This weekend was lovely. Neither my roommate nor I had ever been to Valparaiso. We decided to bite the bullet and instead of waiting for the friends we had intended to go with (each of us with a different set of friends) we decided to go together. We both wanted to see the city, get away from Santiago, and relax. It was totally worth it! People are always telling me that Valpo is the best and coolest. I definitely see what they mean. It reminded me of home (Berkeley+San Francisco) and the people were much more relaxed than here in Santiago. I still like Santiago (I think it's underrated), but I get why everyone oohs and ahhs over Valpo.
Our first day we walked to our hostel from the bus station (AKA hiked up a huge hill in incredible heat and inappropriate footwear). Once we settled into our (AWESOME) hostel we set out for lunch. We were starving! The guy who runs the hostel, Poroto (Chilean Spanish for bean), told us a good fish place we should try. This entailed us walking down the hill, taking a crazy old funicular/tram type of thing and walking through a pretty stinky fish market. I think, however, that it was worth it. The food was AWESOME!
After finally eating something we went down to the waterfront to take a boat tour of the harbor. Valpo is a port town and there's actually a lot to see from the water. The boat we took was very Chilean, AKA little safety provisions/looked like it would break apart while we were all on it. There was a very funny (flaite-esque (flaite in the Chilean term for white trash)) guy who sat on the edge of the boat (we were certain he would fall off) and explained the harbor to us (in Spanish, obviously). He was very nice, but he had the longest scariest fingernails in the world (clearly you all need to know that).
I've got to run and get ready but I'll leave you with some pictures from the day! There more to come, so get ready internet!
The view form the roof of our hostel.
Fish in a delicious sauce.
The Chilean understanding of Salad... AKA a few vegetables with iceberg lettuce.
The harbor (crazy colorful)
Me being a dork in a life coat... only now realizing how awful this picture is. Oh well!
Sea Lion hanging out in the harbor.
A view of Valpo from the water.
Various shipping things... like a more colorful version of Oakland!
One of the main plazas in the city (don't know why I took this picture, but now you can see a piece of the city... woohoo)
As I said, much more is on the way. In the mean time, have a great Monday (I don't know that that's possible... but good luck trying!).
XX
A
No comments:
Post a Comment