* VALPARAISO *

A day trip to the coast to visit Valparaiso, where the Congress and House of Representatives is, as well as being a unique city built to blanket the surrounding hills with a quilt of colorful houses.

The map shows the area around Santiago, which is in the center. To the west, the coast, you can find Valparaiso and the smaller (slightly south) Isla Negra where the house of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Poet Pablo Neruda lived. You will see photos from Neruda´s home in another blog entry. North of Valparaiso is Viña del Mar where many families go to the coast for weekends and vacations.
. . .
. . . .

photos of the city Valparaiso

*

. . .

The Congressional building in Valparaiso and the Deputado room. The back wall is copper, but unfinished, which represents the beginning of the creating of a law. In the Senate room, the copper wall is polished, representing the refinement of a new law.

*

. . .
. . .

We were invited to lunch in the Congressional Dining Room by one of the Deputados who was a friend of a teacher at Colegio. (A Deputado is a Representative for his district). Initially we thought he would be dining with us, but the invitation was simply to eat on the top floor restaurant. Interesting note: they served us baked chicken, french fries and ice cream ... very US kind of food ... Dubi was definitely hoping for something more Chilean to go with the experience.

..

View from the top of the Congressional building.

*

The national seal in the central room where House and Congress and Leadership (including the President Michel Bachelet - Chile´s first woman president who took office in January of this year 2006). This huge seal (about 20 feet wide) is made of 10 separate pieces of marble, joined together yet able to separate and ¨float¨ on special springs and pulleys whenever there is an earthquake. This is to guard the seal from any damage.

*

Before leaving, all the students on the tour, US and Chileans, created a unity circle. (well, that´s what Dubi calls it)