From Santiago to the Pacific Ocean

We left Santiago and headed towards Viña del Mar on the Pacific Ocean. Fiona's birthday was the following day and we decided it would be nice to spend a couple of days on the coast before heading south towards the lake district of Chile. We were now in a new country and enjoyed noticing the similarities and differences between Chile and the other places we had been. The first thing we noticed was how remarkably clean, well-kept, and high-tech Chile was. There were very few bars on the windows, and the homes and yards were generally well cared for, (at least in the areas we drove by). In fact, we felt like we were in California much of the time. The plant life, the topography, even the smell reminded us of California. There were even California poppies lining the highways. And then there was the autopista, the South American extension of I-5 and part of the Pan-American Highway. This was the reason we had opted to go to Chile initially. We hadn't wanted to drive for 20 or so hours on the narrow highways of Argentina to get down to the Lake District. After six weeks in Argentina, we were quite happy to drive on Chile's well-maintained divided highways.


Elli with California poppies. We saw them everywhere.


Are we in the U.S.? Gas stations along the autopista were quite upscale. This one had granite counter tops in the bathroom. The prices are in pesos per liter.

Viña del Mar was pleasant, but a bit too touristy for our tastes. We did the typical tourist things like eating in a restaurant overlooking the ocean, shopping in the artesenal booths along the streets, and taking a ride in a horse drawn carriage to see the local sites. The latter activity was quite embarrassing for some members of the family. Christopher and Elli, however, were thrilled because the driver invited them to sit with him and let them drive the carriage through the streets. This was definitely something that would not have happened in California due to "liability issues."

Fiona's birthday lunch on the ocean


Our touristy jaunt in a carriage driven in part by Chris and Elli


Elli at the reins


Fiona on her birthday with the lights of Viña del Mar in the background.

Unfortunately, what we had hoped would be a relaxing few days became somewhat stressful when we discovered that Morielle had picked up a nasty lice infestation. It had been almost 15 years since I had dealt with lice and they’re never fun, but trying to deal with them in a hotel in a foreign country was definitely challenging. Since we had all been living in such close proximity I automatically assumed that everyone had them, but amazingly enough, after multiple inspections, it was determined that Morielle was the only one.

Finally on Monday we were ready to begin our journey again. We headed south along the coast, passing the famed city of Valparaiso with its steep hills and elevator cars (the “San Francisco of South America”) on the way, before heading inland again through wine country. We had a long day ahead of us.


It is hard to see in this photo, but there are two cars on the tracks. Because the city is built on steep hills overlooking the ocean, these tracks and cars are everywhere.