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Valpariso
13th December - 18th December
Day 284 - Day 289
The journey here was very tiring, from Salta we had to get a 21 hour bus to Mendoza. Stay one night in Mendoza before catching another bus to Valpariso. Both buses took longer than expected but the real annoyance was going through passport control and customs.
We had done the journey in the other direction which didn't seem too bad. However Chile is definitely stricter than Argentina. After queuing for passport control we had to wait for our bus' turn to go to customs. Once there we were filed into two lines with out hand luggage placed infront of us. We soon saw our luggage being put onto a conveyabelt ready to be scanned. It took forever.
One couple that were sitting behind us didn't stop connoodling throughout the journey and continued during the customs check. It got so bad on the bus that Chris was forced to put his headphones in..
Once we got to Valpariso, we spent the first day not doing much. I still have my cough from Mendoza and haven't been able to get rid of it.
Valpariso is a very interesting city, with rough edges. It is a port town, with the old town built upwards into the hills behind it. Up in the hills there are lots of old buildings, many churches, small alleyways and cable cars going up to the hills in different areas.
Lots of the buildings are very delapitated especially due to the earthquake. There is lots of graffiti everywhere, huge arty murals on the streets and buildings. I found myself constantly looking in every direction because there was so much to see.
We then ran into an unfortunate situation... I got mugged. Thankfully they didn't take anything of importance but I did lose my Peru bag, lip balm, tissues and phone case. I would have liked to see their faces when they opened the bag. Chris was the hero of the day running after 5 chillian guys and losing a flipflop in the process. Thankfully none of us were hurt!
After that we felt a little on edge but I don't want the mugging to ruin the experience and not allow me to go out and do stuff. I really wanted to go home without anything happening... Ah well c'est la vie!!
Xxxx
- comments
Rachel Oh TT, I'm just catching up on your blog. So sorry to hear about your mugging experience - that must have been frightening. The last laugh was on the muggers though - what a waste of effort! I hope they make good use of the lip balm ... xx