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 behind the distant mountains.
The airport was quiet and straightforward, thank goodness. Security take a relaxed approach here- you can take liquids on board and laptops don’t have to be screened separately.
We had booked seats in the right side of the plane, as advised by our guide, Alan, and so were treated to beautiful views of the lakes and the snow-covered Andes mountains as we flew north.
When we approached Santiago a layer of smog became visible over the city, which looked vast and unappealing to our countrified eyes.
Our transfer driver was waiting for us in arrivals. He spoke no English and after establishing that fact, and exchanging polite enquiries into each other’s health and country of origin, we had exhausted my Level one Pimsleur Learn Spanish conversation and proceeded in an awkward silence. After a short hike to the minibus we set off out of Santiago passing through huge vineyards either side of the motorway. The driver wound his way around the steep, windy, cobbled streets of Valparaiso, eventually reaching the Zero hotel, perching high up in the old part of the town on Lautaro Rosas Street. The hotel is set in an old house built in 1880, with spacious rooms, high ceilings and polished wood floors. Downstairs, below our room there was a dining room with panoramic views and access to the beautifully tended terraced garden. We soon unpacked, changed into more suitable clothes for the heat outside, and sat in the garden with coffee.
The different levels of the gardens have chairs, tables and loungers for relaxing, with a beautiful view of the bay and all the ships at anchor.
The garden is a real palate of colour with cerise bougainvillea, apricot roses, peachy pink hibiscus, pale blue plumbago and mauve agapanthus in full bloom.
After taking advice from the helpful porter we headed out into the old town with a map to get some lunch.
The narrow roads twisted and wound their way between the steep slopes and staircases that the town is famous for. It is also famous for its street art, of which, more later...
Concepcion has an excellent position with a partially shaded terrace looking out over the city and the Puerto beyond. We ate avocado soup with plantain crisps and conger eel in filo pastry with mushrooms and spinach - very tasty, and not something you come across often at home!
In the guidebooks, Valparaiso is always described in conjunction with its immediate neighbour - the town of Vina del Mar. As you would expect, this is located along the coast, with a beach and ‘numerous bars and restaurants’. It was recommended for a late afternoon /early evening visit, to enjoy the sunset.
In addition, we were in search of a replacement lens cap for Bills camera and a google search suggested a suitable camera shop in that area.
We set off on the 6km walk but rapidly became bogged down in the crowded city streets, heavy traffic and general scruffy chaos that is down town Valparaiso.
Instead we hopped onto the Metro and travelled a few stops along the shoreline to Viña del Mar.
The train was crowded and grubby and at first we felt uncomfortable until two things happened. Firstly, when we got on we had to sit separately as the seats were mostly occupied. The man sitting next to me got up as if to leave the train at the next stop, but instead it was to invite Bill to swap places with him. Secondly, whilst fidgeting with my map, I dropped my sunglasses and they got kicked under a seat. The young woman sitting opposite was immediately on her hands and knees to retrieve them for me. These trains did not contain the dead eyed commuters we are familiar with in London. The people were all chatting and laughing, people got on and off selling trays of home made cakes and sandwiches, or sweets. Not in anyway doing a hard sell - just there if you wanted to buy.
The people of Valparaiso seemed charming, courteous and helpful folk - despite living in a city where many of the buildings are derelict and litter is a significant problem. Many of the street intersections have clowns and jugglers entertaining the red light traffic in the hope of a few pesos being thrown into their bucket. On the streets, there was never any barging and people tended to stand aside to let each other pass. There was so much kissing and hugging too - partners and friends, business men, road-menders, mothers and teenaged sons.
We then went on a fruitless search of every camera shop in Valpariso / Vina del Mar trying to find the replacement lens cap. Every shop was staffed by a friendly assistant who couldn’t help, but knew exactly where we could find what we wanted!!!!
We walked down to the beach on our way home where the rollers were dumping onto the steeply sloping coarse sand. There were many red flags flying and one of the dayglow suited lifeguards explained that with rocks below the surf it was highly dangerous to swim in the current conditions.
The beach was similar to the Venice boardwalk in LA. Lots of people, gravelly sand, not terribly inviting. The local dogs seemed to like the beach though, and lots of them were asleep on the sand.
After a quick rejuvenating latte in the lovely Mandrake cafeteria, we took the return metro, braved the local supermarket for fruit, nuts and beer, and made our way back up the steep climb to the hotel, admiring the extensive street art en-route.
We changed and decided to try out a recommendation given to us by one of our guides - Rodrigo in Las Torres, who was at university in Valpo. This was a sustainable fish restaurant called Tres Peces, only a short walk from the hotel. They do not take reservations but luckily someone was just leaving when we arrived (at 10pm) and the waitress sat us down at the only free table. There was a Spanish guitarist playing in the main restaurant and a sepetate group of diners sitting by the grill playing a vinyl LP on a turntable. We were seated at a traditional polished wood table, but theirs was made from a large sheet of glass placed on top of a cast iron bath!
After seeing us battling to translate the menu using our Spanish phone app, the nicest waitress ever, came over and patiently went through the Spanish menu word by word - explaining exactly what type of fish, where it was from and how it was cooked! We enjoyed a couple of pisco sours, waiting for clams baked with Parmesan followed by La Merluza (hake) for main course - Bills deep fried and crispy, mine baked in a glorious cream sauce with leeks, tomatoes and coriander. It was absolutely marvellous.
We then walked home admiring more street art, some decorated by bunting and clever lighting.
It was lovely to sit in the bay window of our room and look out at the city lights across the bay - rather like the famous ‘string of pearls’ that we saw in Mumbai.
We were busy doing some laundry, making some plans for Christmas back home, and looking at maps to find a suitable running route for the morning !
Just one more week before we return to England - this second half of our trip is flying by!