VINA DEL MAR,  CHILE

March 2 – April 1, 2015

The Race Track and Sports Complex

The Race Track on left, highway in centre and Market on right

We chose to travel by public bus from Santiago to Vina. This was the most economical way and just as fast as a taxi. We arrived at the bus depot by taxi, bought our tickets and our bus was leaving in 5 minutes. (There are buses every 15 min.) Our bus was a very comfortable double-decker and our reserved seats were on the upper level. The staff took our 2 medium sized suitcases and placed them in the hold of the bus. One numbered sticker was on the bag and one given to us. We had a very good 1 1/2 hour trip through vineyards and mountains. 

Upon arrival we had to show our matching stickers to retrieve our luggage. This was very good control and much better than the airports where the matching tickets are seldom if ever checked and anyone can take your luggage. We were asked by an attendant if we wanted a taxi to our destination. He took our bags and escorted us to the basement of the new terminal where the taxis were located. This was real service as we would have had difficulty locating the taxi stand.

Vina is the beach holiday destination for Chile and Argentina. Our apartment is a few blocks from the beach and located in the residential area. The huge vegetable, fruit and fish market is in the dry river bed about 2 blocks from us and is open Wed and Sat. We did our shopping there as everything is very fresh. Very few people speak or understand much English and the Chilean Spanish is a different dialect. On the whole we had no problems but occasionally we found a merchant whom we could not understand at all but someone would come and help us out with sign language or English.

This is the largest market we have seen - and the stalls are under cover

Within view of our balcony just across the street was the Sporting Club with horse racing, stables, 4 soccer fields, many clay tennis courts, paddle ball courts, 2 racquet ball courts and running tracks. It was fun to watch all the activities going with school groups while the jockeys were exercising their horses on the track. This city has huge sports complexes and a new stadium is being built not far from here and just across the street from it are more soccer fields and and another sports complex. These facilities are very well used by lots of people.

The Racing Club is 150 years old this year

We did a few excursions out of town. The first one was a Metro train trip to the end of the line at Limache. We walked around town, had lunch and ice-cream and took the train back. It made stops in other small town, went through hills where ground was very dry from drought and we did not see any cattle grazing but there were fences.

Leaving Limache

We again took the Metro to Valparaiso for the day. We had not looked around the town much on our last visit (a few years ago) and did some sightseeing this time.

Fishing boats in Valparaiso

Plaza Sotomayor

Clock Tower

View of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar from the Mirador

On or way home we got off at an earlier stop and went to the working and beautiful Flower Clock in Vina. We walked the many blocks back to our apartment as it was a lovely day.

The working Flower Clock - even with a second hand

Castillo Wulff

Waiting for customers in front of Casino

Our next excursion was taking a local bus to Concon, which again was the end of the line. It was a very sad town as the tourist season (Jan and Feb) was over and most places were closed. The beach was grey sand with lots of garbage. We sat by the beach and had our lunch and returned by bus. The road along the coast is very windy, hilly and the coast line is very rocky. We passed through Renaca and here the sand was light colored and the beach was clean. More tourists around and more high-rises.

Our apartment was very comfortable for the month. We had 2 bedrooms, nice balcony and weekly cleaning service. The owner and his assistant were very quick to answer any of our question and took care of any problems which we had. They even replaced the washing machine with one that worked within one day of our telling them of our problem.

Some notes:

- Valparaiso is a very old seaport and the largest on the west coast of South America. It was called the Pearl of the Pacific. The Spanish arrived in the 1500's

• The last earthquake in 2010 ruined some of the old historical buildings in the area.
  
  

  

  Palacio Carrasco - the walls have deep cracks and is being repaired at great cost

  
  

  

  Teatro Municipal - you can only enter the foyer as the main area is dangerous

  
  

  

  Palacio Vergara - is all roped off incase of falling debris

  

  Reconstruction of Palacio Rioja

  
  
  

  

  Palacio Rioja

  
  

  

  Palacio Rioja

  We visited the Fonck Museum - in front is a  statue from the Easter Islands
  
  

  

  Museo Fonck

The Anfiteatro Quinta Vergara - the International Music Festival is held here every year in February.

The picture below shows the buildings columns prepared for earthquakes.

             This is the elevators in one of the malls in Vina

The Circus was in town and located in the dry river bed - a night view from our balcony

We will be leaving here on April 1 and will board the Holland America Ship (Zaandam) for Fort Lauderdale where we will pick up our car and drive back to Winnipeg.

SANTIAGO, CHILE

February 2 – March 2, 2015

Tallest building in South America with shopping centre

This is a very large city (more than twice the size of Chicago) but our apartment was in the Providencia area and near to downtown by the Metro. Our apartment was in an apartment hotel and we had maid service every day. It was great not having to do the cleaning and changing the bed and linen. We looked out onto a park but did have a lot of noisy traffic noise but this was better than facing into another building. The apartment was clean but in need of some repairs – some repairs were done and some were not. To us it was comfortable and our home away from home. The temperature was quite hot and dry and it only rained one afternoon. We did have one small earthquake tremor which we felt in the apartment.

We took the Metro numerous times to downtown or other areas of the city – it was clean and efficient.

We were also very near to the largest mall in South America for grocery shopping, parks that follow the river with one area of art sculptures, busy streets and shops.

On Sunday and three times a week the Changing of the Guard takes place at the Palace. This was where the coup took place when Pinochet took office. The “Changing” was very impressive with about 200 guards and 14 horses. Quite a show!

Next to the Palace was a museum/art gallery that was featuring Islamic Art from California.

Entrance doors to Museum

The Koran

A huge centre hall with side exhibit rooms

We walked and took a funicular to the San Cristobal Mountain. This afforded a great view of the city.

One area that we wished to visit was the Andes. We took a bus tour and it was a great day with sun and not much wind only altitude and scenery. The destination was Valle Nevado at 3000 mts or 9850 ft and above the treeline. It was cold and most people were dressed warm enough but a few bought sweaters.

A couple who lives in our same building in Winnipeg also have a home in Santiago. We were invited twice for lunch and a visit. The food and company were excellent.

We took the Metro to Los Dominicos, which is an artist community on the north side of Santiago.  They also had a very impressive fruit and vegetable market.

The downtown area has some impressive buildings, which we viewed and visited.

The Library

Plaza de Armas

Chile's Supreme Court Building until Independence in 1810

Central Post Office

Catedral  Metrpolitana on the Plaza - Nave is 295 feet long

Beautiful Ceiling

Bellas Artes - vaulted ceiling made in Belgium, and designed by a French-Chilean Architect

Cerro Santa Lucia  (hill in the centre of the city)

Central Market - now mainly restaurants.  Iron structure imported from France

Interesting vertical garden

We met many interesting people who were coming and going from our apartment and at the local mall. Most were from England, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Slovakia.

We will be taking the bus from Santiago to Vina del Mar on March 2.

Sunset from the roof of our apartment building

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