Vamos a la Playa

Feb 8-10

We spent two and a half days at the beach in Viña del Mar. It was bigger than we expected and not quite as quaint as we imagined, but we had a good time nonetheless. Our hotel was in a great location close to the beach, the casino and the main drag.

Our first day there we walked around and got oriented. We had Mexican food at a restuarant on the main drag - our first taste of Mexican since we left home. Ahhh, how we miss Trudy's. Only two weeks until I'll be sipping a mexitini with the girls....can't wait. This is our first touch of homesickness. Maybe it's not really home sickness, but I think we will be happy for a little break from all the go-go-go, constant packing and unpacking and the gamble that eating out has become (you truly just don't know what you're going to get).

Anyway, back to Viña. We walked around the beach, which was packed with people and all types of entertainment - giant trampolines, donkey rides, go karts for the kids, etc., and took in the scenery. We spent a couple hours sitting in a park reading and napping. We went out for drinks. We watched Ferris Buehler's Day Off at the hotel. We had the best chocolate chocolate chip ice cream at Bravissimo Geletaria. What a fab day!

The next morning we took a cab to Reñaca, the next town over from Viña, where we hoped the beach would be a little quieter. It was worth the cab ride and we had a great day there. We rented chairs and lounged around watching the huge waves come crashing into shore. No swimming allowed at this beach - the waves were incredibly massive. By late afternoon we had enough sun and headed into town for some lunch. Then the best thing of all - we finally got Matt's hair cut. He had been sporting the lumberjack look for way too long and had already shaved the beard off in San Antonio de Areco. The hair had to go too. So he is once again wearing his hair military-short.

That evening we did the usual walking around and dinner. We also had that ice cream again...I am addicted. (Ok, ok, I admit, I also had it before leaving today. I wonder how much weight I have gained on this trip?)

Today we checked out of the hotel and took the train down to Valparaiso to check things out. We were decidedly underwhelmed. While it was once a booming shipping port it now seems like a tired old city. Unfortunately most of the orginal buildings were either destroyed by earthquake or pirates so even the architecture isn't great. We walked around for a while but decided to head back to Santiago a little early.

Tomorrow night we take the train to Pucón and are really excited to see the Lake District. There are lots of parks, lakes and even a volcano that we are planning to climb so should be lots of fun.

We have been total slackers on the picture taking front in the past week or so. Part of it is because Buenos Aires, Santiago and Viña are not particularly photogenic and part of it laziness. I am in the process of loading the Amazon pictures now though so you'll get to see some new ones soon!

--Jen