Our time in Vina del Mar is coming to an end. We leave tomorrow for our cruise to San Diego on the Holland America ship Amsterdam. Although we are looking forward to 18 days of cruising, we are sorry to leave our condo in Vina. It has been a wonderful stay. I am writing this while looking out the window at another sunset over the bay of Valparaiso. Beautiful!Today we had another tour with Juanita from Genercia Cultourachile. Our tour was of Valparaiso. This city is quite a contrast to Vina – its twin to the north. Valparaiso is gritty with wide contrasts. The city is perched on steep hills above the narrow band of flatland along the waterfront. Many funiculars have moved people up and down their hillside neighborhoods for many years. Unfortunately many of these “people-movers” have stopped operation – either through neglect or destruction due to questionable “progress.” Juanita is very knowledgeable about the City – she took us to the many ethnic neighborhoods with their colorful palettes of house colors.
The highlight was a tour of Pablo Neruda’s hillside home. Neruda was the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet. He led a fascinating life as a poet, diplomat, ambassador, and politician. We visited Neruda’s home in Isla Negra in 2006 – it was interesting to see the similar interiors with his eclectic collections. Even though the homes are totally different in design, they have similarities. The Isla Negra home is set along the coast – basically on one level. The Valparaiso home is vertical – with many narrow stairways. Views of the bay were from every room. The views of the water tie the two together along with the interesting Neruda collections that were displayed in each home.
Our late lunch today was a return visit to the Austrian restaurant in Vina – I had to have more goulash soup! Now it is time to pack – my least favorite activity but at least we have no more flights and when we return to San Diego we only have a 10 minute taxi ride to home!
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