Sunday, January 6, 2008

NYE, Valparaiso, Viña and Mendoza

From bright coloured houses, cobblestone streets and a mess of power cables in Valparaiso, Chile to head-sized completos in Viña del Mar and through the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina, here we are...

NEW YEAR´S EVE
We saw the Old out and the New Year in with far less style than we're used to at the Balmain mansion in Sydney. Our hostel threw a $6000 (that's chilean pesos - AU$12) 3-course + drinks NYE party which was a nice easy option and as it turned out, a very good way to destroy any prior progress on the jet-lag front. To keep a short story even shorter, we had a fantastic meal and a few glasses of wine before heading into the centre of town with the Hostel buddies to see the fireworks. More interseting than the fireworks was the amazing amount of confetti that was thrown into the air, into eyes and up noses and is still being found in clothes now. A good NYE, chilean style...

SANTIAGO
Our last day in Santiago saw us pike out of the climb up to the top of Cerro San Cristobel in favour of the 'ascendor'. At 30º celsius it probably wasn't a bad decision. The top of the mountain offered fantastic views of the city of Santiago and was a great place to sit for a while.

All in all, Santiago was good. A bit on the expensive side but still well and truly worth the visit.


VALPARAISO
After Santiago we caught an early bus to Valparaiso. The iconic town famous for it's ridiculously steep, cobble-stoned streets and colorful buildings. Soph had plenty of time to take photos of the buildings, the town and, of course, doors. A fantastic place to walk around and some nice (but expensive) little bars to have a drink with a view of the harbour and landscape.

For curiosity's sake and not through sheer laziness, we took a few of the 'ascendors' that are dotted around the city to take people from town up an all-but-vertical hill to their homes, minimarkets and restaurants.

VIÑA DEL MAR
One stop around Valparaiso that we could absolutely not miss was Viña Del Mar which is as to Santiago as the central coast is to Sydney. The main reason for this is, as you can see to the right, the head-sized completos (hotdog with onion, avocado and mayo). We trawled the streets for a good half an hour in search of completos whose vendor Soph could vaguely remember but at last... success!

MENDOZA
A 400km, 9 hour bus ride took us through the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. Great views coming through the mountains but since Mendoza is famed for its proximity to vineyards and no tours are running, we're out of here tonight.

Asta luego!

2 comments:

mike said...

Love the news, love the photos - pity about the dandruff though

Dad/Mike

Cassie Tasker (SFPorter) said...

Welcome to blog-world! It's great to see/read what you're up to, looks like it's been a blast so far. Keep the posts coming..
Love C