Valparaiso - Street Art City

It was a comfy ride on the overnight bus to Valparaiso. We scored cheap 'salon cama' seats for $26 each for the 13 hour journey. The salon cama seats are on the lower deck of the double decker bus and recline most of the way down with plenty of leg room. We were given little food boxes, blankets and pillows to make our journey comfortable.

Arriving just before lunch we hiked through the town and up the steep hills of Valparaiso to a hostel where Julia and Hendrik we're staying. After a refreshing shower and some empanada's to stop the hunger pains we strolled downhill to catch a free walking tour.

For 3 hours we walked around the artsy hills of Valparaiso checking out the awesome street art on numerous buildings, shopfronts and even staircases. One of the highlights was taking the old school 'ascentors' (diagonal cable driven elevators) up and down the hills.

After dinner at the hostel we hit the town to catch up with our mates from the Navimag, Ole and Jan. With a few more friends from their hostel we went to a local bar to experience the 'terremodo' (spanish for earthquake) - a jug of sweet wine and strawberry juice with a chunk of icecream on top - it was delicous but potent!

Next stop was a traditional Absenthe bar - the glasses were lined up and set alight as the sugar slowly melted. If the earthquake didnt knock us off our feet this certainly was about too. After a struggle to finish our drinks we said goodbye to our mates and made sure we'd meet up again in Germany.

Some sneaky papas fritas (french fries) was in order for the steep hill climb stumble back to our hostel.Read more