Valpo!

Hola!

Due to a holiday today - I've been told mostly that it's "some Catholic holiday" we didn't have class. So, we've had a perfectly beautiful 3-day weekend - just what I need to help soak up all the Chilean goodness I can before I head back to the Northern hemisphere on Sunday (whoa.)

I can feel that things are definitely starting to wind down around here, lots of my good friends are starting to leave; and while there are new people coming each week - it's still hard to see those original people that I started my classes with leave.  But, it is starting to get me in the mindset of going home which ought to make the transition easier.  I already have just about every minute of this last week planned out - so I'm going to have to make sure that I take a step back once in a while and truly enjoy everything I can, while I can.

Anyways - my last full weekend here was definitely a memorable one :)

Friday night I went out to some bars and clubs in Chile - one of our teachers' bands was playing so we went to his concert.  Very fun, a little strange (they were wearing masks similar to the facepaint KISS would wear) but still, a most excellent time.

Saturday morning (which came all too early) I set out with another friend from school to go to the coastal city of Valparaiso.  It is definitely a unique city - it was built to be one of the main coastal ports in Chile (if not THE main one) but it's set up against both the ocean and the hills/mountains of the Andes.  So, as the city grew, it grew up onto the cerros (or hills) so the many beautifully colored houses spread upwards and outwards from the city center.
While I got some good pictures, they don't entirely do the city and its colors justice, so please also check out this link: Valpo!

The bus ride, again, was beautiful.  We got to go through Chilean wine and farm country and then out to Valpo.  While I ended up sleeping for more of the ride out there than I had intended, I did get to enjoy it on the way back.
When we arrived in the city we didn't have any sort of plan of what we wanted to do, we just knew that at some point we wanted to eat the fresh seafood that the city is so famous for, and also wander through some of the beautiful hillside neighborhoods.  One thing that you have to be very careful of is getting lost - partly just because there's little rhyme or reason to the streets in the cerros (they make tangletown, MN seem like childsplay to navigate) there is also much more poverty in Valpo than we see in Santiago. But, we had absolutely no problems whatsoever with either concern.

So, we set off from the bus station and immediately came across a huge antiques market.  A lot of crap, but also some fun stuff - books, old spurs, typical antique-y things.  We wandered through the market for a short while, marveling at some of the stranger goods that were offered (spurs that looked like they were intended for murder, strange childrens' books, etc.) then decided to move on to the OCEAN!
For those of you who don't know, I am obsessed with the ocean.  I truly believe that I was a manatee in a past life - thus I am constantly trying to get back to my ocean roots. Or rather, my water roots - depending on if I were a fresh or salt water manatee.  But, I digress.

I knew that there was ocean somewhere in Valpo - I could see the battleships in the distance, but we weren't sure what our best vantage point would be.  So, we started walking in the direction of the ocean. Let me back up for a moment - Valpo is also home to the Chilean navy and I believe the Bolivian navy as well (because apparently a landlocked country is always in great need of a navy!) I'm too lazy to look up the details on that, but there were lots of huge battleships in the harbor. They must belong to someone.
We got close to the water - but we still couldn't really see it.  Valpo's metro/lightrail runs right along the water so the train's embankment kind of blocks the view.

We figured out roughly where we wanted to go and started walking.  We decided to stop and ask some people exactly where we were on our map (we were kind of confused) and it turned out one of the woman is from New Hampshire originally, so we had a nice little chat about the US for a moment - then set off on our way to the downtown area.
At this point we could smell the sea air, and we knew it only about 100 feet away from us, but we could only catch brief glimpses of it through the fence. Frustration was setting in.

We kept on walking, along the way of the lightrail on one side and large, dark, imposing European looking buildings (made from dark stone, pretty tall, beautiful but kind of eerie to be honest)
We decided to branch off of the main drag and explore some neighborhoods.  We quickly came upon the Valpo funiculars (while, we just came across one - there are 4 that are currently working, and there are about 17 in total, they're restoring a number of them this winter.)  While I'm always up for a challenge - why hike up steep hills and steps when you can take a super old, kind of terrifying (but very fun!) ascensore?!?  For about $0.50 we got a nice short ride.

Up to this point I was a little... disappointed with valpo.  I had heard how amazing the city is, and we had been there for about an hour and hadn't seen anything that was overly impressive.
That is, until we stepped out of the ascensore.

We were met with a cute little alley, with a beautiful littler artesan fair at the end - and even better, we could finally see that beautiful turquoise (yes, turquoise) ocean!!!  It took all my strength not to go running/skipping down to it.  I had had a very particular image of valpo in my mind - one of winding cobbled streets, colorful houses, and ocean.  Up until this point I hadn't seen any of this, but from the bottom of the hill.
Everything changed at this point.  I could not stop smiling; the sun was shining, the ocean was waving (see what I did there? I'm so funny) the birds were calling, the empanadas were cooking, life. was. good.  I forgot to mention earlier that we had PERFECT weather.  It's been pretty chilly in Santiago, but we could walk around in tee-shirts in Valpo, it was awesome.  We went through the market then continued on through the lazily winding streets.

Each corner- well, not so much corners as a corner implies some sharp perpendicular meeting of streets and these were much softer, winding streets - brought with it a whole new array of colors and views.  Purple, lime green, orange, yellow, hot pink, magenta... the list goes on and on.  Everything I love about life- bright/bold colors, sunshine, ocean, good friends, and windy streets - were suddenly present.  I should say that a general lack of sleep also got the day started a little rough, and we were never unhappy - but things really took a turn for the better once we ascended the hill.
Something interesting is that it is painfully apparent that the more money you have, the higher you live (quite literally, in Valpo)  We were out of the graffitied streets we had been wandering and were suddenly surrounded by beautiful street art.  Much like in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago - street art is encouraged in parts of Valpo (as long as the building owners approve the art work) so there are amazing murals and other paintings around every corner.  
The artwork, coupled with the beautiful houses, made it feel like there should suddenly be creepy carousels and dancing penguins (...Mary Poppins, when they jump into the sidewalk art for those of you not getting my reference) Anyways - it was breathtaking.

After meandering for a while we realized that it was high time for lunch as we could no longer ignore the rumblings of our stomachs.  Up on the hill you end up not only paying for your food but also for the view - so we hiked back down in order to find food that better fit our budget.

I kind of attempted to consult my guide book, but was more or less unsure of where we were and how to get to any of the restaurants mentioned in the book.  So we decided to test our luck and just wander around until we came across something that was both affordable and delectable.

We came across a few ice cream shops, a lot of uneatable souvenirs (no, I did not try to eat anything that is inedible) but very few restaurants.  Valpo is a town that I had a really hard time figuring out - Santiago and Mendoza both have several streets with a loooot of different restaurants but Valpo didn't seem to (we very well could have just missed it... but the map didn't show a huge restaurant area either.)
I decided that there MUST be restaurants down near the water, so we walked through the main center/plaza of the city only to find that it was just more souvenir shops. So. many. souvenirs. I did end up buying a bracelet but I went there with a mission to do so, so it was ok.

A little discouraged, we decided to just ask some people if they had any recommendations.  We found a nice little group of elderly people speaking Spanish - so gave it a shot.  Best thing we have ever done.  They pointed us in the direction of a fun looking place right on the water - it looks like it's in an old boat, nautical themed with (you guessed it!) SEAFOOD
Looking at the menu, we discovered that it was a bit more pricy than we had hoped - but we both love seafood and would both only be in Valpo this one time so we threw caution to the wind (and money...) and gave it a whirl.

We had a cute little table on the porch overlooking the harbor.  We could watch the boats coming and going: sailing, taking tours of the harbor, going out to the military ships, there was quite the hustle and bustle out on the water.

At that point I had decided that even if I didn't like my food (Cachas Parmesan - Razor clams with parmesan cheese and white wine sauce) the view and general feel of the restaurant made it worth it.  However, the food far surpassed any hopes I had for it (my host mom recommended the dish saying that it was to die for) and MAN would I have died for that dish.  There were about 12 clams on the plate, each with a heaping pile of perfectly melted parmesan and sitting in a delicious white wine/garlic sauce.  It. was. amazing.  Each bite was just heavenly - even the one in which I ended up eating a piece of shell on accident (apparently Chile hasn't helped me in my quest to become a dainty eater...)  It was gastronomic perfection.
The food, combined with the sun and scenery, brought me back to that wonderful place where all I could ask was "how is this my life?!?!"

You would think that by this point I would learn that everything is here is perfect and that I shouldn't be surprised when everything greatly exceeds all expectations, but it still catches me off guard sometimes.

Please, do yourselves all a favor and add Chile to your top 4 places to come in your lifetime.  It is just too amazing to be missed.  The people, the food, the scenery, everything is just exquisite.

Anyways.  After our amazing lunch and just general relaxing on the fake boat we made a b-line back to an ice cream place (because when you're painfully full, the natural thing to do is eat ice cream.)  And yes, it was delicious.  It was worth every painful bite and lick.

We continued to aimlessly walk through the streets and we came across a beautiful plaza that had a puppet show for kids!  It was kind of strange to see, but the kids were loving it and it seemed like a delightful way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.
By the time we got back to the bus station area we were completely exhausted.  We tried to go and walk up a small cerro, but due to the fact that it was getting dark and the stairs were unlit and we were completely and utterly exhausted - we opted for sitting in the park and then the bus station.
Thankfully I made it back to Santiago without any delays - my host family was a little worried with my previous traveling record :-)