This morning we woke up kind of late, but Mat and I were tired from our long bus ride and staying out late the night before. For breakfast we ate some bread with cheese again, and then met up with Clay’s friend Roland (who also goes to Texas A&M) in Plaza Sotomayor. A parade was going through the middle of the palza, and people were everywhere. We walked down to the port area and hopped on a little boat, which they packed as tight as they could. We boated out where we could see the pretty shoreline of Valparaiso and there were tons of other boats surrounding us who were celebrating a Chilean holiday, so they were covered in Chilean flags, ribbons, and other decorations. It was like we were in a big parade on the water, so it was really fun. The boat tour lasted around 2 hours (1 hour too long!) and we were all starving by the time we got off.
We walked to a restaurant that Roland’s friend said was really good, which looked just like an American hamburger place. I ordered the “Churasco Especial,” which was an amazing sandwich with beef and mayonaisse on a bun, and we all split a huge order of another typical Chilean dish called Choriana. Choriana is french fries topped with mayonnaise, eggs, onions, sausage, hotdogs, beef and chicken. It sounds gross but it was actually pretty good.
After we ate we went back to Clay’s and then walked along the shore in Vina del Mar, which is a lot more touristy/resorty compared to Valpo. It was really clean and a really nice change of scenery, but both cities are very unique and I couldn’t pick one that I like better over the other. We went to a bar called Hollywood and sat and talked for a while and then went home.
