January is peak tourist season due to the weather. It’s their dry season; meaning no rain to ruin your plans. It’s cool in the morning and evening and gets up to around 85-90 during the middle of the day but it’s not humid.
After a previous day of walking, we decided to head out to the beach to relax. We headed about an hour and a half out to Viña Del Mar. We stopped at the Jumbo I mentioned before for some beach snacks and Dunkin Donuts.
Getting to the beach was pretty easy and there was pay parking right by the beach. Our rental car came with a toll tag so that was great. You just drive along and it dings every time you pass a toll; no stopping, no money needed, pretty seamless. The Andes surround Santiago. You basically have a 360 degree view of the mountains at all times.
Just so you know, the Pacific Ocean off Chile is FREEZING. I don’t mean it’s cold. I mean, the boys said it gave them brain freezes, cold.
They usually spend most of the day on the beach in the water, especially with big waves like this, but not this time. They stayed on the beach quite a bit. They stayed in the water as long as they could, would get out and get warmed up, and then go back out, and repeat all day long.
So while we’re sitting there, a TV crew shows up and starts asking beachgoers questions. They interviewed the boy right beside us. Y’all know Tuck and what a ham he is. So…yep, you guessed it. He jumped up and ran to the water to get the sand off of him and then ran around the TV crew and behind the boy and then back to us in order to get on TV. What a knucklehead!
The beach was a little dirty and you have to pay for bathrooms and showers. My card wouldn’t work (orange card reader again) for the bathroom but the lady was so nice and just let me go in. So thankful. There are vendors all behind you so you can easily get food, drinks, souvenirs, umbrellas, etc without leaving the beach. Plus vendors roam up and down the beach yelling out what they’re selling so you don’t even have to get up if you don’t want to.
Chile is known for it’s wine so you pass a lot of wineries along the way. The hardest thing I drink is Dr. Pepper so this isn’t a draw for us but the green vines are pretty jaxposed against the dry brown mountainside.
Valparaíso is the town next door and it’s more upbeat but we liked the chill beach of Vina Del Mar.
After a day in the sun we were ready to chill for dinner, so we ordered in. While we waited for our food, Tuck decided to take pictures. Mason was not entertained. Look at those sunburned legs. I put sunscreen on the boys but I didn’t get Tuck’s legs because he kept getting in and out of the water. Ooops. Emily had the Rápido app on her phone from when she went to Argentina and it works in Chile so she ordered smashed burgers and bacon cheese fries and we watched Holes until bedtime.
Sorry for the half eaten burger but I had to show you something we have been missing. Cheddar Cheese. Glorious cheddar cheese. We don’t have that in Brazil. So of course, we had them put it on our fries too. And bacon because, well, it’s bacon.
The following day we were back in the city walking around. This time we were ready for the changing of the guard ceremony.
The ceremony dates back to the 1850s.
It lasted about 30 minutes and was full of pomp and circumstance.
Trev and Tuck were right up front; so close Trevor took a picture of their sheet music. They were playing Rocking Around The Clock. How fun. Along with more traditional music they played several other American oldies. I have no idea why, other than for fun.
A couple of buildings gave us some serious Daigon Alley vibes and I was just waiting for Spiderman to coming swinging down from that glass bridge between those two buildings.
As we were walking we couldn’t help but notice the National Library.
The library was beautiful. Also, another good free bathroom break.
Then we arrived at our next destination, Santa Lucía Hill. The hill, located right in town, is the remnant of a volcano.
The hill has two forts/castles, stairways, and fountains.
The top allows for amazing views of the city as the hill towers more than 225 feet above the city. The hill in the picture above is San Cristobal, which we will visit another day.
These two ladies are so much fun to travel with and up for anything, well…..as long as it doesn’t involve hiking. They are joyful and super sweet. They are in front of Neptune’s Fountain by the way.
Tuck is starting to look older to me. No more babies.
So we’re walking all over this hill and I decided to be silly for this picture and then I looked around and no one else is acting a fool. That’s when I noticed I was standing outside the tomb of Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna. I meant no disrespect. I’m usually the serious one in the family (you’re shocked, I know). I just have a really bad sense of timing. Mr. Vicuña Mackenna was a Chilean lawyer, writer, journalist, senator, governor, and historian and was of Irish/Basque descent. He had an interesting yet short life. From being jailed for participating in the 1851 revolution while at the University of Chile, to being exiled from Chile twice, to serving in the senate, to attempting to purchase weapons from the US during Chile’s war with Spain in the mid-1860s, to being governor, attempting to run for president, and back to the senate.
The top image is from Santa Lucía Hill and the bottom one is beside the hill. I just thought the residential building looked really cool.
On the left is another fountain at the bottom of the hill and picture on the right is of Mason at the top.
This is a terrible picture but it was the only one I had so here it is. I had been looking all over Santiago for this drink; the Mote com huesillo. They sell it all over at street vendors but none of them took credit cards. Luckily, after we finished walking the hill, we walked over to the artesanal market, Centro Artesanal Santa Lucía, where you can find tons of souvenirs and hand crafted items, and I found a vendor there that took credit cards. It’s like a super sweet light juice with a big dried peach that was cooked in sugar, water, and cinnamon then mixed with either cooked husked wheat berries or corn. I’m pretty sure mine was corn; maybe. It was kind of weird. It was refreshing but it was odd to eat and drink something at the same time. Me, Emily, and Sarah thought it was ok but Trevor, Mason, and Tucker didn’t like it. But we had to try it.
By this time we were starting to get hungry. We had been talking about tacos ever since we decided to go to Chile. Just so you know, tacos are really more of a Latin American thing; not South American, but we were still holding out hope for a good taco. Lo and behold, we found a Tijuana Taco place, and walking we went. We did a lot of walking today and we were getting tired but for tacos the sacrifice would be made. We trusted “The Google” but I knew when we crossed back over to the Recoleta side of town, Emily and I were not eating a taco made in this part of town. It’s just so trashy and it reeks of sewer. We showed up at the supposed location and this guy comes out to us quickly telling us the taco place isn’t here, it’s at another location and he can get us a cab. Before we could even say anything he had already hailed the cab. We declined and a waitress from a restaurant comes over to Sarah and tells her to put her phone away and not in her purse but in her shorts under shirt and proceeded to show us that’s where hers was. Apparently, “The Google” took us to a very seedy part of town and I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but we don’t exactly blend in. We scream American. I thought it was nice that they tried to help us to not get mugged, so kudos to them. Thank you.
Can you believe that man standing in front of me is Mason? How? Where does the time go?
We settled on a Chinese buffet. I really shouldn’t say “we”, as it was really more of a “they” decision.
Well, this blog goes to Part 3. See you there.
NoHurryCains 
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