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Through the Night Brightly
Viña del Mar offers a multitude of activities at night-time. Because it is quite small, you can easily stroll around at night without too much concern for your personal safety.
Start your night tour on one of the beaches and wait for the sun to sink into a pool of pinks and purples. A good place to do this is by the Vergara Wharf, circled by enchanting gardens where handicraft artists, puppeteers, jugglers and other street artists perform for the coins you might throw in their hat. You will also see fire eaters, youngsters walking around on stilts and all sorts of other street acts, traditional in seaside resorts up and down the country, especially during the summer months.
Moving on to San Martín Avenue, there are many places to stop if you are feeling hungry, such as the Rincón Austríaco, and the Haikú Sushi Bar Restaurant. Belgian cuisine is offered in La Ciboulette, Italian pasta in Fellini, and San Marco, and Tex-Mex specialties in El Margarita and Santa Fe, along with Basque dishes in Basko Delicias del Mar, which offers appetizing delights from the ocean. If you want more sophisticated food, such as duck or quail eggs, there is La Cucina di Vacareza. Other establishments, like Fornoni and Chez Gerald, specialize in fish and shellfish dishes, and there is Brazilian cuisine to be savored at the Guris Brasileiros.
After you have eaten your fill, you will no doubt be looking for entertainment. For this, there is no better place than 5 Norte Street, the city’s pub zone, situated between Peru and San Martin Avenues. Here are found Sub Terra, Hollywood and Bar K, all very much in vogue, where you can relax, take a cool drink and enjoy one of the typical wooden trays of cheese and cold meats, if you still have space for food, that is. This, however, is what Viña del Mar night-life is all about, eating, drinking and making merry to the full.
Leaving the bar and pub zone, and following the same street running towards Plaza Colombia, you will reach the local Casino. If you are in a gambling mood, you can try flinging your hard-earned pesos at the fruit machines or the roulette table, but don't get carried away. The tour is only beginning.
Now that your pockets are almost empty, (or full, depending on your luck) leave the Casino and walk south to Valparaíso Avenue. The commercial center of the city by day, at night it transforms into a huge street theatre with buskers, clowns, mimes and other performers. Stroll a while through the crowds and enjoy the shows. There are plenty to choose from.
By now, the night has set in, and it is time for dancing. Near here is a lively disco called Scratch, popular with locals and tourists alike, that plays techno, tropical and pop music. To get there, walk towards Plaza Vergara and then turn right towards the railway station. Before crossing the track itself, turn left into Bohn Street and there you will find the discotheque.
After a few hours, if you want to keep on dancing in a new place, check out the Café Vallarta. It is far from here, but worth it. The drinks are sold at cost!
To finish the tour and greet the morning, have a blurry-eyed breakfast in Valparaíso Avenue, where you will find many humble and popular restaurants serving good hearty food. Alternatively, you return to your hotel, sleep the night off and have a late breakfast in the Tirol by the Concón beach. The delightful view will certainly help to compensate for any physical inconvenience you might be feeling after your night tour of Viña del Mar.
Daytime in the Garden by the Sea
Otherwise known as the Garden City, Viña del Mar is surrounded by four large parks: the Botanical Gardens, the Quinta Vergara, the Sporting Club, and the Sausalito Lagoon. Further greenery is in the multitude of plazas, gardens and floral displays that can be found throughout the area.
Start the tour at the famous Flower Clock, with its multi-colored floral decorations centered around a huge time-piece donated by Switzerland in 1962 during the world cup of soccer held in Chile that year. Nearby is Caleta Abarca cove, a rocky section of coastline, battered by foaming waves.
Moving north along the coast, you will see on the right-hand side the old Ross Palace, which now houses the Arabic Union Club. Depending on the time of day, you can stop there for refreshments.
A bit further up along the coast there is a wonderful vantage point to stop and take in the ocean next to Wulff Castle. The castle is home to the Maritime Museum, open every day except Monday. Just inland from here can be seen the Palacio Presidencial, the President's official summer house, perched on top of Castillo Hill with a magnificent garden running down the hillside. If the flag is raised, President Lagos at home.
Continuing the journey further north, you will find the boat-shaped Cap Ducal hotel and restaurant, which take their maritime theme very seriously. Continue along the same street, following the Marga Marga river bed (which can be wet or dry depending on the time of year) until reaching the corner of Von Schroder Street. On the nearby hilltop can be seen the Brunet Castle, now in the possession of the carabineros of Chile, the local police force.
Keep going along the same Avenida Marina until you reach Ecuador Street, then turn right towards Valparaíso Avenue, the commercial center of the city.
If you set out early and it is now midday, time to take a break and join the locals in a cup of coffee or a glass of something cool. There are many places nearby for this, such as the Big Ben, Anayac, or Samoiedo cafés. Further along Avenida Valparaíso on the right-hand side is the handicraft market, located in Pasaje Cousiño.
If you are feeling tired after so much walking, maybe it is time to abandon the pedestrian world for a while, and take a Victoria. These are horse-drawn carriages which regularly leave and return to Plaza Vergara, and their prices can often be negotiated with the driver. Once on board and trotting, take a good look at the surrounding plaza, especially some of its older buildings like the French-looking Hotel Español. Within the same block you will see the Municipal Theater constructed in a similar style as the Español, and the regal Hotel O’Higgins.
Leaving Plaza Vergara behind, and riding down 3 Norte Street you will trot past the Carrasco Palace, now home to the city’s public library. In the building’s front garden there is a sculpture, called “The Defence”, by Rodin and given to Chile as a gift from France. The carriage then takes Avenida Libertad, where the neo-Gothic Church of the Carmelite order is located. From there you will be taken to 8 Norte Avenue, turning left to find yourself under a kind of arch formed by intertwined treetops. In this sector, mainly residential with houses dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, you will reach the corner of the San Martin Hotel with Avenida Peru, on the southern side of the Plaza Colombia. Now rested, you can bid farewell to horse and carriage beside the Floral Calendar, and continue the journey by foot.
If you are feeling hungry, you can cross the gardens of the Municipal Casino towards the gastronomic center of the city located in and around Avenida San Martin.
Back on the road again after lunch, keep going northwards until you reach 8 Norte Street. To your left is one of the entrances to Acapulco Beach if you feel like a swim. At this point a newcomer to Chile should be informed that it is not advisable to sunbathe too frequently, especially during the mid-afternoon. Thanks to the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic, solar radiation reaches a high level here, and you can easily burn with less than twenty minutes exposure. There is still not much consciousness of this fact in Chile, in spite of the increase in melanomas.
Finally, carry on up the coast where to your right are a row of twenty-story apartment blocks, gazing like concrete sunflowers out to sea. Further up the road you will see Vergara Wharf, where anglers keep a silent evening vigil over the much calmer ocean waters. You can either stay to congratulate them on their catch, or have a stroll in the nearby gardens and handicraft market. And then, if it is now evening, watch the sun ride off below an iridescent horizon before making your way to a restaurant for dinner.
A Trip to the Botanical Gardens
This is a good tour to take either in the morning or the early hours of the afternoon, especially for those people accompanied by their children. You can reach the gardens by taking bus number 20 in Viana Street right in front of Plaza Vergara, or by taking the local train, and then getting off at Laboral Station. By foot or car, go eastwards along Valparaíso Avenue for four blocks from Plaza Vergara, then turn right onto the Limache road. The route towards the park passes through the El Salto neighborhood, now an industrial zone.
After passing the El Salto train station, you will find a bridge crossing the stream of the same name. The water flows down from deep gorges between the hills, which in the past were covered by thick forest. The copihue, a beautiful, bell-shaped red flower and one of Chile’s national symbols, was found here by two Spanish botanists called Ruiz and Pavón at the end of the eighteenth century.
To the right of the bridge, following the old road to Limache, there are two monoliths: one is in remembrance of the first paved street in Chile, and the other a memorial to Admiral Gómez, who died on this spot in a car crash. Here you will also find the bus terminal, from where, turning left and crossing the bridge over the Marga Marga estuary, you finally reach the entrance to the National Botanical Gardens themselves. To gain access to the more than 400 hectares of verdant parkland, adults need to pay 350 pesos and children 100 pesos. The gardens occupy a small valley lodged between the surrounding hills, with a wooded area that was planted back in the 1920s.
At the entrance to the gardens there is a large circular esplanade, surrounded by beautiful specimens of flora, leading onto an avenue which changes in color and tone depending on the season. Visitors pass many different types of trees and a palm grove before reaching an ornamental lake. From here a path continues on through the woodland area, and then passes a picnic zone, where you will find the ideal place to take a rest and a snack, surrounded by the delicate murmurs, colors and odors of nature. It is strictly prohibited to light fires of any sort, so please do not plan any barbecues.
This parkland was built by the saltpeter magnate Pascual Baburizza, whose house of residence, the Barburizza Palace, is the present-day Fine Arts Museum in Valparaíso. The millionaire planted many of the trees found throughout the gardens, which was called the El Olivar Estate. On his death, the land was bequeathed to the Chemical and Mining Society of Chile, from where it passed into the hands of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1951, the body that decided to turn the area into the National Botanical Gardens.
The gardens contain more than three thousand species of flora, many of significant botanical value. One such important example is the toromiro, found close to the esplanade next to an arboretum. Originally a species from Easter Island, where it was all but wiped out, the hard, dark wood was commonly used by the Rapa Nui people in making their “talking boards” and “Island Toromiros”.
The gardens also house one of the most extensive cactus collections in the whole country, which can be visited only by previous arrangement. The National Botanical Gardens are the ideal place for nature lovers, who seek a brief rest from all the hurly-burly and noise of modern society. During the winter period the park closes an hour earlier, at six o’clock.
Following the Coastline to Concón
This tour, perfect for those who like to feel the caress of a fresh sea breeze on the face, begins on the outskirts of Viña del Mar, passing through Reñaca, and finishes in Concón. Rocks, foam, salt and a vast deep-blue sky and ocean stretching off towards the horizon, await the visitor.
Leave the city heading north by either Libertad or San Martín Avenues. Then take the Salinas road which runs parallel to the coastline, with its oil-storage installations located on the first stretch. The road then runs past an area belonging to the Chilean navy, and includes a stadium that was once a salt refinery belonging to an Englishman. Here, seawater would wash into specially designed pools and evaporate to leave behind its valuable mineral content, as well as the name bestowed on the surrounding neighborhood (salinas means saltworks in Spanish).
This stretch of beach, called Los Marineros (the Sailors), comes to an end by a large rock, on the other side of which begins Borgoño Avenue and Salinas beach. Small and protected from the coastal winds by a large containment wall, this is a good place for families looking for somewhere safe to go swimming with the children.
From this roadway, which skirts along the coastline, you can spot houses perched precariously among the rocks, and on the side of the hill there is also a handicraft market, very popular among visitors during the summer. Finally, in the distance, you will be able to make out Reñaca itself. To the right another road runs up towards the Jardín del Mar neighborhood, but if you carry straight on, crossing the bridge over the Reñaca estuary, you will reach an extensive beach, with a promenade and buildings rising up the hillside in terraces. In the summer time, this particular place is extremely popular among Argentinean tourists.
From this beach continue north-bound, going past buildings, apartment blocks and a whole line-up of seafood restaurants, until finally arriving in the Cochoa district. Here there is a small beach, well protected from the winds, with quite tranquil waters. Before Reñaca became so popular, this area, with its Sea Lion Promontory and numerous eateries, was "the" place to stay when visiting the coast.
Further north, huge sand dunes rise up along the shoreline, which should especially delight any young children with you. These constantly shifting mountains of golden sands were formed by the silts washed down from the coastal highlands by the rivers running towards Viña del Mar and Reñaca. Deposited on the shoreline by the waves, the sands were finally formed into dunes by dry south-easterly winds.
Three kilometers further on, you will find the Sea Lion Promontory. You can spend hours watching these fascinating beasts, so sluggish on land, yet so adept in the water, their mournful howling drifting up from the rocks and waves.
After a long stretch of rocky, beach-less coastline, the huge Oceanic Rock looms up into the sky. Even though it has been declared a Nature Sanctuary, the place unfortunately looks dirty and unkempt, thanks to the litter left behind by many of its visitors. In Chile, the culture of respecting and protecting the environment is still in its infancy. Taking a last look back towards Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, before they disappear behind the rocks, carry on north-bound.
Around the bend in the road you will see a plaque on a boulder. This commemorates the last dynamite explosion used in the titanic task of constructing this coastal highway. The explosion was set off by remote-control from the Moneda Palace in Santiago in 1917.
The road then hits a huge curve that ends by the small Los Lilenes beach, followed by the Caleta Higuerillas cove, which shelters two small harbors and a yacht club. It can be quite interesting to watch the colorful little boats of the local fishermen, whose job is certainly not the easiest of tasks. In this cove there is also a number of good restaurants to help satisfy your appetite.
From here on the road continues in an almost straight line, past houses and beaches with very little sand. Some of the highlights along this stretch of shoreline are the waves on Negra Beach and the long Amarilla Beach which, with its two hotels and promenade, forms the nucleus of Concón.
A good way to bring this tour to a satisfactory conclusion is to visit the bridge over the Aconcagua river estuary. The view is absolutely wonderful, and bird watchers will find themselves in their element. This area is an important breeding and resting ground for migratory species that have traveled from all over the Americas, such as the Humboldt penguin, along with cormorants, pelicans, and Franklin gulls and sandpipers, that have flown all the way from the northern American continent.
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