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Our overnight bus to Valparaiso wasn't really - we arrived at 4.15 am and sat very cold and forlorn looking on the side of the road nursing a hot chocolate (yes, bizarrely at that time of the morning the only thing open was a little one-man stall selling hot chocolate - a niche market perhaps???) until 6am when the bus station opened, and we could sit in there looking slightly less like tramps.
Valparaiso is very much a working port and the 'flat' part of town around the port is not that exciting. Its charm lies in the hills surrounding the town and the little lifts, or ascensors that have been built up into the hills. Once up there you can wander around the colourful cobbled streets, and their little market stalls and enjoy the spectacular views over the port. We had another lovely hostel here, La Maison du Filou, with a slightly rickety but cute balcony overlooking the port, and run by a French man who made us fresh juice every morning (not your usual hostel breakfast). A few of the buildings have been decorated with art as part of the 'museo a cielo abierto' (open air museum) but
'twas a bit difficult to tell where the art stopped and the graffiti began. Either the art was rubbish, or the graffiti excellent, who knows! Similarly the Parque Cultural Excarcel, a park devoted to modern art, just looked like the ex-prison that it was, covered in graffiti.....but then I'm no expert in modern art.
Our first Ascensor trip was on the oldest, Ascensor Concepcion, built in 1883 (originally steam-powered). There was a classic comedy moment when the four of us attempted to enter the not very large lift avec our 20,000 bags. I should probably point out that Helen and Fergus are fairly light travellers and most of the hysteria coming from the ascensor man was directed at Russ (and me a little). Photographic evidence of this is available on facebook!
Beach time.....
The plan had been to have a couple of days by the beach. Our first beach day was to Viña del Mar. It started off OK, the sun was shining, but by about 3pm the sun was very much absent, the temperature was 14 deg C and it began to rain. But, in true British style (and Welsh, Irish and Australian style it
would seem) we simply relocated to a small umbrella and continued to enjoy our wine. And of course, the day wouldn't have been complete if we hadn't been joined by a couple of stray dogs. Eventually giving in to the wind, rain and dark, we found ourselves a little bar, where the 50 year old DJ allowed us to commandeer his music for a while, playing such classics as The Locomotion, Hangin' tough, (remember that one?) The Shoop Shoop song and Wannabee. I think they were secretly glad when we left and took our dodgy dancing and questionable music tastes with us.
Our other beach destination was Quintay, much more picturesque than the high-rise lined beach of Viña del Mar, with a couple of seafood restaurants and the largest number of birds I have ever seen inhabit a beach. We arrived just in time for lunch, so sampled some of the local seafood (delicious) and of course some vino, then managed to persuade the restaurant owners to let us take another bottle of wine down on to the beach, complete with ice bucket and glasses. A perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon on the beach. We then spent
the evening in what was supposedly Valparaiso's most hedonistic bar. Maybe it was because it was a sunday, or maybe the lonely planet was just very out of date...... The advantage of pretty much being the only people in there meant we could commandeer the music again, a little more tastefully this time (though I guess that depends on your opinion of Hed Kandi!)
Santiago
So it was bye bye to Helen and Fergus, and hello to Santiago. I'd been looking forward to being in a big city and had a bit of a shopping list (just small things, don't worry.....severe lack of space in my bag). It was a bit of a struggle to find a restaurant on the Sunday as we arrived, even being in the supposed nightlife area - Barrio Bellavista. Managed to find a little bar with one man and his guitar providing the entertainment. I decided on a mojito, which tasted fine; Russ got a caiparinha, and, well, he should have learnt his lesson from Rio really. We then followed the entertainment to a bar round the corner, which unfortunately served a very inferior mojito, made with mint liqueur, rather than actual
mint. Yuck. My advice? If you are ever short of mint, make a different cocktail.
Not deterred by one dodgy mojito, I decided on a strawberry daiquiri which tasted like ribena, then a pisco sour (there's a reason why it's the cheapest cocktail on the menu). I would like to point out that this was not all in the same night. Finally, having had one successful mojito, I thought it was worth another try - bad idea - more mint liqueur, a minor argument with the barman (in Spanglish) over the finer details of their '2 for 1' deal, a short chase down the street and a quick diversion into a nearby art gallery where we gatecrashed some sort of function which happened to be on that evening.
The best cocktail of all however, was called 'Terremoto' which means earthquake (sounds dangerous.......). These are obtained from a bar called La Piojera, a supposed famous drinking den of Santiago, but felt more like a student union. So the terremoto, is a drink made with wine and ice cream! Sounds wrong, but bear with me. It was served in a pint glass, (I assume - and hope - that the
wine was slightly watered down), with a dollop of ice cream plonked on the top, strange, but once the ice cream had melted into the wine it tasted kinda nice. One was enough though.
So I had my shopping fix - purchased a few bits 'n bobs. The main shopping streets are near to the main square, Plaza de Armas - with artists, men playing chess, and a couple of people having an argument - so I was able to convince Russell we were doing some sightseeing at the same time. We also visited a couple of very fine shopping malls, and spotted a few familiar faces (Topshop, Nine West, Zara....) as well as some brilliant ice cream shops!
Santiago has a couple of lookouts over the city - Cerro San Cristobal, with a big statue of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepcion and Cerro Santa Lucia, basically a huge park on a hill. Good views, but the amount of pollution was incredible, although it did make the sunsets quite pretty. Even managed a bit of culture, in the form of an art museum and the Chilean museum of pre-Columbian art which housed such delights as statues of
Shaman in hallucinogenic trances and men with balls of cocoa leaves sat in their cheeks!
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