Cabanas Los Maitenes Valparaiso

... and was turning people away at 10.30pm (in the middle of nowhere, on a Wednesday!), luckily for me it was a past place where ever dish (seemed to) have a cream based sauce. Was very expensive, but managed to find som asparagos and atrichoke raviolle and a stella artois. Was the only dish from arond 25 which i could eat, does make me sympathise with all the veggies out there (but not too much so - get some meat intae ye!).<br>

Valparaiso is very very cool; having two arts university, the neighbourhood i am staying in is covered in artwork all over the alleyways and embankments. And its full of creative wee studios and art. The city is a port city, and is set up on steep hills on the coast. The artwork and all the ...

... I thought it was the wine, and then I was sure it was the food. Tom and I spent most of the morning bed ridden or vomiting and the rest of the afternoon frozen with nausea. The best we managed was tea in the main square and an evening trip to the supermarket when we finally began to feel better. But what a place to get sick. We spent the day at our hostel the most comfortable place I have had the fortune to stay in so far and the friendliest people. Not to ...

... bit of company, so eventually we went to the butchers and bought him some meat, but he seemed more keen to follow us around than down his chop (so obviously not that starving!) We ended up going up an escalator into a shopping centre and because he couldn´t get on, he just sat at the bottom and watched us go. Soppy buggers we were - was a bit like leaving someone at the airport or something!

... After cooling, the clay mould could be broken to produce the finished jewelery. Other travellers had told me of one street on which just about all of Santiagos cycle shops could be found. [It seemed to be the same as the street where all the book shops could be found.] I was searching for front paniers for the bike and not one single bike shop had any. Ater dicovering this, I resumed the tourist trail and headed ...

... to say that they´re Escheresque, maybe. If you don´t feel up to climbing the stairs, try taking the 100+ year old ascensors (jerry-rigged elevators) that resemble small, rattle-trap cattle cars. It´s a little difficult to describe. The only way I can think to explain it to one who hasn´t clapped eyes on it is to imagine that a grand victorian port town (which it was) was in a horrible earthquake (it´s been in several ...

... Papa), we took it really easy. We read in the sun, walked on the beach (loads of minicrabs) and later Sean went surfing. He seems to be pretty good at it. They all wore wetsuits because the ocean is really cold. The owner of the hostel came back that day and he was a bit of pain, giving out about pretty much everything, so that ****** everybody off. We had another good night around the fire (my hair still stink of smoke two days after, though) with some new people.

... allow some sight-seeing, but seeing as how our 20 trip ended up being more like 24, it cut into our time. We basically just ate in Santiago, obtained currency (and let me say, it is fun to get a stack of 10,000 peso bills) and got tickets to Valparaiso. From the little bit I saw of Santiago, it looked like a beautiful city. I can say that the subway system is a lot cleaner, faster, and overall more efficient than that of Buenos Aires. After ...

... in A la Australia and New Zealand). We were bypassing the city of Santiago itself and heading directly for the coastal city of Valparaiso. We headed from the airport to the bus station of Pajaritos, on the outskirts of the city. We could see the towering Andes moutains in the distance, though there was a notieable amount of smog and haze in the air. First impressions, of Latin America, surprisingly unchaotic, but thats probably because we are ...

... ships in bottles, shells, carved women from the front of ships, furniture, traction engines (!)... The usual....!!! And he loved a party. I think it would have been cool to be a mate of his! And, with neruda in mind, I´ll leave you with some of his words, which I just think are so beautiful, when you hear them in Spanish: "Hoy es hoy, y ayer se fue. No hay duda"... Today is today, and yesterday went. There is no doubt.