Valparaiso and Vina del Marc

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Just a very quick blog to let you know im still moving around and loving the wonderful country of Chile. Ive moved on from Santiago now and spent a 2 hour bus journey north (mosly asleep though a small amount of self language tuition was done) travelling to Valparaiso.

110km north of Santiago Valpa is a city in 2 halfs the bottom section is pretty ordinary full of all the hustle and bustle youd expect in a modern urban city. My first night was spent feasting on empandanas (very tasty) and relaxing over a few beers with some Ozzys in my hostel. Then today fresh and ready for exploration i headed into the 2nd part of the city which truly defies all common sense and logic.. The high part of the city is made up of many cerros, or hills, the best of which make up a sea of multi colouredd houses andold buildings that give it a truely unique, magical, haphazard and totally unmissable atmosphere. Very much reccomended to anyone in this part of the world. I ended up spending 2 hours marvelling at the sea of colours and taking many photos of the walls covered in bright grafitti. My favourite piece stated the legend...Thank God For Pie - indeed. The area is actually an UNESCO woeld heritage area and i can why. Very "one off" and totally making up for the rather dull lower half of the city.

Next to Valpo after a 20min metro ride is the seaside resort of Vina del Mar. Probably not helped by the fact the sun went in, but this was a bit of a let down. The pier and beaches looked very sad, but luckily i bumped into the English girls of my first Santiago blog, so had some friends to walk around with. We ended up drinking coffees on the many cafes and checking out the very interesting Easter Island museum.

So anyway , now im off on an 18 hour coach journey to Antofagusta which should be fun !! Luckily Chilean coaches are excellent so i should get some sleep.

Will keep you posted.

marc

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Photos

Indeed
In the Cerro Conception. They know the score

Cerro Conception
So many colours. photos dont really do it justice

Easter Island museum
Vina Del Mar..or marc if you prefer

Armada de Chile Central
They love big buildings. this one is the huge complex for the Chilean Navy. Jolly nice it looked too

Man with organ
Very nice chap who played for me and posed for photos

Comments

[tomas]

valparaiso is in the west
valparaiso is in the west of santiago, no to the north. have fun here