Hello everybody!

Am now back in Santiago, after spending several nights in Valpraiso and Viña del Mar Chile.

As a quick summary Valpraiso =

Viña del Mar = s***

Valpo, i expected to be a small seaside village. What it actually houses is the main port in Chile, the Entire Naval force of Chile, and home to nearly 200,000 people!! Still it did not stop me having the most amazing time there. Stayed at the Casa Verde Limon - a very lovely and characterful hostal - close to everything important in the neighbourhood. Bars. Oh and museums. And some of the most pleasantly coloured houses and dwellings, artful graffiti, decorated walls with murals and tilework you could ever hope to see. I have put up a load of pics on facebook but yet again haven´t managed to do so on the STA site, yet!!!

Spent several days with a top bunch of travellers, to include a Slovenian supermodel, a Belgian hang on make that 2 Belgians and a famous English singer ;-)... Made a very worthwhile visit to the Pablo Neruda house, to see his rather eccentric collection of artworks and general nik-naks he´d picked up over the years, also to read some of the poetry and prose he´d produced before his death. The house also had some cracking views out to sea . . . . . .

Also the same day had some most excellent wandering, chatting and picture time which was then topped off by one of the nicest meals i´ve had for ages at ¨Corazon Contento¨ (extremely highly recommended). Also that night managed to chow down a Churrasco - amazingly tasty beef type burger with onions and guacamole - before hitting some smoky bars around the town, all with bags of character and atmosphere. And smoke!!!

Moved onto Viña del Mar after, 9km down the road, for several nights, settled down onto a sunlounger, then was greeted by 2 girls i´d met in Huacachina, Peru, and Cuzco Peru!!! There wasn´t too much to do here as its off season and this is primarily a seaside town. So just wandered around town and had one night out in town at a funky (and smoky) bar called ¨Cafe Journal¨ was quite a good laugh. Also ate some most excellent Shawarma at ¨restaurant Schawerma¨ along Ave Ecuador. I tried a bit of a friends Sushi at the Hostal Che Lagarto and got lucky! She did not get lucky as she preceded to have a night of D & V. Let that be a lesson to those of you wanting to buy Sushi from supermarkets in Viña!!!

Peace out, off to Easter Island tomorrow!!

Tobster :-)