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Our time in Peru had come to an end and it was now time to start making our way to Chile. The bus journey from Lima took us to Peru's border town Tacna. After going so north in Peru we had a long way to get to Valparaiso so after crossing the border from Tacna into Chile we arrived in a place called Arica. Arica was half a beach town and half a city but due to the cooler weather we spent our short time there in the city rather than on the beach. There aren't too many hostels in Arica but the one we stayed in was called Arica Unite which was perfect for our one night stay there.
The next day we did another short bus journey to Iquique to break up our long bus journey to Valparaiso. Iquique is supposed to be Chiles most popular beach town and is full of Casinos and duty free malls. We spent a full day in their Zona Franca mall looking to get Jon some trainers again but they were no good. In fact we thought the whole shopping centre was a bit rubbish unless you wanted to carry a 32
inch TV around in your rucksack. We ended up purchasing a bar of white Toblerone and headed back to the hostel.
The next day we headed to the bus station to get our 5.15pm bus to Valparaiso. Unfortunately the bus turned up 3 hours late so our 27 hour bus journey didn't get off to a good start. Never the less after several cheese cobs and around 5 films later we arrived in Valparaiso at around 9pm. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and headed out for dinner as we were desperate for some hot food. We were a bit taken back by the prices at the restaurants so decided to go to the supermarket and cook back at the hostel instead. The hostel (La Casa Volante) was positioned up a set of steep stairs with each step being a different bright colour. Inside had such a lovely, cosy feel to it and the walls were covered in hand painted art. Later that evening we ended up staying up late chatting to two British twins we had seen in almost every country so far.
We planned to sleep in the next morning but woke up at
8am. We spent the day slowly getting ready and eventually headed out around 12pm to wander the streets and steep steps of Valparaiso. Immediately we knew we were going to like it here. The brightly coloured buildings and graffitied walls reminded us of Berlin and there was just a certain charm to the place that made you feel excited. After exploring for a few hours we made our way to this restaurant we'd been recommended by the hostel for its stunning views from its terrace. It was a super sunny day so we sat and drank ice cold beers and white wine admiring the clear skies above us and the beautiful views of the sea below.
Eventually we knew we had to leave so made our way to one of many of the cities ascensores (funicular elevator). An a ascensore is an outdoor elevator which goes up and down on a diagonal angle on creaky tracks. They were built back in the 19th century so that the locals who lived up in the hills had an easier way of getting around. The ride lasted about 30 seconds but we got to go up again as I left my jacket
in the restaurant! Oops!
That night we cooked dinner and carried on with the drinking. It would of been rude not to as Chiles red wine is delicious and sooo cheap. We got a bottle of Merlot for £2 and it was amazing. We got chatting to a British couple from our hostel who were doing the same route as us but in the opposite direction so spent the rest of the evening exchanging tips and stories of the places we had been to so far. Three bottles of wine later we went to bed.
We woke up with sore heads so decided to chill out and catch up with family on Skype. We headed out at 2pm to go and admire the boats and the sea at the dock. Sitting on the bench enjoying the views was great until a stinking homeless guy came over and started to harass me about my boobs blowing some sort of incense over us and then asked for money. After telling him several times "No Gracias" he finally took the hint and left and we made our way to our 3 o clock tour of the city.
The city offers
a tour of Valparaiso for free and if you want to give the guide a tip at the end you can - hence the name of the company "Tours 4 Tips". Our guide an American girl called Erica was dressed in a where's Wally t-shirt and explained where and what we would see on the tour. We were shown fascinating street art and various monuments of Valparaiso that lasted around three and a half hours. Whilst on the tour we got followed by one of Valparaiso's many stray dogs. This particular dog seemed to take quite a likening to Jon and after coming out of one of the buildings, Jon was greeted by the excited stray jumping all over him and put each of his paws on Jon's shoulders. We finished the tour with a pisco sour and then made our way to the supermarket for another night of home cooking. It was my turn to cook so I decided on steak with home made chips, vegetable and a pepper sauce which went down a treat.
On the third day we decided we would try and find Fishy some trainers again. We went into a department store and I
don't think either of us had much hope. Jon found a pair that he liked and asked the shop assistant for his size. We waited for around 10 minutes and finally he came out with the Nike trainers....the RIGHT size. We snapped them up quickly and Jon was even more chuffed when he found out the price. After our successful shopping trip we headed to the bus station to book our tickets for Santiago. This was to be our last bus journey in South America which we were pretty excited about! We made our way back to the hostel and spent the rest of the night watching films and drinking wine with the other people staying there.
On our last day we decided to head to Valparaiso's nearest beach 15 minutes away in a town called Vina Del Mar. Vina Del Mar is known as the garden city as its full of lots of beautiful parks filled with palm trees. It wasn't hot enough to sunbathe on the beach so we just went for a stroll along the board walk admiring the views and breathing in the sea air. After a while though Jon got one of his sweet
tooth cravings (he's been having a lot of these since the food poisoning) so we had to go and buy an ice cream. We then made our way to there shopping centre where I found a TOPSHOP! I was pretty excited as I needed a new pair of jeans but after seeing the price being almost double of what you'd pay at home the excitement soon disappeared. Jon managed to get himself a cheap Converse t-shirt though!
That evening as we had cooked all week we decided to treat ourselves to some fast food called "Bobs Burgers" which wasn't great. We got back to the hostel and packed up our bags ready for the bus journey to Santiago the next day. We both really enjoyed Valparaiso and would happily go back there again. Onto our last stop in Chile though now and the last stop of South America! Santiago here we come!!!
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