Valparaiso

                                           Hola Gente Maravillosa!

As we only had a short amount of time in Chile, before flying to Lima, we decided to get out of Santiago for a day in an attempt to see a bit more of the country. Valparaiso was our chosen destination as it was only an hour from Santiago, meaning we could get there and back in a day while also spending a good chunk of time in the city. Valparaiso is a beautiful little city, with a busy port, located on the coast of Chile. The city itself is really hilly and hundreds of mulit-coloured houses wind up, down and in between the hills; making for a very pretty view. As the city is full of steep hills, there are tens of funiculars dotted all over the place, so you don’t have to face a gruelling walk up hill in the heat. The weather was glorious when we visited, despite it being winter, and I would have loved to spend an extra few days there.

We obviously did a free walking tour, as they are fabby and I clearly can’t visit a city without doing one. I think this had to be my favourite walking tour that I did in South America because I just loved the layout of the whole city. We explored hidden passageways, went up and down funiculars, marvelled at graffiti and even went down a huge metal slide rather than take the stairs. Valparaiso is such a colourful city as there are no graffiti laws, so the houses are painted all sorts of colours and amazing artwork lines the walls of many buildings. As part of the walking tour we stopped off at a little cafe where we treated ourselves to handmade empanadas and had a free shot of pisco, which were both cracking.

After the walking tour, which took around 3 hours, we headed to Pablo Neruda’s house for a guided tour. For those not in the know, Pablo Neruda is a Chilean poet, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature and is well loved by the country. Personally, I had never heard of the poet until I came to Chile, so going on a tour around one of his houses gave me a great insight into his life. The house itself is lovely, with beautiful view over the city to the sea. I must confess, I didn’t find the tour too interesting (you get a small speaker, with your chosen language that explains about the different rooms) and I spent most of the time planning how I’d redesign the house if I owned it. By the end of the tour I was pretty gutted to leave, as I’d mentally added a nice swimming pool, open plan kitchen and bar area to the house which I really wanted to live in.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the colourful streets before having a bite to eat in a local fish restaurant. I had mash, as it was the only veggie option. But I’m not complaining as I’m actually in love with potato, especially mash! We then headed back to Santiago in the late afternoon. I really loved my day in Valparaiso, and would highly recommend a visit, even if you’re only in Chile for a stop over. It’s a beautiful little city and as the bus only cost around £5 for a return ticket, it’s a prefect and cheap option for a day trip away from Santiago.