeralda, and she belongs to the Chilean navy.  When I looked her up online, I discovered she has a dark past -- she was used as a prison and torture chamber for political prisoners during Pinochet's regime from 1973 to 1980.

The bottom image shows a flotilla of Chilean navy vessels.

Yesterday, I couldn't get online for love or money.  I think mainly because the ship broadcast the Super Bowl in the theater, and I'm sure it chewed up every last ounce of internet availability, so I apologize for the back blip!