Thursday morning, we woke up, packed our backpacks, took the
Metro to the bus station and paid $5 to take the next bus to Valparaíso, which
was in 15 minutes. On the bus, we called a hostel, booked a reservation for
that night and hung up. It was that easy. So much for planning ahead being a
necessity!
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| The nicest hostel I've ever stayed in! |
I knew that Valpo was somewhere you “had to visit” in Chile,
and that it was on a coast, but asked a few people back in Santiago to describe
what ‘the things to do there’ are. The most common answer: walk around the
loopy hills, go into stores and stare at the view. And that’s exactly what we
did.
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| The hills, colored buildings & Pacific Ocean in Valparaíso |
It was unfortunately a cloudy day in Valpo, but we didn’t
let it ruin our experience. The general vibe of Valparaíso is its hipster,
laid-back population, a unique attire, colored buildings and ton of artisan
shops. It’s made up of nearly 20 “cerros,” or hills, and people identify
themselves based on which hill they live on. Each hill has an “ascensor,” or
elevator, that you can pay to take you up if you don’t want to walk up the
discombobulated streets. It’s actually a funicular and not an elevator, but you
just accept the fact that it’s a cart moving up an incline. We did some
shopping, chatted with some nice people, had a lunch promoción and some coffee
and it was a successful day.
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| The city of Valparaíso from Paseo Yugoslavo, a deck on one of the cerros/hills |
The next morning, we planned to take a 20 minute bus to the
other side of Valpo, where there are more beaches, called Viñe del Mar. On Viñe,
we went to Reñaca, a beautifully located beach. The sun came out from its
hiding around 12:30 pm and Elizabeth and I soaked it in and enjoyed the view
and the weather. We bussed back to Valpo to get on our bus to Santiago after a
relaxing two days.
Because my flight wasn’t until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, we
still had one more afternoon to see anything we missed in Santiago! We made it
to the Bellas Artes museum, which was a lot cooler than I expected. My original
perception was it would have similar work as the endless art museums in
Argentina, but in reality, the exhibits change every season and everything was
incredibly unique.
We had one last lunch promoción at a nearby restaurant,
where we ate amazing salads with avocado and a yogurt dressing. GAM, Gabriela
Mistral, is the premiere Santiago theater, so we checked it out and saw some
exhibits inside its “Centro Cultural.” Elizabeth and I ended the afternoon at
an heladería with some rich dulce de leche ice cream and headed back to her
apartment to pack and watch the movie No! Although the week flew by, it was a wonderful
spring break of travel, learning and reminiscing to my time abroad!
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| Reñaca |
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