Paraguay Bound

This weekend Chris and I took a bus to the coast and spent three nights in Viña del Mar. In the summer months (January and February) the place is boomin’ and we caught it on an off time. Our hostel/hotel was pretty close to the beach and we spent a lot of time wandering around. It was too cold to go to the beach and the water was too cold to even touch, so we had a lot of time to walk. I think in the summer months, the water is pretty cold too (probably a lot like northern to southern California).

Viña del Mar itself is a little run down and kind of dirty. I’ve never been to Atlantic City so I don’t know if I can compare it to that, but I have been to Cocoa Beach, Florida, and I got that same vibe; the kind of place that used to be ritzy and then got a little trashy. But since I’m in Chile, ritzy and trashy take whole different meanings and from what I’ve heard, everyone still has lots of love for Viña del Mar.

We arrived on Saturday after a two hour bus ride through some wineries. The next day we used the local bus system to take us to a small fishing village called Horcon. All of the fisherman line their boats up on the small harbor and use horses to pull the boats back in. It was Sunday so we missed the horses, but we did have a pretty good seafood lunch with shellfish soup, fried white fish, potato salad, and tomatoes and onions for around $3 each. After that, we wanted to take another bus to a town called Concon that’s closer to Viña, but we missed our bus stop, our Spanish is too crap to argue, and ended up back in Viña del Mar.

On Monday, we took the train into Valparaiso. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar basically run into each other but Valparaiso is a much larger town. It has the most important harbor on the entire west coast of South America. It also has the illustrious history of getting raided by pirates a bunch and destroyed by several large earthquakes. After Chile won their independence, Valparaiso got super popular with America and we used it as a major trading port. But then we started using steam ships and used the towns that produced coal, we built the transcontinental railroad and then the Panama Canal, and after that, America stopped loving Valparaiso. A few giant earthquakes completely leveled the place and it got poor and dirty and sketchy.

Presently, Valparaiso is the official cultural center of Chile (don’t ask me why) and UNESCO declared it a world heritage site. Along the hills that line the bay, there are huge collections of brightly painted shacks, stores, mansions, and homes all jumbled together on cobbled stoned streets and narrow alleyways. You can take little trains (ascencors) up the hills and wander through the neighborhoods. Apparently at night, everything gets a bit dangerous, hence Chris and me staying in Viña del Mar.

Today, we took the bus back to Santiago and tomorrow fly to Asuncion, Paraguay. From what I’ve heard, going to Paraguay is like going to the US to visit Kansas, while places like Rio and Buenos Aires are the Disneyland’s and New York City’s of the bunch. So why Paraguay? Well, my friend Seth from college lives there and works at the US embassy. He has enticed us with the promise of a free place to stay with a pool. He probably also has a bathroom with toilet paper and I won’t have to wear sandals while in the shower (this is a big deal down here). I plan on taking a vacation from my vacation. My feet are disgusting and in need of some serious TLC by someone willing to give them a pedicure, I need a haircut, and I need to get caught up on TV and movie watching. Plus it’s so nice to be in a place where someone knows what’s up. We won’t have to spend the time finding a place to eat or a place to do laundry, all of the scouting has been done. And I like the off the beaten path places (the Nebraskas of the world) because the people are usually a lot nicer.

Seth also has a new immunization card for me that states I have been vaccinated for yellow fever. When my backpack was stolen in Buenos Aires, I lost my immunization card and I can’t enter Bolivia or Brazil without it. My doctor mailed a new one to my parents and they sent it to Seth’s fancy APO address at the embassy.

So it’s off to Paraguay. We’re even flying and not taking a 45 hour bus ride. I feel so fancy.