February 3rd - 6th
After two days of physical exhaustion in Chile's capital, Eva and I
chose the first tip on Sophie's list and headed for Valparaiso on
the coast whilst Robbie flew to Buenos Aires to meet his mum. Apart
from one mad dog which attacked moving cars and another which followed us devoutly
around the streets as if we were on our way to mow a meadow,
the town was delightful - colourful houses on hills, a bustling port,
artistic graffiti murals, numerous high lookout points from
which you can gaze out to sea, lots of restaurants and inviting bars.
We visited the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda´s, beautiful house, got lost
in the backstreets, danced away to eighties music in a club with huge videos
on the wall (Madonna must have been a favourite with the locals as she was played about seven times), took a train along the coast to Vina del Mar and spent a couple of hours there, chatted with some Chileans we shared a bench with in a square in Valparaiso for over an hour and organised a pisco sour + pasta night
at our hostel. As we had bought tickets to leave Valparaiso on
the 7am bus to Santiago the morning following the pisco/pasta night,
there seemed little point in teasing my body with one hour's sleep
when I got back to my room at 5am. I consequently finished packing
and we got a taxi and two buses to Santiago's airport. At this point
I didn't know that the friends we were to stay with in Buenos Aires had been invited out to
dinner that night and we were to go along too. In total it would be a taxi
ride, two buses, a two hour flight, another taxi, two car journeys
and some 20 plus hours before I would be getting into bed again, in another country. Looking back though, I wouldn't have changed the dance floor for more time in bed on my last night in Chile.
