Valparaiso - the city of hills

We checked into our hotel at 9am the following morning and we were both a bit shocked at the quality and size (or lack thereof) of the room in comparison to the beautiful place we'd be staying in Pucon. That said, the owner was lovely and made up for it! 

Bags stowed, we went off in search of a second breakfast and then the walking tour which started at 10am. We had a great tour guide who took us around to some of the sights and talked a bit about the history.  Tour finished, we somehow stumbled into a bus show/competition - imagine buses parked everywhere, bus paraphernalia like horns and mud flaps for sales, tours on the buses and EVERYONE showing off their bus' horn! It was quite a sight & sound :)  We stopped at a cafe that made over 80 different types of empanadas to order before exploring the city streets, graffiti and murals around Cerro Conception and Cerro Alegre. It was a lovely day, the only downside of Valparaiso is that they're repairing most of the ascensors so we were only able to ride one of them.... 

We also visited neighbouring towns of Vina del Mar for a lovely walk along the beach and ocean-front as well as some delicious food and great people watching. The following day, we visited Concon as they have some impressive sand dunes which Shannon was keen to try and slide down. Unfortunately, there was no one to rent us toboggans but we hiked up and tried to slide down on a cardboard box which we found - it didn't work at all!! 

After dinner, we had a stroll through town and checked out the decorations and costumes and it's Halloween and the streets were fairly alive with kids trick-or-treating! 

Ciao,

Sarah

P.S.  Shannon found a PS3 on the street in Vina del Mar and has been in contact with the owner.  They live in Santiago so we'll return it to them when we're next in town.