Valparaiso - Valley of Paradise

After over a week of cold weather in Patagonia we were happy to be walking the streets of Santiago in our summer clothes. The setting of Santiago is pretty - it sits in a plain surrounded by the Andes. It has less than half the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, 6 million and we found that it actually has something in common with London: a high (or at least very visible) percentage of nutters! (Sorry Violet but there were loads of them!) The first night there we noticed a man double-releasing himself on the central square; then there is a healthy amount of people spreading the Lord's gospel and otherwise advising people of what is wrong in society these days. Then the next day we saw a 70 year old woman strutting the streets, enjoying the sunshine, dressed in high heels and "sexy" underwear! But it's an easy city to orientate and, as we have found in most of Chile, travel, eat and go out.

Longing to be near water, we spent 3 days in Valparaiso where we took in some sun at Vina del Mar and did some more horseback riding. A visit to Valparaiso should be on the list of anyone visiting this area. Declared a World Heritage Site for its historical importance, natural beauty, original architecture and location in 2003, this city is only a short distance from Santiago. When you first arrive in the bus stop, the view before you is that of a disordered and neglected city. Yet as our bus climbed another one of the "cerros"/hilltops towards our hostal, we were greeted by a view of multi coloured houses that transported us to Mediterranean Europe. To our right was the bay and towards the top the view of colourful houses on the hill. Funny thing is that apparently the multi-colours only really appeared after the local government distributed the money that came with the World Heritage nomination and encouraged citizens to paint their houses. But the views are stunning, our hostal (Casa de la Nona) was great and so was our host Rene, who provided the best breakfast we had in 3 months in Sth America! We decided to foresake a winery tour for some horseback riding at one of the beach resorts north of Vina del Mar, and boy were we happy! Thanks to the lack or disregard of any safety regulations, our guide decided to try some galop with 8 novice riders without helmets or proper instructions. He simply set off and the pack of horses followed him, galloping through the dunes and along the beach. It was WILD! He seemed to have used superglue to stick to his saddle whereas the rest of us was bumping up and down, trying to hold on to our horses and saddles for our dear life. My poor horse must not have been impressed, having my 95 kg slamming repeatedly into its back like a limp bag of potatoes.

Anyway, after this exciting ride, we returned to Santiago for a final fantastic steak meal in Bellavista and to prepare ourselves for our flight the next evening bound for Melbourne.

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