A video of what I saw on the bus while in Valparaiso
In class seeing the pictures of Valparaiso I was amazed at how colorful and compact the city was. But, seeing Valparaiso in real life was definitely different because I saw its colorful buildings, amazing murals, and that it borders the Pacific Ocean. Our first stop in Valparaiso was the Pablo Neruda’s house, walking through it, I could tell that Neruda was a man with a large personality and that he loved his work and friends, and he also was a player. He had like 3 wives during his life, it kind of sounds like a telenovela. Anyway, walking around The Sebastian (Parks and Rec reference) I noticed the view from his bedroom, is was breathtaking. It was a clear view of the buildings in Valparaiso and the ocean, I loved it. Then from Neruda’s house we started our walking tour. The walking tour allowed us to see the street art and murals, the town we were walking through was filled with beautiful colors and styles of art. I appreciated seeing that and as I was walking I tried to take some drawing tips for styles in my experiential map. As we were walking a few strays tagged along and followed us to the funicular, something that I noticed about the dogs in Valparaiso was that they all poop in the street. You don’t see much dog poop in Santiago and it’s probably because there’s more grass and vegetation in Santiago than there is in Valparaiso. Thinking back, I couldn’t remember walking past a park in Valparaiso.
Pictures of Valparisio and the colorful homes.
We took the bus down to Vina Del Mar and ate at El Rincón de Greda, an Italian restaurant that Sergio suggested and the food was really good. Then from there we walked to the beach. I was very excited because this was my first time seeing the ocean/ a real beach (if Lake Erie doesn’t count) and we spent 30 minutes there, but I wish I had some more time to actually swim but I enjoyed playing in the ocean. Valparaiso was one of my favorite trips that we’ve gone on and I’m so grateful for being able to see the city and the beach.
We were in Vina del Mar, playing in the Pacific Ocean.
Paityn, First off I agree that Neruda was a player. We went to his house in Santiago as well and he had a secret passage way to quarters for his mistress. He seemed like he took a lot of care in being a player. He also seemed like a drunk who loved his alcohol. But non of this made him a bad person all around or a bad poet by any means! It’s always the creative types that may have questionable character but beautiful work. But overall his house in Valparaiso was gorgeous. The views were spectacular and would make me want to write too. I also think that Valparaiso was different in person than in pictures and some of it of course was more beautiful, but some of it was more makeshift and more dirty than expected. But that’s always what happens when you go to cities. People like to talk about the perks but not the everyday difficulties or occurrences. But Viña Del Mar was very beautiful and ritzy. The beach was gorgeous. But it didn’t compare to the Lake Michigan beaches right??? Just kidding but that was also the first time I was in the Pacific Ocean! I didn’t know it would be so cold before I came here so that was a bummer. We also went to a great restaurant where I got a very large seafood soup that was awesome. Overall the day was one of my favorites and it makes me sad to go from that to the 40 degree weather in Columbus. (Sad face)