Valparaiso

After a pretty painless overnight bus from Mendoza to Valparaiso, Jed and I arrived at our hostel around 6am, settling into the lounge and napping on the sofas there, until the hostel guests woke us up as they came in for breakfast. After our quick nap and morning earthquake scare, we walked around the city, seeing Pablo Neruda´s Casa Sebastian on top of Cerro Bellavista, aptly named with beautiful views of the city. We also took the city´s oldest box elevator up the hill to Cerro Independencia, where we looked took in views of the ships and port.

Valparaiso, though artsy, is definitely a run-down port town and while I enjoyed the two days we had to walk around, I don´t think you need much more time there than that unless you plan on doing some of the many day trips offered from the city.

Practical Information: Exchange rate is about 480 Chilean Pesos to the dollar. Elevators range from 100-300 Chilean Pesos, the latter being the more popular ones. To enter Pablo Neruda´s house is 3,000CP but with a student ID, it´s half the cost at 1,500. The jail, which tends to offer a cultural and grafitti museum, was closed while we were there.



Photos from Valpo... written update to come later.