Valpariso and Santiago

I´d heard lovely things about Valpariso, a city near the coast of Chile so decided I would spend more time there instead of Santiago, which, lets face it, is just another capital city. I wasn´t disappointed either though, the place is covered in fantastic graffiti, theres people painting murals everywhere, or creating little mosasaics on lamp post. The other thing I loved/hated was all the stairs! The city is built on a hill, in a way it has layers or floors, you climb stairs to get to the next layer. The lead for fantastic views but is a bit of a bitch to climb in the heat or, after drinking chocolate milk...

One day Bethany and I (my traveling buddy since Mendoza) decided to go to the beach in Vina del Mar, ten minutes away. It had been a scorching morning but after a half an hour of us being there this fog came over the whole city. Stubborn for some beach time, we lasted about 40 minutes, slightly shivering. Eventually we gave up, but even so I some how managed to get completely sun burned. I curse my irish skin! Only I could get sunburned in fog...

We hit Santiago for the weekend and some night life. I have to say, the guys in Chile are farrr more annoying than Argentina, literally can´t walk five steps without getting whistled or commented on. The best so was when me and Bethany recieved a slow clap which broke into a round of applause as we passed a truck of guys unloading softdrinks. Priceless. In some ways I think it might be a blessing, I don´t know how anyone could mug a girl here with such attention.
Santiago was alot of fun to go out in but not much else. There was the Chile vs Colombia world cup qualifier while we were there, and these people are mad about football. The city was crazy that night. I also finally gave into some Salsa dancing in the discos here. More fun than I thought but every song still sounds like ´Gasolina´to my untrained ears.

The down side to all the partying was a hangover like no other on Sunday, the day we were taking a 22 hour bus ride to North Chile, San Pedro. I slept for most of those 22 hours and vowed never ever to drink heavily before a bus again...