Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a port town about an hour and a half out of Santiago and it was super easy to get to with buses leaving constantly from the Santiago bus terminal. Once there we even managed to get the local bus to our hostel. Our Spanish is probably not improving but we are getting braver at just saying words we know and hoping someone vaguely understands what we want. Luckily the locals are either used to dumb foreigners or they are super nice and wanted to help us out. Either way getting to our hostel was a breeze.

We had heard good things about Valparaiso and once again we were not disappointed. Its an amazing arty town, perched on hills over looking the pacific. The beautiful old houses are built haphazardly up the hills with small cobbled roads, alleyways, stairways and the occasional funicular or cable car to help with the steeper hills. The houses are all painted riotous colours of pinks, blues, yellows and green and every spare surface is covered with amazing street art.

We were going to be meeting Anna, the German girl from Mendoza in Valparaiso and we found her on the way to the hostel at what is possibly the best empanada shop yet/ever. They had over 80 varieties that they freshly made and then deep fried to delicious crispy perfection so that the melted cheese oozed out. I’m drooling just thinking about them. We had 2 each. I probably won't fit into my snowboard pants when I get home.

Valparaiso was also the first place we went to were we found decent barista made coffee so we were able to wash our empanadas down with a long black from a cafe in the main square while we waited for the afternoon walking tour to begin. Travellers in Valparaiso are a social bunch which made the walking tour really fun. It probably would have been fun anyway since it was such a beautiful place to explore. Not that is was exactly a walking tour since we took an old rattly trolley bus from the 50s and a funicular that was probably twice as old.

That evening we went out with Anna, a Swede from our hostel called Patrick and two more Germans who had been on our tour. We went to a Peruvian restaurant for dinner where James had a mixed seafood ceviche complete with octopus legs with the tentacles still on. I did try a teeny, teeny piece of fish, it tasted like fish funnily enough I wasn't a fan but James loved it. Thanks to Anna's lovely

translating they made me avocado sushi. It definitely made me worried about what my food options for Peru. Then we went in search of the famous Chilean drink the terremoto, or earthquake apparently named for how shaky it leaves you after drinking. Its basically a young sweet wine with pineapple sorbet and sometimes another liquor. The first bar didn't have them but they did have a drink called a michelada which was lemon juice, hot sauce, salt and beer, served in a glass with a salt rim. I passed on that one and opted for a pisco sour, although I did have a taste of Anna's and it was weirdly good. The next bar did have the terremoto served in a big jug with enough straws for all of us (despite my feeling on single use plastics) we all tucked in for our first sip together. It was disgusting! We maybe got a bad one but the cheap wine hurt my tummy and it had a tonne of sugar in it, of course we all persisted and finished but one was definitely enough.

The next day James and I headed off to do another walking tour this one was a little more political and talked about Chile's coup, which only ended in 1988 and had started in Valparaiso. It seems like its a subject that still divides Chileans with the vote to restore democracy on winning by 56% to 44% or something close. It was definitely interesting to hear that our guides father had been friends with the military leader, whilst his mothers family were pro democracy and his uncle was one of the thousands kidnapped and tortured, but one of the lucky ones who made it out alive.

In the afternoon I had persuaded James to do a Chilean cooking class, it seemed a little expensive at first but it turned out to be an amazing experience that was actually extremely cheap for what we got. We were joined by Anna and Patrick and it ended up being just the four of us. We met with our Chilean Chef, a woman named Inez who took us to the markets where we chose our menu and then shopped, stocking up on fresh local produce, fish and meat although she was able to adapt all the recipes to be vegetarian. Then we went back to the school we were learned to make Chilean salsa known as pebre, followed by ceviche, then empanadas, then a traditional comfort food known as charquican and finally alfajores for dessert which are a cracker filled with dulce de leche, although in Chile its called manjar. And this was all washed down with Pisco sours and two bottles of Chilean wine. It was a feast! And a really cool experience. I have to say but I think Chilean food is way nicer than Argentinean food but that maybe because they eat a lot more veges. Good food and good wine made for a very good night with lovely people.
The following day we ne w we had to head back to Santiago so we turned down several offers to visit neighbouring beach towns which kind of sucked but we still had lots we wanted to see in Santiago. So we spent a chill morning wandering around, looking at street art, getting the gram shots of course and even visiting and exhibition by two of Valparaiso’s most famous street artists who call themselves Un Calor Distinto. Finally after a few more of the best empanadas ever we took a rattly old trolley bus to the main bus terminal to head back to Santiago.

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