Day 13 (March 3) - Viña del Mar

We ran out of cheese, so we just ate bread and yogurt for breakfast. After that, we got bus tickets to Viña del Mar, which is only about 20 minutes away from Valparaíso. By around 1:15 pm, we had reached the first sight in Viña del Mar, which is a large flower clock.

Flower clock showing the time as 1:15 pm (bonus with the lady watering the clock!).

After the clock, we headed west towards the beaches, where we took some photos of the surf. The waves were quite large and crashed very close to shore... not a very safe place to swim.

The beach!

A southward view of the beach, showing Valparaíso in the distance.

Next, we headed east again toward the Quinta Vergara, a large park containing the Vergara Palace, amphitheater, and gardens. Unfortunately, it was closed until March 15, so we weren't able to go inside the gates.

We passed one of the metro stations, which apparently goes underground.

Cool wall painting at the entrance of the station.

Entrance to Quina Vergara, which we couldn't enter since it was closed.

We ate some lunch at a random small restaurant we passed and continued northward past some parks with statues. We arrived at the Museo Fonck and spent almost 2 hours reading about the history of the inhabitants of Chile, mammals/birds/fish/insects native to Chile, etc. It also included an interesting section on the moai (head statues) of Easter Island!

Statue of a guy in a park.

Outside the Museo Fonck, with a real moai that was given to mainland Chile as a gift from the inhabitants of Easter Island.

We then continued northward until we reached the malls, which were quite touristy. After a bit of wandering, we got some delicious (and very cheap!) shrimp yakisoba from a nearby restaurant. We grabbed some dessert at the Bravissimo down the road, which we heard was the best ice cream in Valparaíso (although we were technically in Viña del Mar, we agreed it was very good ice cream!).

Mall Marina Arauco, which was four stories tall (the fourth had a theater and gym, not shown in this photo).

Garotta, which was the name of this sundae with chocolate shell on top of chocolate ice cream, above vanilla ice cream which was on top of a brownie over whipped cream with chocolate syrup at the bottom.

We then headed back toward the bus route, passing the Viña del Mar Casino and a McDonalds which looked like some kind of castle.

McDonalds, lit up red.

The casino of Viña del Mar.

We caught a bus back to Valparaíso for only $500 CLP = $0.73 total for the both of us. By the time we got back to the apartment, it was already about 10 pm. Tomorrow morning, we'll be packing up and heading back to Santiago. It was nice getting to spend some time in both Valparaíso and Viña del Mar!