A Night in Viña: An Illicit Cocktail Hour, Colectivos & Quiltros

January 5, 2011 (part VI)

My family is notorious for eating a late dinner. Even back in the U.S., during winter, it is not uncommon for the evening meal to get pushed back to 9pm or later. This tradition continued during our visit to Chile and was exasperated by the fact that the sun did not set until after 9pm. Most nights we found it challenging to get out to dinner before 10pm; mainly because were enjoying our cocktail hour too much. Since Chile is one of the more expensive countries in South America, we decided to save money by enjoying wine at the hotel before going out to dinner each night. For around USD $4.00 we could buy a good bottle of wine from the local convenience store, so we'd pick up a couple bottles and enjoy sitting out on the patio or sharing pictures that we had taken earlier in the day.

Our little hostel in Viña del Mar was the only place we stayed that explicitly prohibited its guests from enjoying food or beverages in their rooms. So as Mom & Dad arrived back at the hotel with our requisite 2 bottles of wine, we had to be a little more discrete than unusual. Fortunately, my parent's room had a private balcony with sweeping views of the hillside and Pacific ocean.

View of the Pacific Ocean from my parents room at Hostal Reloj de Flores B&B

As we set out for dinner, we soon realized that it wouldn't be as easy as we thought to find a taxi. Apparently everyone in Viña del Mar uses the system of Colectivos (group taxis with a set route) to get around. Unfortunately, its tough to use this system if you aren't familiar with the colectivos route. After about 10 minutes of walking and unsuccessfully finding a regular taxi, we decided to take our chances with the colectivo. So we hopped in and told the cabbie where we wanted to get off - at the cross street where our guide book indicated we would find a selection of acceptable eateries. To our amusement, we were only riding in the colectivo for a few blocks before the driver informed us that we had arrived at our requested location (doh!).

At any rate, we were excited to finally have arrived at a place where we could eat dinner. We found a little eatery called "Jerusalem, comida arabe" serving Mediterranean type cuisine, or more accurately - "Arab food". It was a simple type of place, serving shawarmas (gyro-type burritos). As we read over the menu, we were told that if we didn't order right that minute, that they would be closing the kitchen (it was nearly 11:00pm, after all). So we quickly ordered a tabla (a large plate) that consisted of stuffed grape leaves, falafel, and stuffed vegetables. I didn't think the food was anything special (it was all a bit dry and everything tasted the same), but the rest of the family seemed to be impressed. We walked the 15 minutes back to our hotel accompanied by a couple of friendly quiltros - stray dogs that seem to be omnipresent on the streets of Chile. To read more about the quiltro culture in Chile, the blog Cachando Chile, really sums it up nicely.

Los Quiltros

 

Getting an escort back to the hotel 

The Beach: Chilean Style

January 5, 2011 (part V)

Later in the afternoon, we decided to wonder down to the beach. That was probably the best decision we made all day. One of the reasons we chose our hotel was its proximity to the beach, so it was literally just a hop down the hill and a skip across the street to arrive at Playa Caleta Abarca ("hidden cove beach").

As mentioned previously, this was an unusually warm day in Viña del Mar, and the scene at Caleta Abarca fully reflected that. The fact that it was mid-week (Wednesday) didn't seem to matter in the least, because the place was PACKED.There were hordes of young Chileans braving the chilly Pacific waters (about the equivalent temperature to North Carolina beaches in mid-may; not warm). It seemed to be mostly young boys braving the waves, but there were also a few young girls. All the women were very conservatively dressed - I didn't see hardly anyone in a bikini and most had shorts and/or a tank top to cover up; even in the water. I've posted a few pics below, but you really have to see the video to fully understand what I'm talking about (first time I've ever posted anything on YouTube:): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoZy699Rutk

Viña del Mar: Garden City

January 5, 2011 (part IV)

After soaking in a bit of history at the Easter Island Museum, it was time to do a bit of people watching. A quick walk around the main plaza made it easy to understand why Viña del Mar is know as "La Ciudad Jardín" ("The Garden City") -- watch out New Jersey.




The plaza was bustling with city residents and tourist lounging in the grass, chatting with friends on the benches, or cooling off in the fountain. I went off to explore the area around the plaza, and it soon became apparent that the ice cream parlors were doing a bustling business that day. Each shop was packed full of vacationing Chileans, trying to cool off in the 100-degree heat. I considered joining them, but decided it wasn't worth the wait. Instead, I went back to my perch in the grass to do some more people watching.

Enjoying the Obscurity of Chile: Easter Island (well, sorta...)

January 5, 2011 (part III)

One of the things I love most about Chile is its obscurity. I've had many discussions with highly educated people who are completely at a loss for identifying it on a map of the world. This seems very odd to me, but it also adds to its allure. Chile is very inconveniently located, and so very few people outside of South America have reason to visit it. This means that it is very unlikely that you will run into another gringo, or be spoken to in English simply because you look gringo-ish.

Like I said, I love it.

And perhaps a lesser known fact is that Chile's territory extends beyond the coast of the South American continent to encombass Easter Island - a small, sparsely populated Polynesian island located a whopping 3,510 km (2,180 mi) west of continental Chile at its nearest point; about the same distance from NY to LA.

Needless to say, that's far. And unfortunately, a trip to Easter Island just wasn't in the cards for this particular trip to Chile. Maybe next time.

However, as a consolation prize for Chilean visitors who lack the time and money to make the 2,000 mile trek to the actual island, there is a very nice Museum located in Viña del Mar. So after stuffing our faces with seafood at Divino Pecado, we took a pleasant walk down the tree-lined streets to El Museo Fonk, the Easter Island museum named after the guy who bequeathed his collections to the government.

The museum is housed in a nicely refurbished mansion, and on this particular summer day, it was teeming with tourist who were busily snapping photos of the Easter Island statute in the front lawn of the museum.The exhibits, similar to the island itself, were fascinating. One display that particularly caught my eye was a display of shrunken heads. All of the descriptions were in Spanish and it remained unclear as to whether the displays were authentic, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they were. This is South America after all.