Valparaiso and Vina del Mar

I figured as I travel my Spanish would improve, and indeed it has in a lot of respects, I´ve learned useful vocabulary and common phrases to be polite. But as soon as we crossed into Chile (and now Argentina as well), I can no longer understand what people are saying to me and when I use my usual, well-practiced phrases I get rather blank stares. It is still Spanish these people are speaking but the pronunciations have changed, the vocab slightly different and all this has left me back at square one, feeling like I need to learn it all over again. The double ¨L¨that usually sounds like ¨ya¨now has a ¨sha¨sound and instead of saying ¨tus¨ they are usuing ¨vos¨ I believe. Hopefully I can get this straight, becuase no matter how many times I say ¨Como?¨and ¨mas despacio por favor¨ there is no slowing these people down!

Ok, onto Valparaiso and Vina del Mar...

I think Valpo, short for Valapraiso and easier on my fingers to type over and over again, was the town that we had the most expectation for and we seemed to have a beautiful picture in our heads of how it was going to be. So instead of the sunny, sand-filled beaches we imagined, realistically Valpo is very much a port city with no beaches and from the outside it seemed run-down and quite dirty. But the murals on the walls and graffiti lining the streets soon became very artistic and we saw the delight that all travelers find when they visit here. The acensors lifting you up the steep terrain and the winding, hilly streets that lead to great restaurants with fresh seafood were all very enjoyable and certainly good for any shutter-happy photographer.

One of the many artistic corners we found while exploring Valpo by foot.

So we spent three days here making a short day trip to Vina del Mar via the metro, which took us less than 20 minutes. Here there was a great beach, but since we decided to come on the three days it was cloudy and rainy, swimming didn´t really suit our fancy. There couldn´t be more contrast between Valpo and Vina del Mar; one run by a port and the other where all the rich Chileans went to build there houses away from the port. We visited the casino, saw the cinema art houses and tried to avoid the massive amounts of campaigners that were out and about. It is presidential election time in Chile and lining the streets are huge canvas pictures of candidates, flag wavers and leaflets galore. Overwhelming, but it seems like they are very excited for their transition of power and enthusiastic about spreading the word.

One of many corners decorated with pictures and slogans of the '09 candidates.

So as Liora preferred Vina del Mar and the beach (she also won $70 in the casino so I think this influenced her liking this city more), I fancied Valpo and could see myself spending a week exploring the streets, overlooking the harbor and naval yard and taking nice boat rides out in the bay to see the huge cranes unloading ship loads of imported goods.

While we were here, we also visited one of Pablo Neruda´s five houses. This five-story, quaint and artistic house overlooked all of Valparaiso and inside it was decorated with antiques of all kinds, comfortable chairs, his private study and paintings of ships and oceanliners that he was most obsessed with. ¨A sailor from the land¨ I think is what he called himself. I didn´t realize what an accomplished man he was. Not only did he compose great poetry and win the Nobel Prize of Literature, he was a politician and presidential candidate, excellent cook and friend to all. And of course he loved Chilean wine. But who doesn´t right?

Outside Pablo Neruda's house that overlooks all of Valpo.

We stopped in a very local joint for another completo and what was now becoming my favorite snack. However, that all changed when the mayo they put on top of mine (Liora was smart to ask for one sin mayo) I was hit by the salmonella freight train and was disabled entirely for 12 hours. It was bound to happen at one point or another and my-oh-my, it was bad. I slept the rest of the day and night, barely able to life myself from bed, but thankfully it all passed by morning. And good thing, because the next day we were off to Mendoza in Argentina for some wine tasting and more bike riding.

Our bus was supposed to take 8 hours from Valpo, but with our luck, there was an overturned tanker truck on the winding road that delayed us two hours, then a backup of traffic at the border took another 2 hours and a guy trying to bring illegal goods over the border in his suitcase on our bus was sat and questioned for 30 minutes while we had to wait on the bus. They let him go, but without his suitcase. I have no idea what he was trying to bring with him, but the Argentinian police were not pleased. So our 8 hours became 14.5 and when all was said and done, we arrived in Mendoza at 2:00am instead of 7:30pm without any Argentinian pesos, sore butts and wanting nothing more than a bed to rest our heads. Half of traveling this great continent is the transportation itself, what an adventure it always turns out to be.