¡Tur de Valparaíso!

It was an early start today. And aside from waking up with plenty of time for my tea and with what i thought was plenty of time for a pretty quick walk, i ended up with having an unexpected morning, long speed walk across close to all of the city of Viña del Mar. At least it kept me warm! I thought the place our bus was meeting was a lot closer, ay. But finally when I asked someone about how many blocks i was going, i found out i had a half an hour of speed walking ahead of me. The whole group was sitting on the bus waiting for me, so once i got there (it was only 15 minutes late jeezeee chileans are all late i couldn't believe i was the last one!) i said perdón, smiled and sat down to catch my breath and cool off. At least i got to know the city a bit better.

I'll start off by quickly saying that I have a new great camara but of course taking it out for the first picture today i found it was outtaa batterryy booo. So the pictures i have here i stole from another girl in the group that posted them on facebook! I know I'll get back to take some photos for myself but this way I can show you what i was up to.

But it was a really nice day. The tourguide was very informative, and Valparaíso is so beautiful!
The first stop was Pablo Neruda's house, La Sebastiana. WOW! So awesome. Of what stands out from the Latin American poetry class i took freshman year, how much i liked pablo neruda's poetry is very memorable. It was awesome to finally get there. There are so many colors, filled with incredible weird stuff, and of course, the finest, brightest views of Valparaiso. The man has a really interesting life--politically especially. Some day soon I'm gonna get myself a biography!
These pictures do the place SOME justice.

The outside of his house. So great looking!

This is a view from one of the windows in his house. The classic hills of colorful houses!

Today I also finally got to see the curvy, romantic old streeets I had heard all about. I can't wait to go back and explore more closely. These areas are in the "cerros" of Valparaíso, which are the highh hills lined with colorful houses the city is known for. To get up to the cerros you can drive, take stairs, or take the famous acensors!

This is the Ascensor Concepción--referring to the Cerro Concepción

This is a pretty good example. I couldn't find great pictures of the streets. But I loved this one! Especially because that peach house with the vine stood out.
Doesn't it remind you of Rapunzel's Hair?! ja

Certain areas are full of artists, so there are walls and walls of really interesting murals. Political, social or purely artistic. Sweet cafes, restaurants, and hotels and hostels are everywhere. It's known for architecture that is a mix of both English and French design--with houses that have French shutters on one floor and English windows on another. The whole city is a mix--not only of colors and shapes and dogs but of people--rich, poor, young, old all live mixed together. That's something unique that Santiago and many cities in Latin America cannot say. Usually they are more divided.

Beautiful murals with tiles...


Large scenic murals like this (i would have captured some cooler ones we saw!)


And this was shocking! Shows how distinct Valparaíso
can be from the rest of its Catholic country
(you might need to click and englarge this to see whats shocking!)

After the cerros we head to almuerzo, lunch---we ate in a simple restaurant at the top of department store. but it was so delicious! i just had some grilled chicken, a nice simple dish--so good. I've had a week of some indulgences with food. One of these days i'm gonna grab a photo and tell you about Italianos Completos ---ahhh killers! We took a boat ride around the port. Which would have been nicer had i not been in the back inhaling fumes eww. I was exhausted when i got home. Took a siesta. And then woke up to have once--not exaclty dinner but often replaces dinner, that is just bread and cheese and meat and some cake, because it was my dad Pepe's birthday! Feliz cumpleaños!