Hotel Latitud 33 Sur Valparaiso

... us to a little local resturant for lunch. It was great and by far the cheapest meal we had had in Chilie inculding cooking food ourselfs. <br><br>We eventually found the elevators and rode them up and down the hill with the locals. This town required lots of walking but by this time we were use to that and given it so small we did not even get lost. <br><br>We visited the open air museum which is streets of art work that the locals ...

... handful that speak english, glad for them, I´m still struggling understanding. So many connections from Mammoth Lakes amongst this Chilean family. Everyone is so sweet. The food! Empanadas, sausage, steak, pork, chicken, chorizo meat, meat and more meat. A vegetarian´s nightmare! Then the desert! My favorite Mote con Huesillo which is sweet peaches with grains. A cake and ice cream. The ice ...

... the city's best views. Like the dead bodies need a good view! The Dissidents' Cemetery is where all the non-catholics were buried. Cerro Alegre is also not bad but Cerro Bellavista is not all that great, as everyone makes it seem. Concepcion has the best restaurants and boutique shops. The low area around the port is not really known for culture, but I think it's where you can find a brothel or two! Coquimbo has the same hilly port feel as Valparaiso but ...

... made me feel welcome!<br><br>Ok, I'll begin talking about my week so far. On Monday, I attended my first class and afterwards found out that my second class was cancelled because my professor is sick. Because I didn't have to return to the University for a while, I went home for almuerzo and took a nice nap. I headed back to the University with my host dad (because he had to go to Valparaiso for work) around 3 PM ...

... to watch the Man U - Arsenal game in a bar. The Mancs won 3-0 which didn`t impress Lucy or Kamal. Feeling uncultured again we went to Pablo Neruda`s house La Sebastiana on top of a hill overlooking the city. Not being a fan of poetry I had only ever heard Lucy talk of Neruda and had never read one of his poems. I wasn`t about to start now either, but his house was cool, made to look like a ship inside with everything irregular. Loads of interesting stuff ...

... about travellers being robbed, people leaving bus stations on foot around 8 in the morning seem to be most at risk to falling victims of hold ups and robberies. I thought it prudent to be able to ride out through the 'danger zone' to somewhere far enough from the bus station before stopping to eat my empanada [bought the previous day] for breakfast whilst consulting my travel guide for a likely place to stay. In ...

... illness! Afterwards, we all sat around a bonfire to keep warm, and after endulging in that backpacking cliche for a while, we went to bed to wait for Santa! We woke up on Christmas morning to open our presants - Catrin and I had bought each other a box of chocolates as a treat, and since the sun was shining, we spent the whole of Christmas Day sizzling on the beach - what a difference to Christams at home! I even ventured into the Pacific ocean ...

... such are superfluous considerations for an aficionado of film. The buzz was at the O'Higgins hotel where I got wi-fi, not at the theatres, waiting with baited breath to see the next cinematic jewel to melt in your mind. One problem was that venues were scattered around town; at least Vina is not so big, so doable. Try that in Bangkok. They did once and it was the worst film festival I've ever attended. The 'festival' consisted of a ...

... on top of each other and look as though they might tumble down the hills at any moment. Then, to complicate its identity even further, the buildings everywhere are covered in amazing street art. I hesitate to call it graffiti because that doesn´t really get across the incredibly high quality of the paintings that cover the walls and buildings of the city. Some of them are so incredible beautiful. It gives this city a much more bohemian feel than you would expect from ...

... gave up. The view near the top was breathtaking, we didn't make it all the way to the top because it got icy and dangerous. The higher we climbed the colder it got. Hiking down the mountain was way harder for me than hiking up. It is ******* the knees and ankles, but por fin, after a full day of hiking, we made it safely down the mountain. Our last night in Valpo was very special. We returned with Ricardo to his mother's home in Playa Ancha where she ...