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.

Day 10 (Feb 29) - Walking Tour of Valparaíso

We wandered around Valparaíso a bit before getting some empanadas for breakfast/lunch. After a bit more walking around, we navigated to what we thought was the Plaza Sotomayor (but was actually Plaza Cívica). After some loitering, we realized we were at the wrong location and eventually found the correct plaza. We then met with a free walking tour group that ran from 3 - 5 pm.

The central fountain of Plaza Victoria.

Another angle of the fountain at Plaza Victoria.

The obelisk area of Plaza Cívica.

A local produce stand at the edge of Plaza Cívica.

Some painted murals along the walk toward Plaza Sotomayor.

The Plaza Sotomayor monument to Arturo Prat, the Chilean naval officer who valiantly fought and died at the Battle of Iquique and became a national hero.

A building in the Plaza Sotomayor that is somehow related to the Chilean Navy.

The tour took us through several streets on two of the most scenic hills in Valparaíso: Cerro Concepción and Cerro Alegre. We saw several colorful buildings and artistic murals along the way, and we learned that the reason the buildings are so colorful is because the early sailors in the area brought more paint than they needed, so they left it in the city, and citizens of Valparaíso found that the paint worked well for their houses because it protected them from the salty humidity of the sea and allowed them to distinguish their houses from their neighbors by using different bright colors.

El Domino / La Rosita del Puerto, a restaurant with good chorrillana (a traditional Chilean dish).

The top part of an ascensor, a gondola-like machine that takes people up the steep hills.

The view from the top of one of the hills.

More hilltop views.

A very large painting on one of the buildings (there are many of these!).

A painting on a low part of a wall.

The second half of the same painting.

La Baburizza, a museum on top of one of the hills.

More views from on top of the hills.

A neat painting of Valparaíso.

A mural depicting whales.

We also got free samples of our first (but not last!) alfajores, which are two cookies sandwiching dulce de leche, all dipped in chocolate. I don't think all alfajores are chocolate-coated, but these were, and they were delicious! We also had our first sips of chicha, which is a drink that is one part grape juice and four parts pipeño, a local style Chilean white wine.

A full alfajor and a half eaten alfajor!

After the tour, we got some ice cream from a place called Emporio La Rosa, number 18 in the top 25 ice cream parlors in the world. It was delicious! And pricey but not too expensive given the exchange rate (about $4800 CLP, $6.92 USD, for 3 scoops).

Emporio La Rosa, the 18th best ice cream parlor worldwide!

Delicious ice cream!

We walked around a bit and passed the office of El Mecurio, one of the largest news/newspaper companies in Chile, with main offices in Santiago and Valparaíso.

One of the main offices of El Mercurio.

Next we decided to try chorrillanas at the restaurant the tour guide recommended: El Domino. We agreed with most people who tried it; the dish had some appeal, but wasn't really that great (or healthy). It was interesting to try though. Mostly just fries, onions, cheese, beef, and tomatoes.

The chorrillana we ordered at El Domino.

After dinner, we stopped by the Express Lider (Lider is a supermarket owned by Walmart... naturally) to get a few supplies and water, and we finally completed our collection of coins from Chile! The last one we needed was the legendary one peso coin (far left in the picture below), which is worth about 1/7 of a US penny.

From left to right: 1, 10, 50, 100 (above and below), and 500 peso coins.

After all that excitement, we were ready to head to bed. All that walking was quite tiring!

Day 9 (Feb 28) - Travels from Santiago to Valparaíso

We walked down the street from our hostal to a cafe in the nearby park for breakfast. We ate empanadas and drank coffee while watching dogs play in the pool of water in the center of the park.

Dogs playing in the water at the park in Santiago.

Once we were full of tasty empanadas, we caught a taxi to Estación Alameda, the bus station whose buses would take us to Valparaíso. We caught the 1:30 pm bus and arrived in Valparaíso after about two hours. By the time we walked to our Airbnb apartment and checked in with the host, Alejandro, it was almost 4 pm.

Valparaíso has a weekly local market called feria that occurs every Sunday and closes at 5 pm, so we were able to spend about an hour wandering around the feria before close time.

A Coca-Cola-themed feria stand in Valparaíso.

More feria things!

More ferias from afar.

Walking through the larger group of feria stands.

A fruit stand on a corner.

A walkway/park near the coast.

After the feria, we tried some Chilean pizza for dinner (plus a pisco sour for me!) and called it a night.

Our Chilean pizza, with peppers, olives, and sausage! Apparently Chileans don't use marinara sauce in their pizzas?

Day 8 (Feb 27) - Travels from Puerto Natales to Santiago

After the tiring previous day, we were able to sleep in a little bit before heading downstairs to eat some free hotel breakfast. Satisfied with our meal of yogurt, fruit, breads, juice, and eggs, we packed our belongings and took a taxi to the bus station to head back to Punta Arenas.

We caught the 11 am bus back to Punta Arenas and arrived at the Punta Arenas airport at around 1:30 pm, with much time to spare before our 4:15 pm flight to Santiago. After the 3 hour flight, we took a taxi to Hostal Providencia, where we were staying for one night before busing to Valparaíso the following day.

The hostal was much larger on the inside than it appeared from the outside, complete with a small kitchen, breakfast/dining areas, and some other hang out spots in addition to four floors of rooms. We ate pasta and wine for dinner, supplied by the hostal for only $4000 CLP (about $5.75 USD per person).

Some Chilean slang on the inside of the front door of Hostal Providencia.

Continuation of the Chilean slang.

Part of the dining area of the hostal.

Two servings of pasta and wine per person for $4000 CLP!

Artwork inside our room.