Vina del Mar (Long weekend part 2)

After Valpo, we spent the rest of last weekend in Vina.  We took the train/metro between the two cities.  Here's the view from the train:

It was really easy to get between the two cities.  They're really pretty much as adjacent as Boston and Cambridge.  If you walked between them, I'm not sure you would notice when you left one and got into the other, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, when we got to Vina, we started walking from the metro stop, and we walked through a really smelly area.  And then I looked up and saw that this was the street name:

For the non-Spanish-speakers who read our blog, that street name can be translated as "The Bathrooms," though I suspect it's probably more accurate to interpret it as "The Baths."  Anyway, it was hilarious when it happened.  (FYI, the arrow just indicates the direction of traffic on the street, it's not pointing to anything).

This picture is for Isaac, who is really into Star Wars.  I got my picture taken with a Storm Trooper!  Check it out:

One of the most touristy/photogenic things in Vina del Mar is the flower clock.  It's made entirely of flowers!

Sam noticed and took this picture of these really cool flowers.  Don't they sort of look fake?

This is a gorgeous view of Vina as we were walking along the water towards our hostel:

And another (note the castle-looking thing in the middle):

I didn't like this because it seemed like needless killing, but I had to admit that these starfish and other sea creatures were pretty cool-looking:

We had non-sea-creatures for dinner (aka veggie sushi).  Some of them have hearts of palm, and the stuff that looks like it could be fish is actually tomatoes!

Probably I told Sam his first smile wasn't vigorous enough, so this is what we got after that:

This picture is for my mom, who has a thing for rock piles.  This was at our hostel in Vina.  The weird-looking thing next to it is covered in tiny beads:

On our beach day, we saw some really amazing sand art:

And a guy with a metal detector:

Then we had falafel (me) and "soy shwarma" (Sam) for lunch, thanks to a place we found through a guidebook at our hostel in Valpo.  It was quite tasty:

This is going to get its own whole other post, but while we were walking around, we randomly encountered a welcoming ceremony/performance for and by the South Korean Navy:

We had cotton candy that we bought on the boardwalk, which at first looked like a very silly beard on Sam:

This was so cute, in our hostel on the tables in the dining room:

We also randomly encountered another musical performance that evening, by a group that we think were the new graduates of a university in Vina or Valpo.  Dad, you would have loved this!

This was on our menu at the sushi place.  FYI, salsa just means sauce in Spanish.  But does anyone need any extra Gary?