Today my IFSA-Butler group went on a tour of Valparaiso, Chile, which is the big city near the suburb-city-ish thing where I live (called Vina del Mar)... they're about a 20 min bus ride away from each other. (and Valpo is where most of my classes are, so I'm getting very familiar with said trip) Valpo is where the Chilean Congress lives, and was the first port city in Latin America... so it's a pretty big city with lots of barcas along the coast.
We started at (one of) Pablo Neruda's houses (Chilean poet/ Nobel Prize winner/
Communist political activist/ almost-president instead of Allende)... so he's kind of famous and his house is BEAUTIFUL. Each room was a different, super bright color, with about 8 half-floors, with really cool art and furniture everywhere, and incredible views out of each window.
Next we went to some of the cerros (hills) around a few cute towns. Valpo is known for its homes that are brightly colored, from every different style of architecture, and built right into the mountainside- it was so picturesque!
We also rode on an ascensor, which is a diagonal elevator that takes you up mountains, found all over Valpo. The took us back to our tour bus that took us to the mall where we had lunch. (????)
We finished the tour with a boat ride along the coast of Valpo / Vina del Mar. We saw sea lions (or as they're called here, wolves of the sea, haha)... just hanging out on a cement island (?) in the ocean! There were a bunch of navy-looking ships and big freight-carrier ships, too, as well as a few sail boats. Que linda!
Well that was my exciting day..
Hasta luego!
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