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Published: April 6th 2015
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We flew from Puerto Monte, Chile to Santiago Chile. We rent a car at the airport and drive two hours to Valparaiso. We are expecting a charming town but are surprised to see a large seaport city. We arrived in Valparaiso a day earlier then planned. We called our hotel and asked if they had a vacancy, it was Friday night and they were full. They called around and booked us into a hotel nearby. By the time we drove to Valparaiso we had a hotel room. Our hotel is located in Cerro Concepcion, we have a hard time finding our hotel with the limited number of streets that go up the hill and all of the one way streets. Parking is also a problem but the hotel owner lets us park in front of their garage.
The hotel has a roof top bar and restaurant on the fifth floor, we go upstairs and have lunch with a nice glass of wine. Valparaiso looks better after food and wine. The part of Valparaiso that attracts visitors is located in the hills. Two cruise ships stopped in Valparaiso while we were there. If you check out restaurants on Trip Advisor web
site you will find most of the restaurants named are found in Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Alegre. These are the areas you want to stay in, do not stay anywhere else. Unfortunately soon after we arrive a fire breaks out in the hills above the city. Last year a fire killed eleven people and distoyed hundreds of home. We watch the fire from the hotel bar along with everyone else in the hotel. A state of emergency is called and the freeway into the city is closed and businesses are told to close. People living on the top of the hills are evacuated. We are all worried but the flames die down and we go to bed. The fire continued to burn for two and a half days but the firemen keep the fire away from the city.
The houses in Valparaiso are brightly painted and it is part of its charm. Graffiti is also everywhere and they consider themselves the Berlin of South America when it come to graffiti.
We spent one day in Vina del Mar. We spent a lot of time talking with the owners of the two hotels we stayed in. We took the
metro which was easy to walk to, clean and fast. Most people go to Vina for its beaches which are nicer than Valparaiso's beaches. It was not hot so we went to the city, After the narrow hilly streets of Valparaiso where you are always dogging dog poop, we liked the flat wide, and clean sidewalks of Vina del Mar.. We found a good Mexican restaurant for lunch, Mark and I were both craving Mexican food. We bought some CD's from a musical group we listened to in the park. We visited two parks in the City and enjoyed walking and sitting on the benches for a rest. The parks are a good place to people watch. People in South America are more affectionate in public and most parks have lovers kissing or holding each other as they lie in the grass. Paris is known for their lovers and South America is like that. I watched one couple stop in the middle of the street in Valapariso and start making out, I was glad they did not get hit by a car, I guess the passion overtook them. We also visited the (natural history) museum. It has a good exhibit
Looking over the top of the Church.
We watched a bride arrive for her wedding one day. on Easter Island as well as the history of the Chilean people and artifacts.
Another day trip was to a fishing village called Quintay. It was about an hour or so south of Valparaiso. The challenge was getting down the hill, remember most streets don't go all the way down, then finding the road out of town. We enjoyed the drive through the forests but we were saddened to see them clear cutting large areas of forest. We had lunch at a seafood restaurant in Quintay. The servings of fish were huge but we managed to eat it all. When I asked the waiter what kind of fish we were eating, he pointed to a fisherman on the beach cutting up fish, well the fish was fresh. The town is really small but they do have a whaling Museo at the location of the old whaling plant. We learned about and saw many pictures about when whaling was done here. We hiked up a hill and enjoyed sitting at the top of the hill and watching the ocean.
We visted many art galleries in Valparaiso and the (Mubarak museo). We enjoyed looking at the mansion as
much as the art in it.
Valparaiso is also famous for their funiculars. There are 13 of them still being used. They are cheap, the price depends on how long the funicular is but the range is 15 to 25 cents US. There are no lines, you just pay and walk on. Walking the hills you can't help run into them and the ride is a nice break from all the uphill climbing.
One day we walked to the top of the hill to visit the house of Pablo Nureda. We had never heard of him but he is a famous poet in Chile. We have seen statues of him in different cities. He had eclectic tastes and his house and the objects in it reflect his tastes. Most tourist who come to Valpariso visit his home.
I canot talk about Valparaiso without talking about its dogs. Our landloard said there are 70,000 stray dogs in Valparaiso. They run free but most of the time they are sleeping on the sidewalk. They poop everywhere but the people love them (our lanloard does not) and people and restaurants feed them and occasionally take them home for a bath.
The crazier dogs love to chase motorcycles and small cars. Barking dogs have woken us up at various hotels but in Valparaiso it was a roaster that would crow for a hour starting at dawn. Valparaiso is a favorite place to visit for a weekend if you live in Santiag.
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