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.