Radisson Acqua Hotel & Spa Concon Valparaiso

... of choice in South Americaand when a world cup berth is on offer, things get taken to a new level. Red umbrellas, old school bicycle horns and chanting for the home team were constants throughout the 90mins. 4 &#8211; 2 to Chile meant that celebrations went into the wee hours of the morning.<br><br>Great weather, cultural heritage, sensational food and an ability to discover something around every corner made Valparaiso our favourite Chilean city.

... that screwed before.<br>On friday I went to Coyote Quemado, that Mexican themed bar I was talking about. Oscar and I met up with Juan Pablo, Julian, Vicente, Moises, and two of Moises' friends that we had met that Wednesday at the game... I think they were named Sergio and Joaquin. Oops. We played Uno, which just seems like a silly thing to do in a bar, but was actually really fun. I got my ass whooped, but I had a fabulous time. They are all really cool ...

... flea markets and not really doing much. Anyway, now with the pics uploaded, I´m off to the grocery market to pick up some stuff for dinner tonight. I´m thinking maybe some wine and pasta!<br><br>Keep an eye out for my next post which will be after I get to the Chilean-Bolivian border.<br>

... the little border town which is full of tourists. The day we had to do activities, a few of us went to "Valle de la luna". It truly does look like another planet. There are sand dunes and crazy rock formations including salt caves. We climbed up a big dune to watch the sunset. (Not easy when still at high altitude, but totally worth it, especially afterwords when we got to run back down the dune.) After San Pedro, we caught a night bus to La ...

... SO yea..YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY WINE. At home they won´t.. they will just make us pay 100% of the cost of everything. ********. Now we´re in Valparaiso. Its a nice town on the Pacific Ocean with all these brightly coloured houses on the hillside. We met back up with Sarah and Jeremey (The Aussies) and we´re heading to Santiago tomorrow to waste away the last few days of our trip. Tonight.. Seafood on acount of the seaport town we´re in.. Yay Rob.. Boo Dre.. D

Just for one day more of luxery I booked an excursion that would take me to Valparaiso, Vino del Mar and a Santiago city tour. After the tour they would drop me at the airport where my luggage would be waiting. How convenient! Now I remember why I do not like organised excursions, you can not stop and take pictures where you want. For Valparaiso and Santiago I really wanted to be in a group because ...

... dogs and hosts greeted us at the door. Their parking lot full of motorcycles from Europe every single one of them BMW's. We get settled in and try to get some sleep. Mike has arranged to have his motorcycle serviced tomorrow morning and when inquiring with the host about directions his wife who has partaken in several beers says a few nasty words to Mike who returns to the room furious.

... fairly predictable dissertations on the status of the human condition, and the ease of changing all that if only society weren't so corrupt. As Gertrude Stein once said, "students they are merciful, and recognized they chew something." I wish I had said that, but I catch flack for my flights of fancy writing. Write vertically just once instead of the usual horizontal missionary position, and I'm sure to hear about it from hacks with ...

... cooked for people that had stayed LAST night... so victoria and I were sent to the local cafe for breakfast. Victoria had already checked out the area in her travel book (i had checked out Viña del Mar instead, so I was lost in Valparaiso), so we decided to take her destination choices instead of mine. This turned into an all day event, traveling to one of the houses of the eccentric artist Pablo Neruda, an amazing fish lunch ...

... the government to organize food for the poor people in all of Chile. A very Juan-like job. They served us salad and fish and rice for dinner and we caught up on things. Juan's younger sister, la Cata, got pregnant at 17 years old. This surprised me greatly because her mother, la Tia Pati, the one who started TAC, works to prevent and deal with the problem of teen pregnancies. Cata is strong and broke up with her boyfriend while finishing up her pregnancy ...