Bahia Bonita Apart Hotel Vina del Mar

... beds in each) to ourselves. Not the first hostel i´ve been in that has been empty, but i´m sure NZ and Oz will be different.<br><br>Had a tremendous steak for my dinner, won a few bob in the casino and headed back to hostel at 11.30. There was some party on in the hallway (bunch of Chilean / Spanish speakers) making a reet racket until midnight, then they came back in dribs and ...

... walking along the street to find a good restaurant. We finally decided to stop at a Peruvian restaurant. It was very tasty - a little more spicy than Chilean food. We got back around 10 PM, and I was supposed to go out to Cafe Journal (a bar/dance club) with my chilean friend that I met through my brother Oscar. I had to tell her no because I was way too tired from all that walking and had to wake up early for my trip to Cajon de Maipo!<br>

... sletila u santiago je da je estebanov brat trenutno kod kuce u puconu (ca. 1000km juznije od vina del mar) i lezi u krevetu sa SVINJSKOM GRIPOM! i onda se esteban kasnije jos zaj. kako osjeti vec sada simptome i meni govori da mi je bolje da se ovdje razbolim nego kad stignem u peru! hahaha<br><br>evo, i ovom veselom vijescu zavrsit cu danasnju sekciju i idem napokon spavat (iako je ovdje tek 10h, a kod vas 6 vise!).<br><br>buenas noches y hasta luego!<br>

... this particularly hard to handle, especially when a cute dog with a broken back and injured leg limps up to you, wags its tail and follows you around from place to place. Sometimes they will wait for up to thirty minutes outside a shop then follow you again, exaggerating the limp as you move faster. I have seen dogs attacking people, dogs attacking dogs, dogs attacking cars and motorbikes, people kicking dogs and many other unpleasant sights. Definitely a slighter darker side to ...

... was the balcony. After we ate lunch at the buffet, they call it the Garden Café, we went ashore. We had to take the shuttle bus back to the terminal building, as they would not let us walk through the container area. On the ride back to the terminal, I saw several sea lions in the water near shore. At the terminal, we walked a short distance to the port exit. Once in the city, we saw what looked like a high ...

So, the week we spent in Santiago was awesome!!! It was definitely a nice transition into thinking about being home again. We hung with old friends from home, and the new Chilean friends/family we met. Haley's wedding was unbelievable. The ceremony was gorgeous, everything ran perfectly. The reception was a total party, and lasted until 6am!!! The next day, we all woked up late, but ...

... also to be back on the road using our brains again so off to Valparaiso on the coast it was! After rousing ourselves from our John and Yoko style stay in bed protest for three days due to me being slightly out of sorts. We packed and moved outdoors to the bus station the weather was great so warm and we sat contemplating the next few weeks and making the most of our time before heading back to reality. Our journey took us north westish away from Santiago to the ...

2 hours away from Santiago and on the coast is Valparaiso. It`s a city built on the steep sided hills overlooking the ports, known for its brightly coloured buildings piled up ontop of each other. The city is covered in graffiti and murals, some of them by famous Chilean artists, so to wander around it looks really cool. We had to walk up a steep hill with all our stuff and eventually ...

... bad spirits at bay, by putting them in statue form, and a cherry wood-coloured Moai head for myself. Actually everything I bought was for myself, but whatever. Next I hit Vina's primary mall--or the most primary one I could find anyways, and explored a variety of different stores there. I really liked one store called Paris--amazing men's clothes, but of course it was Fall heading into Winter in South America, and I knew I'd be going back to a hot gross humid ...