01 July 2019

Valparaiso, Vina del mar and the down side of large group travel

Today is our excursion to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. It takes a couple of hours to get there. The flat part of Valparaiso looks like any typical Latin American town (kind of reminds me of the new parts of Panama City), but the hills are quite special. The houses are all built willy-nilly into the hills with all different building materials and styles. The street art is what makes this area special. It started in the 60s and was so popular that it became a status symbol for the people living here, and was exported to other cities. The bus took us to the top of a hill and we walked down so we can explore the area in my detail. Claudio pointed out a few key murals on the way with some interesting history.

At one point, we were unfortunately delayed by one person in the group who turned out to be less mobile than he realized. Claudio had to take care of him which caused the rest of us to have to wait around for an hour. When he finally returned, we walked to the funicular to get down the hill back to the flats and meet up with the bus. Our next stop is Vina del Mar, which is a resort-y area that has the feeling of Miami, lots of high rise condos overlooking the beach. We drive by the casino and the famous flower clock before heading to Tierra de Fuego restaurant for lunch. This meal started with many delicious tapas appetizers, more pisco sours by the waterfront.

Our evening meal is dinner in the restaurant preceded by a short talk by Dr Krupp. He continues the info regarding the eclipse, which is tomorrow. The meal is fine but we have been eating so much that I just picked at my meal. We have a very early start tomorrow at 2:45a so everyone turns in early.

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