11/10/2019 – Valparaiso, Chile

We woke up and felt pretty groggy after getting too into our research last night and staying up too late! We had the hostel breakfast, coffee, bread, boiled egg, cheese and tomato. Afterwards, we went back into our room to a little bit more research/planning. We left to go exploring at around lunch time. It was another misty day, we could barely see the sea at all. We wandered around a few of the neirghbourhoods. There is lots of beautiful street art, graffiti and bunting hanging all over the place. The neighbourhoods are built up into the hills that surround the port of Valparaiso. The houses are bright and colourful, but also old and run down. It reminds me of Brighton a lot! We meandered through the numerous passageways and soaked up the atmosphere, people playing guitars, jewellery sellers, second hand clothes. We stumbled across a shop I had read about on a blog – a little lady in a cupboard selling freshly made empanadas out the window. We ate them on the bench on the street outside – melted cheese, sweetcorn and tomato inside a wholemeal pastry. Quite similar to a Cornish pasty, Josh loves them! We went down to Palacio Babarizza, a pretty art neavou building, once an important families home, now a museum of fine art. We saw a free exhibition, and came out scratching our heads a bit! Then we wandered back through the lanes to find coffee. We accidentally stumbled into a creperie – a very happy accident! We enjoyed a big nutella and strawberry crepe and then continued the search for a coffee. We ended up back at café Pelegrino – right opposite our hostel. Then we went up to our room and did some booking and reservations. This always takes a little while, looking at all the options, working out the cheapest and most efficient way of doing something, and working out how that then will affect the next plans. We got a bit further than we had this morning so made progress! We made dinner in the hostel, rice, banana and poached eggs – a classic Cuban dish, so simple and tasty! We went back up to our room and relaxed, showered and read.