Sat Samundar Par ... [Bienvenidos a Chile--Part -3]

First outing in Chile…. How can I forget that? After enormous rounds of requests when we were not able to get our leaves sanctioned from our boss, we were forced to plan only one day tour to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso on Sunday. But sheer joy of escape from the hotel room and tedious long work schedules of office kept us excitement alive for this trip.

I started the bus journey early morning from Santiago to Vina del Mar along with my two colleagues. Amongst 3 of us me and Mani, we both were too much happy and eager for this trip. As it was the first time we were going outside the Santiago city where we used to live in Chile. In our extra ordinary excitement of capturing all moments of that trip to cherish it lifelong we started clicking photos right from bus stand.

Within first 30 minutes itself we clicked so many photos that the battery of our camera got discharged. It was still 2 hours to go before we reach actual place to be visited!!!! Thanks to our ghanchakkargiri; we were left with only one digital camera to use which belonged to 3rd member of our gang Arun.

 

Yes..Yes.. above photo was the last shot taken from the camera which was in our charge :).

We reached Vina del Mar around 10 am. To our surprise when we got down from the bus we saw so many tourist guides lined up to offer their services. We chose one English voice from them to consult for our tour. That guide’s name was Carina. Our sole criteria to chose her as our tour guide was based up on only one thing i.e. her English speaking ability!!!!

I will share here few places and moments of the trip which are very dear to me …

Quinta Vergara: Vina del Mar's founding family, the Vergara family, used to live at the Quinta Vergara. They built their house there and the whole estate was their garden. The Quinta (Estate) itself has many Chilean trees and flowers, and it's worth the visit. The house itself is now houses the museum of fine arts, initially based on the families fine collection of art, with some interesting paintings from this century.

When we went inside this building, we were stunned by one thing i.e. footwear which was given to us. All tourists had to wear them on their shoes compulsorily in order to get inside. It was measure taken by authorities to protect all fine arts and paintings kept inside the museum from external dust!!!!

The Flower Clock of Vina del Mar: This flower clock reminded me of India. As our very own Lal bag in Bangalore has similar kind of flower clock.

The La Sebastiana Museum: One of the houses where the famous Nobel Prize winner Chilean writer and poet Pablo Neruda used as his residence.

We had captured following stunning view of Pacific Ocean from window of Study room where this great poet used to write.

“I feel the tiredness of Santiago, I want to find a house to live and write in peace at Valparaíso. Certain conditions must be given. It may not be too high or too low. It must be solitary, but not in excess. I wish neighbors were invisible. I wish I did not see or hear them. Original but not uncomfortable. Very light, but firm. Neither too big nor too small, far from everything. But close to the stores. As well, it has to be very inexpensive. Do you think I can find a house like that in Valparaíso?” Letter from Neruda to his poet friend Sara Vial. [Source: http://www.welcomechile.com/valparaiso/pablo-neruda-house-museum.html]

I came across above beautiful expectation of a house from Pablo Neruda in net. After visiting The La Sebastiana house in Valparaiso, I cannot believe myself how real they were, and how lucky Pablo Neruda was to find such an excellent dwelling for himself.

The following shot we took from this house’s garden. Both generations facing each other… and may be thinking inside how wonderful it is to be at other side!!!

Funicular: Chileans are proud of Valparaiso's designation in 2003 by UNESCO as one of the "World Heritage Sites". Certainly the Funiculars were notable features that contributed to that selection. Funicular lifts, or "Ascensores" were built to move pedestrians between the lower town and many of the hills. Most were built between 1886 and 1916.

The basic principle of funicular operation is that two cars are permanently attached to each other by a cable, which runs through a pulley at the top of the incline. Counterbalancing of the two cars, with one ascending and one descending the slope minimizes the energy needed to lift the ascending car. Winching is normally done by an electric drive working on the pulley. Sheave wheels guide the cable to and from the drive mechanism and the incline cars.

The First Ever TV interview: After enjoying our ride in one of the Funicular, we were coming outside the Funicular station. We saw a group of people were doing a movie shooting. With curiosity we 3 also joined to crowd to watch the shooting.

We came to know from crowd that it was team from Costa Rica country’s TV channel. They were shooting there for one of their travel show. Suddenly director of the show came near me and started asking me something in Spanish. As usual I could not understand a single word :). I waived our tour guide Carina for translation so that I can communicate with him.

Director wanted to confirm from us whether we were Indians. When we said yes… next request from him …he wanted all 3 of us to give an interview in his TV show about our experience as an Indian tourist in Valparaiso, Chile. We were stunned. For those 2 minutes we felt like TV star… receiving entire crowd’s attention, facing camera and answering questions of the host… Ahhh It was indeed a Ghanchakkar’s Showtime….

The Pacific Ocean [Cochoa Beach]: After visiting few other places finally we spent our evening at this beautiful beach. It was indeed ‘Sat Samundar Par’ [Beyond Seven Oceans] feeling for me.

The water of Pacific Ocean was beneath my feet. It was like dream come true for me. I never ever wanted to go back to Santiago and get drenched into a workaholic place once again. But some things are never ever in our hand to control so we 3 with delightful memories had to start our journey back to Santiago in the Evening.