Valparaiso

  Valparaiso, Chile
Friday, May 11, 2007

Valparaiso!

The only way to describe this town is... a larger version of Kinsale, Co. Cork.

Well, when we say that, we mean... in parts. There are parts of the town that are pretty grim looking to say the least. We found the place to be really arty and bohemian, with cool galleries (they looked cool through the windows as we walked past), funky shops and bucket loads of chilled out restaurants. Virtually every wall in the town has some kind of graffiti on it... the spray painters were real busy here. The towns main attraction is the port.... but we didnīt go there... ha ha... typical us!

Time for a bit of Chilean history.
The son of an Irishman, Bernado O'Higgins was one of the main players in the war against the Spanish and was the first Prime Minister of Chile and there are streets named after him in all the towns we have been in... good on ya Mr. O'Higgins.

08 A birds eye view of Valparaiso

The place to stay in Valparaiso is up on the many hills, called Cerros, that overlook the town. Our hostel was really really nice, called Luna Sonrisa, the staff were sound out and the free breakfast was top notch stuff! Nothing much happened in our time in the city, because there was some kind of a holiday and most places were closed. That said, however, we did find a local little bar and didn't the owner guy come over and talk to us... and didn't he invite us to another private party!!! Bugger that.... we still hadn't recovered from the antics in San Pedro de Atacama.

A funny thing about the Chileans is that as soon as they find out that we are from Ireland, their next question was ALWAYS about the I.R.A. !!!!!!! From taxi drivers to shop keepers they were all asking us about the I.R.A.!!!! What are Bord Failte up to we ask... surely they should be asking us about Leprechauns and Guinness ?

Thats about it from this town and this country also.Next up is a bus across the Andes mountains into Argentina!