Saturday, December 19, 2015

Going to the Coast - Viña Del Mar

On Saturday November 7th we decided to take a drive over the mountains to visit the beautiful city of Viña Del Mar. We made a second trip a couple of weeks later and also visited the port city of Valparaiso on that excursion. What beautiful places these coastal cities are.
First up: Viña Del Mar
The drive through the Andes Mountains to the coast was gorgeous! We drove through the wine country and saw some beautiful vineyards and haciendas.

Some of the roads and terrain reminded me of Morocco..

...and other vistas with the scrub brush and tall cactus reminded me of Arizona and Northern Mexico.

The drive was long and winding and lovely. It took about 2 hours to get to Viña Del Mar or
"The Vinyard of the Sea."

"Viña" is definitely a tourist town with nice walkways along the beach and beautiful public areas.


When we first arrived it was a little foggy, but it soon cleared up.


There is a small souvenir market along the beach with some nice, handmade items as well as the normal Chinese made stuff.

See, we really are here.

At first I thought it was a squid or something, but on closer inspection realized it's just seaweed.

This was actually quite a precarious shot to get because the occasional wave would crash up over the side and drench whoever was standing there. Darryl kept taking the picture as I would peek over my shoulders to see if the wave was coming.

Just seconds after this picture a wave soaked Darryl up to his knees.

The high rise apartments on the edge of the beach remind me of Florida.... except if you look inland all you see is mountains instead of swamps.


You can see the port city of Valparaiso off in the distance.


A lovely restaurant and hotel on the point.

On our first trip Darryl and I stopped  for lunch on the way home at an area that looked a little questionable, but had several seafood restaurants hanging out over the water. I ordered the seafood platter. Wow! It was fresh and delicious. Darryl's food was excellent too, just not as pretty.

Looking back toward Viña -



We also found a light house, but it wasn't open to the public.


Aquatic birds were everywhere.


I love to watch them.

When Kirby was here we took another trip back to show him the sites and stopped off at El Castillo Wulff for a visit. It was a private residence built in the late 1800s.

The grounds are pretty and the castle is actually used more as an events center now.

Hello Kirby!

And Darryl...

I think Darryl and Kirby liked the house on the hill better, especially since it had a cannon pointing out to sea. Can you see the cannon?

Proudly advertising for the Redhead Express in Chile. ;-)




This is the interior of  El Castillo Wulff. They were having an art showing at the time we were there.


Watching for my sailor to come home... or just looking at how bad the traffic is on the coast road.

And and explanation of "Wolf Castle".

We really enjoyed visiting this beautiful coastal town and plan on going back someday before we leave.
Next post - The City of Valparaiso.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Just stunning! What a colorful and vibrant world you have experienced!