Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar

July 14th, 2013

This past week went by very fast! Classes went well as usual during the week. Tuesday Erin, Emy and I went to a conversation club at a bar close to our house. We found out about it from a Facebook group called Spanglish.  There were a lot of people there-many Chileans wanting to practice their English and many other foreigners wanting to practice there Spanish. It was a lot of fun and I got the chance to speak a lot of Spanish!

Saturday morning, Erin, another teacher friend Dave and I took the bus to visit Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar.  We took the metro to the bus station, and for around $15 bucks we bought a round-trip bus ticket. The bus was very nice and we even watched the American movie "Grownups" on the way. Valparaiso is a port city right on the ocean. It is about two hours North-east of Santiago.  Vina Del  Mar is right next to Valparaiso, just on the other side of the bay.

When we arrived, the differences between Santiago were immediately noticeable. The streets were jagged and winding, all the houses and buildings were bright colors, and there was more "culture." After finally finding our hostel, and half-dragging my little suitcase a long the jagged sidewalks, we met up with Dave's friend Mariana. Dave knew Mariana from the last time he studied abroad in Chile. She gave us an amazing tour of Valparaiso.  We walked all over the city. We took acsenors, or little elevators to different "levels" of the city. The little elevators were like box cars and ran on tracks and took you up steep hills. When you got to the top you were in a new neighborhood to explore! We took several different ones and there were great views from the top. We also went to Pablo Neruda's house for a tour. He is a very famous Chilean poet and is well known for his three, grand and beautiful houses throughout Chile. Here is one of his famous poems (translated to English of course) and a little more information about him on the link:
Always
I am not jealous
of what came before me.

Come with a man
on your shoulders,
come with a hundred men in your hair,
come with a thousand men between your breasts and your feet,
come like a river
full of drowned men
which flows down to the wild sea,
to the eternal surf, to Time!

Bring them all
to where I am waiting for you;
we shall always be alone,
we shall always be you and I
alone on earth,
to start our life!
( http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/279)

For dinner, we road an acsensor right near our hostel to the top of a little neighborhood called Cerro Concepcion and ate dinner at the restaurant called Fauna. The food was good and a reasonable price, but the view of the city at night and the ocean was breathtaking!  That night, we met up with Mariana again with some of her Chilean friends and went out in Valparaiso. We talked at a small local bar, and around 1:00am, Mariana announced it was time to go dancing! Erin, Dave, and I were exhausted, we "boring" Americans went home to bed. It is very typical in Chile for people to drink until 1-2:00 am and then go to the Discotecs until five or six in the morning!

After a good night sleep in the hostel, Erin and I headed to explore Vina Del Mar. Vina Del Mar is right around the other side of the bay from Valparaiso and a fifteen minute bus ride. The atmosphere in Vina Del Mar was very different from Valparaiso. It had a Miami-ish feel and was more modern. The beach was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. We were actually a bit hot...I was very happy and soaked up all the sun and fresh air I could get. It was really nice being away from the smoke and pollution of Santiago. (Side-note, Santiago is bigger than any city in the U.S. except New York. There are 6 million people here, 8 million in New York)   Erin and I explored and walked by the coast. Since it is still winter, there wasn't anyone really swimming (a few brave people though!) but there was many people enjoying the 60 degree, sunny weather. After stopping for gelato, and exploring the little markets by the beach,we headed back to Valparaiso to catch our bus back to Santiago.

All in all, I had a much better week, and a much needed mini-vacation. This week will be great as well, Tuesday is a national holiday, so hopefully we will do something fun to relax.

 Love and miss you all!