Today we left Santiago! Sad to be leaving Norman and Julie (but hopefully their gonna meet us in Bolivia for a weekend) and leaving Vicky and Abbey (but I think we're meeting again in a week!)

The boys got up early to pop to Norman's to do the washing! (his apartment has a laundry room) I got up about 10 and we all rushed to pack our bags for check out at 11, clothes washed and dry we stopped at Norman's to say goodbye and headed on the metro to the bus station, as soon as we stepped out everyone wanted us to go on their bus! We chose one and paid (We didn't realise till the bus had left that they'd ripped us off 1000pescos! Lesson learnt to chech change!)

We arrived in Valparaiso at about 2.15pm (an hour and half from Santiago) I will tell you a little about it.. It's a well-worn port with houses stacked to gaping heights along the sea it has lots of steep hills which are also connected by steep footpaths and stairs!

So after getting off the bus we got a taxi to a hostel we had chosen from the lonely planet guide, unfortunately when we arrived the hostel had no rooms! (another lesson learnt to pre-book a hostel before we arrive!) so we started to look for another.. After walking for about half an hour with me having a huge tantrum having to carry my bag down the ridiculously steep hills and steps I refused to walk any further so we got in a taxi in search of another hostel. We eventually found one- it was expensive (£13 each for the night) but I was not lugging that bag any more! It was a rather strange hostel with a cabinet full of China dolls, fans all over the walls and strange trinkets everywhere. She also had 6-7 cats and a dog and the place had lots of strange smells but it did have a great view and it is a bed!

We ventured out for a wonder and came across a lovely restaurant with a great view (we hadn't eaten yet that day!) so we went in and it was quite posh! (It reminded us of somewhere like Suma's at Gorey) Me and Craig had steak and chips (a little too rare for me but delicious) and Joe had some seafood pasta, when it was served it even had the silver lid things on top that the waiters took off! It was quite expensive but we decided we wouldn't eat again that day! After lunch/dinner we wondered down the alleys and steps into the centre, we walked through the markets and sat chilling in a park for a few hours watching the world go by! We then headed back to the hostel stopping off at the supermarket for supplies. Once back we managed to pick up wifi so I updated the blog etc. But at 10 o'clock she locked all the doors and disconnected the wifi which was a bit strange! Craig kept going out to re-connect the wifi but by the time he got back in the room she'd disconnected it! So we gave up and went to sleep!