So the title says Viña del Mar… but like we said yesterday we are actually in Concon. This region has many little cities that are pretty much continuous without any real breaks between them. For example, yesterday we went from Valparaiso to Viña del Mar to Reñaca to Concon without even noticing, haha. But, that doesn’t matter for you. All you need to know is that Concon is famous for its sand dune, so we start our day visiting it! [2024 update: the sand dune is now a closed area to allow the environment to recover].

Now, this is amazing. The sand dune is absolutely MASSIVE!! It is a “fossilized sand dune” which means that it does not move forward and is just petrified in place. This is very important for people because the area is completely built up around (and slightly on) the dune. If it moved those homes would be gone in a few years.

But you can see that it is just absolutely amazing. It really feels like you are VERY high up. And even cooler… the dune looks like it goes right into the Pacific Ocean. How cool is that?

Because of this unique environment there are quite a few people up here. There are a few like us that are just walking around and taking in all of the views. It is difficult to walk in all of the sand, but well worth it. At the same time there are many people sitting at the top of the dunes just enjoying the view. Finally, there are quite a few people doing sand-boarding up here. And in Chile, where there are people, there are vendors, haha. You can get ice cream, popsicles, and sodas up here, haha. Too funny.

Now we will stop talking and let you take in the views. We will also (eventually) upload a video to our YouTube channel to show you exactly what it looks like from up here.

Amazing. We actually spent waaaaaayyyy more time up here than what we expected, haha. So… we don’t have much more time to do anything else today. Especially when we’re not too close to too many other things. But, that doesn’t stop us from trying. So we went down the side of the dune back down to the main road. We went down the way that most people go up and it’s pretty steep. We definitely made the right decision to go up at the other end of the dune (to be honest we just got lucky).

And once we got down here… my travel partner had to empty his shoes because they were filled with sand. This brought us back to some places we visited in the Middle East, hehe. But now we continue walking along this road and wait for the bus. We’re going back towards Viña as it is the largest city near us and let’s us do a bit more than what is available to us in Concon. So we just sit and wait here for our bus to arrive.

We eventually make it to the heart of Viña and then start walking around a bit. You may recognize the street below from yesterday. It’s a nice walkway and although it doesn’t look like it, there were a few other people walking around as well. It’s nice to enjoy the nice weather.

And then we can show you just how nice the weather actually is. Remember when we showed you the Caleta Abarca Beach yesterday? There weren’t many people and they were mostly in sweaters. Today? You can hopefully see that the beach is absolutely packed down below. You can also see the famous Sheraton hotel sitting just above the Pacific Ocean.

It’s such a nice spot, that we decide to take another panoramic picture letting you enjoy the view as well. You can see the Pacific Ocean stretching forever in front of us, while if you follow the road to the left you arrive in Valparaiso and if you go towards the right you are in the heart of Viña del Mar. Quite nice, even with the large road in the way of the view, haha.

And, since we showed you the tsunami evacuation route yesterday, and you can see that we are currently quite high up, we will also show you that there are safety zones that let you know that you have run far enough from the ocean.

And although it doesn’t really look like it… it’s starting to get late. We just stop by to get some food and then the day is already over. It seems like we were able to pack more things in while visiting the Middle East than while visiting Chile, haha. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to show you a bit more.

We eat some good food and then catch the bus back towards Concon. But… we didn’t show you much which means we didn’t walk too much… so my travel partner needs more steps. Luckily there’s a small park right beside where we are staying and we both go out to walk around.

The little park was nice and there were quite a few people taking their dogs out for their evening walk. But with that we are getting a little tired so we go back towards the dune, take a picture (too tired to go up), and then head in for some sleep. Goodnight from Concon!