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.

Oceanviews, Seafood and Digestifs in Viña del Mar

January 5, 2011 ( part II)

Our hotel in Viña del Mar  ( "Vineyard by the Sea") was perched high atop the hills overhooking the Pacific ocean and took its name from the nearby Reloj de Flores ("Flower Clock"), an emblematic symbol of the seaside town. Our taxi ride up to Reloj de Flores B&B was quick and sweaty with three of us jammed in the back seat of the compact car. As it turned out, our arrival to Viña del Mar coincided with one of the warmest days of the season with temperatures in the mid-90's; much warmer than the upper 60's that was forecasted a week earlier.

The Flower Clock

Reloj de Flores B&B was much simpler and compact than the Bonaparte in Santiago, with only ten guest rooms -  basically just a home converted into a hostel (calling it a "B&B" might be a stretch). A friendly older woman served as hostess, as she showed us around to our rooms and spoke to us in nearly perfect English. Mom & Dad's room was by far the nicer of the two. It had a balcony with an unexpected OCEAN VIEW. On the other hand, the room that my brother and I shared only had a window that opened up to the central living area. The place certainly wasn't anything fancy, but it was very homey and comfortable and a great deal too (about half of what we paid for the hotel in Santiago). 

View from my parent's room at Reloj de Flores B&B

Getting ready to walk down the steep hill from our hotel!

It was getting close to to 3pm by this point, and because our little hill-top neighborhood didn't have much to offer in the way of food, we set out down the hill in search of lunch. One of our guidebooks recommended a restaurant close to the casino called Divino Pecado (pecado means "sin" in Spanish, but is very similar to the word meaning "fish" - pescado).  The inside of the restaurant was bright welcoming and our waiter friendly and professional. The only disappointment (well aside for the prices of the menu items), was they they were out of several very delicious-sounding house specialties, such as pumpkin ravioli with shrimp!  As a second choice, I ordered gnocchi with a spicy bolognese sauce, which turned out to be quite tasty. The other downer was that there was no A/C in the restaurant (or any other place in Viña ), so it was a steamy experience. However, our mood was improved when the waiter came by with post-lunch digestif, compliments of the house. We were given a selection of flavors to choose from, so we asked for one of each: araucaria (a type of pine tree found in South America), amaretto, and pisco (grape brandy, typical drink throughout the Andres region of South America). Not the tastiest liquor I've ever tried, but interesting non-the-less. //

Lunch at Divino Pecado

Mom and I with our digestifs. I cropped Dad out of this photo for his own benefit :) - let's just say it wasn't his most flattering photo of the trip; I think the no a/c thing was getting to him at this point in the meal. 

If you look closely, you'll see that the couple sitting at the table next to us also has the Frommer's guide book.  Coincidence that they wound up at the same place we did for lunch? Unlikely

Santiago to Viña del Mar By Bus

January 5, 2011

Finally, a day to sleep in - well, sorta. After waking up so early the past few days, sleeping in until 10: 00 A.M. felt very luxurious. It took the troops a while to get coordinated and since there was no scheduled activity for the day, the 10: 00 A.M. departure time got pushed back nearly an hour.

By 11:00 A.M. we were piled in a taxi, breezing through the tree-lined streets of Provedencia, on to the downtown area to the Terminal de Bus Alemeda. The bus station was a bustling scene, bordering on chaotic. I asked the rest of the family to stay put while I navigated my way through the terminal to figure out where to buy our bus tickets. There were about 50 different bus companies, each with a few different ticket windows, and each with buses leaving to popular destinations ever 20 minutes or so. Chaos. Thankfully, I had navigated a similar scene on my previous trip to Chile, which gave me a little more confidence in executing the task of buying tickets this go around. I found the company recommended by our guide book (Tur-Bus) and asked for 4 seats on the next bus to Viña del Mar, which I easily secured. I quickly rounded up the troops and we headed back across the street to platform 5, where our bus was to depart from in fifteen minutes time. A few minutes before the schedule departure time, we boarded the comfortable, air-conditioned tour bus (staffed and run very professionally) and quickly pulled out of the station. Who says everyone is late in Latin America?

We only made one other stop at another bus terminal in the city before continuing on to Viña with a full bus-load of passengers. The two hour trip was actually very relaxing; I spent the time writing and reading about our next destinations, as well as enjoying the beautiful views of the Casablanca Wine Valley.

At 2:00 PM, we pulled into the station at  Viña del Mar and were immediately bombarded by taxi drivers, hotel owners, and tourist guides eager to assist us with any of their services.We bypassed the vendors and made a B line to the taxi stand where a friendly guy took us to Hostal Reloj del Flores B&B.