Day 3 - Valparaiso Day Trip

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Pakita and Emanuel picked us up at 10:45 for our day trip to the port city of Valparaiso. Traffic was quite good and we got there around noon. As we got closer to our destination we saw a large market where locals buy and sell everyday items, a bit like Paddy’s but not touristy at all. Our first glimpse was of a typical port with container ships and cranes for off-loading containers. However as we drove up a very steep road we started seeing a lot of graffiti and then some fantastic street art. We parked the car and then walked to the Palacio Baburizza (Municipal Museum of Fine Arts), but it took longer than it should have because we continually stopped to take photos. The Palace was a very interesting and beautiful building . It was built in 1916 on behalf of the businessman Ottorino Zanelli, eventually purchased by the Municipality in 1971 and converted to an art gallery. A must visit if you come to Valparaiso for it’s art work and for the building itself.

We spent about one hour there before heading to a restaurant recommended by Pakita’s work-mates, Café Turri Restaurant. We had a window table on the second floor with a lovely view of Valparaiso and the food was excellent. Daisy and I shared a seafood lasagna and a local white fish called reineta with chips and salad. Emanuel and I went for dessert as well, crème brulee and the Chilean dessert Daisy had last night, leche asada.

We then went for another walk looking at and photographing more street art and inspecting a church before taking an extremely steep funicular back to the top area, it would rival our Katoomba one. We then finished off the day at a café to have coffee and a small meal, although Daisy and I just opted to share crepes. By now it was about 7:00pm and we started our drive back to Santiago. I fell asleep in the car for about an hour and the drive back took twice as long because of all the traffic returning from Valparaiso to Santiago for the weekend.

Got back around 9:15 and said our very grateful farewell to Pakita and Emanuel who have been so generous to us over our first weekend in South America. We could not have wished for a better start to our South American adventure.

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