Valparaiso and Santiago

Valparaiso is a city on the west coast of Chile. It was a major harbour used as a stop for ships going from the east coast of America to the west coast of North America prior to the opening of the Panama Canal. It is now most famous for the graffiti on the street walls. Graffiti is illegal in Chile however landowners often hire graffiti artists to paint their wall which is then legal. We did a walking tour with Tour for Tips where we learned about the different pieces of street art. Most of the pieces of graffiti were colourful so they made some pretty pictures.

Santiago was only really a destination in our itinerary as Eadaoin was meeting us there. We arrived a few days prior to her arrival so we decided to learn some Spanish. We booked a three day crash course with Natalis Language School. We learned a lot of Spanish verbs and how to ask and answer questions. On the finally night in our hostel there was a small gathering among guests. We were able to practice our Spanish during this gathering as most people staying in the hostel were from Spanish speaking countries. I was really glad that we did this course because it gave us all confidence speaking Spanish. We may not know how to structure sentences correctly yet using different tenses however at least we can understand what other people are asking or talking about. I know that with practice we will be able to speak Spanish better.En savoir plus