Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2008
After sitting on a bus for 23 hours (which was not enjoyable!!) we arrived in Santiago de Chile. It was nice to see trees and grass again after the jungle, mountains and desert scenery of the previous few weeks. Santiago is one of the most western cities in south america, and reminded us a lot of home. It was a novelty to see shops selling "normal" stuff! Sadly though they also sell it at "normal" prices.
We spent a couple of days looking around Santiago and then got a bus up the coast to Valparaiso which is a world heritage site. The town's major development dates from the late 19th century when it was a popular holiday resort and important port, and reminded us a lot of Scarborough! Not so much for the beach but more for the amusement arcades and funicular railways which get you up and down the steep hills which surround the harbour.
Known as the cultural capital of Chile and also nicknamed "Little San Francisco" the reasons for it's UNESCO status are the architectural importance of it's winding streets, colourful buildings and alleyways and it's cultural legacy. It is quite run down and ramshackle though,
it certainly wouldn't win any awards for the attractiveness of the town centre but the houses on the hillside and views from the top are amazing. We visited the poet Pablo Neruda's house, did some walking tours around the town and saw some of the many famous murals which are on display in the surrounding streets.
We then spent half a day in the nearby Viña del Mar which is a neater, more clean & tidy holiday town. We went on the beach briefly but the water was freezing so we settled for wandering around the shops and market and had some good pasta and Chilean wine for lunch!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.041s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0228s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
