We arrived in Viña del Mar - a fancy resort town next to Valparaiso, and Valparaiso is apparently like it´s drunken brother. It was 7pm when we checked into our hostel, which is nice but cramped and with only one shower in the entire place. Not long after we arrived we met two of our roomates: Tom and Stewart from Bognor Regis (amazing, you forget that normal people live there and not just holidaymakers). We ended up going to a really cool bohemian bar on our bohemian street for a beer. Then to a burger joint where we found ourselves surrounded by the loveliest streetdogs ever. At one point there were at least six surrounding our table, probably because I was feeding them chips - one even stole a chip straight from my plate, but I couldn´t get mad at him, he was so gentle about it!

Day 134 - No hot water in the hostel today, so I started my day off with a freezing cold shower. Breakfast consisted of cereal and cheese toasties in the cramped little living room, and then we went to join a walking tour of the city. We met in the main square with our guide Patricia and a group of companion street dogs, and went to look at the port; Valparaiso was a major stop for cargo travelling from Europe to California before the Panama canal was created. We then went to the most wealthy street in the city with an old, decrepit Italian hotel that was built but never really used due to the timing of the canal. The owners grandaughter now lives in the 2nd floor.

When we returned to the main square Patricia was explaining the importance of the fire service in Valparaiso while one of the street dogs climbed on top of my lap and took my empty juice bottle out of my hand to play with it... he was huge, but I didn't mind! Then we took one of the many funiculars up to one of the cerros with views over the city, port and out to Viña del Mar. The houses on the hills are the main sight of the city because they are all built in different shapes to fit on the steep slopes, many made of corrugated iron and almost all are painted really brightly with tonnes and tonnes of really good street art. We knocked on an old mans door and he gave us delicious, homemade alfajores (cookies) and as we made our way back down the hill we then took a trolley bus to another area of town. If there's one thing I like in a walking tour, it's multiple modes of transport. The tour ended at a really cool juice bar where we were given a pisco sour - it seems that both Chile and Peru claim this drink as their own.

After the tour Alex and I sat and had lunch in a nice restaurant on the square; as we passed the square during the tour there was a choir singing Christmas carols, but by the time we returned we had some man playing panpipes. We both ordered the set menu, but the service was painfully slow... it took three hours to get through three courses of declining quality. The final course was cordon bleu, but neither of us really knew what it was. Turns out that (in Chile at least) it's parcels of beef with cheese and ham inside and gravy on top. Interesting.

After lunch we were in an urgent search to find an internet cafe to make a skype date, and marched all around Valparaiso, up and down the cerros, absolutely unable to find an internet cafe. When we did find one, none had skype... this was worse than Bolivia! We split up for a while and I returned to the hostel to find Alex and the boys returned, so we all had a cup of tea and then went for a farewell beer as they were leaving that evening. Once they had left, Alex and I went to a really fantastic sushi restaurant and destroyed a platter. There were two travellers next to us; one from China and the other a lovely British guy who chatted to us throughout our meal. We totally out-ate him too.

Day 135 - Hot water today, horray! We took it easy in the morning and sat around eating toasties while Alex tried her best not to get sucked into a debate about smoking bans with two smokers. Then we had yet another goose chase around a city looking for a post office, which is something we seem to have encountered in every country we have been to. Once we had found it we treated ourselves to a cafe con leche, which for some reason was with instant coffee granules (once again, we expected better from Chile) and then caught a public bus along the coast to the seafood market between Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. The bus was very fast and irratic, and the bus driver just told us we were beautiful instead of confirming with us where he was going.

The market and fishermen landing was really cool, and sawrming with gulls and pelicans. There was an old guy selling packets of tissues, razors and lighters on the street so I justified some tissues from him... if I can justify the purchase I will buy something from every old man, but sometimes you come across some selling brooms etc.

We were coerced into a restaurant by the manager who was wearing shades to cover his puffy eyes. They gave us a free pisco sour and then we ordered the seafood platter to share. The seafood was wonderfully fresh; however, we both thought we liked seafood a lot, but many of the items were just too intimidating. Alex tried one orange item and had to spit it out - when I asked her what it tasted like she said it didn't taste like food. While we were there a man came round selling magnets, which I bought as a gift for Victor (who we will be staying with in Santiago) and then some musicians in full leather came and played for us.

After lunch we walked back to Valparaiso along the coast, on the way enjoying a sea lion colony, delapidated industrial buildings, and a really cool art installations of full-size cars hanging from a washing line (which we had to sneak into to get a good look). We bought some ice creams from a Christmassy man in a hut and after that a very odd thing happened... I thought Alex was annoyed with me, as she seemed to be walking off in what I thought was a bit of a huff. Within 5 minutes she was almost out of sight, so I thought "she just needs some space - Iĺl give her a couple of hours". So I walked back on my own and when i arrived at a metro stop I decided to treat myself and have a ride. Back in town I walked up on of the cerros and went for a lemonade at a hotel with a fantastic view of the city and took the funicular back down.

When I returned to the hostel Alex was there, but she didn't mention anything. Eventually I asked if she was ok and she was like "yeah, but it's you who was annoyed with me"?! So the closest we ever got to a falling out in the whole of the trip was a total misunderstanding when we both thought the other person was mad at us, but in fact noone was annoyed with anyone! We hugged it out, and with that cleared up we went to a recommended sandwich place and ordered the churrasco completo - beef, avocado, sauerkraut and tomato. We asked the lady in the shop how big it would be to determine if we needed one each; she gestured around 6" in length, but what she failed to portray that it was actually 6" in every direction! We took the sandwiches back to the hostel and attempted the most epic sandwich I've ever seen.