Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar and Santiago

Grab a cuppa, maybe a few biccies (NOT PACKET Kevin Thompson) and find a comfortable little armchair because this entry is a long one!
Stepping off the bus at 6am, we weerily grabbed a taxi and asked for our hostel- Planeto Lindo and of course a bed was all we were thinking about. It was still dark outside and the street dogs barked at our taxi as we roared down the deserted streets. The street art of the old lady on the side of the hostel was our indication that we were in the right place, however we were soon about to doubt this. We stood ringing the doorbell in the dark for about 20 minutes, a dim lit light teasing us on the inside of the doorway- surely somebody was on night duty!? Feeling slightly uneasy about the unfamiliar surroundings, the wolf-packs, the darkness and the eerie emptiness of the streets, survival instincts kicked in and we went on a downhill hunt for shelter and oh my what a shelter we stumbled across! We buzzed the door to what we thought was a restaurant, and with a little translation help from a passing man, the man in the restaurant understood that we were homeless and just looking for some shelter until sunrise. On the other side of the door was not only a restaurant, but a boutique hotel reception. We instantly felt like tramps as we sat in the dim lit authentic interiors of 'Fauna', burning holes in the bedroom doors with our gaze, picturing guests all wrapped up in their goose feather duvets with numerous pillows elevating their little heads, and of course their en-suite bathrooms with overhead power showers and silk robes. The man kindly let us use the mac computer (obviously) to email our hostel. The man was adorable, he looked just like Captain Hook's right hand man, Mr Smee, and unable to speak a word of English and neither us Spanish (biggest regret) we communicated through Google language convertor on speaker. His first translation was: "Here you are protected"...oh Mr Smee melted our hearts, and this was followed shortly by: "The coffee machine will open in 15 minutes". We sat sipping our coffees overlooking Valparaiso from the hotel restaurant- we couldn't have chosen a better refuge location. We learnt that sunrise wasn't until 8am, so after a comfortable hour long wait at Fauna, courtesy of Mr Smee, we decided that it best not to be seen by hotel guests as they descend on the restaurant for their inclusive, no doubt continental, all you can eat breakfast. We definitely looked homeless and we didn't want to get Mr Smee in trouble from numerous complaints. The sun was slowly rising and to our dismay, nobody seemed to be rising with it inside our hostel so we waited outside as the streets began to come to life. FINALLY we received a phone call telling us that one of the hostel owners was on his way...of course if we'd read online: "This is NOT a 24 hour hostel and check in is at 9.30am," we wouldn't have been in the situation we were in! We greeted him with major resting b**** faces but once inside all was forgiven because the hostel was definitely worth the wait. We not only had a room to ourselves, but the kitchen situated on the top floor was accompanied by a sprawling roof terrace offering panoramic views of Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar (the neighbouring up-built city). Straight to bed it was and so our day began in the afternoon!
It is an extremely close call between Valparaiso and Cusco, but i'm going to HAVE to say Valparaiso tops it as being my favourite city so far! It has a very bohemian and hippie feel and is completely different to anywhere i've ever been. It rests in the middle of a valley, exploding in colour, courtesy of the endless graffiti and street art and painted houses. Valparaiso is a seaport and a shining beacon of Chilean culture, but you do have to look beyond the shabby buildings and overcrowded homes that extend up over the hills and not forgetting the street dogs...definitely no regrets on having my rabies vaccinations!! One of my highlights in 'Valpo' was the walking tipped based graffiti tour. We had a lovely male tour guide, born in Chile, raised in New York and now living in Vina Del Mar with his family after founding the graffiti tour company. He was fantastic and extremely informative about the history of graffiti and street art- and I must say, its given me a completely different perspective. So here's a brief lesson if you're interested. The 'classic' graffiti splattered across most cities and to be honest the ugly looking spray painted words that ruin everything- are in fact extremely important to up and coming graffiti artists. To acclaim creditability you begin with 'tags'- so my tag may be 'Bear' and people will begin to recognise you're on the scene. This is followed by 'bombing' whereby you'll begin to bomb other people's graffiti/street art, which can be very controversial. Next comes 'blow ups' which is the first bubble writing style graffiti pieces. An artist can take two paths- graffiti art or street art. The graffiti art, I personally find far less attractive and just associate with illegible bubble writing, whereas the street art in Valparaiso is absolutely incredible and not only has a purpose to make buildings more attractive, but the pieces are genuinely so well thought out by seriously talented artists. Our tour guide would point out famous signatures below certain pieces- signatures that can demand hundreds of thousands worth of dollars for their work. It was so cool hearing all about the hidden world of graffiti and street art. Where does this all originate I hear you ask? So the story goes in brief- a young boy living in North America didn't like white bread and demanded cornbread, however nobody would listen to him. He started 'tagging' buildings with the word 'cornbread' and he quickly became known as cornbread boy. There was a local accident in his town and splashed across the newspaper was the title 'Cornbread is dead'...however, it was not cornbread but in fact another young local boy who sadly died. Cornbread decided to break into the local zoo and spray paint an elephant (largest zoo animal)- "Cornbread is NOT dead" and from there he gained an immense following and 'Cornbread' became a phenomenon. People recognised this effective way of gaining attention and thus graffiti art was born- taaaadaaa, believe what you will!
We had to move hostels after only one night in Planeto Lindo as it was fully booked, so the following two nights we booked into another very quaint hostel called 'Hostel Casa Verde Limon'. The interiors included a trapeze and gymnastic ribbon hanging from the ceiling, a spiral staircase, a marvellous piping hot shower to scrub a dub dub (winning) and a small but cosy kitchen- it had ALL the utensils to whip up some homemade burgers! Aside from the graffiti tour in Valparaiso, the sun drew us only a 10 minute bus ride away to Vina Del Mar most days where there are beaches and the freezing Pacific to tickle your toes. We had a couple of unbelievably relaxing days lounging on the beach, reading our books, writing our blogs and napping under the ideal 23/24 degree heat. On one of the evenings we enjoyed some local empanadas, however be advised that the fried empanadas are extremely greasy and leave a really waxy coating on the roof of the mouth, but the oven baked empanadas are just perfecto! After three nights in Valparaiso we decided to move across to Vina Del Mar. We stayed for 2 nights in Delirio hostel and lucky us we were treated to our own room and bathroom as it was so quiet. I must mention that all the hostels in Chile we've stayed so far have been fairly quiet due to low season (we're assuming). With that said, we still wined and dined like King Inca llamas, sipping on coronas in a swanky seafront restaurant as the sun set and we treated ourselves to another wonderful seafood meal. It may just have been my favourite so far, choosing salmon once again in a creamy mushroom sauce with mashed potato, heaven! Dais piled too much in and spewed it all back up- apologies but that is the second time that's happened, little funny. Vina Del Mar is completely different from the neighbouring seaport town of Valparaiso. Vina radiates wealth and upkeep and this is evident in the boulevard style streets with the linear planted palm trees and high rise buildings. There are many apartments and hotels on the seafront and farther into the city, there is definitely a more developed feel. With that said, I get the impression it is new money and only beginning to establish itself properly as an up and coming holiday destination- locals commute from Santiago to Vina for holidays. I liked Vina and felt very safe, but it just didn't have the same buzz and urban edge that Valparaiso offered.
We headed to the bus station in Vina Del Mar on Monday 20th April and hopped on a 2 hour bus to Santiago. We stayed in 'Casa Masaico Backpacker Hostel' for 2 nights. This has to be one of my least favourite hostels so far. The bedrooms were crowded, the showers absolutely freezing and although there was a cute little roof terrace, there wasn't really much of an atmosphere to go with it. The unbelievably creepy men who worked downstairs in the connecting bar added insult to injury when one proceeded to follow us up the street out of the hostel...but I suppose sassy llamas with skin as white as snow and hair as golden as the snitch (minus Loumerelda), we are quite the attraction. This applies to virtually everywhere we've been- I really enjoy feeling like a walking piece of succulent sirloin fillet/ not really!! We hired bikes and cycled to Parque Metropolitano de Santiago and took the funicular up to the top of San Cristobal Hill where the statue of Mary overlooks the city. Once at the top, we got a cracking view of smoggy Santiago. The smog was so thick we couldn't actually see the surrounding Andes, however we definitely got a feel for the vast expanse of the city. We walked back down which proved more of a hike than we'd anticipated, but under the glorious sun it was worth failing to locate the 'obvious' hiking path and instead wind down the road for over an hour. During our 2 days in Santiago we felt as though we crammed a lot in, also visiting the beautiful Santa Lucia Hill that offered further fantastic panoramic views of Santiago, running many errands- posting postcards, bank hunting, moisturiser shopping (tanning priorities in check) and indulging in a delicious lunch at the fish market- 'Mercado Central'. I liked Santiago but didn't love it. Nothing stood out for me as particularly unique, and I would describe it as I would another smoggy, busy city. Parque Forestal is beautiful, stretching alongside the river (drizzle of water) through much of the city, and there are some impressive historical buildings. It was nowhere near as multicultural as I expected and I definitely felt like a tourist- confirmed when men blew smooches, wolf whistled and bombarded us with: "Chica, Linda Linda." We were only there for 2 nights and therefore we only got a flavour of the city, yet first impressions don't leave me particularly inspired to return.
Right on cue as Calbuco Volcano erupted in the south of Chile, we left Santiago and our third country on a 10.30pm bus on Wednesday 22nd April to Mendoza, Argentina. Big mistake getting it overnight, as not only did we get off the bus at 3am and back on at 4.30am after border control, we couldn't soak in what many other travellers claim to be one of the most spectacularly scenic bus journeys. Regardless we made it safely into Argentina, which I still can't believe has come around as fast as it has. Despite the amount we've done, in ways it feels like only yesterday we were telling fellow travellers in our Lima hostel that we'd only just started and Argentina seemed so far off- the second last country, and yet here we are! Wine and steak i'm ready for you!