Vina del Mar y Valparaiso

Hola

As promised some time ago here is my next installment. After Santiago I traveled to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso with Paula and her family. Vina is a seaside resort. Essentially a beach with high rises behind it and the fairly chilly Chilean sea in front of it. It is quite pretty none the less and at this time of year it is fairly densely populated by Chilean holiday makers. Paula her family and I then made our way to Valparaiso which is just around the cove. It has a very distinct and different vibe to it though. It is a port city that used to serve as the main port to Santiago but has been replaced. Evidence of its former glory remains in the crumbling edifices of many of its grand old buildings (guess who went on a walking tour through it).

We had lunch in a very Chilean restaurant in a somewhat less salubrious part of town and, thanks to Paula and her family I had a very authentic culinary experience. I was particularly fond of the pebre which is a chilli salsa thing that you eat with bread. I was then dropped of at my hostel where I was informed by the very sweet host that it was a very dangerous city. Sufficiently scared and sick of that hostel I booked a different place and the aforementioned walking tour.

At the next hostel I was lucky enough to meet Anna, an energetic English traveler. The next day we went exploring in the abandoned gaol which has been opened to the public as an art space and has been covered in amazing graffiti (I will publish some photos when a find a computer that does not give me electric shocks). We then walked 10kms to get to Vina and halfway back where we bought some fish for tea.

The following day we went to La Campana National Park for a day of leisurely walking. To get there we had to go on the metro to Limache (about 45 minutes on a fabulous Chilean train from Valpo) and then catch a bus to Olmue. This is a pretty small village and the arrival of two ladies in attractive walking gear caused quite a stir among the locals. We then proceeded to the park. After a pleasant walk through the wooded areas at the bottom of the mountains we took a wrong turn and ended up at an abandoned mine site. There was something quite eerie about the place which had a cabin that was left completely open in which we found a folder with pages strewn about containing contracts of work dating from 1989. Must look that up.

We then decided, as I already had a blister that we should see how far we could get up a big mountain (I like to think it was La Campana itself but I really am not sure). Choosing to travel with a girl who considers marathon running a fun thing to do is not always the easiest choice. We made the summit blistering time had a look at the Andes and then turned around and headed for home.

I am now on a mythical island in Brazil and am using the internet as an excuse to escape the sun as my white man tan can only take so much. Will report the details eventually (but not the location because it is too beautiful and I don´t want to share). To all those who thought that I would constantly screw things up whilst traveling I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that you are correct. Will post some details next. Having a blast nonetheless.

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