Grand Hotel Gervasoni Valparaiso

... Concepción, we split up, and I went with Oscar, Julian, and Moises to watch the parade. As we watched and bobbed our heads to the beat of the drums, we saw Benja dance by with the drummers. We called his name and he literally pulled us into the parade. We danced around like complete goobers amongst people dressed in brightly colored dresses, clown suits, and people walking on stilts. We followed, or more specifically, were part of the parade all the way to the very end ...

... in a nearby house, someone playing salsa music. I thought, "I'm so glad this place isn't in the guide books".<br><br>We ended the day with a coffee in a café called, Café del Poeta. Our waiter was, for lack of a better word, freaking cool. He was terribly nice, and when he asked us if we found Chilean Spanish difficult to learn, he said he understood because his first language was Rapa Nui! Uh, how awesome is that? We met a native Rapa Nui man. I geeked out a little bit. The real ...

... them to her, and I cried, obviously, after seeing her and my host dad cry. We were going to miss each other so much, but I still had another day to spend with them. I dried my eyes, and we had lunch together - just Margarita, Oscar (papa), and I. Maria and Maite had gone by themselves into Vina to do a little shopping. They often seemed to retreat to their rooms or go off by themselves. Hopefully, they get the opportunity to spend lots of time ...

... a fan of pisco now!) There was a rodeo show and afterwards a huge, three course meal. First, before the appetizers, there were empanadas. I'm not exactly sure what my appetizer was called, but you can see the picture below. I had salmon for my main dish. It was soooo good, but very rich with lots of butter. For dessert I had, Mote con Huesillo (cooked corn with dried peaches). While it doesn't sound very good, it was very sweet and ...

... to spend my last few days in Santiago (which a number of people have told me is not an interesting city), I would return to Valpo from Mendoza and then head to the airport from there. <br><br>In Valpo I gained a 2nd set of parents in the form of an elderly couple from Santiago. They were eating in the same restaurant as myself and gave me their business card and number and told me i I had any problems at all I was to call them as I ...

Je refais ma ballade de la veille avec Lucie cette fois-ci. Je ne me lasse pas de marche dans ces petites rue en pente. Cette fois nous pouvons rentrer visiter la "Sebastiana", maison de Pablo Neruda. C'est une immense maison decoree comme un bateau tout en bois verni. Ses gout sont assez etranges (voire mauvais) et il a des idees bizarres comme acheter un tableau d'un homme avec une collerette pour que la reine ...

... lots of noise walking past our room. It was noisy from about midnight till 4am, then got noisy again at 6am when people were leaving for the airport! I bought breakfast of a toasted bun and scrambled eggs from the hostel and sat in their courtyard to eat it. After breakfast I checked out, but put my bags into the storage room at the hostel. Yesterday I'd met a couple of Canadian girls and had decided to go to some museums with ...

finally...another blog!!! jay and i have arrived in viña del mar, a small ocean town (i guess it could be considered a city) on the coast. it is on the outskirts of valparaiso, which is a beautiful port city built on a hill. it is very picturesque and old...we are headed there within the next couple days! it is nice to be out of santiago and near an ocean, our last couple days in santiago were a little gloomy, jeans and ...

... she took a public bus down here to my place and then she and I rode the metro to the Universidad de Santiago, where there is a bus station. Now, we didn't exactly figure this out on our own...my concierge was very helpful and explained which stop to take. And, with a little pantomiming, I figured out what he was saying. At the bus station we discovered that the buses to Vina leave every 20 minutes and were only 4.000 pesos ...

... high speed technical conversation, we only know the basics.<br><br>The train ride was really cool, taking us right along the coast. <br><br><br><br>It reminded me of the time I accidentally got on a train which took me along the beaches of Barcelona when I was actually supposed to be heading to the airport in the opposite ...