During the last weekend we had in Santiago I took a day trip to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar, which is about an hour and a half away from Santiago. I think Valparaiso is the San Francisco of Chile. There were lots of rolling hills and colorful houses stacked on top of each other so that the entire mountainside was covered in homes. Valparaiso/Vina Del Mar is a popular vacation spot for tourists in the summer, I wish it was summer here. I’m tired of being cold!
We took a bus from Santiago and as soon as we arrive into the station we are flagged down by a tour group that entices us with a free map of the two towns. I never do tours because I hate having to stick to a schedule, so I was pretty sure I’d say no, but they did a good job selling us on it because we decided to take it. For $25 we got a guided tour “in English” of the two cities, and stopped at several different places. I put English in quotes because we soon found out after one stop we would be joining a bigger Spanish speaking tour group and our tour guide did her best to translate everything, but I think she got a little tired towards the end, so I missed some stuff.
We saw one of the Easter Island statues that they had transported, a music venue where they hold a huge festival each summer, one of Pablo Neruda’s three homes, a big clock made out of flowers, a big casino, and we went up a hill in this elevator like thing on a side of mountain and got a spectacular view of Valparaiso. It was a good tour regardless of it being mostly in Spanish, a good day trip too! Including bus fair, lunch, and the tour we only spent about $50, not too shabby.
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