Friday 7th December At last - another lie in with a whole day free to please ourselves and explore Valparaiso. We awoke in our beautiful high- celinged room with its lovely wide bay window looking out over the whole of the city, port and coastline below us. Breakfast in the Zero hotel is served at the relaxed time of 9-11 and the best breakfast so far, served to us by a lovely man who has exactly enough English to have a polite conversation, and seems instinc...

Thursday 6th December Today we travelled further north to Valparaiso, just north west of Santiago. We were up at first light, which was just as well as the taxi was early. The hotel staff had left out a flask of coffee and a picnic breakfast for us! The smartly dressed driver in his shiny people carrier took us to the airport via the backroads. It was a lovely drive. The lush countryside looked beautiful with mist in the valleys, and the sun rising from behin...