Valparaiso

After my visit to Pucon, I got on the overnight bus to Santiago. I arrived in the morning and had some time to kill before my sister's flight came in. Once she arrived, we were headed to Valparaiso, a colorful city on the coast. To kill some time, I actually met up with an old college teammate. I went for a run, and was able to clean myself up and relax a bit. Before meeting Emily, Becca and I had some lunch in Bellavista. As we were enjoying our pisco sours and local Chilean food (some sort of meat with palta and mayonnaise), a homeless lady came right up to the table and snatched my pisco sour. It was official, that was my first theft of the trip. If you don't count people not giving you the right amount in change. I still consider that stealing, but this was a little different. The funny thing is the reaction time was so slow. After a second or two, I got up and made like I was going to chase her. Which I did think about, but instead I alerted the waitress. I could have taken her, but it wasn't my camera she stole. I got a replacement pisco sour anyway. The incident was more humorous than anything. And as we were leaving, we saw her again and of course yelled out in English, "I hope you enjoyed my drink!" She was so drunk, she didn't notice the American women yelling at her. 

Replacement drink.

After lunch, I retrieved my belongings and headed to the bus station to meet my sister. Fortunately she was there waiting and we immediately got in line to buy our bus tickets to Valparaiso. After a short bus ride (anything under 5 hours will be considered short for me moving forward) and a swervy minibus ride up the hills of Valparaiso, we arrived at our B&B for the next few days. And already it was living up to it's reputation for its colorful houses and artwork throughout the city.

Our B&B.

We didn't do too much to begin with, except get some wine to drink. Very important in Chile. We hung out on our patio for a bit and eventually went in search of food. We also made a tentative plan for the upcoming days.

Patio wine.

The following morning, after a run around the top of the hills of the city, where we managed to avoid actually going up or down any of them, we hit the town to explore. Every corner we went around, we came across colorful scenes. And I loved it. So many pictures to be taken.

The top of many hills.

More wanderings.

Mural art at it's best.

We grabbed some lunch and tried Cristal beer, and meandered our way to the harbor where there were a bunch of boats. To be honest, there wasn't much going on, but a lot of people were still out and about. We saw some boats being loaded, but not sure where they were headed. We couldn't tell what would be worth the cost, and instead made our way back up the hills to find some pisco sour.

Cool boats.

After working our quads a bit, we found a good spot with a great view of the city and the water below. Emily got to try her first Chilean pisco sour and I think it passed the test.

This isn't Emily.

It was time for dinner. So we headed to a restaurant recommended by a friend. However, since we couldn't sit on the terrace, we made a reservation for the following night and found a different place to get dinner. To cap off the night, we had some more wine on the patio.

Angel wings.

The following morning, we got in another run along the same path from the previous morning and got on a bus to Vina del Mar. We wandered around and eventually made our way to the beach. We had grabbed some beers and spent a few hours soaking up some sun. We did go in the water, but boy was it cold. The coldest water I've been in on this entire trip I think. We gasped when we first went in, but we couldn't get used to it. It was colder than Memorial Day on Nantucket. We did stay in for a few minutes, but not for too long.

The Pacific Ocean is cold down here.

We headed back to Valparaiso to make our reservation at 8pm. Which by the way is a very early reservation. We arrived and there were only a few people there. I consider myself a late eater, but not by Chilean standards. As evening came, more and more people showed up. The reason we made the reservation was so we could enjoy the balcony view. And that is what we did.

Pre-dinner drink pre-sunset.

Now what to eat. A lot of good options, but we both decided on the tasting menu, which involved a lot of different things. And to be honest it hard to remember them all, but we did start off with a mushroom espresso. No coffee from what I could taste, but it came in a cute little espresso cup.

Mushroom espresso.

The food that followed were all delicious and well-presented. And we got to enjoy some delicious wine while we were at it. Of course it did get chilly on the balcony. So it's a good thing they gave us blankets. 

Staying warm.

For our last full day, we caught a bus to Casablanca, in the middle of the Casablanca Valley. We decided to not rent a car. For one, both of us wanted to drink. Secondly, we wanted to save a bit of money. So after doing some research, it seemed like we could visit a few wineries on foot. So that's what we did. It was an adventure.

When we arrived in Casablanca, we caught another bus and headed to our first winery. Since it was a local bus it did take us a bit of time to catch it. We eventually figured out which bus to take, but since it didn't come quickly, many bus drivers stopped to ask where we needed to go. I'm not sure if this is standard or if we stood out and looked lost. We were finally convinced to get on a bus and it looked like it was going in the general direction, so we were on our way. After a little bit of a detour and probably a higher priced bus ticket, we got dropped off at Vina Emiliana.

Emily.

We decided to do the tasting without the tour. We wanted to hit up a couple of places and were running out of time, so proceeded to start in on our tastes. Our host/bartender took us through a few of their wines. And since Emily played up her sommelier role, we were able to get a few extra tastes for good measure. And a ride to the next stop. 

We got lunch at Casa del Vino, which was quite delicious. A very tasty sandwich and some good wine to tide us over until our next stop. 

The House.

And then we got chased by dogs. Who turned around when we came at them. You can't show fear. 

Chasing dogs.

We made it to our final stop at Vina Quintay. We showed up and they let us have a tasting, for a price of course. Unfortunately not many of the tastings in this part of the world are free. Or even at a small price. Oh well, at least we pay for the attention we got. We tried some more wines, had a little photoshoot in the vineyard, and caught a bus back to Casablanca. All in all, a pretty good afternoon. Although more horns from drivers passing by then I would have likes. 

In the vineyard.

The following morning, we got a run in, ate breakfast, and made friends with a couple at the B&B who took us to Santiago. 

Last run in Valpo.

Meanwhile, I was hoping that the bumps that appeared all over my body would go away. Yes, it seems as I may have picked something up along my travels. At this point, I was thinking bed bugs or flea bites. We addressed with our host, but still not entirely what it was or where it came from. Fortunately Emily wasn't affected. I was hoping they would go away soon.