Back to Valpo...

Talor: After much deliberating, we figured life is short, and though buses are far more economical and eco-friendly, we gotta do what we gotta do... soooo, we decided to take a 4-hour flight from Santiago to Lima rather than spend a week traveling by bus before getting on a plane for home. That meant we only had 6 days left in Chile... doh! How to spend that time... how about a weekend in Valparaiso? We loved it back in August, so we thought it's gotta be even better now that it's Spring and not so cold. Weeeeell....

Took an overnight bus and 14 hours later, we arrived into a city shrouded in fog. Somehow things just don't look as pretty when the sun's not shining. Casa Liesel, where we stayed at before, was full, so we settled into a comfortable enough room with a shared bath at Rincon de Valparaiso. And soon enough, the fog burned off and we set out to visit our favorite places...

First stop, of course, was Kanibal for a completo grande (humongous hotdog topped with sauerkraut, chopped tomatoes and smothered with guacamole). Went to say hello to the cicerones (street dogs) by the bus stop, but they were all too busy napping in the noonday sun. So we grabbed a couple of mini-pies and went to say hello to Maria and Miguel at Casa Liesel. Then in the evening, went to the historic Cinzano's for drinks and the music stylings of old men in formal wear. Had a nice time chatting with Nick, a young British traveler, and Carlos, born and bred in Valparaiso. But the place never filled up with raucous revelers dancing and singing like the last time we were there... o well.

Walked around the next day trying to shake off the hangover, but felt uninspired. Blame it on the piscos the night before or blame it on the fog that didn't burn off until about 3:00 in the afternoon, but for whatever reason, the city just didn't have the magic that we felt the first time around. Maybe it was going from the loveliness of the quaint little towns in the south to a large city, or the comfort of a 3-bedroom cabana to a double with a shared bath. Even the cicerones didn't seem interested in guiding us through the city. Maybe they sensed that we already knew our way around? Don't know, but the next day, the sun never came out so we decided to leave and spend our last few days in Santiago. Ironic, huh? Back in August, we loved Valpo and hated Santiago, but now in December, it's the other way around... who woulda thunk?

Erik: I had my trepidations about returning to Valpo – things you really love the first time around, whether places, food (dare I say people?), are rarely as nice the second. I didn't want our nice memories of valparaiso tainted by a bad visit, but I don't think they were. The city just wasn't new and exciting anymore, which is understandable. The fog didn't help either. Anyway, I still had a good time. The winding-down/return home parts of trips are always the most difficult, and now we have to accept that we'll not be seeing any new places for a while. But man am I looking forward to seeing family, friends and having a slice of NYC pizza...

Valpo round 2 pics:

Valparaiso (2), Chile