South America - Day 3
Friday – Vina del Mar
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Headed out after a leisurely breakfast – down the hill towards the waterfront and the metro station where we took the train to Vina del Mar. This is a much more modern town than Valparaiso and while it is definitely a seaside resort town, it also seems to be something of a commercial centre and desirable residential area with many high-rise apartments. It also is the site of the presidential palace overlooking the ocean and the municipal casino. Another cappuccino fortified us for the half-hour walk from the town centre to the shore – location of some hotels (not too many) and sandy beaches. There too was a Sheraton hotel with an exhibition of ‘altered reality’ art – something between Picasso and Dali – and a very nice restaurant jutting out into a rocky bay with sandy beach. The seafood lunch was great but equally entertaining were the sea birds circling and diving for fish. Cormorants swam and then put their heads down to dive; a squadron of gulls circled, then in formation plummeted beak-first into the surging waters, while the more sedate pelicans looked on. Late afternoon saw us back on the metro to Valparaiso, up the funicular to the walk back to our hotel. That night we ate next door in a pub-like place where Thea promptly adopted one of the two resident cats. Tomorrow is embarkation day... |
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