Puerta De Alcala Hotel Valparaiso

... history of former glory being a port town of some repute, until the lousy swines built the Panama canal and ships no longer braved sailing around Cape Horn unless they really needed too. You can sense the weather beaten sailors who used to roam these streets, getting drunk, looking for women of easy virtue, and getting into fist fights. Even today there is an edge to the atmosphere, with talk of danger backpacker world. A girl from our hostel got ...

... Chilean folk singing and the numerous locals tucking into mounds of meat and gorgeous smelling food coaxed us in. We were not disappointed. The restaurant had no menu - it only serves two dishes - and we went for the chorrillana, which is essentially a bed of homemade chips covered in a layer of scrambled egg, another layer of fried onions and a top layer of beefy chunks. Yum. <br><br>The next day we woke up early to allow time for exploration. Our first stop was the ...

... checks together and had a short wait where we took last minute pictures and talked about our experiences! I'm glad so many of us had the same flight to Atlanta. It definitely made the waiting time seem shorter. Also, I sat with one of the girls from my program, Krystle, which made the flight seem even shorter. We chatted on the flight until we fell asleep. In Atlanta, it took us forever to get our luggage, recheck it, and go through customs ...

... Friday, Oscar is taking me to another discoteca, that's called Huevo, in Valparaiso. Then on Saturday the family is taking me on a boat ride along the whole side of the beaches. That way I get to see more of the city and the sea! I'm super excited!<br><br>Today is the first day of winter here. Brrr - it gets very cold here at night. Hope everyone enjoyed their first day of summer and Father's Day! Enjoy the pictures!<br><br>Chao,<br>Erin<br><br>< br>

... re very calm too, but you have to <br> watch out for their droppings in the streets and on the <br> sidewalks! When we returned home, Margarita made fried <br> ham and cheese in some type of breading, fried potatoes, salad <br> with red wine vinegar, oil, and a LOT of salt. There was <br> also papayas and steak, but I was too full after everything <br> else. They were worried that ...

Rien de special a faire aujourd'hui sinon profiter de la ville et se reposer. Lucie reste se reposer. J'accompagne avec Nelson Liberty a son ecole. Le bus qui nous y amene etait le plus fou jamais pris, slalomant et klaxonnant entre les voitures sans jamais toucher le frein. Il faut savoir qu'ici les conducteurs sont payes au nombre de clients. Il y a donc une course entre tous pour choper le plus rapidement possible les clients et perdre le moins de temps ...

... a party at his friend's house, where apparently there were great views of the fireworks. It seemed that almost all guests in the hostel took up this offer and soon there were 24 of us joining the party. It turned out that the party wasn't actually "at" his friends house, but was rather out in the street near his friends house. I wasn't quite sure if this was decided when the friend saw the amount of people that rocked up for the party from the hostel and ...

For our last day in Valparaiso, we had arranged a days horse riding amongst the forests, sand dunes and beaches close to Vina del Mar, Chile's premier beach resort and playground for the rich and famous. We left the hostel and got the funicular railway down the hill to the bus stop. The bus ride, took us, at great speed, along the coastal highway, through Vina del Mar and onwards to another small town. The drive reminded us very much of the French Riviera, with lots of holiday ...

... i won´t slate him too much. Spent the rest of the day strolling around and having lunch and strolling some more. Our intention was to go to the italian restaurant which was in the lonely planet that night and then go to the El Irlandes Irish bar after for the one! but things didn´t quite go to plan....... The restaurant doesn´t open tuesdays ! we started rambling around downtown looking aimlessly for a restaurant and for a half hour found nowhere where you would ...

As we'd got in rather late last night after our huge meal, we decided to get up extra early this morning to do our packing. <br><br>So we were up before 7am, packed in half an hour, grabbed some breakfast (literally), paid for our room (again the dude had no change, what it is with South American places not having any change?!) and flagged down a taxi to the bus station. <br><br>We were astonished that ...