Viña & Valpa

From Pucon we made our way north on the overnight bus (8pm-8am) to the Pacific coast city of Valparaiso. Situated 120km north west of Santiago is a city quite literally steeped in history and culture, that sits on top of 47 different hills.

Due to the number and gradient of these hills, the town is scattered with funiculars, 13 in total, however due to political issues and part privatisation only half were in service whilst we were there, which seemed to be the norm. The town is a Unesco World Heritage site, partly due to the hills and funiculars, but also because of the houses, which are covered with corrugated iron and then brightly painted in unique colours.

We arrived in Valparaiso pretty tired from the overnight bus, and got to our hostel even more so after climbing the 200 odd steps up the Cerro Bellavista in the morning sun. The hostel was nice and the staff just as much, as they brought us some cold water and told us to sit down and have some breakfast - we must have looked a right state!

As we needed to wait for the dorm to be cleaned we decided to head in to town and do a free walking tour. The tour was a small group of about ten and was run by a local Valparaisen. It was around three hours and was a good way to the see and understand the city from a local perspective.

Like the houses the city is very bright and vibrant and a lot of the walls are commissioned street art, and those that aren't are covered in it anyway. Our tour showed us some of the best pieces, a ride up one of the funiculars to Cerro Concepion, a trip on one of the trolley buses and finished with a Pisco Sour. Alll Chileans claim their variant of the cocktail to be the original and better than Peru's version. From our experience we would be inclined to agree, very good but very strong.

Our hostel was on top of the Cerro Bellavista which is also home to the open air street art museum where a lot of the walls and more interestingly all of the steps are intricately painted.

After a couple of days of appreciating what Valparaiso had to offer we took a trip to nearby Viña del Mar. For a city just 9km further down the coast the differences couldn't be more apparent. Viña is a very new city with large shopping malls, clean streets, luxury hotels and apartments and miles of beach. This is in complete contrast to the rustic and historical significance implored down the road in Valparaiso.

After four nights in Valparaiso it was time to make a final foray into Argentina with another over night bus to Mendoza....