We had another great day today. We started our day by driving about 90 km southeast from Santiago to the oceanside town of Isla Negra. The famous Nobel prize winning poet, statesman, and collector of random things Pablo Neruda had one of his three houses there. It was interesting to learn more about his life and Chilean history. The house itself was also "interesting." It reminded me of an understated House on the Rock, but with a much better location.
From Isla Negra we took a scenic drive up the cost to the port city of Valparaiso. Valparaiso is Chile's second largest city, but it is quite a bit smaller than Santiago. But despite this, it feels more like you would expect a big city to feel. For its size, Santiago seems calm and laid back. It has wide streets and seems to be very clean and orderly. Valparaiso is not. It is hectic, crowded, and a little bit rougher around the edges. This probably has to do with geography. Valparaiso is built on a small sliver of land surrounding a bay (much of which was created by humans filing in the shallows) and the 46 surrounding hills. To get up and down the hills you can either take stairs or one of the century+ old funiculars.
From there we drove back to Santiago for dinner. We ate at a place near our B&B where we split two "tablas" of traditional chilean food. One was called "tierra" (land) and the other was "mar" (sea). It was another tasty meal.
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