And so to where everything kicked off on 9/11. That's Valparaiso, Chile of course. 11 September 1973 and the military coup that brought Pinochet to power.

Ha, we only learned that after we left but hey, we're picking up some local history!

Most of Nov 9 was spent on a bus crossing the Andes again, back into Chile and to the port town of Valparaiso. We arrived mid-afternoon, checked into a delightful B&B and headed into town.

What a dump. We wandered around what is essentially a well past its prime industrial port. Why was this in the top 5 don't miss destinations of Chile?

It then clicked that we needed to take one of the rickety funicular type lifts up a hill. Valparaiso is built on around 45 hills (cerros) surrounding a Pacific bay. The most famous is Cerro Concepcion and when you disembark one of the ascensors taking you to the top you are presented with a mini-town of brightly painted buildings of wood and/or corrugated iron with an amazing view over the bay. Most have been renovated into boutique hotels, craft shops, bars and restaurants. Lovely.

We took a look around for a while before our stomachs took control. Traveller budgets being what they are we headed back down the hill to where the locals hang out. After a beer we found Mastodonte, a recommended restaurant serving good value local food. Now, true local food in Chile is "chorillana" - chips covered in meat best eaten in low lighting, covered in cheese and a fried egg. And they say British cuisine ranks low on the scale. Although to be fair, with a (liberal) dash of salsa picante it was actually pretty tasty. I think the litre of beer beforehand also helped a touch though. Finally, the interior design of the restaurant appears to be based on the interior of an animal's stomach, which helps the appetite no end. Hard to describe, maybe Google can help with some images.

The next morning we headed across town to an ascensor that promised a 160m horizontal journey followed by a vertical ride to the top. It turns out we misinterpreted the guide and what we actually got was a 160m walk in a damp tunnel followed by a lift which opened onto a hillside slum. Still, some of the street art we saw was pretty impressive, as we hurried past kids with flick knives (concealed, but I know they were there!) and growling wolf dogs.

We then realised why the B&B owner had only labeled a handful of the ascensors on the map - the next 4 we walked past were shut and so it took us an hour of walking through the wrong part of town to get back to tourist-ville. Still, it built up our appetite for a very late lunch.

The Brighton bar/cafe in Cerro Conception must be named after the town back in the UK. Overrated and best missed. But at least they served salad and amazing views over the bay.

We spent the afternoon back on track, with a visit to a couple of art museums and generally soaking up the atmosphere. Valparaiso is insanely photogenic, which my photos will do wonders to conceal. To end the day caution was thrown to the wind and we had a delicious dinner at a highly recommended restaurant - Café Vinilo if you are ever in town.

If you ignore the thin strip of land between the coastline and the start of the hills, Valparaiso is a lovely place, full of character and local colour. Well worth a visit - and an urban photographer's dream.