Zapallar - Recipe for escape

Drive two hours north from the jumble of Valparaiso, through the crisp modern condos of Vina del Mar, the aging step-back apartments of laid-back Renaca, the commercial anarchy of Concon's roadside stands.


Take the coast hugging option coming out of the traffic circle and cruise past Ritoque's magnificent coastal dunes.  Avert your eyes from the crude industrial copper mine then slip into the sparse coastal hills.  The houses get bigger, more Mediterranean-cubist as you approach Cachagua.  From here you can smell the wealth of Zapallar.

Turn to the sea and slip down the slope to a treed ravine at the neck of a yellow sand cove.  At a  makeshift manual gate a polite teenager warns you of the $1.50 per hour parking fee,

And you've arrived.

Park under the shade of the monstrous pines, reserve a stretch of billowing sand with your towel and venture to the water's edge.  It's as far as you will get unless your blood runs as cold as the Antarctic Humbolt Current.

But then follow the curving stone path around the promontory on the right and enter a genteel enclave of seaside privilege.

Pristine green-blue surges, flecked with spotless foam, polish the granite outcrops with sun-sparkle power.

Riding the swelling hillside, extravagant summer homes face down the extreme views with broad terraces and expanses of glass.

Tended gardens flow down forbidding slopes into pockets of red and yellow wildflowers teasing the edge of high tide.

At the extreme reaches, adventurous architects challenge the elements with sturdy structures balanced on massive outcroppings.

Zapallar may be a day's escape from Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, but it's a magnificent world unto itself.



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For an alternative day-trip out of Valparaiso, consider:
- a vine tasting expedition to the Casablanca Valley half-way back to Santiago (right)
- a pilgrimage to Pablo Neruda's sea front refuge at Isla Negra. 

Sensuous Valparaiso, Chile

Languid, cool-white fog envelops Valparaiso's crumpled ridges.  Corrugated houses spill chaotically down her mysterious contours in rust and lurid paint.

The cold Pacific at her feet, dark moods of overcast confront the defiant joy of working-class lives. 

The past intertwines with tomorrow's hopes in a seamless swirl of artistic energy. 

Stretching across 42 'cerro's (hills) embracing a sheltered bay, Valparaiso may be South America's most intriguing city:  a base for Conquistadors, plunder for Pirates, wheat sent to the California gold rush and a welcoming haven for ships surviving Cape Horn.  

Square-cut stone edifices pay tribute to her banking heyday, crowding linear streets in the port-facing commercial centre "El Plan". 

But romance still caresses the ridges above.

Over generations, fortunes were won and show-pieces built.  The city's Fine Arts Museum is harboured in Palacio Baburizza, a florid Art Deco mansion on the slopes of Cerro Alegre.

Signs of substance are everywhere, but history deals cruel blows.  Earthquakes undermined the city and its confidence; the Panama Canal redirected traffic away from Cape Horn; Military regimes and the swings of a resource-based economy crushed dreams of prosperity.

Today the chaotic jumble of history provides poetic vistas at every turn.  

Writers and artisans keep company with dockworkers' families in the defiant tumble of neighbourhoods, embellished with artistic vision, palms and jacarandas.  

Attracted by UNESCO World Heritage designation, tourists now flock to Valparaiso, staying in rebuilt mansions, or up the coast is glitzy Vina del Mar high rises. 

They ride the rickety wooden elevators between neighbourhoods, shop galleries and corner stores, take boat rides through the busy port and stop for sumptuous meals featuring the freshest seafood from Chile's cool coastal waters.

History and colour tumble down Valparaiso's streets.  Each corner and courtyard, staircase and elevator offer intriguing glimpses into the joy, mysteries, heartbreak, success and failure of lives lived at full tilt in a sensual city by the sea.

Retreating to the modern comforts of Vina del Mar or Renaca across the bay, we catch our breath, gaze into the false glitter of fading light and feel the sensual tug of Valparaiso's mysteries. 

-30- 

Pablo Neruda: 

  Valparaiso, 

  how absurd

  you are ...

  you've never

  had

  time to get dressed,

  life

  has always

  surprised you."

**