On Wednesday after class, I went to explore the Quinta Vergara park! It is right next to the international center and is a beautiful park filled with palm trees and tropical plants, and also has a famous palace, amphitheater, and museum. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon so I spent quite a bit of time in there exploring. I climbed up and up and up and eventually was above the tops of the trees and could see over them and see the coastline. It was an amazing view but I could not really capture it in a photo. Here are a few pics from La Quinta Vergara.
Later that afternoon, I went out and explored the beach in the sunshine. It was my first time wearing shorts since I got here and I loved every second of it. I walked for a long ways along the beach just exploring and taking photos. I had my first conversation with random Chileans and I was able to understand most of what the young family was saying. I also ran into some Americans for the first time! I was kind of suspicious they were Americans, and then when I walked by the guy asked me where I was from (in English) and we started to chat. They were super nice and it was neat to run into someone from the states! Here are a couple more photos from the beach.
Since Thursday was a holiday, all 3 of us slept in and then we went exploring further south in Viña to see a couple of the main tourist attractions here: El Reloj de Flores (the flower clock) and La Castilla Wulffe (the Wulffe Castle). The sun was shining and it was such a beautiful walk. It was high tide at the time we were walking down the streets along the coast, and it was crazy because the waves would whip up even above the wall and splash people walking along the sidewalk. We had a near miss with a big wave and then realized we needed to watch out in places where the sidewalks were wet. The castle is really old and cute, but it wasn't open to go inside because of the holiday so we just got photos outside.
Then we continued walking south to the flower clock. We got there at about 1:59 and bells chime and a song plays on the top of every hour, so we got to experience that when the clock hit two. It was really cool and a beautiful area, but they had an ugly big blue gracias sign sitting above the clock which kind of kills the beauty of it. I will have to keep my eyes out for if they take that sign down and then get some new photos haha. It is a completely functional clock which is so cool.
On our walk back, we decided to stop and eat at this cool looking restaurant right next to La Castilla Wulffe. It is called Cap Ducal, and is an old ship that has been renovated into a hotel and restaurant. It was not only a really good lunch, but an awesome experience. The view out the window was amazing, and our waiter was so nice. He actually spoke perfect English and it turns out he is Chilean, but was raised in Miami, Florida for most of his childhood before returning to Chile. While we were eating, the fish-cleaning guy was throwing the scraps out into the water so a TON of pelicans and gulls came up right next to our window in a feeding frenzy. They were crazy! It was so cool to see pelicans actually have fish in their pouches and eat them. The waiter told us to watch for a sea lion, because there is one that always comes every day at that time for scraps too. Sure enough, he came swimming up a little while later! He was really hard to get a picture of, but super fun to watch. We each tried a different type of fish that is very common in Chile. I had merluza. They were all SO good, and we even treated ourselves to dessert.
Just a few of the many pelicans that came up right below us!
My delicious merluza with spinach and cheese sauce.
After that, we walked home and relaxed for a while. We somehow managed to trip the circuit breaker in our house and did not know how to get it back on and had no power in the kitchen, bathroom, and my bedroom. Since we could not really do anything in the kitchen, we decided to go to a sushi place near our house for dinner and hung out there.
Today I did not have class, but Laura still had her internship today and she is also a PT intern so I went to work with her! Her kinesiólogo she works with is super nice and said I could come with. It was a really cool experience and made me so excited to start my internship this coming week! It is so amazing how health care and therapy is so similar to the United States, but at the same time so different. I am definitely going to learn a lot from being in my clinic here. I got to see a variety of patients and they were all so friendly and nice to talk to. The Chileans are SO interested in talking to foreigners and learning about life in the US. I also had my first experience with the micro buses and the metro today when I went with Laura because her internship is in a neighboring town. The metro is not totally underground which is so cool and I got to see a lot of nice scenery and buildings as we rode through the countryside.
I will probably be relaxing and doing some homework the rest of the day! Laura, Grace, and I are doing a Chilean cooking class tomorrow so I am very excited for that! Hope you enjoyed the photos and summary of my adventures! Hasta luego!
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