Valparaiso-day 2

Started the day with another wonderful breakfast at the B&B. We played cribbage. Chris won, but not by much. And off we were to see the city. 

We could tell from the sounds of our room that today was different. There was traffic and already we could hear the city awake below. But our little terrace (Paseo Atkinson) of a street was all quiet. This is the first city where I've thought, "darn. I wish I had photography skills."  This little row if houses is delightful and I want to capture how much they represent Valparaiso. So I figured I'd get some good shots & try to learn about photoshop when we get home. There was no one on the street. I want to live in the purple house, of course. 

We headed up hill. This morning's mission: to walk around and just enjoy the city. Which I think we did quite successfully. We wandered up a whimsical mega staircase. A dog "adopted us" as his own and followed us on the walk. We also saw the more shabby parts of Valpo. A follower of the blog emailed to inquire about the corrugated metal (alright, I admit, it was my mom). She asked if the area was poor or Eco conscious. Neither. The settlers made homes our of what they knew-adobe. However the humidity and cooler temperatures did not provide an environment favorable for the adobe to harden, thus the settlers needed something more stable and the discarded shipping containers were laying around. Where we are staying tends to be more touristy and thus all the metal is nice & painted and covered with street art. We saw the not so cute area in the distance on our walk. It was a cloudy morning. (Today I'm responsible for the blog post, yet used the camera for photos on the walk. Please forgive the photo quality as they are photos of the back of my camera.)

Before we knew it, it was 11:30 and we needed to meet our friends we made yesterday on the tour at the dock for a boat ride. How fun it was to meet up with them! Even though it had been less than 12 hours we found ourselves a flourish with conversation. And very glad to see one another. It's nice to make new friends and to spend time together. Somehow the city comes more alive when in the company of others. 

Our tour guide yesterday warned us about the sailor speak, that even as a native porteño he could not understand the sailors. He was right. A sailor approached us to take a tour in a lancha with the deepest, most gruff voice I've ever heard. We joked that he ate cigarettes for breakfast. We sent Chris to do the negotiating and rather than 30,000 for 8 people, he took us our 15,000 for 4. On with the life jackets and off our little boat went around the harbor. 

There was a new large ship in the harbor that was not there yesterday along with battleships (Chilean navy). Cargo in large shipping containers was being moved with a massive crane. Monday morning and the port was working. From the boat we were able to see Valparaiso as it would have appeared to immigrants as they arrived. 

We disembarked the boat & did a little tourist shopping. I found my frog. Others purchased post cards and other trinkets. Then off to lunch. Chorillana is a Valparaiso institution (and a cardiologists worst nightmare). Minced beef with onions, hot dog slices, and cheese atop french fries. Thankfully we all split one plate. And it came with the largest pitcher of beer I've ever seen. 

As though we had not just ingested enough food....we went back to the ice cream place. This time I had raspberry mint and the creamy chocolate again (for a non-chocolate ice cream person this chocolate was AMAZING). 

We said good-bye to Kelly who was off to the States for 6 weeks. What better way to part than with ice cream?

The three of us headed to the grocery store (we needed food for the bus ride tomorrow). A foreign country grocery store always provides entertainment. Obviously I was in mission mood, otherwise I would have snapped photos. We parted ways until dinner. Chris and I went back to our "neighborhood" of Cerro Alegre in search of art. Valpo is naturally colorful and I believe there could be beautiful colorful artwork done to represent the city. After two evenings of searching, I found an artist whose style I like and the price was right. However, Chris said it did not remind him of Valpo, which defeats the purpose. We got a quick snapshot of the style. 

We then found a quaint coffee shop for a game of cribbage before meeting Hamish for dinner. 

We went to a place that had been full if locals on previous nights. The boys shared a bottle of wine and I had a pisco sour. Wouldn't you know the restaurant was vegetarian? We didn't figure it out until our meals arrived. At 10:30p we called it a night and headed back up the hill to our quaint room which felt like a safe haven. I turned on the glorious space heater and still snuggled down under 7 blankets. Chris, of course, was already fast asleep. 

We absolutely loved Valparaiso. We're not sure if it took us this long to find our "travel groove" or if it was touring with other people or the eclectic city.