"Can we stay here?"


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South America » Chile
June 17th 2014
Published: June 25th 2014
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The blog is getting way behind schedule as we've all been far too busy/lazy to actually get round to doing it, but were making a push to get it up to speed....

On the 14th your 4 favourite intrepid travels said their farewells to their friends at Aji Hostel and jumped on the busy Santiago metro system bound for the bus station with one new addition to the party; Aussie Tommo. The 5 of us, still feeling worn out from our last crazy night in santiago slept a majority of the relatively short 2 hour journey to the quirky costal town of Valparaiso.

We hadn't booked anywhere to stay (a lesson we have since learnt from) but as soon as we arrived the locals were jumping left right and centre to help us out, with one individual actually calling her neighbour to assist us in our hunt for a hostel. After consulting our trusty Lonely Planet we found ourselves wandering up narrow colourful streets to find our new hostel but didnt exactly get the response we expected on arrival...

You'd expect that the employees of the hostel might know what 5 sweaty boys with big bags on our backs would want when the rung the door to the hostel, but o know. The baffled face the confrunted us at the door looked at us blankly. Our response was a simple ".... can we stay here?" to which we got a "maybe". This wasn't promsing! After a few minutes waiting outside the door we were eventually welcomed in. Success! We spent the rest of the day watching England lose to Italy much to Weshie and Aussie Tommo's amusement and called it a night - at least the beer was cheap!

The 5 of us spent the next day doing a tour-for-tips taking us all over the scruffy yet endearing town. Some of the street art would even make Banksy jealous! Aussie Tommo's quick wit kept me (Tricky) in my place during the day - I was not impressed. After Lukey and I sampled the local delicacy of Chorrillana - chips piled with beef, cheese onions and a fried egg (unbelievable!!!) - we went to a great hotel restaurant serving the local seafood whilst looking over the city at night.

Our next day was pretty slow to get going, but we all got on a train to the nearby town on Vina del Mar, a Chilean beach town. It lacked the character of Valpo, but watching the sunset of the Pacific was something I dont think we'll forget. Aussie Tommo said his goodbyes and returned to Valpo as we prepared for our bus ride to Argentina the following day with Pisco Sours and more Chorrillana.

The journey from Vina del Mar to Mendoza was a long one, and was only available during the day due to the border closing at night. However, the views of the Andes were breathtaking and had us all awe for the middle part of the trip making it fly by. We were the only 4 people in the luxury Cama seats, plus one solitary Chilean who slept the whole way, probably not making the best impression with the locals.... Vamos Gringos! Lukeys decision to wear is "travel shorts" suddenly didn't seem like such a good idea with a one hour stop over at the border in the snowy mountains!

We arrived in Mendoza not feeling too bad, and after getting lost for a bit (typical) we arrived at our new hostel to find it was free wine hour - perfecto! Excited by the prospect of Argentinian steak we grabbed a quick yet underwhelming dinner to make sure we were fresh for the following day of bikes and wine; surely a perfect combination?

Peace

Tricky

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