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in love
in ValparaisoWe caught a bus from Cordoba to Santiago and then headed to Vina del mar where our friends Bergoña and Cristobal live. Actually, they live on the beach right between Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. These were the guys that we met in the Ancud hostel on chiloe, and they invited us to stay at their place when we came back through Santiago. I love that there are people in the world as friendly, open, inviting and welcoming as these guys are. They had only just met us when they invited us to come and stay with them, and they have made us feel totally at home in their beautiful seaside apartment, even though we were sleeping in their loungeroom, they did not make us feel at all in their way. If anything, they seemed disappointed that we were not staying for longer. I love meeting people like this. It renews my faith in humanity. They both work during the day (Begoña is a psychologist and Cristobal is an electrical engineer who has his own start up company that develops wireless analytical systems for farmers), but then they have both stayed up late in the evenings with us eating, drinking and
talking. It has been really interesting getting to know them, while feeling like we have known each other for ages at the same time. It is also great to be back on the seaside, hearing waves crashing on the shore and smelling the salt air
While our friends were working, Jono and I entertained ourselves by walking through the UNESCO declared world heritage area of Valparaiso, a City full of character, history, culture, colour, tangled wires and photo opportunities. We rode on an antique escalator that was built 110 years ago to lift people up and down the steep hillside, and is still used today by locals and tourists alike. There are quite a few of them all through the City (which clings majestically to the side of a very steep hill) but at 48 degrees, I think the one we used was one of the steepest. It was so much fun walking through the city, which many say is one of the most interesting urban areas in Chile, and I think I would have to agree. The Spanish first settled it in the 1500s, and before that it was inhabited by indigenous people, so it has built up
could almost be a pacific island
except it is cold, on the wrong ocean, and covered in litter... oh, and not on an island. a lot of history. We went to one of the less scary dark looking sailors pub. Still dark, with eclectic decoration including pictures of shipwrecks, old beer, wine and liquor bottles, soccer paraphernalia. Cristobal and Bergoña told us that this place is a real hit with the older people and you can be sitting there at midnight with a 60 year old couple from the crowd performing impromptu duets on the stage with the old piano... that would be fun to watch. But there was not much happening when we were there during the day.
We spent the rest of our time doing... not very much. Walking on the beach, cooking dinner for our friends, and resting. I was disappointed in the beach though. Even though it was closer to a surf beach than we had seen yet, the sand was still covered in litter. I guess a lot of our city beaches at home would look like that though, if the councils did not clean them up.
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laurence
non-member comment
Pacific ocean
hi guys! Where are the photos of you diving into the ocean... We gonna try to have a swim in hot spring on the desert... See you in a few weeks or days guys, in l Paz or Sucre for more good time together! lolo