Valparaiso-La Jolla del Pacífico

Yesterday I was so happy to get out  and breath the cleaner air of Valparaiso, a beach town and hour and a half outside of Santiago otherwise known as "La Jolla del Pacífico(the jewel of the pacific)"Just to list it off our day went a little like this...

• Driving around to scenic points and snapping photos. Like these...

The port

Not a scenic pic, but a nice group photo

• Eating a filling,but tasty lunch consisting of all seafood-score! That's how you gotta do it in a Chilean beach town. I had an empanada de mariscos(seafood), with some kind of scallop and mini octopus...the tentacles  took me for a shock after my first bite, but I still enjoyed it! Next came a big piece of fish(don't know the type. I need to study up on my seafood) and rice. It still had all the bones,but it was so deliciously flaky that it wasn't too tough to eat. 

Empanada de Mariscos

Pescado con Arroz

• Ditching the tour bus and working off our lunch on a two hour walking tour. Despite my major food guagua(baby-pronounced wawa) I had to carry along with me this was my favorite way to see the city. 

Now I mentioned in my last post how some people have compared it to San Francisco,CA a bit and upon arriving I could see some similarities.So I'll just show you with photos...

Steep stairs

Trolley-esque buses

more steep, artsy stairs

steep/narrow streets

Rows of charming,colorful houses

This is old fashioned looking,but it's actually less than 20 years old

Oh and there's the obvious fact that they're both port cities(see the first photo!) So I  noted some similarities,but Valparaiso definitely has it's unique charm and history. This city actually dates back to the 19th century and has been an important stopping off point for ships/trade center since then. A lot of the buildings aren't as old as the city though, because many were destroyed in a huge earthquake in 1906.The oldest building we saw was a church, that I believe dated back to 1882.Also,our tour guide noted how nice houses here can cost close to a million dollars...yikes! However, he mentioned how the rich people who live here accept that since the streets are so narrow and houses are packed in on the hillside, they have to park their cars not in a nice garage but on the street. Also, the fancy houses aren't separate from the rundown ones. They're all together in the mix, which is just what the people accept and are used to. He referred to these factors kind of as "hidden costs,"because if you want to live in a really nice house in Valparaiso,you have to accept this kind of neighborhood. Those were just some little facts he mentioned that stood out to me.

The church that survived the earthquake

After our tour we went to Emporio de la Rosa, an ice cream shop which actually has a store in Santiago too...so of course I had to compare :).I got manjar(similar to dulce de leche and insanely popular here) with chocolate chips. Then it was on the bus and back to Santiago. For the short time we had in Valpo(the short, slang term) I'm glad we saw so much. However, I will definitely plan on coming back for some more extensive exploring!