Chile

For the first two nights Katrien and myself stayed in a private house with a very good breakfast included in the price. When Katrien left, I went to Hospedaje Maria Antonieta, a good hostel with very friendly people, where I met Amanda and Alessandra, two lovely and very enthousiastic girls from Santos, Brasil.
Valpo, as locals call it, is without any doubt the most picturesque Chilean city. It is at the sea and has very colourful houses built on the hills that make the city. There are quite some antique lifts to take you up the steep hills for half a euro or so.
A must in Valpo is the Pablo Neruda house called Casa Sebastiana, named after the architect that designed it. It is a wonderful house with a breathtaking view on Valpo and the Pacific. A little piece from one of his poems that was quite nice reading in his house, looking at the pacific:
'El Océano Pacifico salía del mapa. No había dondé ponerle. Era tan grande, desordonado y azul que no cabía en ninguna parte. Por eso le dejaron en frente de mi ventana.'
The Pacific Ocean dropped of the map. There was nowhere to put it. It was so big, disordened and blue that it did not fit anywhere. That is why they put it in front of my window.
You can walk around forever and keep on taking pictures in Valpo's beautiful barrios high up the hills. The centre of the city is less interesting and much busier, although it has got its charms too. There is the Avenida Brazil, a wide avenue with a broath path for pedestrians, boarded by palm trees, in the middle. There are some nice buildings and some markets, a flea market behind the Congreso Nacional and a fruit-, vegetable- and flea market on Avenida Argentina on weekend days. Another thing not to miss is the Mercado Central where you can have wonderful pescado (fish) and mariscas (shellfish), it is not cheap though!

Viña del Mar is probably the most mondain bathing city in Chile. It is only a ten-minute metro drive from Valpo and it is much more expensive to spend the night or to eat, so you better stay in Valpo and visit Viña from there. It is nice to spend an afternoon on the beach, the water in the ocean is ice cold though, or to stroll around the main streets with their fancy restaurants, watching people.
About one hour and a half from Valpo is another Pablo Neruda house which looks very nice from the outside. Do not go there on Monday, though, cause than you are confronted with a sign saying: 'Cerrado los lunes, por favor no inciste'. I had not checked the opening times of course!

'Hoy es hoy, ayer se fue, no hay dudas.'