Blogs from Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 11

Thursday 23 May to Friday 24 May The bus from Pucon arrived into Santiago early morning and I pretty much immediately boarded the bus from here to Valparaiso - one of Chile's most important sea ports. On arrival at the bus station I randomly bumped into a German guy called Max, who I'd seen briefly on Volcano Villarrica the day before in Pucon. He'd been ascending the volcano with the group that diminished down to two people. We decided to join forces in locating a hostel together and boarded a local bus to the Concepcion area of the city, ending up at a place that had been recommended to me. Check-in wasn't until 1pm, so we dumped the bags and headed out for a wander round the port, managing to find a spot for an early ... read more

It is getting chilly here, folks. As all of you in the U.S. are finally celebrating spring, I’m going through the exact opposite here! I think I have mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again. In Chile, it is incredibly expensive to have indoor heating like many of us (and definitely myself) are accustomed to in the U.S. So, for what I am used to, it isn’t really cold outside right now. It is about 50 or so during the day and a bit colder at night. But the difference is, my pattern for 20 years in the U.S.: Freezing, freezing, freezing (step inside), WARM. Here in Chile: Cold, cold, cold (step inside)…cold. As a result, I find most of my days are spent with a sweatshirt or light jacket on. And when I am ... read more

Now that I have time to write a little more about daily life, I want to use this blog entry to reflect on some things I have learned through my first couple months here. First, one thing that has really surprised me about my time abroad so far is how easy it was to adjust compared to what I thought it would be. I was prepared for a long, arduous process of struggling not only with the language, but with the culture, the big city, and the multitude of other things which I was experiencing for the first time. While there have been and will, I am sure, continue to be some struggles, overall, they have not been nearly as difficult as I was expecting. For that, I am very grateful to friends and family here, ... read more

We have all arrived in Vina del Mar after 10,000 plus kilometres on the road, but not without problems to re enter Chile. We had a great run down to La Rioja, from Andalgala, apart from Terry and Howard heading off in the opposite direction towards Belen. They finally arrived in La Rioja about three hours and 200 km later, so they had their own adventure. While I was in the plaza, I heard my name called out, so turned to see Mauricio, the fellow we met last year whith the 2CV's, running towards me, we had a good man hug and chatted about last year and now he also Has a 2CV and it was parked in our garage, so of course we had to go and check it out, lucky I had one more ... read more

Apr 7 – Valparaiso : encore du street art et départ vers le nord Il nous reste encore un quartier à visiter, et un ascenseur à prendre, un vrai cette fois, accessible par un passage souterrain, réputé pour sa vue, mais aussi pour son quartier de… street art, mais oui, on ne s’en lasse pas! La vue panoramique est encore différente de la veille, du cote est cette fois. Puis c’est un départ en bus pour 26 heures de route et rejoindre le nord et plus précisément San Pedro de Atacama. Malheureusement, on a pris les billets un peu tard (genre la veille) et le trajet se fera donc en siège semi cama, oubliez le confort (bon, c’est toujours mieux que l’avion) >PDJ : on nous avait avertis que Valparaiso n’était pas une ville très sure, ... read more