Valparaiso

Walk, walk and walk - it´s what you need to do to discover the secrets of this inspiring city, and walked we have. The city lies around a harbour on various hills where the narrow streets and hidden stairways are covered in street art, each house is also painted with a different bright colour contributing to the joyous feel of the city. Behind every corner is a new painting, stencil, writing - it´s almost overwhelming as there is just so much awesomness around! We were lucky enough to find a really nice hostel right in the heart of the arty barrio Cerro Concepción, all we need to do is step out the door and we find ourselves amongst it all - cute wee cafés, restaurants, design shops and more art on the streets... I think we might have found our favourite city in South America, Valparaiso is like a mix of Wellington and Barcelona - a perfect city one might almost be able to say... Well, we are in love with for sure.

Before Valparaiso we enjoyed the hospitality of my friend Henna and her partner Daniel´s whole family. It was a true wind down for us, not having to plan anything for a few days and still visit some beautiful places. It was a great break, although I suffered from quite bad stomach pain for which I finally had to go to the doctor - poor Daniel who had to translate the movements of my bowl for the past month, I think he knows me better now than he would´ve ever wanted to...sorry, and thanks Daniel ;)- I did manage to get some hard core antibiotics to kill whatever I have carried with me possibly from Bolivia or Peru... Feeling tons better now though, but a shame that my condition put brakes on our weekend in La Serena. Was still a very enjoyable time and nice to catch up with friends.

We arrived here early tuesday morning, the city was still asleep when we made our way through it´s dark, silent streets before the sunrise. As we had been advised not to walk around too much in the dark with our packs on, we decided to have a coffee and wait for the sun to come up before trying to find our hostel. And up the sun came in no time, with colours of red and yellow, finally revieling itself and lighting the clear blue sky. We headed up the hill, a steep climb and a decent work out for first thing in the morning. On our arrival, although waking the hostel owner up as it was still only about 7am, we were greeted with a smile and offered the best breakfast we have had so far in a hostel. Every morning now we stuff ourselves with fresh bread, fruit and scrambled eggs...ah, heaven...

The first day we did what we have been doing ever since - walked. As we walked down the hill into the heart of the city we encountered the ugliest dog in the world, who of course, decided to follow us for the day. We named him ´Mala Cara´ - ugly face - and magically he has searched us out every day, he just appears from nowhere, being all of a sudden behind our heels. So, we walked along the bustling harbour front where the fishermen are busy bringing in the days catch, took a cable car up a hill (thus thinking that old Mala Cara will have gone by the time we come down, but no no, he stayed loyal...at least he provided us and every other person who sees him with a good laugh) to enjoy the views of the harbour along with the whole city of Valpo, as it´s called by the locals. In the afternoon we took the long windy walk to La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda´s Valparaiso home. The house was like a representation of the city - each wall in the house was painted a different colour, and each room was filled with paintings and extraordinary knick knacks which the poet had collected from around the world. A truly bohemian house filled with treasures.

On wednesday we set out to explore the neigbouring city of Viña del Mar - but the weather was not on our side and the spitting rain soon drove us back to Valpo and inside one of its cosy cafés. We did walk around the sea front of Viña, which was beautiful and no doubt filled with people in good weather, visited a park and walked along it´s busy shopping streets - but we found that something was missing...the rustic feel of Valpo just has its own special charm, and we were happy to return. We still have one more day to immerse oursleves into this amazing city, and tomorrow we head towards the surf paradise of Pichilemu where we will spend the weekend watching some monstrous waves and a competition which should hopefully still be running...

Here are a few photos of our bbq with Henna and Daniel and the labyrinth of art that is Valparaiso: