Viña del Mar

On the way: we took a bus to Viña, and the countryside was really beautiful and full of vineyards.

We went to Viña for two days, but rented a car and spent one of them in Valparaiso. Viña is a really cute town, really little, but its got great beaches.  Among its most famous attractions are the flower clock, castles and the casino.  We also went to this really cool café/bar called Café Journal, with collaged walls, good beer and a cat that just climbed into my lap.

Valparaiso

The thing about Valparaiso that makes it stick out a little, is that its built on a series of hills that surround the main port.  Also, and this matters when you're driving, most of the streets are one way, so finding things was a bit tricky.  So we decided to do the historic part of town by foot.  We saw the marketplace, Iglesia Matriz, then Plaza Sotomayor: the Chilean Navy Headquarters (formerly the regional gov't building), monument to the Heroes of the Iquique Naval Battle, and the port, and finally the famous clock tower (Turri), which is in the middle of the financial district.

The hills make it hard for pedestrians to get where they're going, so a series of lifts "ascensores" (they're like funiculars) take people up and down.  There are 15 funiculars throughout Valparaiso, many dating over 100 years old.  They're also quite the tourist attraction.  Some of them operate from inside buildings, so they’re really hard to find, unless you see the signs outside the building that tell you there is an "ascensor" inside.

 Then we took Ascensor El Peral (1902), one of the many elevators of the city, up Cerro Alegre (cerro means hill), saw really pretty old buildings, and went to a cafe (Cafe Lavanda) that the guide book had suggested, along with an amazing French restaurant (also suggested by the guide book).