Bío-Bío and Our Last Hurrah

This morning we visited the Bío-Bío market, which was an interesting shopping adventure, as foreign markets often tend to be. It was both intensely fascinating and slightly disgusting, and we wandered around through the winding labyrinth gawking for the better part of an hour.

Bío- Bío Market

Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment to work on some laundry and to watch the World Cup game between France and Belgium.

Later, we decided to celebrate our last night in Santiago with a wonderful meal at the rooftop restaurant at the Sommelier Hotel. Every bite of every dish was absolutely wonderful! And, Clay caught the attention of last year's Miss Teen Venezuela while we were there!

Dinner at Antaño

We stopped for ice cream on our way back to our apartment and then rushed home to eat it in front of the heaters because we were so cold. I'm sure we'll find that laughable in a few days when we're roasting in the Texas heat!

Ice Cream from Mò

I can't believe our time in South America has come to an end! It has been a wonderful trip, and we have made so many fantastic memories! Thanks for following along!

Viña del Mar and Valparaíso

We hopped up early this morning so we could join a tour to Viña del Mar and Valparaíso. The drive takes about an hour and a half and takes you through the coastal mountains, which are much lower in elevation than the Andes--an hour and a half in the other direction--and where much of the country's produce is grown. We saw vineyards, olive groves, citrus farms, and several other kinds orchards and farms. And then, at some point, we saw nothing more because the fog is very thick in that valley and doesn't lift until temperatures climb a little higher. We made four stops in Viña del Mar: Quinta Vergara, which is a park honoring the city's founding family; the city's famous flower clock; a tiny beach; and a restaurant by the sea where we had lunch.

A vineyard in the Chilean Coastal Range

A church in Viña del Mar

Stadium in Quinta Vergara

The famous flower clock

Acapulco Beach

Lunch at Nogaro

Climbing + spinning + ocean=
Perfection for two little boys

After lunch, we made the short drive to Valparaíso. The driver took us to the top of one of the city's famous hills, Cerro Allegra, and our tour guide walked us down the steep streets and stairs of the colorful city, which allowed us to take in as many of the colors and as much of the street art as we could. It is a very unique city and a sight to behold. We had actually planned to stay in Valparaíso for a few days, but we changed our plans at the last minute. We loved visiting, but we decided we were happy with our choice to make it a day trip.

Colorful Stairway

Houses in every color

Mural and stairs

Happy house

Street Art

Street of faces

Box Jumpers

Tree Climber

Ascensor El Peral

Beautiful Valparaíso

Cultural Center, Ice Cream, and Other Fun in Santiago

Today, we visited the Cultural Center housed in the basement of the President's Palace. It contains a weaving and woodcraft gallery, a couple of photographic art galleries, and an activity room for kids. (There is also some sort of movie theater, but it was closed for a private event.) It was a great way to pass some time on a rainy day.

Centro Cultural La Moneda

When the museum closed for lunch at 2:00,  we walked over to Heladería Emporio La Rosa, seeing lots of interesting things along the way. The shop claims to be one of the 25 best in the world, and there were some unique flavors to choose from. I tried two new-to-me flavors: rose and honey made from the ulmo flowers that grow in Chile.

(Side story: Upon arrival at the ice cream shop, Clay decided he had never needed to go to the bathroom so badly in his life, and of course, the shop didn't have a bathroom. The nearest public bathroom was a block away, inside a museum. I trotted him over there and sent him into the restroom, and he promptly returned to tell me he wasn't tall enough for the urinals and that all the stalls were locked. I then took him into the women's restroom, and completely scandalized the janitor, who quickly kicked us out and told us we had to use the bathroom "para niños." That turned out to be a locked room, and we were supposed to call someone on an intercom to have it opened. My Spanish intentionally became very poor at that point because I wanted the lady to just let us in since Clay was hopping around doing a crazy potty dance. Instead, the janitor went to get the security guard, who went to the desk where there was supposed to be, but wasn't, someone to answer the intercom for the locked bathroom. The security guard gathered up the key, left his post, and finally opened the bathroom door for us. It was really a wild time, but thankfully Clay was able to hold it, and we didn't cause any more of a scene in the museum!)

Sights of Santiago:
The President's Palace,
Bandera del Bicentenario,
lovely street art, pop-up bookstore,
animated soldiers selling Moscow Mules,
the national library's columns covered in lifejackets
to honor refugees, the entrance to the museum where
I took Clay to the bathroom, and a graffitied sculpture

Heladería Emporio La Rosa

After eating our ice cream, Jeff and I wanted to go see the fish market. The kids weren't interested in that, so we brought them back to the apartment before heading out on our own. On our way to the market, we shared a Chilean "completa" (hot dog with "everything"), just to say we had tried one. We saw (and smelled!) the market, and then we wandered through a big park, catching sight of a beautiful rainbow. We stopped briefly at the National Museum of Fine Arts since it was right there in the park. Eventually we ended up in a very fun area, with lots of patio restaurants, and had a wonderful dinner at Quitral.

Completa, rainbow over a monument,
Mecado Cental--outside and inside

National Museum of Fine Arts

Date night at Quitral

Museums on a rainy day

We started our day with a beautiful rainbow!

Rainy days are perfect for hanging out at museums, and that's just what we did today. First, we visited Artequin, which is an awesome interactive art museum mainly aimed at kids but lots of fun for everyone. They have made touchable reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures and displayed them all at kid level, so they can be fully seen and explored by the smaller patrons. There is also a whole floor of art stations where visitors can create their own masterpieces. We had a blast!

Fun at Artequin

Afterward, we visited the Museum of Science and Technology. Hands-on science museums are always a hit with our crew, and this one was no exception. We loved learning about simple machines, magnets, mirrors, color and sound waves, space, and so much more.

Museum of Sciece and Technology

More Fun in Santiago

We went back over to the Parque Metropolitano today because we wanted to see the Japanese Garden and the Mapulemu Garden of native plants. The first turned out to be closed for renovations, but we got a nice hike out of it. And when we had seen the second, we popped over to the Gabriela Mistral playground, which we loved so much yesterday. It was even more fun today because we had it almost entirely to ourselves. On our way back to the apartment, we walked by the impressive U.S. Embassy to get an idea of possible future work environs. We were amazed at how large it was and at all the security. Once we were back at the apartment, we watched England pull out a miraculous World Cup victory over Columbia. And this evening, we caught an Uber over to Barrio Italia, which has some fun and interesting shops and restaurants. We wandered through several of the shops, bought some painted chocolates at a little chocolate kiosk, had a wonderful dinner at Bar Italia, and grabbed some ice cream at Nahia before heading back to our apartment. It was a lovely day!

Jardín Mapulemu

Gabriela Mistral Playground

U.S. Embassy

Barrio Italia

Exploring Santiago

We came down the mountain on Saturday evening, and everyone needed a day to recover from skiing, so we stuck close to the apartment yesterday and watched all the World Cup games, which was just as well since it was raining all day. Today, was lovely, though, and we were ready to get out and about and check out some of the city's offerings. We intended just to pass through the Constanera Center (a shopping mall) on our way to the Sky Constanera Tower, but we found a couple of stores we wanted to stop in on the way, including a really cool book store. 

Since the tower appeared to be closed to visitors today because of a holiday, we proceeded on to the Parque de las Esculturas (Sculpture Park) and then over to the Parque Metropolitano, which claims to be the largest urban park in Latin America. There, we had our picnic lunch, rode a cable car to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, tried the national drink of Chile (mote con huesillo), played at an amazing playground about halfway down the hill, and then hiked the rest of the way down the hill and back to our apartment. It was a great introduction to this great city, and we had a wonderful day! 

Antarctica Bookstore

Max stopped to inspect a travel agency's display,
noting that we've been to all these continents.

These boys always find a tree to climb!

Sky Constanera Tower from the Sculpture Park

Parque de los Esculturas

Climbing high with one of my monkeys at Parque Metropolitano

Seeing the city from the cable car as it ascends Cerro San Cristobal

National drink of Chile: Mote con Huesillo

Church at the top of Cerro San Cristobal

Santiago

Little boys love big equipment

The swinging Watts boys

A wonderful day on the mountain

The snow cleared out yesterday afternoon, and today was absolutely gorgeous. Jeff and the kids hit the slopes as soon as the lifts opened, and I met up with them at lunchtime. After they got back to it, I lingered for a while so I could see the kids make a few runs. When I was ready to head back to the apartment, Clay decided he was ready to call it a day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon building a snowman and playing in the rec room. It was a wonderful day!

A beautiful way to start the day!

These kids absolutely love skiing!

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the mountain

Leaving the slopes early doesn't mean the fun has to end!

Perfect end to a perfect day!