Today, we got up early and after breakfast caught the subway [Red Line] from Manuel Montt to Pajaritos at around 8:00am. After approximately 35 minutes we arrived at our destination. We went above ground at Pajaritos to the bus stations and there were many. We caught Turbus, and went to Valparaiso, a UNESCO site. The bus ride was about one and a half hours long.
This option of taking the subway and then going by bus was so easy and the cheapest way to go. Not only did we save money from not paying for a tour, but we also spent a longer day here and it is so worth it.
Once we arrived at the bus station in Valparaiso, we walked down towards the water. We happen to come across a huge farmers market … talk about a lot of fruit and vegetables.
We then walked quite a while heading to the center of Valparaiso, I would suggest taking the local transit as it was a lot further than we thought. However, we made it and then started our own independent tour.
We first walked up to the cemetery. In section one of the cemetery, it was of foreigners who had lived and died in this area. Section two had more to do with the locals and was quite interesting.
We then started our own tour using the map we got from information yesterday morning. Our beginning was to take the old funicular up to the first hill. Here we walked the streets and were absolutely amazed at the paintings … every street, every alley had something different. This was so interesting.
At the end of our own tour we ended down by the waterfront. Here you can take a boat out to take photo's of Valparaiso from the harbour. When you look at the photo below you will understand why we opted not to bother with this tour. LOL
We took our time, and even though there was a free three hour tour, we were able to cover the same area taking our time and not having a huge group of people in the middle of our photos.
It was about 5:30pm and we took the train to Vin del Mar. This was another tour area we heard about that had a beautiful beach. It was certainly too far to walk, but the train ride was inexpensive a perfect way to go. After arriving at Vin del Mar, we walked for quite some time and soon arrived near the beach. At this point we were very hungry and stopped in restaurant for some cold beer and pizza. This was very tasty and wonderful staff that worked here.
Off we went to the beach and we just had to stick our feet into the Pacific Ocean in South America.
After taking a few pics we decided to head back to the train station and then walked up to the bus station. We got to the bus station about 9pm and we were informed that our bus would be leaving at 9:30pm. We arrived in Santiago at a few minutes after 11pm. We walked down to the subway station to find that the gate was locked. We went back upstairs and thought about taking a taxi when I noticed that some people were walking down stairs to the subway on the outside. We went down the stairs and got through the gate. Once on the subway, we noticed that the security guards were clearing each platform. We caught the last subway of the evening heading back to Manuel Montt where we were staying. A perfect end to a perfect day!!!