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Hola!
It´s nice to be back in the heat and in my summer gear following the Patagonia treatment! Flew up to Santiago (Chilean capital) on Monday. Had booked a place at the well known La Casa Roja hostel, which is a huge converted mansion block complete with swimming pool, jacuzzi, huge kitchens and even some cricket nets. Quite a change from what I had been getting used to!
Santiago itself is no stand out city, not known for anything as qualifiable as Buenos Aires but pleasant enough for a couple of days. I hooked up with some Irish folks and we undertook a walking tour recommended in the guide book. The highlight was a venicular ride to the the top of Cerro San Cristobel, which offers fantastic views over the city and a huge statue of Virgin Mary. The following day was spent around the pool. To be honest I could have been in Magaluf.
The followig day I took the 3 hour bus ride to Valaparaiso, the city port and cultural centre of Chile. Altogether far more interesting than Santiago. The city itself is a hodge podge of glorious mansions, colourful cabins and shanty districts all crammed onto the hills that surround the port. Not to everybody´s taste, the city is well known for crime, muggings. etc and we heard our fair share of horror stories, but I was one of the 99% of people who pass through with no problems at all.
Stayed at a lovely hostel called Patiperro, set on one of the hills that hides a network of lanes, alleyways and dead ends. The City has been given the ´bohemian´tag that is often used to describe Brighton, an adjective that I´m not particularly fond of but probably the best I could use to dscribe the city. Took in a walking tour around all the best viewpoints on the first full day, which included a fish lunch in a hanging restaurant.
Had a funny night the second night we were there (well, kinda funny). 4 of us took the bus up to a beach called Renacca to watch the setting sun, but alas the bus was held up in traffic and we got there after the sun had gone down. So we hit the beers and grabbed some food, befoe deciding to find an isolated beach where we heard there was going to be a big beach party. After 2 buses, a cab and much broken Spanish we finaalt arrived at the party, some 60k out of town, to be greeted by one DJ, a super quiet sound system and 4 bemused looking partygoers. And it´s not as if we turned up too early! Cursing our wasted evening we made the long journey back.... reminds me of some of those free parties we used to go to in the south west!
The final day Marc who runs the hostel, an English guy and myself decided we were going to go fishing, so we headed off to a jetty near the port. We bought hand held reels and to the amusement of the locals realised we didn´t really have a clue what we were doing. Still, they gave us some lessons and were friendly enough, even though we nearly hooked their eyes when we were casting on more than one occassion.
Had a quiet one the final night as had a 08.00 bus to catch. The journey over to Mendoza (Argrentina) was fantastic as you go over the Andes mountain range that splits the two countries. Drove past Aconcagua, highest mountain outside of Asia!
More good news - my friend Jonny from Torquay will be coming over on Wednesday, and will be joining me for a couple of months of the trip. He turns up 0on Wednesday so I´ve booked a bed where I´m staying. I´ve also got some Spanish lessons this week, first one starts in three hours time.
Nick xx
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