Valparaiso on Chile's west coast, part 1.

Okay, so last time I was posting I was in Valparaiso, Chile.

This was a really interesting place. Bearing in mind that I haven't been to Europe yet, this looked a lot like what I've seen portrayed of of old European places on the web, TV and films. I think that's probably because in the US if it's run down it looks one way, there... another. Yeah, I know that tells you nothing. It reminded me of the French Quarter draped over San Francisco. Whatever.

I ended up renting a car and driving over, something I planned on NOT doing, but it was okay. I ended up driving a Kia "Morning", and if it was an automatic I'd probably be dead. Honestly, if a car has a manual transmission you can at least goose it and get it to move. This would become critical in the tiny twisting and very busy streets on the sides of the hills of Valparaiso.

 Driving out of Santiago I again got the feeling of being in the North American west. It's flat but surrounded by arid hills and mountains and very, very brown. Valpariso is only about 1-1/2 hours west and fairly uneventful. A lot of big buses, fast Audis and more little cars like mine. As I recall there were two 2600 (pesos? dolares?) in tolls on the way out and I think they were 1700 each on the way back in.

Once you get into Valparaiso it's pretty much like the center of many other South American cities. It's wall to wall people, cars, motorcycles, buses, dogs, cats and people selling things. Google maps on the phone was NOT any help as far as navigation, though the GPS still showed the roads and my general location. A word of warning though, and I had heard this from another traveler in an online forum and can testify that sometimes Google will try to route you up stairs intended for pedestrians. You have been warned.

The short story is that I was able to figure how to get to my hotel by connecting my location to where the hotel was on the map. The end.

Actually the real story is this...




...and this;

... and the fact that many of the roads are one way, twice as wide as my car and I got to share it with people that parked in both directions on one side and oncoming traffic. You know, I hear a lot about Europeans and Americans taking motorcycles across South America and puffing up their chests like it means something. Real men drive in town in cars. I will vigorously debate this with anyone.

Anyhow, I really liked my first hotel, The Ultramar. Their stated price was more than what Tripadvisor had me expecting, but I was able to negotiate to something below that. And like I said, it was really great. It's high on a hill and has a great view of the city and bay. I was given a cold beer and shown my room. Talk about civilized! Ultramar was good for me because they had parking, but the view, the breakfasts and the overall mellow nature of the place made it a favorite stop for me. The guy who worked the desk while I was there, Jose, spoke excellent English and was an absolute pleasure to have as a contact for the hotel. He was super helpful and was a great face to the hotel.

In the area I was in there were boatloads of murals on the walls outside of apartment buildings and homes. These are a couple of the more compelling that I saw. When I get home I'll put the rest of the pictures somewhere and link to them. There were some really good ones.

I also made a friend. 

Another city loaded with cats and dogs, though there were a lot more dogs here and many of them were big. They're fairly ubiquitous, almost like another class of citizens. People leave water out for them, and food so it's kind of cool. Neither group seems to hassle each other and the dogs are bright enough to stay out of traffic or be nuisances. There's a street smartness that the dogs and cats seem to have that I'm sure has a dark side, but I never saw it.

Next stop, Vina del Mar.