Vina del Mar and on to Santiago
Since I like it a lot I decided to spend another day in Valpo, before heading to Santiago. I wandered around a few areas I hadn’t walked through yet, this is not hard to do, the city is a maze so just walking around you inevitably come across stuff you haven’t seen before.
It was a gorgeous sunny day, so I caught a bus to the neighboring town of Vina del Mar. Vina is like the alter ego of Valpo. Quieter, flatter and where all the rich people in the area live. Not nearly as much character to it, but it has the beaches. I walked through the main square and avenues, there are only a few things to look at, it just looks like a mostly modern city.
After I reached the beach the temperature was at it’s highest for the day, plenty warm enough to lay on the beach for a while, which is exactly what I did…
Once I got back to Valparaiso I took one of the ascensors up to near my hostel. The easy (+ historic and cool) way to go up the steep hills, course you have to pay for these as opposed to walking, otherwise I’d have used them a bit more…
Next morning, Sunday, I got a bus to Santiago. I really like this traveling on Sunday mornings, the bus stations are 1/4 as busy as during the week, no chaos and far less suspicious looking people hanging around. 3rd week in a row I’ve been in transit on a Sunday! The bus ride is through small, green mountains dotted with groves of fruit trees, olive trees and vineyards and the closer to Santiago you get, the more of the Andes you see.
I spent the remainder of my day in Santiago, with my Chilean friend who lives there, who I met in Mendoza a couple weeks back at the hostel there. He showed around the main areas of the city, and we ate at the really cool central fish market. The market is unique among fish markets I’ve seen before, the buildings on the perimeter are the market places, looking just like most markets, but the large center is all nice restaurants, serving, yes, fish.
Tags: Chile, Travel
Adam
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