Chile

Well, I´m finally up to date... phew! Sitting here in Valparaiso after a long bus ride from San Pedro, Valparaiso is the cultural capital of Chile and a UNESCO heritage site. It´s a fascinating labyrinth of colourful steep streets, with cute little cafes and quaint artesañal shops perched on impossibly steep cliffs. They have a system of rustic cable cars to get betweent the different levels, an interesting experience.

All in all a lovely place, although some crazy lady cornered loretta earlier and started making cutting actions across her throat. Loretta thought she was being hexed but another bloke (only slightly more subtley) pointed out that we were happily strolling through a really dangerous part of town taking photos of the grafitti. He simply made a gun out of his fingers and pretended to shoot us... he did explain later properly. These guys need to work on their communication skills.

Anyway, we´re heading to Santiago tomorrow before moving into Argentina´s Mendoza valley for a few days of relaxation, lots of wine and lots of steak. We´re planning on heading back into Chile later in the south to Torres del Paine.

Chile is a lot more European (including how the people look) than the rest of South America, very busy, bustling and tourists don´t seem to register - although there are a lot of Chilean tourists too, a classic sign (alongsode the prices) that Chile is doing a lot better in economic terms than most of its neighbours.

Anyway, I´m going to try to upload some photos now as all this text is getting a bit dry, fingers crossed!