Vina del Mar, Chile

Renaca Beach - Vina del Mar, Chile

Former Home (Nice!) - Vina del Mar, Chile

Reloj de Flores (Flower Clock) 
- Vina del Mar, Chile

Vina del Mar, Chile

Pat on Coast Sidewalk - Vina del Mar, Chile

Chilean Lunch of Humitas 
- Vina del Mar, Chile

Pat at Downtown Cafe - Vina del Mar, Chile

Vina del Mar, Chile (1/24-26/2010)

We liked Vina del Mar!

Welcome to Viña del Mar, Chile’s best known tourist and beach resort destination with its warm summer Mediterranean climate.  

The long white sandy beaches of Vina del Mar are a major attraction for Chileans and international tourists.

With year-round weather similar to our home town of San Diego, Vina del Mar is the sister city of Sausalito, California.Vina del Mar is very close to Chile's capital, Santiago (click here to see).

One of the highlights of our visit in Vina del Mar was meeting good friends of my sister and her husband (Carol & Mike) - Sandra and Alexjandro and their wonderful family.

They were very kind to us and treated us to a true Chilean dinner and lunch including Humitas (meaning bow tie in Spanish - see photo).

Vina del Mar's gambling casino, opened in 1930, is the oldest in Chile and the most visited. Also, Chile’s summer residence for their President was established here in 1931 located in Cerro Castillo (Castle Hill) where we stayed. Our hostel, Little Castle, was very nice. 

Most of the older buildings in Vina del Mar have been destroyed in multiple earthquakes. Now you find high-rise condos along the beach with a large flower clock (Reloj de Flores) - its numbers made up of flowering plants (see photo). 

The beach to been seen at is Renaca (see photo) where we went to with new friends we met in Vina del Mar. The beach was very nice but the ocean water was too cold to swim in.


Numerous bars and restaurants have opened in areas of Vina del Mar around Plaza México and Avenida San Martín.

Please also see our 7 other blog posts for beautiful Chile:

Chile - Pucon Lake District

Chile - Puerto Montt Patagonia

Chile - Punta Arenas & Strait of Magellan

Chile - Santa Cruz & Colchagua Valley Wine Country

Chile - Santiago (Capital)

Chile - Strait of Magellan, Cape Horn, Chilean Fjords, & Darwin & Beagel Channels

Chile - Valparaiso

 

 

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Valparaiso, Chile

Street Mural - Valparaiso, Chile

Plaza Sotomayor & Monument
 to the Heros of Iquique - Valparaiso

Nude in Open Air Museum
- Valparaiso, Chile

Carnaval Valparaiso

Chilean Dinner - Lots of Meat

Lunch in Market - Valparaiso, Chile

Paseo Gervasoni Cerro Alegre 
- Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso, Chile (1/22-23/2010) - We arrived during Carnaval Valparaiso where bands, dancers, performers, movies, etc. were scheduled day and night in the major plazas throughout the city - great fun!

Nicknamed The Jewel of the Pacific, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Valparaiso is often considered to be one of Latin America’s most intriguing urban areas. Built upon dozens of steep hillsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean with a labyrinth of cobblestone streets and rich architectural and cultural legacy, Valparaiso served first as an important stopover port for only Spanish ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (see history below).

We stayed in Valparaiso's old town next to Sotomayor Square and wandered up and down hills riding 130-year-old funiculars elevators exploring the famous old town neighborhoods of Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion and their newly renovated old homes and cafes (see photos). We visited the artsy bohemian hill neighborhood of Bellavista where we wandered the Open Air Museum of about 20 murals painted on buildings and cement retainer walls (see photo of nude). 

We also road Valparaiso’s trolleybus (the oldest still operating trolley in the world) around for a full loop – it’s like a reverting to an older time. We stopped for a stroll through the daily market and enjoyed very nice street food fish salad and shellfish soup for lunch costing about $3US (see photos).

Valparaiso during California Gold Rush

Some history... After Chilean independence from Spain in 1817, Valparaiso grew rapidly when this resupply port was opened to all nations, especially during the California Gold Rush, making the port city of Valparaiso one of the wealthiest places on the continent. When the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, Valparaiso no longer served as an important stopover and started its long decline until recently.

Although much of Valparaiso still needs major effort to bring it back to its old glory, in the 1990’s people started moving back to Valparaiso and are fixing up the old homes and establishing cafes on almost every block.  

Map of Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso is also now the main harbor for the Chilean navy and a major cruise port for cruises around South America. The greater Valparaiso metropolitan area (including Chile's beach resort Vina del Mar 15 minutes away) has the third largest population in Chile and boasts many claims such as the oldest still operating Spanish newspaper in the world.

During our 10-hour driving commute north to Valparaiso from Pucon in the south of Chile, we stopped overnight in San Fernando.

Please also see our 7 other blog posts for beautiful Chile:

Chile - Pucon Lake District

Chile - Puerto Montt Patagonia

Chile - Punta Arenas & Strait of Magellan

Chile - Santa Cruz & Colchagua Valley Wine Country

Chile - Santiago (Capital)

Chile - Strait of Magellan, Cape Horn, Chilean Fjords, & Darwin & Beagel Channels

Chile - Vina del Mar

 

 

Please enjoy 250+ wonderful places around the world, with award-winning photos, from our BLOG ARCHIVE on the right ---->

Travel for half the cost for all levels of travel from budget to luxury and 100's of other unique travel tips! From a former Economic professor, experienced traveler (106 countries), award-winning travel photojournalist/blogger, featured speaker at large travel shows, host of the travel TV show Plan Your Escape® TV aired on the CW network, and travel columnist for the Huffington Post, our popular 5-star customer rated groundbreaking and comprehensive how-to world travel book Plan Your Escape, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than the Cost of Living at Home reveals secrets how you can travel and see more for half the cost for all trips from weekend getaways to longer vacations and trips, experience more adventure and romance, safely realize your travel dreams with comprehensive planning tools and checklists, travel the world for less than $100/day for a couple, and much more!

Buy this popular book on Amazon.com (also available as Ebook for $9.99), CLICK HERE