So much for sunshine. Well, it was dark by the time we got to Valpo but it was also s***ting it down. We were soaked in minutes. It took us about half an tour of walking aroung in the rain to find a micro (small bus) that could supposedly take us to near our hostel. We asked the driver tol et us know when to get off but he clearly forgot and le t us off way past our stop, up a different hill. Valpo is mostly hills. The city centre is fairly flat but all the nice bits are on several LARGE hills which all seemed to have rivers running down them whilst we were there. We found a shop where a nice man explained we were nowhere near where we wanted to be and drew us a map. By the time we found the hostel at last, the map was a soggy broken rag. And we both were too. The hostel owner lit a fire which we attempted to dry our soggy socks and plimsolls in front of.

The next day the weather was not looking up but eventually we bit the bullet and decided we still had to see the city. We were glad we did. It´s a really lovely little place. El Plan (the centre) is pretty boring but the hills are wonderful. Very bohemian vibe with loads of colourful little houses and a ridiculous amount of really good graffiti and street art. We had a very nice set lunch in a little french style restaurant and popped into an art gallery before evntually making our way down to the bus station. We couldnt stand anymore rain. We sat in a cafe drinking tea and wringing out our socks in the bathroom before eventually heading back to Santiago to collect our bags.

We got back to La Casa Roja, dried off, repacked and headed back to the bus station to board a 24 hour bus up north to the desert in search of warmth.