Two by Sea

We were inspired enough on Tuesday to go for the coast. At first we set out for Valparaiso, fully planning on returning the same night. The bus system is very efficient for short distances. The trip to the coast is only about an hour and a half.


Valparaiso is a very busy port city and apparently a "cultural center" in Chile. The wikipedia "definition" is a pretty nice description and works for my tired fingers: see here. We arrived just a couple hours before the sun began to set which gave us enough time to walk from the bus station to the water (quarter mile?) and have a stroll along the shore (cement) and get a bite of seafood (I ate french fries). We didn't thoroughly comb through the city, but I had really just wanted to smell the salt water anyway:


As the sun was setting we got on the Valparaiso Metro which in Valpo is an above ground train which runs vaguely along the shoreline. You can see the tracks in the bottom of the above photo. We arrived in Viña del Mar just after dusk:

We walked down towards the hotel:

Or during the day:


We had a room on the third floor at the "bow" of the hotel. They really took the boat motif seriously:

Our view spanned in two directions(these three photos start at the left and span to the right of our view):

1.

2.

3.

Well that was during the day on Wednesday, but on Tuesday night we hung out on our balcony after strolling a little around the prettier parts of Vina del Mar.

And then there were the rocks in the morning:

And also they were selling avocados at the copy shop. Brooks made me pretend to be taking a picture so he could show you them:

And finally we went for a walk through this castle that was just beyond our hotel on the shore. Here is a picture from balcony of our room:

Look carefully at where the water can pass between the tower and the main building of the castle. We were standing in that bridge area, watching the waves crash in beneath us, through the glass floor:

And Brooks protected the top turret:


And then we headed out.