Santiago to Valparaiso
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
18
115
Trip End
Jun 24, 2008
Valparaiso,
Chile
Saturday, December 29, 2007
We are having to use a dorm room tonight as they messed up on the booking and didnt have a private room until tomorrow and it is not the nicest of hostels! The staff are friendly, but the dorms are really dark, which I think it a good thing cos if they were any lighter you might be able to see how grubby they are!
Valparaiso is a funny town, it is a big place and used to be the main port for South America, before the Panama canal opened up and left Valparaiso in a bit of a mess
Crammed on the bus!
. It has more recently become a thriving town again, but the contrast between poor and rich is really evident in the houses when you look at them all perched on the hills behind you. There are 2 really old parts to the city, Concepcion and Alegre. We wondered up and around them for a few hours amazed by the views of the harbor and beach and the rest of the sprawling city. There are a lot of lifts around various parts of the city which can take up to the steeper parts, or you can do as we did and walk up and down many, many steps.We also headed to the old prison as we were told it was worth a visit - very strange and eary place, but not much to see.
Then we had an iced coffee sat in the plaza outside the Naval headquarters in the sun and updated our diaries - yes I am writing a diary too, blooming hard work this travelling business!
That night we were introduced to life at Yo Yo hostel, I am so grateful for the ear plugs I have with me, but even they couldn't keep out the noise. This is a party hostel and if you don't want to party - tough! Problem is there is a lounge upstairs and downstairs so people party everywhere and smoke everywhere too. Needless to say we didn't get a great nights sleep.
A view of the houses crammed onto the hills
The next day we headed out to a place called Horcon, we were told it took about an hour and a half on one of the little buses. It actually took over 2 hours, but the drive took us past some great scenery. Horcon is the last stop and it is well worth the drive. It is a lovely little fishing port with a small beach and lots of great fish restaurants. We had a meal on the balcony of one of them over looking the sea and then went for a wonder around the beach. The beach got packed later in the afternoon with all the locals. It was a great atmosphere and we were really glad we had gone, but we didn't have any stuff with us to sit out on the beach, so we headed back on our 2 hour bus journey around 5.30pm.
The bus journey also took us past Viņa Del Mar, which is a more upmarket seaside town next to Valparaiso, big shops and hotels everywhere, so not as quirky as Valparaiso, but looked like it has a few nice beaches, which were also packed!
Another sleepless night, but at least in a private room this time! We were both a awake until 4.30am when the music finally stopped. We had planned to go to Viņa, but we were so tired we went back to bed - one disadvantage of being an older traveller, we need our sleep!
