After we spent several days in Santiago, we decided to go out to the coast and visit Valparaiso and Viña Del Mar. We took a tour out to “Valpo” as they call it and then the tour company dropped us off at a really nice Marriott hotel in Viña Del Mar. We have saved up lots of Marriott rewards points over many years of traveling, so we have been able to stay at some really nice Marriott hotels for free. We love staying in hostels, because we have gotten to meet so many great people that way. But sometimes the hostel rooms are very small, dreary and not too comfortable. You never know what kind of bed or pillow or sheets you’re going to get! They don’t usually provide soap or shampoo and sometimes they don’t provide towels either. Often times they have hardly any water pressure and sometimes they don’t have hot water either. One time we stayed in a hostel that didn’t even provide toilet paper!! So every once in a while it’s nice to stay in a hotel where things are comfy and predictable 😊.

Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel we stayed in:

Valparaiso is a cool port city up on the side of a hill right beside the water. It has lots of colorful buildings with street art on them. Here are some pictures I took of the murals:

And here are a few random pictures from Viña Del Mar:

After the beach, we went back to Santiago and then flew down to a city named Punta Arenas in Patagonia. Our next posts will be from down there. It is sooooooo beautiful in Patagonia and we are having a blast!!!