Day Trip To The Coast

Radiance of the Seas in Valparaiso, Chile
Lunch in Zapallar at "El Chinguirito" an excelent experience

Sun. Jan. 4, 2009
This morning Sharon and I left Santiago on the bike and headed to Valparaiso on the Pacific Ocean. As I mentioned before, Valparaiso is Chile’s main port city. The two hour ride from Santiago to Valparaiso was surprisingly warmer than I expected. I was expecting much cooler air in the morning. As we entered the city, we went straight to the port where we where came face to face with the largest cruise ship that I had ever seen. It seemed to take up the entire wharf where it was tied up. The ship was the Royal Caribbean's “Radiance of the Seas”. It dwarfed the other large cruise ship that was moored near by. The Radiance of the Seas is 962 ft. long and more than 105 ft. wide. We walked around the port for a while, then I approached a couple of police officers to ask them about the up coming visit of the Dakar Race which is due to arrive in Valparaiso the 10th of January. One of the officers told me that the race participants would be arriving at the Naval Academy, and pointed me in that direction. As we entered the Naval Academy gate we where met by two very sharply uniformed Chilean Navy men, that unfortunately knew nothing about the world famous “Dakar Rally”. So the hunt was on. Unfortunately we were unable to gain any information regarding the race. So what do you do in a case like that? You go to lunch, of course! Getting back on the bike, we passed thru the near by city of Vina del Mar. Vina del Mar is like the “Chilean Riviera” (pronounced: Vinia del Mar), very expensive and full of beautiful beach homes and large hotels dangling from the surrounding hills. Vina is so close to Valparaiso that the too are more like one big city. Once past Vina, we headed to a small, but very quaint ocean side town called Zapallar. Zapallar is a beautiful little town tucked around a small bay, off the Pacific Ocean, full of little fishing boats. In Zapallar there is a restaurant called “El Chiringuito” that is perched in one of the most beautiful locations I have seen in a while. The restaurant literally sits on the rocks at the edge of the Pacific Ocean overlooking the little bay with mountains in the background and the sea gulls at your table, no kidding! We had a great meal and met some very interesting people as well. The return trip to Santiago took us east to RT 5, the PanAmerican Highway, and then South on Rt 5 directly into Santiago arriving at about 6:00pm