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Published: April 30th 2014
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Saturday 26th
The bus arrived in Puerto Varas last night about half hour late and we took our seats. The 13 hour journey through the night flew bye in absolute comfort. That's what I'd like to say but actually it was pretty uncomfortable sitting in one place for that long trying to get to sleep while the two old men behind yattered on for ever ! Christine slept most of the way back but I arrive feeling spaced out with a sort of jet lag.
We finally arrive around ten in the morning to a grey and cold Santiago. Winter's coming.
We find our hostel and luckily have been put in a small apartment away from the main building. We're on the 9th floor and get a view over the city.
After a quick wash and brush up we head into the centre to pick up Christine's replacement contact lenses we ordered before going on our last tour. We then have a walk around and Christine finally gets a replacement hair drier. She's all set now for onward travel !
We get back to the apartment mid afternoon in time for me to listen to the
end of Woking's last match. A 3~2 away victory !
We spend the rest of the day resting after last night and preparing for our trip tomorrow.
Sunday 27th
We do last minute packing and then go for breakfast only to be told it's from 8.30am We point out that it's already 8.45 and we're in a hurry to catch our bus. That's when we find out that the clocks went back an hour last night and it's only 7.45 ! We skip breakfast and catch the metro to the bus station and board our bus to Valparisio. It's only a 2 hour journey.
On arrival we catch a taxi to our hostel in Templeman. The whole of the city is built on the side of a hill and there are narrow steep streets and lots of steps and ascensors, a type of cable car, everywhere. Our hostel is in a steep pedestrian area and can only be reached up steps.
We leave our bags and go for a walk and find the fine art gallery. It's in a grand building and better than some of the paintings!
At 3pm we go on a
walking tour of the city join many others. The tour takes us into lots of areas we'd never have found on our own. There's lots of small cafes, restaurants and little shops in all the alley ways. Most of the buildings are covered in wonderfully colourful murals. It's a fascinating city. We're told about the various hills having their own communities and given a brief history about the city and the port as it developed and then financially collapsed with the opening of the Panama Canal. The tour last nearly 3 hours and has been really helpful and interesting.
Afterwards we plod uphill back to our hostel for a short rest before going out to dinner.
Monday 28th
A late start to the day as breakfast isn't served until after 9am. It's the usual rolls and ham and cheese. As much as I like ham rolls I'm getting fed up with it as a daily diet.
We then start to explore Valparisio and quickly learn that it could be called dog pooh city as it's every where ! We spend more time looking where our feet go than at the scenery !
We wander around
all morning, up and down hill looking at the shanty houses and wonderful murals. It's only the paint stopping the tin houses from rusting away.
Bye lunchtime we find ourselves in the port area and after much searching we decide on a place for lunch. It's a 3 course menu of the day and with wine comes to about £5.50 each. A great lunch in a restaurant that looks like the inside of a boat.
After lunch we go on a harbour boat ride, I can't really call it a cruise as it's in a converted fishing boat. From the sea we can see the 49 hills or at least most of them that make up Valparisio. The landscape must have looked really wonderful 100 years ago before they started building on it. Now there are shanty houses and tower blocks all over. How to spoil a beautiful landscape in one easy lesson ! The new part of Valparisio will never be described as beautiful.
On our way back to the hostel we pop into a supermarket to get a snack for tonight. It's dreaded ham and cheese rolls again !
Tuesday 29th
We're up
fairly early and walk for about 40 mins to Pablo Neruda's house. We've already seen his house in Santiago and he had a third one outside Valparaiso. Not bad for a communist !
It's quite small compared to the Santiago one but still interesting. It only takes us about 45 mins to go round.
We then walk downhill back into the centre of the city and catch a taxi to the bus terminal for the bus back to Santiago.
I've had good news today that my prescription sunglasses have arrived from England and await picking up. The bad news is that my normal glasses break on the bus back !
The journey back flies bye and we're back by 1.30. I nip round to the hostel and collect my new sun glasses and shortly after get an email from Rodrigo telling me where I can get new glasses made in 3 hours. Hopefully we can sort that out tomorrow.
Not much else to do today as we make our final shopping list of urgent things to get before we fly off on Thursday.
Wednesday 30th
First thing we go to the opticians and
sure enough they can make me new glasses within a couple of hours, the only unfortunate thing is that their credit card machine won't accept our card. So we have to walk about a mile and a half back to the hostel to get another one and then walk a mile and half back again !
We then catch the metro to the shopping centre to pick up a few things and then to a restaurant we have used before.
We have a really nice lunch for under £10 and then pick up a last minute souvenir before walking back to the opticians.
We then have a long walk back to the hostel and start packing. It's been a walking day.
We leave for Ecuador in the morning. Our Chile adventures are over. We have seen some unforgettable scenery in the north and some pretty landscapes in the south. The people have been mainly friendly and helpful. Some have gone out of their way to help us. The food's been rustic and filling! We've enjoyed our stay but it's time to move
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Kim
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Happy Birthday
Still enjoying reading your adventures. Hope Christine has a good birthday and that Ecuador offers more than cheese and ham rolls by way of sustenance!