The journey to Chile took us on a spectacular bus journey through the Andes, every turn revealed a more amazing view it seemed! We got to the Chilean border, well briefed about how strict customs is...you get spot fines if you don't declare an apple!! Thinking to play it safe, we each declared a single piece of fruit, which was taken from us, examined thoroughly and then deemed not a bomb... After, I asked if we could have them back...no, of course not, our extremely dangerous fruit had to be confiscated. We joked that you could probably get through with a bag of drugs, but if you have a bunch of bananas....tut tut! After this farce, we were through into our 6th country.
Soon, we arrived into Valparaiso on a disappointingly cloudy afternoon. This was a shame, because Valpo (as it is known) is 10 minutes on the bus to Vina del Mar, a well-known Chilean beach resort. However, we were fascinated by the city immediately. It is situated on a hillside with buildings built in an unordered hodge-podge. This makes it very 3D with little winding streets going off in all directions. The other thing that strikes you is the colour of it. Street artists have covered pretty much every surface in colourful graffiti murals, making the whole city a living art gallery. Each small hill has its own identity and sub-culture; we were staying on one of the two UNESCO World Heritage hill regions, Cerro Conception in the brilliantly colourful Pasaje Fischer. Our hostel was lovely, like staying in someone's house with great views from some windows. Tired from the journey earlier, we chilled for a bit before going to find a supermarket. On the way, we stopped to hear a Cuban-style band playing Buena Vista Social Club covers on the street. They were amazing! After a while, our stomachs reminded us of our mission so we stocked up and returned to cook a meal of mussel, mushroom and white wine risotto (amazing if we do say so ourselves!) and spend a chilled night drinking lovely white wine and chatting to the only other guy staying that night (coincidentally, a chap we had met earlier on our trip in Iguazu!).
The next day we went for a wander around this great city. First stop was the port by the sea, where several boat owners take you out on a trip round the bay. However, we just stopped and watched the port for a while. It's rare to have such huge container ships so close to the shore, but because the port sits on reclaimed land, the water is actually over 40m deep right up to the harbour wall, allowing enormous ships to come right up close! After this, we experienced our first ride on the famous 'ascensors', rickety old wooden funiculars that have been taking people up and down the steep hills for decades. The city has 14, but you are lucky if less than half are open at any one time. Despite it being cloudy, we got an excellent panorama of the city below. Next was lunchtime, and we went to one of Valpo's excellent seafood restaurants for a Menu Diario...discounted lunch menu. We both had HUGE empanadas to start, Andy had a hake fillet and Rach had Paila Marisco, which turned out to be a seafood soup we nicknamed 'fish gut soup' as it seemed to have loads of UFOs in it...Unidentified Floating Objects. To work off our lunch, we went on a nice walk through Plaza Sotomayor (the main square), then up into the hills to Cerro Allegre, where a winding road gives constant views across the city and across the bay to Vina del Mar. We came back down via the house of Pablo Neruda, Chile's most famous poet. That night we cooked another meal and just stayed in the hostel watching a film.
The next day we went out for a leisurely lunch at a recommended place near the hostel. Rach had an excellent ensalada Oceana Pacifico whilst Andy had the menu del dia, getting courgette soup, a chicken main course and ice cream for afters (for less than Rach's main!!). After this, we joined the renowned 'free' walking tour of Valpo (you tip the amount you want at the end). The tour guide was a friendly, enthusiastic guy dressed in a Where's Wally t-shirt to make him stand out. The tour took in a lot of the sites we had seen the previous day, but the insight into the history of the city and local anecdotes and stories really brought it to life, saying nothing of excellent recommendations for bars/restaurants and even a stop to try what is heralded as "Chile's best biscuit"...which was delicious. After the tour, after stocking up for dinner that night, we went back to a wine bar our tour guide had recommended. Fauna sits atop a steep hill with excellent views of the city from its terrace...a very civilised place to watch the sun go down while drinking a bottle of the local red, Carmenere. On the way back to base, we came across a group of students in the street who invited us for a drink. They seemed friendly, so we had a couple with them, trying out each language respectively, before the group scattered just before a policeman on a bike turned up (apparently someone complained about the noise and its also apparently illegal to drink on the street). After this close shave, we cooked dinner and had a few drinks with our Ozzy pal Pat, before heading out to some bars with live music recommended by our tour guide. This was a great night; the first bar (El Gato) had an authentic 3-piece band playing and we were the only gringos in there which must be a good sign!
The next day was our last day in Valpo, so after checking out and storing our luggage, we set out to see the 'open air museum', where local artists were invited to showcase their murals on buildings in an area of Cerro Ferrari. They weren't the best ones we had seen in the city, but it was a nice wander nonetheless... For lunch, we went with a local recommendation. The place was down at the end of a nondescript looking alley...if you didn't know you would just walk past it. However, once inside you are in a bustling, quirky little place packed full of locals eating the local speciality, chorillana. If you ever try this, bring an appetite. You get a plate for two piled high with french fries covered in fried onions, scrambled egg and chunks of beef...for authenticity must be washed down with a cold beer. We walked back to the hostel via an artesan market on a terrace overlooking the city where we bought a small framed city scene to use as a key hook.
After a period for digestion, we grabbed our bags and caught the trolleybus to the station to wave farewell to Valpo and move on to our last destination in South America...Santiago.
