Return to Viña del Mar

After two long days on the road, yesterday we returned to the beautiful beach town where our trip began - Viña del Mar. We arrived on the overnight bus from Concepción at around 7am, found a hotel downtown, took a well earned siesta (the salon cama seats are definitely more comfortable than the clasico seats for overnight trips...) and then went around town seeing how much Viña has changed since Paula left here in 1972.

The ocean surf was pounding in on the rocks that guard the coastline and at one point a HUGE wave came pouring up the beach to the dismay of many sun bathers. The new waterline was about 30 feet further up the beach than it had been and many people took a surprise swim.

Last night we picked up Lola and her sons Francisco and Daniel at their home and went out for a traditional Chilean dinner. After strolling around their neighborhood for a while we decided on a restaurant that seemed to offer the sort of selection we were looking for and stopped in. The dinner was great fun as we caught up on what had happened here in Viña and they heard about our trip south. Francisco took this picture of us. The table includes seafood (Paula's fish and Lola's mussels) and Francisco and my pork chops (I tried a Bolivian beer that gets high marks due to being brewed at such a high altitude - or at least that's what Francisco tells me... It was very good) along with Daniel's melanessa - what we call chicken fried steak.

One highpoint was when I had Paula ask Lola, Daniel, and Francisco if they thought she had an accent (after 30 years in the states hearing mostly Mexican or Central American Spanish it wouldn't have surprised me if she no longer sounded like a native Chilean) and immediately, almost in unison, both Francisco and Daniel said, "Gringo!" That sure answered that question...

I think we're going out being tourists today in the neighboring city of Valparaiso (the shipping center and main port for Chile). I also have a couple things to write about and hope to get to them sometime this evening. We're again staying at Lola's apartment, so I should have computer access while everyone else is chatting.