Saturday, March 25, 2023

Today is our last day in Chile. Our day started by hanging around our airbnb apartment in Viña del Mar. The kids talked to their friends back home through Kids Messenger while I blogged and Andi worked on his computer. Suddenly, Andi sighed loudly as he realized our airline tickets to Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil tomorrow were booked for the wrong day this week. Ack! This is the same flight Andi struggled to book when we were in Buenos Aires a few weeks ago because the airline’s website doesn’t work very well. Now, Andi had to contact the Spanish-speaking airline and change the date of our tickets — if that was even possible. This was not an easy task.

Andi enlisted the help of our current airbnb host in Viña del Mar, the airbnb host of our next booking in Brazil, and our past airbnb host in Buenos Aires to assist him in translating our issue with Jet Smart airlines. All of those people were so kind in doing what they could to help Andi correct the flight issue. After sitting on chat with the airline for two hours and texting back and forth with all those bilingual airbnb hosts, Andi was successful in getting our airline tickets changed from Thursday to tomorrow. Phew! I’m glad he logged in to check-in for our flights this morning, or we would have shown up in Santiago tomorrow without tickets.

It was Noon by the time that was all settled. The four of us were ready to get outside and explore the city of Valparaiso on our last day here. We hopped into an Uber and drove to La Sebastiana Museum in the Cerro Florida neighborhood. Our current airbnb host recommended this museum which was once home to Pablo Neruda — an influential poet and Chilean politician who lived in Valparaiso. His eclectic home is now kept as a museum for visitors to learn more about his life and legacy.

Our family honestly had no idea who Pablo Neruda was, but we were game to walk around a funky house and listen to stories about his life. The museum offered audio tours in Spanish as well as English, so we were able to take our time walking from room to room. The best part of the whole tour were the sweeping views of the city of Valparaiso.

After the museum, Andi and I decided to walk around the Cerro Florida neighborhood and find somewhere to have lunch. Valparaiso is built on 42 hills which almost made walking around its streets feel like a carnival maze. Cars and people are never moving in a straight line; always walking down a set of stairs, speeding up a steep hill, or weaving in between buildings. The streets are full of beautiful pieces of artwork — graffiti, mosaics, and paintings — on almost every surface.

We tried having lunch at an Italian restaurant called Trattoria Fatto de Casa, but learned we needed reservations. The four of us continued wandering the streets of Valparaiso, making our way into the Héctor Calvo neighborhood. The streets and sidewalks were so colorful and full of life; we were having the best time taking it all in.

Around one corner, we saw a group of mothers and babies gathered on a staircase listening to 90’s rap music being played by a DJ. All the mothers were dressed in black and the babies and toddlers dressed in white. We had no idea what was going on here, but enjoyed watching the group sit together on the stairs laughing and talking together.

All of Valparaiso was filled with cultural treasures such as this. We turned another courter and found a carnival taking place in one of the city squares. It wasn’t a big festival; small enough actually that we wondered if it was a kids birthday party. We eventually saw a ticket booth and determined it was some sort of small city carnival happening in the middle of the Bellavista neighborhood.

A few blocks down in another city square, we came upon a basketball game being played with loud speakers, music, and a giant score clock. There were also street markets selling handicrafts, trinkets, household supplies, and toys.

By 2:00pm, the four of us were getting hungry and there weren’t many restaurants open for lunch around us. We walked by a seafood restaurant with a nice patio, but that didn’t sound very appetizing in the moment. Another restaurant was closed for a private party. Eventually, we made our way to a place called Casa Dumplings. We were the only customers inside the restaurant, but the waitress greeted us kindly. We ordered pork and chicken dumplings, a chicken stir-fry dish, and 12 shrimp skewers. All four of us were wow’d by the flavors — even Tory who typically doesn’t like this type of food.

Andi told the waitress that our food was excellent, so she asked if he would leave a Google review. A few minutes later, Andi showed her his phone to let her know he left a review and this thrilled the restaurant chef and the waitress beyond measure. The chef (maybe the owner, too?) came to our table with a pot of green tea “on the house” as a thank you. Andi, Tory, Aden, and I enjoyed sipping green tea while marveling the wonderful twists and turns of travel. You couldn’t plan all these unique and amazing cultural experiences if you tried. Andi and I always say, it’s the people that make a place special and if we can make a connection with someone, time spent in a spot of the world is always more enjoyable.

Aden and Tory were being silly, waving their arms above their tiny tea cups like they were magicians casting a spell with steam, when Aden bumped his tea and spilled it all over his pants. The incident surprised him, and didn’t feel that great having hot tea dumped into his lap. Our new friend, the owner of the restaurant, suddenly appeared from the kitchen asking if we were OK. Aden was fine, just a little embarrassed, and now soaking wet from the waist down. A few seconds later, the chef/owner returned with a hair dryer for Aden to use to dry his pants. How kind was that?! The man insisted Aden blow-dry his pants right there in the restaurant (luckily, we were the only people there). Aden stood there, frozen and completely mortified, so I took hold of the hair dryer and helped dry his pants. I’m fairly sure Aden wanted to crawl into a hole in that very moment, but the embarrassment was better than wearing wet khakis all over Valparaiso the rest of the day.

10 stars for Casa Dumplings! We loved the food and our service was excellent. What kind, friendly people we’ve met in Chile thus far.

With full bellies (and dry pants), the four of continued walking down the streets of Valparaiso to the Cerro Bellavista neighborhood. Andi promised the kids ice cream today, so we found a place called Emporio La Rosa to sit and enjoy a treat together. Andi and Tory ordered bowls of chocolate and honey-flavored ice cream + a paleta (ice cream bar) for Aden. Sorry, Chile, but your ice cream has nothing on Argentina! Ice cream is always delicious, but these flavors were nothing compared to the amazingness of Argentina helado.

From there, we caught an Uber ride to the Concon sand dunes on the other side of the city. Our airbnb host recommended we watch the sunset here tonight. We drove through the city, following the Avenida Peru promenade until we came to gigantic hills of sand right on the roadway. What? Where were we?

The Uber driver let us out on the side of the road and the four of us started to climb the mountain of sand. Dozens of other people were doing the same thing carrying coolers, chairs, and flattened cardboard boxes.

At the top of the hill, we saw more people gathered to watch the sunset. People come to the dunes every night in Valparaiso (technically, just north of there in the suburb of Renaca) to watch the sunset. Not at all what we expected to see, but really cool nonetheless.

The four of us found a spot to sit in the sand. We had no chairs or blankets with us, so Andi and I asked the kids not to cover themselves in sand. We still had to cab back to our airbnb apartment tonight, plus we don’t exactly have laundry services at the ready. Of course, a gigantic mound of sand causes kids to lose all sensibility and within minutes Aden was rolling himself down the hill. He was covered in sand from head to foot.

The kids played in the sand while Andi and I sat on the hillside watching the sun go down over the water. The sunset was breathtaking from this point of view. It was still blowing my mind that we were sitting on a major hill of sand in the city!

After the sun set, the four of walked back down the hill to catch an Uber ride back to our airbnb apartment. Andi and I did our best to shake the sand off Aden, but it was literally in every crease of his body.

At home, Andi made Aden undress in the bathtub. I’m fairly sure he brought half of the sand dunes home with him in his pockets. We had just enough Chilean pesos left to do one more load of wash, but not enough to run the dryer. Andi and I decided it was worth it to wash the sandy clothes and air-dry them overnight.