Beach Entertainment (Valparaíso)

 

This is the view from the train platform above Playa Caleta Portales, Portales Cove Beach.

We were surprised to see enormous sea lions racing down the beach into the water! They spend a lot of time under the restricted fishing pier, and for good reason. The fish market is on the east side of the beach and scraps are regularly thrown off the pier. Birds also compete for scraps, so it's a very birdy place!

Lots of Peruvian Pelicans hanging around. I love the color of their pouch.

Guanay Cormorant (below right)

I wonder what this conversation is about. Males, like this one on the right, have a mane and can weigh twice as much as a female, up to 770lbs and reach nearly 10ft long! You do NOT want to mess with these guys!

Inca Terns and Peruvian Boobies 

When the bump, bump, bump sound of the cart rolling over the pier is heard, everyone comes running! They know that cart is full of fish and crab scraps. And the drama begins! 

It was really entertaining to watch the birds. We ended up coming to this beach twice during our stay.

Birds were created to eat fish whole. When they eat fish carcasses, the bones can puncture their thin pouch and lead to starvation and death. This is one of the main reasons it's illegal to feed pelicans in the USA. This pelican was struggling to swallow this carcass. It kept spitting it out and trying again. 

Beyond the pier sits a lighthouse, and beyond that, to the left, massive sand dunes right along the coast! They're nearly as tall as the sky scrapers! Wouldn't those be fun to check out?!

While Asher was fishing, I looked out over the water and thought I saw a baby sea lion swimming all by itself, but almost immediately it went underwater. When it popped up again, I realized it wasn't a sea lion, but a PENGUIN! Yay! It's immature, so it's hard to say if this was a Humboldt Penguin like we saw in Peru, or a new species for me. Ugh! Bird ID can be so tricky!

Viña del Mar 

Another day we took the train further to the town of Vina del Mar. After walking thru the city for a bit, we had dinner at a burger place that also sold ice cream burgers- on a bun with chocolate sauce! Of course Journey had to try it. I asked Daddy to get us a pint of Cold stone Ice cream and he came back with a half gallon! They were out of pints, ha! And you know what? We ate the whole thing! Then we ended up at Playa el Sol (the beach). Asher fished from the pier called, Muelle Vergara.

Getting home was a challenge. We tried ordering a car, but right before picking us up, they would cancel. Was it because they didn't want someone riding in the front seat? That happened before. Who knows. We couldn't even find a taxi. It turns out during covid, most of the taxi drivers had to find other jobs and few returned. Also they only pick up from certain locations, which we had no way of knowing.... It was a long hike back to the train station and we were already exhausted! Then we found the ascensor was closed, so we then had to hike up a hundreds stairs to get to our house! Oy!

Our last morning we boarded a double decker bus to take us to Santiago. Our final destination.

Valparaíso, Chile, a colorful city on the hills

After the most beautiful flight ever, we arrived in Santiago, then took a two hour drive to the coastal town of Valparaíso. First impressions were intimidating. The flats, as they're called is the downtown business sector, and it was loaded with graffiti. In our culture, graffiti is an indication of gangs and illegal activity. As the car climbed up the very steep hills, the paintings changed from graffiti to murals on walls and buildings. Ahh, the feelings of danger subsiding. We arrived and were shown to our double bunk bed room in a shared home. This was another new experience for us. The first night we were the only ones there, but by the time we left, there were more than eight people and only two bathrooms to share! Yikes! We did enjoy some interesting conversations with people from Chile and France.

And check out our rooftop view- both photos above! We played a game of Dobble Connect while admiring the view and then headed out for sushi at Puerto Rolls. We were shocked when we did the conversion to realize their rolls were only $3-4 each! The food was good too! So good, we returned for dinner the next night too. We would have gone a third time, but they were closed. Boo!

This UNESCO city is built on 42 hills called cerros. And we thought Lima and Cusco were steep!  It makes going places interesting. A nearby restaurant looks easy to get to on a map, but once you start walking, you might find it's on a different cerro, which means you either have to climb a hundred stairs or take an ascensor (funicular). The ascensors are really cool. Built in the late 1800s-very early 1900s, they are kind of like a diagonal elevator, that transports 10-30 people at a time up or down a cerro. These are extremely long and steep, the longest is 580ft tall! There are 22 ascensors to choose from. The price varies between 100-300 Chilean pesos per ride ($0.10- 0.30 USD). 

Valparaiso is known for the brightly colored homes and murals thruought the hills. Some are really amazing and realistic, while others are cartoonish or whimsical. 

Even the stairs are painted!

At the top of the rainbow stairs is such a cute section of ice cream shops and restaurants with seating on the cobblestone alley.

There's a vendor market in the square quite often. We found some cute earrings and beaded bracelets here.

I think this might be my first Tsunami evacuation route sign.

To the BEACH! 

The train skirts the coastline and is easy to use. I absolutely love this little library right at the train station! How convenient!

Apparently we're not the only ones who enjoy the beach. This dog overheard our plans and got on the train with us! I'm so curious if these dogs ever make it back home? Do they have a home? Are they street dogs? So many questions... Upon our arrival at the beach, we were delighted to find tons of enormous sea lions and tons of birds! (Next post)