Valparaiso

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Valparaiso

Sooooo... i forgot to bring the USB cable for my camera. Hence; no photos until i can find an electronics store to purchase a new one. Or a card reader or something. Anyway, it's quite a shame because Valpo is pretty ripe for the photo-taking.

The flight was pretty uneventful, and i managed to fumble my way through the airport at Santiago ok but then got mobbed by a swarm of taxi drivers upon exiting and ended up paying WAY too much for a cab into the city because i hadn't quite worked out the currency conversion properly and hadn't slept for about twenty hours. It was roughly at this point that i figured out my "i probably know heaps of spanish just naturally and don't even need to learn it" method didn't quite cut the mustard and most people think i'm at least semi-retarded. Am trying pretty hard to learn what is in my phrasebook now so i'm not being quite so rude to everybody. Now i can at least ask people for things and then not understand their answers. Makes ordering food fun, though. I kind of just ask for "menú del dia" (meal of the day) and then pick random words from the things that the waiter starts listing and then it's a surprise! Incidentally, the menú del dia thing is pretty great and you get massive 3 course meals for about five dollars and then beer is roughly two bucks and comes in a half litre bottle.

Valparaiso the city is quite cool, and a winner for photo-opportunities. It's fairly rough around the edges and well-worn in most places. There is also a fair amount of construction work going on since the massive earthquake they had about 8 months ago. Probably not really a city for the traveller who doesn't deal well with rubbish and street animals and the occasional smell of excrement, but i'm pretty excited by it all. Pretty much every surface in the central city and the suburban(ish) areas is covered will extraordinarily well drawn (¿sprayed?) graffiti, and the houses are all painted a random assortment of flashy colours. Everything is built up hills surrounding a large port which still functions commercially and so there are constant pervading echoes of horns and seabirds and sailors yelling no matter where in the city you are, and snappily-dressed navy dudes wander about the main plaza and port-area. It's all very romantic. Long, cobbled streets and colourful buildings and balconies with thick iron railings and flowers and whatnot. I think it looks European, perhaps? This would be way easier with photos.

So far, pretty much all i've done is wander around and eat stuff and then go back to the hostel and accidentally go to sleep at about 7 and wake up really confused at 4am and not able to go back to sleep. Hopefully will get the jet lag thing sorted today and will go out tonight if i meet some people (although so far all the people in the hostel have not spoken english). I did hear a scottish guy singing "NOOOO foooocking sleeeep and a coooold foooooking shower" in the bathroom at about 6am, though....

Incidentally, the hostel is really nice. The owners speak english and have been keen to show me what there is to see and they feed me in the morning and the rooms are good enough and there is sometimes hot water. It's called Casa Adventura.

Hopefully will blog later with photos. Unless i continue to look the wrong direction when crossing the road and end up getting run over...

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