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Published: June 19th 2009
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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 town with map in hand and various areas marked up as places of interest by the hostel owner. We walked the local streets around the hostel and amused ourselves with the local people setting out their wares on the streets to sell. It was like a type of car boot sale on the streets but who would want to buy the things was any ones guess as it was true rubbish including about 10 stalls selling various types of mobile phone chargers, door locks, old (and I mean old!) power tools and lots of books. We then walked along the port and around the old part or town. We headed up into the hills and had a ride on one of the 15 ascensors that
are scattered around the city to take you up into the hills.
Valparisio is a varied town as you have a lot of nice homes that are well cared for and next to these you can find houses built out of corrugated iron and painted in bright colours. We had heard many mixed reports about the town with people either loving it or hating it and I have to say that I fall into the earlier category.
Sunday morning and we woke to our third day of rain in six weeks (not too bad a record considering it is winter over here!). We messed around the hostel for the morning and then caught a local bus to La Sebastiana, one of Pablo Nerudas homes. Pablo Neruda was a Chilean writer and politician for those (like me before I went to Valaparisio are in the dark). Ths house was really interesting and had some amazing views across the city and the bay it was just a pity the weather wasn't in our favour.
One thing the visit to the house did was highlight the fact about English politeness and other nationalities manners. Sharon and I on this trip
have found the various manners of the South Americans interesting. In generic terms so far we have found South Americans have to get off buses first and will never stand to one side and let someone else get out in front of them. Argentinians are very pushy and if you are not stood literally on the back of someone in a queue then people will jump in front of you without second thought or hesitation or they try to do this regardless. As for the Chileans they are mixed they are either ultra polite and will stand and open doors for you or step to one side on a pavement or they will charge you down until you jump out of the way!!
Matters came to head when we were walking into the house and I climbed up the steps and opened the door to walk in when some other visitors (nationalities unknown) walked to the door looked at me and then proceeded down the stairs causing me to step back and Sharon to back down the steps. After 8 of them had walked past not one of them said thank you or acknowledged me to which I turned
to Sharon and commented at the top of my voice which got e a glance back but nothing else. Then in the house exactly the same scenario happened again on a set of stair however this time as the last gentleman walked past Sharon she said "Your welcome" to which she got a sheepish glance but nothing more. The sad thing is that this impoliteness is more common place than not but I do not hesittae to point out it is not restricted to South Americans!
Anyway mini rant over... After the house we caught the bus again and wandered around the old prison and then back into town. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching tv at the hostel as the weather was not good enough to head to the Vina del Mar and the beach and we had pretty much walked the city.
Monday morning was an early start as we headed over the Andes to Mendoza but more of that in the next blog....
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