Day 11 (March 1) - House of Pablo Nerudo

We woke up late, so we made a quick breakfast of yogurt and bread with cheese before heading out towards the house of Pablo Neruda. We were hungry again by the time we reached the top of Cerro Florida, the hill on which Neruda's house sits, so we stopped by a seafood restaurant along the way. It was pretty touristy, but we were hungry, and the food was good. I got tuna (noting that I got twice as much as the typical tuna dish in the US), and Sof got a seafood pasta with shrimp, scallops, calamari, and probably other things.

A public recycle bin that we passed by.

The view of the ascensor tracks from the ascensor at the bottom of the hill.

My tuna!

Sof's seafood pasta!

After lunch, we passed a statue and mural of Neruda on the way to his house. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, but I took one from the outside. Neruda was one of Chile's most famous poets, and I was surprised how many interesting collectibles he was able to acquire and keep in his house, such as several very old maps, a carrousel horse from France, many books and works of art, and other items.

A statue of Pablo Neruda in a small park.

A mural of Pablo Neruda.

Pablo Neruda's Valparaíso house, which was about 5 stories tall!

We wandered around for a while and saw many more paintings, graffitis, and other works of art in the streets.

A painting with a lady, fish, a boat, a bird, and Valparaíso.

A small macaroon store on the hill.

A cool dolphin painting!

Sof's favorite wall-poem-painting.

Horses!

Valparaíso at night.

Colorful buildings with paintings.

A hostal with a pretty neat face on the wall.

We also passed by the old Valparaíso prison, which is now a big white building with iron bars over the windows (didn't get any photos unfortunately) and an open field in the middle. There were many green parrot-looking birds flying around too, which was unexpected but fun to watch.

Green parrot bird near the old prison.

We also passed by a cemetery, but were unable to go inside because it had closed at 5 pm and we reached it a little after 6 pm.

Cemetery on the hill.

After eventually reaching the bottom of the hill, we found a sushi restaurant that we decided to try. It ended up being not very great (although we are coming from Seattle, which has pretty good sushi), but for being very cheap sushi, it wasn't bad.

Sushi restaurant along one of the main roads in Valparaíso.

Sushi!

Once we got back to the apartment, we hung out for a while and watched some soccer, since we were able to get the TV/cable working. Soccer is very big here! After a while, we grew tired and went to bed.