Valparaiso
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2008
1
18
102
Trip End
Jun 14, 2009
Valparaiso,
Chile
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Arrived in Valpo at around 1.45pm and Alberto from the hostel was supposed to pick us up but when he didnīt show we gave we took a taxi the 4 of us.
The hostel is in a nice location overlooking the bay and the rooms are nice and quirky but alberto! - the guy is half mad fully kamp and completely away with the fairies! (He loves his town though and tries to make us see everything) This is the same hostel where our two Doncaster friends Neil and Katie stayed a few months ago and they tried to prepare us for Albertoīs enthusiam buit it needs to be witnessed first hand. He sat us down for about 40 mins to explain the map of the town and show us how to orientate the map and how to travel to each of the famous so called romantic passageways and how to again orientate the map and get to the museums and cable cars. We had to bite our tongues not to burst out laughing at times. He meant well though and makes good coffee so i wonīt 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 didnīt quite go to plan......
Dermot ad Paul at Navel Museum Valparaiso
. The restaurant doesnīt open tuesdays ! we started rambling around downtown looking aimlessly for a restaurant and for a half hour found nowhere where you would feed a humanbeing. Eventually we headed for the Irish bar thinking weīll surely we could get a carvery or some irish food.. again no! all they had was rubbery cold chicken wings and overpriced drink so we didnīt stay there long. The owners were from Colraine, they had about 40 English beers, one Irish beer (Guinness in bottle format) a shamrock and they had the nerve to call themselves an irish bar.... note to any future travellers do go there!So dinner needless to say didnt work out too well but the pastries in the bakery we passed made up for the lack of dinner. We got backto the hostel early as we were all wrecked and like mana from heaven Neil and Katies email arrived with recommendations on where the good spots to go were so we now had a plan for the next night
Wednesday 13th
Had the best nights sleep since getting to South America!! Spent the day sorting out bus tickets then going for a boat trip on the bay looking back on Valpo and boating close to the huge navel vessels docked there too. Weirdly enough itīs not allowed to take pictures of the Navel vessels but we took some sneaky ones all the same. We have booked into the italian restaurant for later tonight so looking forward to that. Aparently itīs the best restaurant in Valpo so it better live up to the standard set
Thursday 14th
Dinner was class last night- best italian meal iīve had out of Italy
Karen Paul Sarah and Dermot
. But the curse of Dermot and Sarah continues... Karen and Paul left their camera behind in the last pub we were in last night and they leave for Mendoza this morning and the pub isnīt open yet. We are going to go back later to see if it shows up.Friday 15th
Weīll we rose bright and early today after our chill out day yesterday and were all set to go to Viņa del Mar but my God did the rain come down- youīd swear you were in north county dublin from what we hear! It rain intensely all day from 8 till midnight. We still headed off on our day trip to Viņa del Mar wiuth free metro train tickets thamks to Alberto but our romantic walk on the beach didnīt take place- instead it was a duck walk through a flooded town. We had a fabulous lunch in a small quirkyy cafe off the beaten track and then returned to Valpo -Sarah drounded as she didnīt have waterproof trousers- where as i was sponsered by Sprayway so i was nice and toasty hehehe!
That evening myself and Alberto went down to the bar that Karen and Paul left their camera to see what was the story as i couldnīt understand the floor girl yesterday. From what Alberto told me the three staff we talked to all had three different stories- 1. The Irish couple came back that night for the camera, 2. The irish couple came back the following afternoon for the camera, 3. There was no camera! - Obviously the lot of them are lying sons of bi*&h·s and one of them has pocketed the camera.
Later Sarah and i went to Cafe Turi which is beside the Assensur Conception (or Conception Hill elevator), we hadīt booked ahead and we figured it was going to be an average restaurant as it was in the Rough Guide Book for South America - now it was still raining heavily and we werenīt going to get wet so I was dressed in full wet gear with my fleece and a "Plain Lazy" T-shirt and Sarah was in full wets with the Michelin Man trousers on and a Baywatch T-Shirt. - The restaurant turned out to be of equivalent status as a Michelin starred restaurant at home, seriously classy with us Knackers in it. At first we were the only Gringos in the restaurant with everyone else dressed to the 9īs but by the time we were on desserts there were a few other scruffy foreigners!- Dinner was fabulous!
We leave tomorrow morning to go back to Santiago. I would highly recommend Alecon FineHostel to anyone coming to Valparaiso itīs a great place to stay!
