December 10, 2017

   The sun was shining in a blue sky, there was a little wind and the temperature was 12 C, as we ventured to find the parada (bus stop) for local bus 605 to take us to Viña del Mar.  Within ten minutes we found it on Av. Playa Ancha.  The bus trip took about 20 minutes – being Sunday there was very little traffic.  We got to see lots of different areas of Valparaiso as the road followed the harbor shore. As we entered Viña del Mar, we saw the Floral Clock, known as Reloj de Flores, and pushed the button to signal to stop at the next parada.

   We had 90 minutes to explore before returning to the floral clock. We walked along Av. Marina past the modern ocean side Sheraton Miramar hotel, Castillo Wulff almost on the beach and above on the cliff, Castillo Brunet, constructed of gray stone from Portugal.  Castillo Wulff was constructed between 1905 and 1908 and in 1995 became a National Historical Monument.  We walked across the bridge over the Marga Margo creek (more like a river) to the art deco style white casino (built in the late 1920s) and its lovely gardens.  Across the street in a small mall was a McCafé where we ordered cappuccinos before returning along von Schroeders street and Viana avenue to the floral clock for the 10 a.m. walking tour. As we waited, we noticed that a Marine Level cloud was creeping in from the ocean to obscure the sun for the rest of the day.    Steps 8,723

   The walking tour met at the large floral clock in Viña del Mar. It was easy to spot the “Tours 4 Tips” guide since she was wearing a white and red striped shirt, which had a large name tag with “Wally”. It is a reference on the picture puzzle books, “Where’s Waldo”.  The Reloj de Flores (floral clock) was created for the 1962 FIFA World Cup held in Chile. It is located at the foot of Cierro Castillo (Castle Hill). It’s Swiss mechanism, with the three-meter long hour hand, keeps accurate time.  The Westminster chime logs the quarter hour and at the top of the hour the clock chimes the time and then plays a short overture which changes with the season. There is a 24-hour presence of the Carabineros of Chile, the national police force, to keep vandals from tampering with the clock. The flowers will never be the colours white and green placed together in the garden since those are the colours of the Valparaiso soccer team. The team colours of the Viña del Mar soccer team are navy blue and yellow.  Yesterday in Valparaiso the convey of vehicles waving green and white flags must have been Valparaiso soccer team fans.

   Viña del Mar hosted the Group C International Mens soccer teams in the 1962 FIFA World Cup. Eight of the tournament’s 32 soccer games were held at nearby Estadio Sausalito. Originally there were eight Chilean venues to host the games, but the May 1960 magnitude 9.4 Valdivia earthquakes caused four cities to withdraw due to severe damage to their infrastructure. Chile placed third in the 1962 FIFA World Cup.

   Viña del Mar is known as the “Garden City“. In 1971, it became the sister city to Sausalito, California and in 1993 added another sister city, Mar del Plata in Argentina. We shared the guide, Romey, with a young man from France. Romey led us up Cierro Castillo to the top where the streets Lever and Murphy meet.  They were named after a major industrial company in Viña de Mar.  We looked down at Av. Espana and the beaches toward Valparaiso.  This whole area had been industrial with no public access to the beaches since the late 19th century.  After the 1960’s and later the factories and industries were moved and a major six lane highway was built and the beaches reclaimed to become a tourist magnet.  The view of the harbour was hazy due to the Marine Level cloud settling on the city of over 350,000 people. 

   After viewing the statue of a former Castillo neighbourhood (barrio) politician at the little Lever Murphy park, we walked along the residential streets to the Chilean president’s summer home, Palacio Presidencial de Cerro Castillo, since January 1931. The mansion and gardens are open to the public only on Chilean Heritage Day in May.  It is here, on the night of December 16th, 2017, that the outgoing Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, will spend the night and find out the next day who the December 17th election will decide to be the new president.  There are three front running candidates - a former president and billionaire, Sebastián Piñera, who had 36% of the part one presidential vote in November 2017; center-left candidate Alejandro Guillier (some call the Chilean Trump) of the leftwing Frente Amplio (Broad Front) party and journalist, Beatriz Sánchez, who combined took 43% of the part one presidential vote.  The Chilean population is uncertain of what the election will bring.

   We ventured a few streets further to a viewpoint where we could get a great view of Brunet Castle, an imposing structure of gray stone commissioned in 1925 by Rafael Brunet, then sold in 1940 to Palestinian Nicholas Yurur who renovated the building, which hugs a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Yurur’s design changes added many Arabic details. It can only be viewed by the public on Heritage Day in May. Today it is the headquarters of the Carabineros of Chile. 

   Next, we walked downhill past San Jorge house with its wall of overhanging flowers to the city’s main square – José Fransisco Vergara Plaza, named after the city’s founder.  We walked along Álvarez Street and before turning at Plaza Sucre, passed Our Lady of Agony Roman Catholic Church. It was first built in 1882, but destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, then rebuilt in 1912.

  Near the square is the famous Hotel O'Higgins, where once guests invited to the presidential castle stayed until the newer Miramar Hotel, overlooking Caleta Abarca Beach, was built in 1945.  It looked like some sort of event was happening later today, as there was a grand stand in the square and a police escort looked to be assembling not far away. Opposite the hotel is the Theatro Municipal built in 1926 and undergoing restoration.

  The last place that we visited was the Quinta Vergara Amphitheatre.  At its entrance is a stone tribute to two winners of the Noble prize for Literature. They are Gabriela Mistral who won in 1945. She was a head mistress of a Chilean girls school, a famous Chilean poet and mentor to Pablo Neruda. Pablo Neruda won the 1971 Noble prize for Literature. The Amphitheatre is the site of the annual Viña del Mar International Song Festival started in 1960 which is famous across South America.  Acclaimed international music stars have played at the festival including Sting and Elton John. The 2.5-hour walking tour ended here.

   We found a Scotiabank ATM to replenish our Chilean cash and walked along Valparaiso Avenue to return to the floral clock to catch a bus back to Valparaiso.  The fare was 470 pesos ($0.87 Canadian) each.  The ride was about ten minutes.

   We got off at the Bellavista parada to walk a couple of short streets to the Lider supermarket to get some breakfast items. Lider carries some brands that Walmart stores carry. Bellavista is the neighbourhood (barrio) where the famous Chilean poet and Nobel prize winner, Pablo Neruda, lived in a hill top house called La Sebastiana which is a museum of his collections.  We walked back to our loft stopping at the Melbourne Café for a quick lunch.  It is located by Plaza Sotomayor where we plan to start some walking tours tomorrow.

   For dinner, we reheated the leftover pizzas from last evening, and accompanied it with a glass of wine.

Daily step total 22,409 (almost 10 miles)