Danny Diaz stared out into the Pacific, scanning the water, ready to dash at the right moment. “We are here to catch a sider,” Diaz, 24, said, referring to what he considers the perfect wave, as he stood on the sandy embankment where the inlet Estero Marga Marga meets the ocean in Vina del Mar, Chile. He was with a group of friends, all skimboarders, a sport Diaz described as “a mix between skateboarding and surfing.”
Diaz, a South American skimboarding champion, called Vina del Mar “the Chilean version of Laguna,” adding that “here you need to use more technique than in California.” The water is chilly – the reason he’s in a wetsuit – but that doesn’t stop wave fanatics in this stretch of the Pacific coast.
Up and down the coast from Vina, you’ll find other surfing hot spots, but the region is about more than just waves. It’s less expensive than some other well-known South American resorts, like Uruguay’s Punta del Este, and is popular with Argentines and Brazilians, who come for its family friendly atmosphere. Media stars and cultural elite from Santiago, the Chilean capital, also head here during the summer high season, which runs from December to February, adding a touch of glamour. (Prices are generally lower and crowds smaller during the coming low season.)
Vina del Mar, Spanish for “vineyard by the sea,” is simply called “Vina” by Chileans, or sometimes “Garden City.” Among the largest resorts on the South American Pacific coast, with a population of about 300,000, the city is an hour and a half west of Santiago. Visitors from the United States and Canada often come only for a day, pairing it with a stop in neighbouring Valparaiso, before returning to Santiago or their cruise ship. But as Chile opens its complex charms to more visitors, that routine is beginning to change. (Vina’s draw is well known to Chileans, including the president, whose summer residence is there.)
Vina began in the 1870s as a resort suburb of Valparaiso, connected to that city and to the capital by train. After a 1906 earthquake damaged Valparaiso, Vina expanded with new architecture transforming its seaside cliffs. One such structure is Castillo Wulff, a Germanic turreted granite castle set on a rocky point. Over the years, it has become a symbol of the city (much like the nearby giant floral clock that spells out the city’s name and faces the ocean, offering a brilliant greeting to passing cruise ships). Called Cerro Castillo, or Castle Hill, this part of town is one of the oldest, full of other century-old whimsical homes jutting from the cliffs. The city is divided by the Estero Marga Marga, lined with colourful mid-century high-rise towers, their facades faceted by balconies tilting to the sea.
Earthquakes are an ongoing part of Chile’s history, and though Vina suffered modest damage from the February 2010 quake, it is still overcoming perceptions of greater devastation, said Arturo Grez, the city’s tourism director. He added that he had told Argentine tour operators that “Vina del Mar and Valparaiso are still functioning normally,” with restaurants and hotels open. (Some museums in older structures, like the Museo de Bellas Artes, were damaged and remain closed.)
The other challenge, Grez said, is getting visitors from the United States and Canada to spend more than a day here. “If you sleep in Vina, you see more things,” he said, regardless of the season: the ski resort Portillo is only two hours away; the Casablanca Valley wineries, best visited during the harvest season in March, is a 45-minute trip. But Vina is a great place for some simple relaxation. Grez compared the city to Miami. Indeed, it’s not unusual to find health-conscious locals jogging on the waterfront promenade, which was refurbished in 2010 with beach-side fitness areas.
Beyond the beach, Vina offers an interesting array of festivals, the most important being the decades-old Vina del Mar International Song Festival, held in February in Parque Quinta Vergara (Sting headlined the 2011 festival).
Quinta Vergara, a hilltop park and cultural complex overlooking the city, serves as a cultural hub for Vina. Every weekend in January, the same amphitheatre where the Song Festival is held also hosts the Conciertos de Verano, or Summer Concerts, with performances by classical musicians from Santiago’s Municipal Theater.
It is also the site of the Feria de Artesania de Vina del Mar, or Handicrafts Fair, held in January and February; this year’s edition featured artists from 15 countries. All through the summer, a local handicrafts market is open daily on the oceanfront promenade. (The park is open year-round for strolling, jogging and other activities.)
Isabella Castro Freudenthal, a college professor living in Vina, recommended using the city as a home base to explore Chile’s seaside and the neighbouring towns. “I always tell people ‘See Valparaiso because it’s beautiful and romantic, but stay in Vina del Mar because it is comfortable and safe,”’ she said.
One lodging option for travellers is the 142-room waterfront Sheraton Miramar. Castro Freudenthal is a regular at its spa: “I can work out and look at the ocean,” she said. (It will soon have competition from a property under construction on the promenade. Currently in negotiations to be branded a Hyatt, it is scheduled to open in 2014.)
As one might expect from a resort town, Vina offers a variety of night-life options, much of which is centred at the 1930s-era Casino and Hotel del Mar, set in a palm-lined oceanfront park, and Ovo, its weekend nightclub. But there’s plenty to enjoy beyond the casino. Young locals, in fact, can recommend something for any weeknight. Prisilla La Rivera, 22, a part-time clothing designer who also works in the casino’s office, likes the boisterous Bar Spartako. “I come with my friends to share beers,” she said, “and the music is great.”
A few blocks away, Cafe Journal is quiet during the day. But at night, DJ’s spinning pop and rock classics from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s liven up the place. There’s not always dancing, but the bar’s manager, Francisco Araya, said, “if the people feel like moving, yes, there is.”
And there are plenty of options for those recovering from night-life jaunts. Tiffany Norwood, from Washington, D.C., said staying in Vina over a long weekend gave her time to savour the city on a trip with friends. “We ate brunch for hours; the pace reminded me so much of Italy, just swap pasta for seafood and grappa for pisco,” she said, adding, “when it comes to the wine, there’s no swapping needed.”
But it was the setting she liked most about Vina. “The beach is beautiful,” she said. “You have the sea with a mountain backdrop.”
Though it hosts familiar chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks along its main restaurant strip Avenida San Martin, Vina also offers semi-hidden culinary spots. In the cluster of narrow dead-end streets called Pasajes, several blocks from the casino, you’ll find family restaurants like the lunch-only Donde Willy, run by Miguel Valdivia. “People in Vina eat too many fast things,” Valdivia, 22, said. “The idea was to have a place where people could eat traditional food of Chile.”
During a recent visit, Valdivia showed off plates of cazuela de vacuno (beef slow-cooked in a stew of pumpkin, potato and choclo, a thick native corn) and merluza frita (fried hake, served in a sauce of tomatoes, onions and cilantro) – dishes culled from his mother’s recipes.
Right on the oceanfront, the food gets even fresher. In the small beach resort of Concon, a few kilometres north of Vina, fish are caught offshore in small boats and brought to Restaurante La Gatita, built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the ocean.
Claudia Kravetz, a 35-year-old lawyer based in Santiago, grew up in Vina and likes to visit the restaurant on weekends. “There’s a phrase we use in Chile – ‘bueno, bonito, barato’_ good, pretty and cheap,” she said. “Gatita is like this.”
Gatita is also a favourite of Castro Freudenthal’s – and not just for the food. She said driving and looking at the vistas all along Avenida Borgono, the shore-hugging road that leads from Vina to Concon, were pleasures all their own. “This is a real Chilean view,” she said. “There’s the beach, then a hill, a valley, then the mountains in the distance. It’s what makes me love living in Vina.”
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