Wednesday, April 8, 2009

All In One Day



Nicole and I knew that we couldn't leave Chile without visiting Vina del Mar or Valpariso. Everyone always raves about Valpariso and Vina del Mar. However we planned our final week of travel pretty tight and so we thought we would just visit Valpariso. Well it turns out that Vina del Mar and Valpariso are squished together, like Provo and Orem. Where one starts and another one end no one really knows! So we got to visit both! It was an action packed day fitting both in though! We stayed with one of our friends, Sergio, from Valdivia who is going to school in Vina del Mar. He also took us on a tour of the city.
First we started with Vina del Mar. Vina del Mar is the newer city and has the better beaches.



While walking along we spotted a city tour in a horse and carriage. It was expensive, but we figured we only live once! So we hopped in and saw Vina del Mar in style.


We got to see more catholic churches.... as usual. But this Sunday was Palm Sunday so everyone was out and about! It was cool to see everyone in the streets. Many people had palms or palms shaped into objects.
On the way we also got to see a Easter Island Museum. Where we took an awesome picture with the giant rock that looks like a head. Famous of Easter Island.

After our horse ride we decided to visit the FREE museum. It really was a house own by this very rich man that they have turned into an art museum. It was still pretty cool!



Then we all went back to Sergio's place and had lunch. It was a good lazy summer day type lunch. We made Chilean pizza, and had Te-Tere (which is just mate with sprite instead of hot water). After being replenished we continued on with Valpariso! Valpariso is the older city. It is famous for it's colorful houses on the hills. Everyone says (over and over again) Valpariso is "antique", which is really code word for "old lookin'." It was beautiful though. It is probably my favorite place we went to in Chile. We started off the same way as Vina del Mar, we just started walking...

Of course we saw some more catholic churches. These churches really do make the neighborhood beautiful. This spice up the street with fine art and history.


There are also just beautiful buildings for practical use, like this clock tower for instance. The main point is Valpariso is just filled with beautiful old buildings. History is just leaking out everywhere. Valpariso is also the home of many artists. It's an inspirational city.
Valpariso is also where you can find the Chilean congress. Santiago has the president, but Valpariso has congress. On the front of the building are two men how had a major influence on Chile becoming an independent nation. O'Higgins was the first President. The other man (whom I can't remember his name right now... ) was a great general and helped in freeing the Chile from Spain.
Valpariso is also the home of the famous Chilean music festival. This is suppose to be the stage, but it looks kind of small so we're not exactly sure.





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