Valparaiso or Valpo, is about 2hrs bus ride from Santiago, almost directly west on the coast. On the mention of buses, this is definatly something to be noted for anyone thinking of coming here.
To put it simply, the bus services in Chile blew us away. They are wicked. We definatly didnt expect this quality, more thinking of visions of us clinging desperately to the roof racks of a massively overloaded bus with chickens and goats jammed in impossibly small nooks and crannies... apparently thats what Bolivia is like :) But alas, the buses are deluxe, offering a multitude of different seat options - Classico being your pleb seat, 'Semi-Cama' (meaning Half-Bed), then Cama, then Executive - which is a full on bed which they serve beers and vino - shweeet!
Anyway enough on the bus rant - they are good ok! Arriving in Valpo the weather was pretty bad compared to Santiago, where its always sunny, and we soon found out that this is common on the coast, with the cold Humbolt Current and the hot land forming a hazy mist/cloud over the coast for about 20-30km inland. It does usually burns off in the afternoons though.
Immediate impression of Valpo was Hectic B-Man! After Santiago, which although is the biggest city, is quite well spaced and relaxed, this was crazy, heaps of people, dogs, micros (mini buses), taxis all vying for space - beeping and battling! Also it was apparent that we had to be pretty careful with our stuff, it didnt feel as safe here so we were pretty wary from the start.
Valpo is built on a big horseshoe shaped bay, with steep hills running up from the water. Our stay in Valpo didn't start well! We had booked a hostel which according to lonely plant was at the top of one of the hills, after trekking up we found no answer at the address we had. After sitting around for half an hour repeatedly bashing on the door, we decided just to find the closest hostel in the area, as by the stage we were getting pretty pissed off. We only stayed here one night as it was quite expensive so we decide to find somewhere else the next day - more on that later.
After our now mandatory siesta (:)) we spent the arvo cruisng around town, checking out the area and finding a spot for us to stay the next night, which ended up being the same place we had booked except the Lonely Planet was WRONG and gave us a dodgy address! negative!
The next day, we moved onto our next hostel, which was super cheap, run by students, and pretty grotty - students running a backpacker hostel speaks for itself really. The place itself was cool though, and there were a couple of circus trapese performars living there, so they had put up a full-on circus trapese setup in the middle of the main room - very cool.
Later we jumped on the metro to Vina Del Mar, which is 30min north of Valpo and was supposed to have some good beach action, which Doodles was hankering for after such a long time away from the ocean! Basically, these beaches were disgusting, rubbish everywhere, dog shit, dogs themselves and just generally not that great. We managed to find a semi ok spot, and Doodles proceeded to complete the Polar bear Challenge - swimming in boardies in what was the equivalent (for anyone back home who knows this means) to Kondallila Falls in winter... freezing! This fact was comfirmed when we saw a seal swimming past not minutes after Doodles got out of the water.... hmmm.
Doodles picked himself up a cheap classical guitar to further pester Boos Boos along the trip, and we headed back to Valpo for a menu del dia (fixed menu usually consisting of 3 courses and the cheapest and best way to eat here). Here's one for the HOP peoples back home - that night I (doodles) was sitting in the lounge room, drinking beer and reading when one of the trapese guys came home. Sorry Rory - but this guy puts even you to shame! He proceeded to do 50 straight pullups as a warm up, then flip all around the place on this trapese bar... insanely strong guy.
The next day was nice and clear, meaning we had a beautiful view of the bay and port, and felt more motivated to get out and check out the town more. The best thing about Valpo is definately the street art. This stuff is amazing - ranging from cool tags to full blown abstract murals - very impressive. here are some of the many that we got pics of:
Overall, we were pretty keen to get moving, and hadnt been that impressed with Valpo, so booked a night bus for that night heading north 7 hours to La Serena, which we had heard was more chilled, and have some good surf for Doodles.
On the bus at 10.40pm, recline that sweet sweet Semi-Cama - La Serena here we come.
Peace and Love
Doodles and Boos Boos
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