I love, Valparaíso, how you enclose and how you shine, girlfriend of the ocean…
Pablo Neruda
Hi guys,
as Felix just told you, we were in Valparaíso, Chile’s most colourful city. After a stressful week in Santiago, we were so excited to have some time out in Valparaíso and we weren’t disappointed.
Our first impression was our beautiful hostel. It was situated at Cerro Concepción, one of the main hills of Valparaiso. But not only the location was perfect also the interior of the hostel was charming. There is a big kitchen with a lot of space to cook some fresh and healthy food by yourself. Furthermore, there are 9 bathrooms with a WC and a shower, in the hostel Casa Volante Hostal. Our room was small but very cute and very cheap – 30€ for two people in a private double room.
We spend our time very chilled – walking throw Cerro Concepción and Cerro Alegre, drinking coffee, exploring the harbour, and using one of the old funiculars.
When we’re back from Chile there will be a blog post about all the good and not so good cafes and restaurants we’ve visited.
After visiting Valparaiso, it was the 18th of September, the national day of Chile, as you might guess, the main food was meat. So for me, as a vegan, it wasn’t that easy to find something to eat.
The consumption of meat makes me really sad and furious – I can’t understand how a society can eat so much meat without questioning neither the origin nor the consequences of their consumption. The meat they ate was imported from the U.S. – 3,70€ for one kilo – at the same time they export meat to Europe and then humanity is wondering about climate change…
Well, apart from the barbecues they invite family and friends to listen to music, talk, dance and play games. Another Chilean tradition is the so-called fondas. It’s festivities organised by the communes where you find food, drinks, games and dance.
We went to Parque Padre Hurtado were they do the „semana de la chilenidad“ (englisch: chilean week). There you can’t only find the normal fonda things but also shows. The one we saw was from “Escuadra Ecuestre Palmas de Peñaflor”. They made their horses dance cueca, the Chilean national dance, and did performances with their horses and other dance groups, for example from the Easter Island or the northern part of Chile. It was a very exciting show!
Our last days in Chile we spend in Santiago. We rented a room in Santiagos most beautiful cafe, Wonderland Café, and explored the city.
You’ll hear again from us when we’re back in Germany next week.
Until then – xoxo,
Fiana