With a chilling bite in the air this morning, I'm left waiting in the foyer thinking maybe I should have rethought my whole shorts idea. But before I can quickly sneak back up to my room to change, my tour guide arrives to whisk me away to Valparaiso.
I jump aboard the van, and quickly find a seat. We have to pick up some more people, so I head around to all of the different hotels, and secretly weigh up where my hotel fits in the sliding scale of Santiago hotels. Verdict, it's pretty good, especially for location!!
Our bus, was picking up all people doing different tours with the same tour company. The aim, to drive through the peak hour traffic towards the main meeting location for all tour buses. The buses were everywhere. We all disembarked the bus, and were separated into new groups, this time determined by destination. I was directed to the big blue bus.... The one heading to Valparaiso, and as I gave my name to the tour guide, I realised that with the first question out of his mouth that I had come head to head with the tour guide I was meant to be with yesterday morning. 'Where were you yesterday, I waited for 20mins'. I felt like saying to him that I could one up him, as I waited for over an hour, but thought better of it. Instead I apologised and explained that there was a mix up with times!! With that behind us, I was allowed to board the bus. Again, I found a seat, and as one of the benefits of travelling alone managed to score a double seater just for me!! My backpacks going to be mighty comfortable!!
We are off. The trip to Valparaiso takes about 1.5hrs, and we drive through some impressive mountain ranges and some of chiles most prestigious wine districts.
As we make our descend into Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, we have been informed by our guide Rodrigo (Rod) that we are extremely lucky today. Normally when the tours descend down this hill, Valparaiso is blanketed in cloud cover, however today we have nothing but blue skies. As Rod put it, this deserves a photo. So we make an unscheduled stop to take in the birds eye views of Valparaiso. It really is a beautiful town, built on the side of numerous hills, each with a view of the Pacific Ocean. I could think of worse places to live, that's for sure.
We then continued on our journey, and we head straight into Vina del Mar, which is the town next door to Valpraiso. They share the same bay leading out to the pacific, and whilst Valparaiso is an older town, with older constructions, Vina del mar is the newer city, geared more to the tourists.
We head to some of the highlights of Vina del Mar, taking in all of the sights that behold us!
After a few hours of touring around, hopping off and on the bus, taking selected photos of the monuments or views before me, it was time for lunch. We head to a restaurant in Vina del Mar. Before us is placed a three course meal, including 2 pisco sours.... The national drink of Chile. It made me think..... What is Australia's national drink?? The only drink I could come up with is beer. I can't recall a cocktail that is uniquely Australian!! Please help me out if you can think of one!!!
At home, eating on my own wouldn't be something that I would routinely do.... In fact, I think it would be the least likely thing I would ever do. I would be mortified to eat at a restaurant on my own.... something that I had considered as a loser activity!!! However when you are travelling on your own you have no choice. It's either eat on your own, or starve..... and I love food too much to starve. Whilst I have been travelling, I know I have mentioned this before.... I have found that eating on my own is no longer for losers, well considering that I have been eating in my own.... and many may disagree with this, but I am not a loser!!! I have actually found it empowering!! Being comfortable with yourself, and often the stares of pity that come with eating on your own!! If you can make it through that, you can make it through almost anything!! Today, looking around whilst I sit on my own, I almost feel myself looking at others with pity, and I have to stop myself from doing so. When people who know each other sit at a table, and have nothing to say to each other.... well that is hard to sit and watch. When they get more enjoyment out of looking at their phone, and are more caught up with getting the wifi code, than sitting and talking to their companion, well that is a lonely table!! It goes to prove my point, their is a huge difference between being lonely and being alone!!!
I'm more than happy to sit, and get drunk on the two pisco sours that they have put in front of me. They are so strong!! In fact, this is one of the best lunches I have had, and I'm guessing the pisco sours have had something to do with that statement. Holy crap... I hope I don't stumble back to the van!! In a desperate attempt to sober up, I order a coffee... Here's hoping!!!
After lunch, and half chopped, I head back to the van!! I manage to make it without falling over, or being hit by a car.
This afternoon we are heading to Valparaiso, and as we are driven across, I feel the espresso coffee work it's magic, and the fuzziness of the pisco sours works off.
Valparaiso is a city that is built up on a hill over looking the Pacific Ocean, and for many years has been known as the rainbow city. We are driven through the city, and up the steep roads to the top of the hill. It soon is apparent, that the upkeep of these buildings with their brightly coloured paint is too much for many of its owners. Most of the houses look run down and when you hear the stories behind Valparaiso, you can see why. It has been hit continuously by earthquakes, and recent bush fires, therefore it has left many with large bills in just rebuilding their homes, little lone painting. But, what it has left is a rustically beautiful town, that I had a ball walking through.
At the end of our walk, we ended up catching a very old funicular, down the remainder of the hill, taking us to the port.
To finish our all aspects view of Valparaiso, we caught a boat out into the bay, and this gave us a great view looking up the hill!!! It also had the benefits of letting us see some of the very big sealions that call this bay home, sunning themselves on a vary large bouy.
And with that, it was the end of our tour!! We walked back to the town square, where we found our van driver, enjoying his smoke and coffee!! Once we were all accounted for, we made the long journey back.... made only worse by the peak hour traffic!!
I finally made it back to my hotel room, where again I am ready for a good nights sleep!! It's been a long day!!