I arrived in Valparaíso around 8 a.m. I decided to walk to find a hotel. I walked and walked and noted that the town is full of hills! Upward with my bags I went. Finally, I found a passable place with a great view of the water. I decided that I would stay in Valparaiso for 3 nights and use it as my base for day trips. Once I got situated, I was off to explore the town. The views of the water and the surrounding port town made me shutterbug happy. Valparaíso is a crazy port city with houses upon houses. The houses are on hills that seem to be neverending. There are steep footpaths to get around and also, the famed Ascensors (lifts that take you up and down different areas of the city). The town itself is definitely more grungy than Santiago and for sure than Pucón, but it has a definite character to it. I walked to the end of town where I took an Ascensor to the Marinero Museo. There, they have everything Marine and I was educated on the liberation of Chile by Bernardo O´Higgins in the early 1800s. O´Higgins was the son of an Irish engineer and a Chilean aristocrat´s daughter and he played the primary role in Chile's liberation from Spain. Virtually every town I have visited so far has named the main street "O´Higgins" (Dave, I think of you all the time here!). Again, I walked and walked all day. I was pooped out and decided that I wanted to go see a show that night. I ended up going to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum Solace. It was between a movie and a tango show. I chose the movie since I knew that I would be in Argentina soon where tango is the thang. The movie was in english with spanish subtitles. I loved Casino Royal, but was a little disappointed with this one. That´s ok, Daniel Craig is still nice to look at!
My impression of Chile is that it is so underrated. At home, I never heard much about it. Now that I have visited a few places, I just love it here! Although, the food - I am so missing the food back home.
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