Neruda Mar Suites Vina del Mar

I feel like for just a little bit I have stopped travelling and am back in the US. I´m spending time in Viña del Mar, a modern and fairly wealthy beach resort town in central Chile. I´m also staying at the home of a new friend, Kaye, who is a missionary working with the professional community here. Her house is very American and it´s been so nice to ride in a car and speak lots of English with her and her roomate Rosemarie. Kaye has been here for 10 ...

... br><br>Jucer smo isli na plazu tako da sam prvi puta "okupala" noge u oceanu :) voda je prepreledena, a valovi su prelijepi :) ja kao dijete sa sela, takve valove jos nisam nikada vidjela :) u oceanu sam vidjela neke surfere, ne znam kako mogu uci u tako hladnu vodu (iako je zima ovdje, temperatura iznosi nekih 15C)! slikala sam ko pravi turist. ocjesam se ovdje kao kod kuce. iako je prvi dojam (u valparaisu) bio malo losiji, ovdje ...

... they only take cash. This just goes to show that plastic is dominating small, family businesses even in Chile. <br><br>Today was also the day for our second Caminata de Valparaiso (City Tour). The ISEP group took a bus to Cerro Bellavista to visit the house of Pablo Neruda. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature and is highly known around the world for his poems and other writings. We only visited one of his houses, but there is another here in Chile and one ...

... with an incredible view overlooking the port. Then we wandered around town, photographing all the architecture and old buildings and great views we could find. At one point, I was a bit too eager to take a photo, and I tripped with my camera in hand. I really thought it was irreparably broken at that point, and I was pretty upset, seeing as how we would be getting back to Santiago too late to do anything about it before heading south to ...

... with a rental car. The day of the bus we spent in neighbouring Viña del Mar, which is apparently a playground of the rich and famous, Chile's answer to Uruguay's Punta del Este. Rich or poor, if you ask me, it's a shithole. The restaurants had ludicrous prices and when we settled on a place that wouldn't break the bank, they served us some very disappointing pasta dishes in teeny tiny little bowls. The beach was indescribably gross ...

... recognizable, but ones whose names and composers I didn't. I zoned out for the first half of the concert, because I had seen churros being sold, but didn't have the time to buy some before the concert started, and thus thought about churros the whole time. During the intermission, I managed to get some churros, but then was distracted during the second half of the performance, marveling at how many churros I just ate, especially since they ...

... course I helped out :) It was an assorted platter, with a chunky, burnt crème brulee, some so-so ice cream, and a very good chocolate mousse. The fourth item was suspiro limeno, a traditional Peruvian dessert that translated, means "Sigh from Lima". It was a vanilla custard, that was excellent for one bite, but was simply too sweet to finish. We finished off the meal, and chatted about the one-eyed man that wanted to hook up with Monica. Funny ...

... sleeping pills. The last time that happened I lay silent in the grass for hours, tied and captured. When the sun finally rose I realized I was just tangled up in the sheets. That was when I was in traction; I'm better now. I'll go to La Serena tomorrow, then on up the coast to the Atacama Desert, but I've still got a day to kill so follow the coast a few miles down to Vina del Mar. That's a good move; it's everything that Valparaiso ...

Today was my last day in Chile. I woke up and did some last minute sightseeing in Valparaiso and actually discovered some new areas in Cerro Concepción that I hadn't seen before. The plan is to catch a bus from here and head directly to the airport in Santiago.

... much the last we saw of him until we got there lol. although on the way back i couldnt resist competing with him in a race (in my mind) which i won in the dying meters haha got back to the ranch said goodbye to donde german and hermania and his pony tail, which im disappointed i didnt get a photo of, he looked like the big show! we grabbed a steak sandwich and legged it to the bus. that brings us to here. im writing a lot because where we are staying now doesnt ...