Isla Negra ~ Viña del Mar ~ Valparaíso

Three weeks into our endless vacation, we were able to venture outside of Santiago for the first time since our arrival to Chile. The other students in the AU abroad program and I headed out to the coast early Thursday morning, winding through the smaller (it's all relative here) set of mountains separating Santiago from the Pacific Ocean.

Our first stop was Isla Negra, an incredibly small and fairly quiet coastal town. Here, we visited Pablo Neruda's second home (I wrote about his first home in my second post). Positioned directly on the beach with exceptional views, Neruda's home showcased his love for the ocean as well as his passion for collecting extravagant items from around the world.

After, we were able to stop in at a local restaurant and have incredible crab and cheese empanadas, as featured below. **Side note about empanadas - I've eaten so many. The locals here love them, and they are incredibly inexpensive. It doesn't help that there is a shop right next to our school that sells them for 900 pesos (a little more than a dollar). Needless to say, my diet is stellar.

From there, we left for Viña del Mar, a touristy beach town that is a popular spot during the warmer months. We walked around the beach for a couple of hours, and enjoyed some ice cream while watching a beautiful sunset over the water.

The majority of Friday and Saturday were spent touring around Valparaíso, a port city on a hill situated right next to Viña (accessible by both metro and bus and only 15-30 mins away). The city is stunning, but not in a "traditional" sense of beauty. The local government commissioned a project a while back to paint all of the buildings/ houses in different colors to make the port more aesthetically pleasing. Because of this, the city is filled with color and art everywhere.

Normally, street art isn't my taste, however many of the works of art here have me convinced otherwise.

                             

Though both Viña and Valparaíso are considered cities, they both have a more small-town rural feel (we paid our bus fare in coins to the drivers). We did get to stay in a hostel for the first time, though, and had a really good experience. It felt like a cross between a college dorm and summer camp, with bunk beds, communal bathrooms, and a living area with couches and a TV. We did get to meet other foreign travelers (some who spoke English, others no) and hear their travel stories, which was certainly a highlight of staying in a hostel as opposed to a motel (in addition to the low cost).

Our bunk beds were right off of this main living room

For the most part, though, our weekend was pretty relaxed and we got to enjoy our last few school - free days (yes, I promise I am actually here to go to class eventually). And it wouldn't be South America if we didn't return to Santiago with the city in full protest mode, civilians blocking off our access to bus and metro routes. The march made international news, and the picture at the top of this article is right where we were kicked off the metro as the police started to shut it down for safety reasons. Though we did have to walk several blocks with our bags to reach the next open metro, it was interesting to see this protest from the ground. The local news reported 300,000 participants (international news sources gave numbers much higher), but what we witnessed of the march was entirely peaceful.

If you look closely, you can see people standing on top of the bus awning waving huge flags

And now, believe it or not, three weeks later and I have finally started classes. It still feels like a vacation here, but now the reality of papers and tests is beginning to set in. I've been learning so much outside the classroom, though, and I'm beginning to wonder how much I really need these classes...

...kidding, but another post soon to follow about other recent adventures around the city.