Vina del Mar

Lucy and Alvaro arrived on Saturday arvo after being stood up at the airport. Caught the metro into the city for drinks and dinner and a bit of a wander around. Home at a sensible time, still struggling with jet lag.

Sunday we were all picked up from the hotel by Vicktor, our guide taken to Vina del Mar via wineries and Valparaiso. We checked out one of the head statues that Chile lifted from Easter Island. We had lunch at the Arab castle seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean. The meal was high quality and the bill was just high. We managed to negotiate it down to under the GDP of Chile and, obviously enjoying our company, threw in a free bottle of wine. Although I'm pretty sure it was covered for in the price.

We checked into our hotel, great, top floor again, and punched out an hour of ZZZZZs, then jumped on a local train and checked out Quilpue. We were entertained on the way back by a brass wind duo.

On our return to Vina del Mar we came across some long grassers have a few beers in the park, watching soccer on a TV wedged in a shopping trolley. They weren't going to do without their footy! We settled on a Mexican restaurant and settled in for some time.

Our hotel took some finding. I'm sure all the local residents appreciated us wandering the streets calling loudly to each other at 1 in the morning. We got stuck into our "free" bottle of wine and finished up about 2:30 with Kathy in a giggling mess after unsuccessfully losing a battle to subdue her pyjamas.

Just because we're long grassers, doesn't mean we have to without the basics!