Viña Del Mar

Today my calves and quads are on fire.

So as not to go up any more hills, I took the metro to Miramar which is on the coast next to Viña Del Mar. A man put his sweet dog on the seat opposite me.

I had almost booked my hotel in Viña which is said to be nicer, and now I wish I would have. Theres a beautiful flower clock and a beach!  Beaches are my happy place; therefore, I should’ve stayed here.  The water is cold, like SF cold.

A man who was possibly homeless approached me on the way to the beach. He asked if I was from Spain because of my Spanish accent. He wanted to accompany me and I said no. 

I ran into him later while I was having a beer in a cafe. After we chatted for a while, he told me he lived on the streets.  He asked for some help and I gave him two dollars. He started crying. His reaction was so raw, I  almost start crying too. He hugged me really tight and thanked me. I was truly touched.  (I haven’t seen any homeless people ask for money here, so I think it’s something that they don’t usually do.)

On the metro back, a dog came up and leaned against me. Shortly thereafter on the other end of the train, he started barking at someone. I asked the people around me if he was a street dog and they said yes, rolling their eyes. Evidently he rides the train every day back-and-forth.

The shower situation in the hostel is not good. They have a musty smell, and there was a pile of hair on the bottom of one. There are no mats to step on when you get out so the floor just becomes a puddle. I saw one bathroom that looked a little nicer than the others and asked if I could use that one.

The guy said yes so I went in, turned on the hot water, waited five minutes and it didn’t even get warm. I kept hearing this weird sound so I looked inside and the water was going past the shower straight onto the floor by the toilet. So I went out and told him about the mess I made and offered to clean it up and also told him that there’s no hot water.

He said the hot water is coming— just wait. He then gave me a mop made out of a towel tied to a broom, which I used to sop up the water. The “mop” was still dripping wet so I had to use my hands and ring it out. There’s probably pee and everything else in that towel. It disgusted me. I washed the bottom of my feet off with soap afterwards to avoid planters wart, which I got in a hostel before I started using flip-flops which, of course, this time I left in the other suitcase. 

Travel tips and Observations:

• Stay in Miramar or Viña del Mar instead of Valparaiso. If you do stay in Valparaiso, make sure you’re going to be able to handle the hills and the stairs. I better lose at least 10 pounds in this 3 days.
• Street dogs ride the metro.
• Hostels in general are not as clean than in other countries I’ve been to.
• Salads are hard to find in restaurants.
• Chile has not yet been ruined by overtourism like many beautiful countries of the world have. There is some tourist infrastructure, but Chile is refreshingly itself.
• Spring in Valpo feels a lot like San Francisco after the fog clears.