Good Bye Casa Vander; Hello Viking Jupiter!

We woke up to sunshine over the Pacific Ocean this morning!  It would be a great day to set sail!  Oh wait!  We just discovered that we BOARD the Viking Jupiter today, however, we don’t LEAVE until tomorrow at 6:00PM!  (We have never heard of that before!)

Patte and I enjoyed a cup of Java roadside while we waited for our Uber driver to take us to the VPT (Valparaiso Passenger Terminal).


We all packed light (we thought) until our driver arrived in the smallest car ever!  He fit three suitcases in the trunk, smiled, and spoke some really fast Spanish!  Say what?  We crawled into his car, each of us with a backpack and a half on our laps, while John had to carry his suitcase!  


Our driver agreed to the VPT destination (we thought) and drove like wild man through the streets of Valparaiso!  He stopped, we peeled ourselves from the car, and looked around for a terminal, for other passengers, for SOMETHING that looked like we were where we were supposed to be!  Patte and I were literally crying from laughing so hard!


I’m not sure we were in the exact right place, however, would you believe we were actually picked up by a huge bus, filled with Viking people?  We were taken to the terminal where we showed our passports and paperwork and were given our room keys!  Then back on the bus we went and it wasn’t long before we saw the beautiful Viking Jupiter!



Before we knew it, we were onboard, sitting at a table, enjoying drinks, full of anticipation for the next 17 days!


Funny story of the day: John wears this contraption attached to a belt loop that connects to his phone to keep it safe from pickpockets (great idea, Matt)!  While boarding the bus, a lady bends down and picks said contraption up off the floor, hands it to John saying, “I think you dropped something!”  For some reason John had his phone off the thing, but it came OFF his belt loop on its’ own!  John is currently concerned about the quality of his anti-theft device! 😂😂😂


We didn’t have to wait long before we were told our rooms were ready!  We were very excited to finally unpack and put things away!  





We met up with Patte and Mike and walked around the ship!  It was beautiful!





We all enjoyed a fabulous first dinner (I’m not posting EVERYTHING we ate, only the mains—you’re welcome)!





After dinner we went to the Star Theatre to watch the movie, The 33.  They provided bags of popcorn (just what we needed after that delicious dinner) and the movie was soooo good!  If you haven’t seen it, we highly recommend it!  

And that was that!  We were excited to be on board and ready to embark on our “Journey to the End of the World” tomorrow evening!  (I guess we won’t be rocked to sleep by the movement of waves tonight!)  BUENAS NOCHES, everyone!

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