Santiago and La Serena with special guests

My parents flew into Santiago to meet us on March 10. Like the super-troopers they are, despite the jet lag from flying in on a red eye, we spent the first day with them exploring the city. We had lunch at Patio Bellavista and then took the funicular (cable car) up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal where a huge statue of Mary watches over the city. Then we headed to La Chascona, Pablo Neruda’s house for a tour. We had excellent Peruvian seafood for dinner and ended the evening with ice cream.

The next day we headed to Quinta Normal. We wanted to go to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights but it was closed for repairs so we explored the park and visited the Natural History and Science and Technology museums. We had lunch off the Plaza de Armas and then walked through the sculpture garden in Providencia. The day ended with another top notch meal at Como Agua Para Chocolate (like water for chocolate) in Bellavista. Rich won most impressive meal as his fish was set on fire at the table. Chocolate fondue for dessert was another highlight as was the local Sauvignon Blanc.

Saturday morning we flew north the La Serena. La Serena is Chile’s second oldest city. The town itself is colonial with cobble stone streets and lots of historic churches. Nearby are Chile’s pisco region, international observatories, and, the reason we came, the Humboldt Nature Reserve.

We spent Saturday afternoon exploring the town and walking along the beach. Sunday we took a tour to the nature reserve.

We drove two hours to the harbor Sunday morning stopping along the way to see wild guanacos- a member of the camel family native to the region. We boarded a small motor boat and headed to two islands.

The first island was where all the wildlife was. We saw penguins, sea lions, sea otters, and various birds. As we were leaving the island, we saw a pod of dolphins and watched them frolic for a few minutes before heading on.

The second island was Isla Damas where we spent an hour wandering and viewing the dessert fauna. We stopped for lunch on the way back and also to see a red fox. All in all a great day for wildife viewing. That night we flew back to Santiago.

Monday we booked a private tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is a port town built on 42 hills, many of which have funiculars to transport people. The roads are windy- reminiscent of Lombard Street in San Francisco- although instead of just one, there are loads of them.

After driving around Valpo, we headed to Vina. Here we stopped at an archeology museum with a focus on Easter Island- complete with a moai from the island. Then we drove along the waterfront and stopped to view sea lions and pelicans. We had lunch overlooking the ocean and stopped at Vina Mar vineyard for a wine tasting on the way back.

Tuesday was Mom and Dad’s last day in Santiago. We visited the now open Museum of Memory and Human Rights which provided a sobering view of Pinochet’s reign. We visited the Cathedral in Plaza de Armas (even dad was impressed,  by a church,  really) and then went to the Sky Tower for views over Santiago from the top of the tallest building in South America. To end the day, we walked through Bicentennial Park and saw black neck swans and flamingos.

It was so awesome having Mom and Dad meet us! We packed a lot into six days.