http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Chile , Valparaíso Region , Valparaíso en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:09:14 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:09:14 +0000 We left Santiago for Valparaiso. Pato directed us to the right tube stop 3 stops down for the bus station. Would have been so simple had Cecilia not directed us in the wrong direction. With both of us already scratching our heads about how heavy our bags were the pain was just prolonged......After catching an evening bus we arrived to find our hostel was a traditional Valparaiso house Unesco http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-463428.html We celebrated Halloween in Santiago a big party that was a lot of fun. The next day some friends and I took a bus to Valparaiso for the night a beachtown about an hour and a half way from Santiago. Its a really cute place famous for its hills that are covered in multicolored houses overlooking the ocean. We went for a jazz show ate Chorialla a mountain of french fries topped with beef egg http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-451448.html So Its been 3 weeks or so since I was in Valparaso and Via del Mar but I finally have time to write about it. Via is nice and modern with big buildings right on the coast. There's a Starbucks one of the few outside Santiago and the oldest casino in Chile. Via is one of the biggest music scenes in Latin America and most major performers in the spanish speaking world played there befor http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-450585.html Vik's bitSo an uncomfortably long journey brought us to Santiago capital of Chile and home to about onethird of the population there. Suitably sized in order to hold all that folk it spreads itself within the confines of the mountains that surround it. The city bustles but does not overwhelm and we spent our days enjoying the plazas the coffee and the seafood. The plazas provided random http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-449210.html So schnell vergeht die Zeit. Und schon sind wir in Chile...ok wir sind auch sehr schnell gereist...aber es gibt noch so vielwas von uns gesehen werden will. In Mendoza haben wir eine super Zeit verbracht. Das Weindegustieren haben wir sehr genossen und deshalb fast die ganze Zeit dabei verbracht Auch sind wir Paragliden gegangen und haben sonst Mendoza unsicher gemacht. Bilder die viel mehr a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-447023.html Sept 24 2009We made a phone call to LAN airlines and got the good news that Justinrsquos luggage finally arrived Yay That meant that we would have deodorant and Justin can finally change out of his smelly clothes. So we got up early because A we had to go all the way back to the airport to pick up Justinrsquos luggage and B we wanted to make the most out of the day in Via del Mar. We http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-441121.html Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are supposedly the places where the Chileans go when they need to get out of the city. We decided to visit Valparaiso or Valpo as apparently most people go to Vina del Mar. Valpo is a port city set out on an array of hills. It's most striking feature is the graffiti everywhere well that and the dog poop. It all goes together to create a laid back feel and you http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-436296.html NOTE LOCATION. CHILE HAS BEEN EXITED. 4 AND A HALF MONTHS. done.were i draw some sort of flashy excel chart then it woudl show a quirky purple lines gradient gradually steapening as chilean life takes on. Superb final two months complete with un poco espaol a little bit of jessica by my side and muchos aventuras.Post the week long winter adventure it was decided chilling out at near by beaches http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-431421.html Party on a PrayerMy epileptic horse dance moves arenrsquot really impressing here not sure they really did in England but then everyone was so smashed gazeaboed mullered bogrolled you know Michael McKintyre to notice. O yeah we just hit a month with absolutely no alcohol. Final taster of the devils urine was a pint in Atlanta airports TGI Fridays. Was so weird kept on asking peop http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-423433.html Facebook sometimes I love it sometimes I hate it especially when I'm sat in a hostel with free Internet and the person using it decides to spend 5 years uploading photos or more annoyingly flicking through someone else's when all I want to do is quickly check email..... grrrrr. This time though it meant I unexpectedly met up with Chantal and Jeremy two friends I'd first met whilst squashed i http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-420826.html As I mentioned in the Santiago entry I took a jolly down to Valparaiso for a couple of days. It's meant to be a really interesting city with coloured houses set on an assortment of hills surrounding the port. Imagine my disappointment when I arrived it was cold grey and foggy thus you couldn't see anything. I took a trip up one of the lifts out of duty but it was a bit pointless. I serio http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-417668.html So we move on to Part 2 of the Chilean adventure. By the by Chileno is very difficult to understand. I have to retune my ears to that particular accent of Spanish but Im not doing too badly. Anyway I digress.So I spent a couple of days in Valparaiso or Valpo as the locals call it. There is a stark difference with Santiago. The latter is serene whilst Valpo is more edgy. Difficult to s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-415494.html We left Auckland shortly after 6pm on Saturday June 27th and after 11.5 hours on the plane we touched down in Santiago just after 1pm on Saturday June 27th. Magic Crossing the international date line would wreak havoc on our body clocks for the next week and a half though. During the flight we were amused by the map of the plane's route which consisted of a blue square labelled South Pacific http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-414615.html Val Paraiso is more than a bit dodgy two people in our hostel had their cameras stolen out of their hands while we were there but the photo op's in the old town are pretty incredible especially when the lighting's right. The old town sits on a hill overlooking the sea and the rest of the city. It has narrow winding and dilapidated but charming streets with an array of colorful buildings. The http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-412865.html So after our little jaunt to La Serena we headed back south to Valparisio or as it is known locally Valpo. We arrived at our hostel and headed out and found some dinner. Saturday morning we headed to the supermarket as our first mission so that I could buy some washing powder and get all my clothes washed in the hope that it would solve my allergy problems. That sorted we headed out into the tow http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-409557.html We took a Tur Bus from La Serena to Valparaiso during the day arriving in the city around 7pmish. Arrived at the hostel Nueva Mente and rang the bell and waited waited and waited. No answer and there appeared to be no one around. We were just thinking about our next options when a man appeared let us into the hostel and told us to wait A few minutes later hostel manager arrived and showed us http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-409494.html So we havent been doing the greatest job of regularly posting to this blog but we also havent been doing all that much stuff. We were feeling a bit lazy and tired our first few days here during our time in Santiago. We spent a lot of time walking around and seeing the main sites of the city. We also had a couple of good traditional Chilean meals beefsteak sandwich with greenbeans and tomat http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-408581.html EN FRANCAIS PLUS BASMORE PHOTOS HEREValparaiso is not as touristy and sanitized as I expected given its classification at the UNESCO World Heritage. Its traditional zinccovered houses lean sideways most are not renovated for the tourists' benefit and many are rusty its endless stairs smell of piss and garbage its steep streets are lined with artful improvised graffittis its harbour bustles http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-407803.html Well we crossed the continent. Heading from Buenos Aires Argentina to Valparaiso Chile meant waving goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean and saluting the Pacific. It meant night bus adventures that included huddling in a field at 4 a.m. and a day bus through the Andes mountain range that featured amazement at the stunning natural beauty there. The stars of the journey were fantastic people that we met http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-406368.html We bypassed Santiago on our way up through Chile and went to straight to Valparaiso. This charming city is spread over hills that back onto a harbour and the houses on the hillside are painted blues and yellows. The colorful houses are complemented by masses of graffiti which covers every available surface. For three days we wandered the streets and walked up and down the hills. When the walk http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-403866.html