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| Christmas Tree at Caleta Portales |
Thursday, 13 December 2012
If Carlsberg did graffiti.....
We arrived in Valparaiso at 10pm on Tuesday, it's always hard to get your bearings when you arrive in a city at night and so we just walked a couple of blocks to a bar for a couple of beers and some salmon ceviche before hitting the hay.
Valparaiso is a crazy labyrinth of streets and passageways with houses of a hundred different colours stacked on top of each other high in to the hills. Between 1883 and 1915 a number of 'ascensores' or funiculars were installed to help people up the steep gradients - without our 'wasp waisted' dresses, full skirts and delicate dispositions Abby and I were easily able to walk up, though we did take a ride on the oldest one just for the experience.
We're staying in an area called Conception on Cerro Alegre in the bohemian quarter, it is jam packed with cool little bars, restaurants, cafes and shops. Almost every wall you walk past is covered in graffiti some of it basic and ill thought through but a lot of it really is art and I apologise to the purists out there but it definitely adds to the charm of this city.
Afterwards we went on to Vina del Mar, supposedly a relaxing seaside town but in my opinion it was dull and over developed so we hopped back on the metro to Valparaiso where our walk to the hostel was made all the more pleasurable by a Chocolate & Churros stop.
However I try and describe this sweet treat I will not be able to do it justice...... Imagine the very best hot chocolate that you have ever dreamt of but have probably never had, thick and creamy and sweet but not too sweet and then into this sweet treat fantasy add the finest lightest fried sticks of doughnutty deliciousness, not heavy or greasy but light on the inside and crispy and sugar dusted on the outside...... I can only imagine that if they had a 'wheel of health' on them they would be 'so red they'd be purple' but fortunately the south Americans have sweet teeth and no food police.
Tomorrow morning we'll be taking the relatively short bus ride to Santiago where we'll be celebrating Abby's birthday on Saturday and Christmas shopping before heading in to Argentina.
See you there.
Raine x
Valparaiso is a crazy labyrinth of streets and passageways with houses of a hundred different colours stacked on top of each other high in to the hills. Between 1883 and 1915 a number of 'ascensores' or funiculars were installed to help people up the steep gradients - without our 'wasp waisted' dresses, full skirts and delicate dispositions Abby and I were easily able to walk up, though we did take a ride on the oldest one just for the experience.
One of the 15 'Ascensores de Valparaiso'
In 1906 there was a huge earthquake and a tsunami here which reportedly killed 5000 people and resulted in the vast majority of Valparaiso's buildings being destroyed which I guess explains the apparently random approach to construction here, it really is a higgledy piggledy city and I really like it.
We're staying in an area called Conception on Cerro Alegre in the bohemian quarter, it is jam packed with cool little bars, restaurants, cafes and shops. Almost every wall you walk past is covered in graffiti some of it basic and ill thought through but a lot of it really is art and I apologise to the purists out there but it definitely adds to the charm of this city.
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| Not just graffiti
Today we took the metro to Caleta Portales a small fishing village where we watched Seagulls, pelicans and seal lions fighting over the fish gut scraps that the Fishermen threw to them.
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Food Fight......
Afterwards we went on to Vina del Mar, supposedly a relaxing seaside town but in my opinion it was dull and over developed so we hopped back on the metro to Valparaiso where our walk to the hostel was made all the more pleasurable by a Chocolate & Churros stop.
However I try and describe this sweet treat I will not be able to do it justice...... Imagine the very best hot chocolate that you have ever dreamt of but have probably never had, thick and creamy and sweet but not too sweet and then into this sweet treat fantasy add the finest lightest fried sticks of doughnutty deliciousness, not heavy or greasy but light on the inside and crispy and sugar dusted on the outside...... I can only imagine that if they had a 'wheel of health' on them they would be 'so red they'd be purple' but fortunately the south Americans have sweet teeth and no food police.
Tomorrow morning we'll be taking the relatively short bus ride to Santiago where we'll be celebrating Abby's birthday on Saturday and Christmas shopping before heading in to Argentina.
See you there.
Raine x
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