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The glamorous seaside resort Viña del Mar and the cranky port of Valparaíso snuggle up to a wide-stretching Pacific bay.
VIÑA DEL MAR
Viña del Mar's vast sandy beaches, interrupted by picturesque black cliffs, attract many sun worshippers each summer. Visitors find well-maintained parks with noble summer villas, elegant hotels with pools, private beaches and restaurants, which have view onto the Pacific Ocean and menus brimming with fresh seafood.
In the evenings young people move from bar to bar, dance away the night in discos and wait on the beaches for the morning sun to rise.
In February the atmosphere reaches fever pitch in Viña: fans stream into the Quinta-Vergara-Park for the international song festival to see the stars and starlets who take to the stage, an event that is broadcast throughout Hispanic America.
VALPARAISO
Viña and the neighbouring Valparaíso have long amalgamated, yet the contrast could hardly be more poignant: on one hand we have a lively seaside resort, on the other a busy port - one of the largest in the country. Cranes turn to and fro on the quayside and containers pile up, the town centre has European trade offices that were already in existence 200 years ago, and behind a patriarchal facade resides the oldest Spanish-speaking newspaper: "El Mercurio", founded in 1827.
Valparaíso owes its very special, idiosyncratic flair not to the old colonial buildings dating back to the founding days, nor to its many original fishermen's pubs, but to the hills Surroundings the harbour like guards on watch. Brightly painted wooden houses are dotted all over the hills' slopes, clinging on like birds' nests. To get to the top one has to master a confusing labyrinth of steep tracks, intertwining alleys and winding roads - and ride in rattling cable railway. The ancient, yet very reliable monsters transport visitors to the lookout stations on these hills. Here one can sit in one of the terraced cafés and enjoy the panoramic view over harbour and bay. It comes as no surprise that poet Pablo Neruda had a house here too, on the Cerro Bellavista ("magnificent view").
Valparaíso's historic centre was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003 by UNESCO.
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Viña and Valparaíso
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