Exploring Valpariso and Vina del Mar: Day 11 Part Dos

We decided to walk back down the hill instead of wait in line for the tram. As soon as we made it down, Reese goes "oh wow that is stunnning"...

Beautiful isn't it?

Reese posing by more Chilean wall art:

I have to say I was not impressed with Valpariso. It was really dirty and not all the pretty.

I found sprite flavoured gum at one of the shops. It tasted just like lemon-lime... but I guess thats all sprite is! The gum here is really chewy and not that good. It looses it's flavour in about 10 chews.

Valpariso just keeps getting prettier doesn't it? Like in SA, there are 2-3 men at the back of the rubbish trucks that run around the street collecting the trash by hand. These were hanging at the bottom of a flat's gate.

At about 2pm we hopped on a bus to go to a nieghbouring city, Vina del Mar. It was immediately so much nicer than Valpariso. I loved the palm tree's lining the street.

Reese and I at the famous flower clock! Yes, its almost half past 2 and still no food in sight....

We walked down the main street of Vina del Mar to go check out some flee market and this was the first thing that caught my eye. BREAD. Oh delicious bread.

While we trying to decide on a place to eat (FINALLY) this guy popped out of nowhere... Yes, thats a rubbish bin...

We got traditional Chilean hotdogs for lunch...avacado, tomato, and mayo. They were so divine, especially the bread!

The weirdest soda bottles I've ever seen.

Reese and I in Vina del Mar:

Chilean horses.

The beautiful ocean!

It felt so good to walk in beach sand again!

Reese and I on the beach!

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of this shot. I am by no means a good picture-taker, but I love this! The start of the entertainment...

This homeless fellow started following us around the beach when we first got there. There were a ton of other people to bother, but he decided on us.

Some really cool sand sculptures:

Cleaning the sand off our feet and trying to decide what to do with the following dog...

Ok, I realize that this is probably an invasion of privacy. But seriously? If I took a picture of all every single couple we see making out in public, thats all the pictures I would have. Gross people!!!

We underestimated the sun again and forgot our sunglasses. So our arms and eyes suffered quite a bit, but it was worth it to be in such a beautiful place!

More Chilean entertainment:

This is a kiddie bike area. It reminded me of the endless birthday parties at the ones in South Africa. It's the first one I've seen outside of SA. There should definitely be more. The kids were having so much fun!

Going our seperate ways. It was the first time Reese and Alex had seen each other since 2007, so of course we had to take a companion picture at thte end of the day!

More cool sand sculptures. A lion and monkey!

I don't know why this picture came out all fuzzy, but what this chick is wearing is typical Chilean fashion. Colourful and cartoon leggings with gladiator sandels are really in right now. I have see betty boop, hello kitty, tiedye, and even adult sized dora the explorer leggings. Not really my style, but the ladies here seem to love it!

For dinner, I got a tomato and avo salad. It was so good! Not sure if I have already written about the salad dressings here, but there are none. Every salad I have gotten is served with lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. There is no ranch or vinegarette's. I like balsamic vinegar and lemons, so it works for me!

Here is Reese's heart attack of a meal: Steak, chips, and fried eggs.

We got back to Valpariso about 45 minutes before our bus was supposed to leave, but we were able to get on an earlier one. It was another quick trip because we were so tired from walking non-stop the whole day.

I was able to snap one last picture before falling asleep... This was taken at about 8:30pm. I love that the sun doesn't start going down till almost 9pm!

We had so much fun going to the coast. I LOVE Vina del Mar... I guess Reese and I will just have to go back and explore Valpariso when we aren't starving to death and maybe it'll be more enjoyable! :)

Exploring Valpariso and Vina del Mar: Day 11 Part Uno

We woke up around 5am on Saturday to catch a bus to the Ocean! Our tickets were $6 each, each way, so it was really inexpensive. The bus ride was also only about an hour and 45 minutes and we landed up sleeping most of the way, so the trip there seemed a lot quicker.

I was really impressed with the bus ride. The seats reclined almost all the way back and on top of the bus driver, there was also an assistant who gave you a blanket if you were cold, or helped you if you needed assistance. What can I say? It doesn't take a lot to impress me I guess!

Us on the bus!

I brought this book along to read. I didn't land up reading too much of it since we slept most of the way there. By the time we leave, I will have read almost 5 books. It's been so great to be able to just read and read to my hearts content the last 2 weeks! This particular book is about Holocaust survivers in a transitional camp. Most of them are trying to get to Israel, but are unsuccessful because they don't have any papers! Its mostly about a group of girls and their struggles in the camp. Good book so far!

Just some shots taken from the bus:

And there is our lovely bus attendant:

First shots of Valpariso:

And as soon as we walked out of the "terminal" we were greeted by a bunch of rubbish. Yeah, I can't say I am surprised. We walked through a lot of dirty-ness in Santiago. Why should a beach city be any different. At at least the rubbish is all next to the rubbish bin. Could be worse- could be all over the street instead!

Isn't this the tiniest kombi you've ever seen? I was taller than the car!

Just some Chilean architecture, who knows what of!

 Yeahhhh buddy!!! The ocean... It's been too long!

We met up with one of reese's mission buddies who lives in Chile. Him and his wife were visiting some family in Vina del Mar, so we got to spend the day with them! They didn't know what this building was, except that the city wasn't allowed to demolish the outside of the smaller building, so they just built the new building inside of it. Pretty cool, pretty weird!

Beautiful clear, blue skies!

This monument is in honour of the Chilean and Peruvian men who came together to fight off the Bolivian's. Over what? Land of course!

A kid's futbol game going on in the middle of the city.  

More of the monument:

Reese's mission buddy, Alex and his cute wife Laura.

More of the soccer game. I'm hating blogger right now, all the pictures are out of order and it's just being stupid.

I am not sure what to call this... the dock? You could take a taxi boat around the harbour and see all the big boats. Thats really about it. No cool rocks or anything. Just the freezing Pacific. So we opted-out of taking a taxi around.

I wonder if this boat would take us to see Wyatt?

 Trying to get a decent picture!

Such a good picture of us and a bunch of random bums. And I don't mean the homeless kind...

Look at the lovely shanty town behind the robot! 

Chilean street art:

The tram that took us to the top of the hill to the Navy Museum.

Views of Valpariso from the tram:

 

  View of the whole city:

The flee market on top of the hill:

And right on top of the hill, the Navy Museum. I have to say at this point I was ready to eat the leaves off the tree's. Reese and I were able to grab a little bit of fruit before we left Santiago, but that was at 6am. It was past 1pm at this point and I was hungry! We also thought we'd have a car, but we didn't. So we were walking around on empty belly's.

Capitan Reese at the wheel!

We really had no idea about the history of the Museum. Reese and I were both hungry and just not that interested. Plus it was all in Spanish, so I basically just took pictures of whatever I thought was cool.

Some random men! Did you know Chilean women don't seem to shave their legs? So I actually fit in quite well most of the time! :) Poor reese!

And a map:

Some more cool stuff from the Museum:

Reese trying to get on my nerves since I was relatively crabby from being starved to death! 

Posing by the canon:

Our hungry faces? I think at this point we were starting to get delirious!

The 4 of us!

 

 What happens when children are left unsupervised.... They play on 200 year old stuff.

And may I introduce the many faces of Reese:

Trying to ignore the hunger pains by playing in the kiddie section...

And on our way out, the beautiful Chilean flag. Pretty sure Reese and I would have eaten it if it was in reach.

Stay tuned for part dos!