Moving North

After our start into Chile, we moved north towards, hoping for warmer climes. As it is technically winter in Chile, it can get cold at night, but is generally warm during the day. However, this was put to the test slightly when we go to Valparaiso.

Valparaiso, and it’s neighbouring seaside town of Viña del Mar, are effectively Chile’s second city. They are only just over an hour from Santiago, but being on the coast, were also partial to some rain.

Valparaiso is a very interesting town. Founded as a port for round the world ships to stop off before going to the Suez Canal, it has since seen better times. It is the base for the Chilean Navy and modern-day cruise ships. Fortunately, it is having a bit of a renaissance after being discovered as an artistic and food base.

Having said that, the main town is still a little edgy with not much lighting at night, when everything gets shuttered up and looks more like a ghost town – except for the hills described below.

It is built on about twenty hills, so walking around involves lots and lots of steps, interspersed with many funicular railways, which have been restored for avoiding the steps where possible.

It is also famous for being decorated with amazing street art. Almost no wall or building does not have some form of artwork on it, and it makes for a lovely city to walk around and is very photogenic.

But as I said, it does rain here. There was the odd shower during the day, which gets everyone running for cover, but this was nothing to the storm we had one night. Roads were turned into rivers as the water gathers speed down the hills. We managed to get out and walk through the flooded streets to find some great food too.

Our three days in Valparaiso were great fun. We did go the short distance to the seaside of Viña del Mar, but it was more like Torquay in November, so we stayed most of our time in Valparaiso, before we headed further north into the desert areas of Chile and beyond.