Valpo.

my mother informed me that i need to keep this updated... so here we go!

The Past 3 days in Valparaiso have been wonderful! Valpo is such a beautiful city, it is north of Santiago and its right on a bay. i really don't know how to describe the city, its a built on a bunch of different hills. Homes, Business and restaurants are all intermixed and are seriously on top of one another. To get up and down the hills there are TONS of steps. My Hostel is in Cerro Bellavista, and to get down to the city center you walk down at least 500 steps... going down is no problem. its the walk back up the steps that is a killer, especially after a day of walking all over the city.

The city is covered in really amazing graffiti and every building is is painted in bright different colors. something really cool, is there are several "ascendors" which are the like one roomed mini houses that are on a pulley system are bring you up a hill so you don't have to walk. of course we tested them out. you pay 300 pesos for a ride one way ( which is about USD 60 cents). the best way i can describe the ascendors is to compare them to the basket ride at the Santa Cruz beach board walk... only instead of going across the boardwalk you are going up a hill in a little house haha.

this is my first experience staying in a hostel, and we could have not picked a better one! we are staying at Hostal Caracol and the owners/staff are so awesome as well as the other travelers staying here! we have met a couple from Ireland who have been in South America for 5 months.. first teaching english in Peru and are now just traveling around Chile, argentina, peru and Uruguay. We have also met a brother and sister from France who are traveling all over the world! they first started their trip in South Africa, then Australia then the US and are now traveling all over South America. Their stories are SO amazing... it makes me so jealous, i have to have stories of my own!!!! i soon will!

Yesterday we explored the city and went to the very end of Valpo, took our first ascendor ride to a look out point call 21 de mayo. This spot is like the highest point in Valpo and gives you a full panoramic view of the entire city, thats where i got most of my best photos! (like the one below).

Nicole has a friend of a friend who is a Chilean who lives in Valparaiso, so last night we met up with her and group of her friends and went out. this was my first bar experience so it was pretty exciting, and it was the first time that i was really able to interact with chileans. it was so fun!!!! i ordered my first drink... yay for being legal before 21. but they didn't even ask for my ID so i couldn't whip it my license and be all cool. The chileans we were with were super nice and two of them were actually americans who were studying abroad so it was really fun to talk to them about their experiences.

I am really struggling with spanish.. i guess my 3 years in high school have not stuck with me. It was difficult to talk to the guys we were with, but the language barrier was actually really entertaining. Their english was as about as good as my spanish hahaha, it was really fun to say the least!

Today we went to Pablo Neruda's house. Nablo Neruda is a very famous Chilean poet and one of his houses is in Valparaiso. his house was amazing! it is 5 stories and it is at the top of Cerro Bellavista (same hill as my hostel so it was a quick walk up) and the view is amazing!!! all the hallways and staircases within the house are super narrow but there was SO much character in the house. we took a tour and as we were leaving a giant american tour group walked in... and guess what? They were a group of UC Davis students. it was crazy. Noey knew one of the girls and thats how we figured out they were Aggies... seriously what are the odds?!?!! the group is on a summer abroad program in Santiago and they came to Valparaiso and Vina for the day. its just super crazy that we ran into them. as we were leaving the 3 of us were just in total shock that that just happened.

Tomorrow, we are going to Vina del Mar which is a beach town neighboring Valpo. I get to finally meet two of Lindsey's host sisters who live in Conce! I am so excited to meet them!!!

All is well and I am having such a great time!!!