Valparaíso

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This past weekend I went to Valparaíso with a group of students from my university. I needed to get the heck outta Dodge (Santiago) and desperately wanted to see the coast. Valpo, as it's known locally, is beautiful. It's an old port city and the hills are covered with colorful homes. The trip was fine, we left Santiago in the morning and arrived at the coast around noon. After a "typical Chilean" lunch, we visited the home of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet/diplomat. Neruda's home was truly the highlight of the visit. He purchased it for its views of the city and the harbor. The sea's influence in his life is apparent in his home, and in his work. Neruda has three homes in Chile; in Valparaiso, Santiago and La Isla Negra (which is rumored to be the best). I plan to visit his other homes in April. After hours at the house, we returned to our hostel and enjoyed a traditional Chilean "asado" (barbecue).

Sunday morning dawned very cool and cloudy. I was up early and walked down to the port to watch ships come in and out. The early bird gets the worm; the sites of the harbor were wonderful, as were the weekend markets, which I browsed without crowds. The rest of the group left Valpo to spend the day on the beach in Viña del Mar, its sister city. I decided to return to Santiago early, as the weather seemed uncooperative and I had an evening meeting with the two other Rotary Scholars in Santiago.

I'll go back to Valparaíso, and Viña again soon!

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