Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Valparaiso and Viña del Mar with Zack!

I'm forcing myself to catch up on this blog, which means nightly blogging. Have I mentioned that in addition to being a semi-professional blogger and travel guru (just kidding) I am also in grad school and working 45+ hours per week? I'm tired! But alas, for the sake of my faithful readers, I am here updating you on my life in Chile...enjoy!

On Friday, Zack and I took a day trip to the coast. It is really cheap and easy to travel by bus in South America, and buses run to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar every 15 minutes from Santiago. We originally intended to explore Valpo and Viña on our own for the day, but when we arrived at the bus station we decided to take a tour. It ended up being a much easier way to see the highlights of both coastal towns, and as a bonus the tour took us to Reñaca (a beach town) for lunch. The weather was gorgeous - around 80 degrees and sunny - and we had a great time. Here is a pictorial account of our day:
One of three moai statues outside of Easter Island is in Viña (there is another one in Chile and one in London)

This house belonged to the founder of Viña...it was severely damaged in the 2010 earthquake and is still condemned

At a park...you can't tell by the picture, but at this point I was starving for lunch and slightly annoyed by some of our fellow tourists



At the beach in Reñaca

We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the beach

You can't really tell in the pictures, but the waves were huge







The water was FREEZING!

The water was also very blue, but the pictures don't really do it justice



The famous flower clock in Viña






Our guide called this the sea lion hotel

See the sea lion swimming?



Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso...shaped like a boat

The view from Pablo's place



This photo was taken by a Virginia Tech student...no hard feelings





Riding the "elevator" in Valparaiso...there are tons of "elevators" around the city since it is so hilly. Of the 15 "elevators," only 3 still work (they're really old). I feel lucky that we survived the three minute ascent.



The views of the colorful port were definitely worth the risky elevator ride. (Just kidding, I'm pretty sure they are safe.)



I think that's it for tonight!



Ciao!

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you update the blog! Love all the pictures! Looks absolutely beautiful...and I'm jealous, cause it's freezing here!

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