The city of colour, life, and fiesta! We stayed at Hostel Po that worked with local street artists to decorate each room, and each was more interesting than the last. Valparaiso was a four day food and drink vacation. We had some amazing squid ceviche, Chilean meats and cheeses, and tried as much Chilean wine as we could all with the stunning view of hills of coloured houses, cobblestone streets, and the vast ocean in the background. We spent most of our time touring around Cerro Allegre and Cerro Concepcion which were the most beautiful parts of the city. We tried excellent empenadas, desserts called Alfahores (chocolate covered cookies with dulce de leche in the middle), and machas parmas (razor clams bakes with white wine and parmesan cheese). 

We learned some of the interesting history of the area as well as some of the pros and cons of the entire neighbourhood being a UNESCO World Heritage site. While it has brought in a lot of tourism, home owners can’t afford to maintain the structural integrity of the buildings while keeping the facade in tact (which they are forced to do under UNESCO rules), so some end up having to abandon their homes. We made some new furry friends, Lucy and Shaggy Dog, who accompanied us on our tours around town the whole weekend. 

We tried some local craft beers, and did the Clandestino Wine Club tasting. We went with a guy named Peter from Nebraska who took us to his house and we shared 6 different bottles of Chilean wine between 8 of us. He told us about each of the wines and gave us a new Chilean cheese to try with each. After that we all decided to go out to a jazz bar, which we have found to be very popular in Chile. The bar was decorated like the inside of an old trolley bus, complete with bus seats and windows. What freedom we felt, being able to relax, eat and drink with our biggest worry being that the clouds might not clear up enough to see the perfect sunset.

There was one downside to our experience in "Valpo". We were almost robbed. Luckily these gys were only some kids looking to see what they could get, and smehow just walking away from them seemed to do the trick! We certainly learned our lesson early on in the trip.