Day 12 in Chile - The multicoloured madness of Valparaiso on the coast and back to just the 2 of us having to make our own decisions again, aaaah!
 
It felt weird to finally be moving on again with only the two of us, when you spend over 5 weeks with people, especially mum and Ian it felt so strange not having them there with us and having to make our own decisions, plan routes and book accommodation/trips was bizarre, bring back our tour leader Bilynda!!! It was good though also to be back on the road using our brains again so off to Valparaiso on the coast it was!
 
After rousing ourselves from our John and Yoko style stay in bed protest for three days due to me being slightly out of sorts . We packed and moved outdoors to the bus station the weather was great so warm and we sat contemplating the next few weeks and making the most of our time before heading back to reality. Our journey took us north westish away from Santiago to the coast passing forested green mountains and lots of vineyards, it was a beautiful journey, and in just under two hours we were at the seaside.
 
Valparaiso is a very different Chilean town, it's like Brighton but with a Chilean twist. There are all these brightly coloured houses on these 7 or 8 hills in a semicircle kind a shape. There are these century old cable cars which can take you from the bottom to the top for 20pence it is a very unique place. However yours truly seemed to have been hit by the narcolepsy bug and all I want to do is sleep.
 
Arriving at the terminal we did some research checking out prices to Chillan our next destination and booked our tickets. We had arranged to be picked up by the people from the hostel but had no idea what they looked like or where they would be . Somehow the lady from the hostel found us and took us back to our lodgings in an old banger which worryingly didn't look like it would make it out of the bus station, but somehow we made it to our home for the next two days! The young owners were so friendly and showed real concern for this sickly Englishman and I have now drunk more Chamomile tea than I care to remember. It's good for digestion apparently.
 
The hostel was a wonderful old building with real character high ceilings and big rooms with wooden floors everywhere. But for me it was bedtime and I hit the sack whilst Nik did her thang on the net and updated the Blog. That evening we took a walk to the supermarket becoming very aware that we weren't in the best area of town. The actual centre and the more desirable areas on the "cerros" were along way away. But we have been in worst places and after buying some vino the world was a better place. This was purely for medicinal reasons!
 
Day 13 - Nik and Ads do Valparaiso City Tour in their own unique way.
 
Fully refreshed the next morning it was time to face the world and start taking in some sites we had scanned the guidebooks read the articles and had a map what more did we need . Oh a plan that was it. Out in the daylight Nik and I headed towards the main square unaware just how far we were out of it. We wanted to walk along the beach front then take a left and be in the town centre. Simple. The only problem was that some idiot had built a train line in the way we could see the sea but not get to it. We could have been anywhere shops, markets, stalls all selling lots of stuff you don't actually need.
 
By now the necessity to eat for me was very strong I was starving and we found a café and tucked into a four course meal. Now I was ready for the city tour heading upwards into the cobbled streets we took in the atmosphere and the views across this vast multicoloured landscape. It was like a rabbit warren as we tried to follow the walking tour mentioned in the guide book. The architecture was impressive with lots of odd features appearing out of nowhere on many of the buildings, even the bins were painted in bright colours! It was a cool kinda place with quite a funky feel to it. All we wanted to see after all this was the beach but by now it was getting very late and it was time to head home. After purchasing two of the world's shoddiest flasks from the Chilean equivalent of the English pound shop it was home time and off to bed ready for our journey to Chillan in the morning.