Viña del Mar, Chile, Mile 303
I remain in Viña del Mar today, and will be here until Tuesday. I have completely changed and cut short my trip, I am now going home on Saturday night next week. Why? I did not do my homework properly. I assumed conditions similar to Uruguay or Brazil, but..... In Uruguay and Southern Brazil, the (excellent) main highways are two lane affairs with wide shoulders and not much traffic. Chile is both more prosperous, and geographically different. The country is only 80 miles wide in places. As a result, there is only one (1) main north-south highway, Chile Route 5. Route 5 is built to US Interstate highway standards, and cars move along it at extremely high rates of speed. It is physically impossible to move any distance north or south without using Route 5. Even were it legal, it is unsafe to ride a bike on it. I was left with the choice of either taking a bus a thousand miles north to Iquique or south to Puerto Montt, but once there (and off the freeway portion of Route 5) it is so unpopulated that hotels are too far apart for a days ride. So I did so game playing with tickets, and for very little money changed my return flight to Saturday night.
That out of the way, I spent yesterday and today exploring the twin cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Yesterday, I rode about 15 miles up the coast to a small and very rich resort called Concon. En route, I rode through another little town called Reñaca, which consists of luxurious condos built terrace style into hills so steep that instead of elevators, residents use funiculars (Look it up.) to go up and down. Also along the way, I rode past the Chilean Naval Academy. Chile has a small, but supposedly very good, navy. Who they would use it against escapes me.
Today I went in the opposite direction and returned to Valparaiso, passing my hotel of a few days ago, and continuing on until the the coastal road went into a tunnel under a mountain. Returning home, I rode all over downtown Valparaiso. It is nowhere near as pretty as Viña del Mar, but I think I like it more. Curiously, the Carabineros' patrol cars in Viña del Mar look like what you would see anywhere in the US. In Valparaiso, they look like something from Road Warrior, with anti-rock shielding over windows and lights. They obviously know their population, and I bet Valparaiso is an interesting place to be a cop. Whatever is going on in Valparaiso is only relatively "bad"; Chile overall is a safe place, in fact it is the one and only Latin American country to have a lower murder rate than the US.
In the afternoon, I went walking, wanting to ride one of the funiculars up the hill behind my condo. To my disgust, it was closed for Sunday. So I walked up instead. That was a workout, I wouldn't want to live up there without a car.
Tomorrow I am staying one more night here, there are horse races at the local track (Located in Viña del Mar, but called "Valparaiso Sporting Club " for some reason), and I like horse races. Then Tuesday I have a bus ticket back to Santiago, once again, I can't get there from here without either using an autopista or taking a route so circuitous (115 miles) and without hotels that I'd never make it in a day.
That out of the way, I spent yesterday and today exploring the twin cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Yesterday, I rode about 15 miles up the coast to a small and very rich resort called Concon. En route, I rode through another little town called Reñaca, which consists of luxurious condos built terrace style into hills so steep that instead of elevators, residents use funiculars (Look it up.) to go up and down. Also along the way, I rode past the Chilean Naval Academy. Chile has a small, but supposedly very good, navy. Who they would use it against escapes me.
Today I went in the opposite direction and returned to Valparaiso, passing my hotel of a few days ago, and continuing on until the the coastal road went into a tunnel under a mountain. Returning home, I rode all over downtown Valparaiso. It is nowhere near as pretty as Viña del Mar, but I think I like it more. Curiously, the Carabineros' patrol cars in Viña del Mar look like what you would see anywhere in the US. In Valparaiso, they look like something from Road Warrior, with anti-rock shielding over windows and lights. They obviously know their population, and I bet Valparaiso is an interesting place to be a cop. Whatever is going on in Valparaiso is only relatively "bad"; Chile overall is a safe place, in fact it is the one and only Latin American country to have a lower murder rate than the US.
In the afternoon, I went walking, wanting to ride one of the funiculars up the hill behind my condo. To my disgust, it was closed for Sunday. So I walked up instead. That was a workout, I wouldn't want to live up there without a car.
Tomorrow I am staying one more night here, there are horse races at the local track (Located in Viña del Mar, but called "Valparaiso Sporting Club " for some reason), and I like horse races. Then Tuesday I have a bus ticket back to Santiago, once again, I can't get there from here without either using an autopista or taking a route so circuitous (115 miles) and without hotels that I'd never make it in a day.
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