Santiago and Valparaíso - Chile
Colourful, cold and mountains.

Although not the introduction we had planned to Chile, we had an excellent first day. A very early pickup from the hostel at 6:30 was not so pleasant but so worth it. We were headed to Cajón del Maipo, a canyon which houses little villages, volcanoes and El Yeso dam. The journey through the canyon was incredible, surrounded by mountains many covered in snow, our guide taught us about the different types of rocks we could see and all about the reason for El Yeso dam. When arriving and seeing the water reserve it looked fake, the water was cyrystal clear and so still. The pictures don’t do justice to just how blue the water was. It was also hard to believe that from 30 degrees to snow in such a short distance. This meant that we had probably the coldest picnic either of us have ever had.
Our second day we took a walking tour of the city, this was our best hope of seeing as much as possible in the very little time we had in the city. Luckily the tour ended at the base of Cerro San Cristobal, something we’d wanted to see but didn’t think we’d have enough time to. We both really liked the city visually, it was both modern and green. To our surprise, no San Martín mentioned here!! The highlight was however without doubt getting the funicular to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, and getting incredible 360 degree views of the huge city. It wasn’t until then did we’d actually realise just how big Santiago was. In the evening we got the bus down to Valparaíso, this was quick and easy. Within minutes of arriving we could feel a totally different vibe and see how different the two cities are.
Walking down to the walking tour meeting point we passed many colourful and graffitied buildings. It turns out the stairs to our hostel are quiet the tourist attraction however we couldn’t see why it was just some painted stairs with some song lyrics on, though probably would of understood more if we knew the song. The first tour we did was a walking tour through the parts of Valparaíso we might not of seen by ourselves. This meant we took a bus up to the hills, not only did this give us the benefit of seeing parts of the city that we wouldn’t of seen on our own but also gave us countless spectacular views of the city. At the end of the tour there was a surprise which was a drink, now this was a very strange drink that students apparently drink when they don’t like red wine or that’s all that’s left but are slowing down, it was  combination of red wine and coke. It tasted as weird as you would think but was not a bad taste I must say. Once the tour had finished we had enough time to go back to the hostel and have some empanadas for lunch before heading out again for another, yep you guesed it, free walking tour. This one was some more of the popular sights that we probably would of seen anyways but was nice to be guided around the city and learn more about its history. Sadly however we are writing this a few days after doing it and we can’t seem to remember much of the details but they are not that important anyways. Later that night we sorted out all our bags as in the morning we were flying to San Pedro de Atacama the driest desert in the world where it hasn’t rained for 125 years.