After breakfast - very European (ham and cheese with little pieces of bread) we drove to Valpraiso, the main port of Chile. What a busy palce..very long local market full of evrything you ould imagine (from what I could see out the car window). Found a car park then went up a funcular (cable car) to explore the old part of town. I should mention that Valpariso is built on hills, so the houses appear to cling to steep hillsides. Up amongst the house the roads are very narow and windy. All the houses are painted in bright colours, very spectular sight. After a time we caught another funcular back down. This mode of transport is under threat of disappearing and are under some kind of international environmental protection. Pablo assures me the local government is doing something about protecting them. Anyway we arrived at the port section, saw the Chilean Navy headquaters and a great monument celebrating Chile's defeat of Bolivia and Peru in the battle of the Pacific (in the 1870's I think). Bolivia lost its Pacific coastline as a result of losing this war. Anway saw parts of the Chilean navy (all british brought).
We then headed back to the car and drove to Vina del Mar for lunch (seafood empanada's). Which were great and very filling. Had real coffee and churros on the beach, had a good walk around Vina. The town is very american, all the chains are there - burgerking, dominios pizza,mackers, starbucks etc. around 7pm we left, had just under a 2 hour freeway (well tollway) drive back to Santiago.
We then headed back to the car and drove to Vina del Mar for lunch (seafood empanada's). Which were great and very filling. Had real coffee and churros on the beach, had a good walk around Vina. The town is very american, all the chains are there - burgerking, dominios pizza,mackers, starbucks etc. around 7pm we left, had just under a 2 hour freeway (well tollway) drive back to Santiago.
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