There was no time or need to have breakfast, as I have to work up a hunger anyway in the mornings.
My usual approach to see a place is to just wander around the place and try to find nice spots. This is particularly true in Valparaiso. It is great to just stroll through the streets, up and down the numerous stairs and use one or two of the elevators (Los Ascensores de Valparaiso), for just a few pesos that are built into the hill sides to bring you up or down the many hills of this city.
They are in their own their own landmark and very interesting.
It is really, just about soaking up the atmoshere of the colourful, artisan town. Every corner has a new mural or surprise to show you. There are hundreds of little cafe shops or bars nestled in the hillsides.
However, this lovely sounding town also has some dangers, as there are areas where you shouldn't wander by yourself (Claus Eder, they guy that cycled from California down here, whom I met in Panama will be mugged with a gun here in October 2015 - you can see I am quite a bit behind on my blog as this is begin written on November 8th 2015).
Luckily this didn't happen to me throughout the entire trip.
So all in all this place is great, it is full of contrasts, lovely murals and paintings, friendly stray dogs and cozy bars on the one hand and then, very rough, poor neighbourhoods, soulless suburbia and tough sailors around the harbour on the other hand.
Contrasts are good, as long as you don't get impacted by the negative parts too much.
Enough thoughtful details, back to my day in Valparaiso.
I spent probably 3 or 4 hours just walking around, up and down the hills, trying to get lost in the somewhat touristy areas of Valparaiso to work up a good appetite. And what else is better to fight of an appetite in a port town on the Chilean Pacific coast than a Lomit? Right, Nothing is better, and I didn't have to wander far to find a good place. Inside it looked a bit like a 1950s US diner with neon sings and chrome, but it was every down to earth, with big bellied chefs that brought me a huge lomit and a ice cold bottle of coke. Perfect recuperation.
It's very nice to stumble upon these little places that must be some sort of local favourites, being busy with shoppers that take a break in an inexpensive but good place from their Saturday shopping trips, and friends that just want to meet up for a coffee or a beer.
I stayed a little longer after I had finished my Lomit to read through the wikitravel article of Valpariso to see what I was still missing.
This town is also the headquarter of the Chilean Navy and their headquarter was near the harbour, which I wanted to visit anyways. So I set out to walk around some of the hills towards the harbour. On the way there I took a couple of more Ascensores and passed by a Firebrigade building. Through the glass in the garage gate I could see the firetruck, which had "Feuerwehr" written on it.
This was right on the square in front of the Navy headquarter and not far from the Harbour.
At the harbour quays I spent some time just watching the hustle and bustle of loading and unloading the large ships. It caused some sort of wanderlust in me, wanting to take one of these ships to somewhere and sort of made me wonder how it would have been to make a pacific on one of those. I am sure I am making out this thought much more romantic than it is but it would have been an adventure for sure. Maybe I can do this some other time. - Funny anyway, being at the end of the world in Chile and longing to stray even further.
After some time I decided to slowly head back to the hostel and passed by the fire brigade a gain. Interested in why they had this Feuerwehr Truck I walked around the corner and found out that it was a sort of Feuerwehr Museum, but also an active Fire station.
I got talking to the chief fireman on duty and he explained me that it were German settlers back in the 1800s who founded the first fire station in Chile here in Santiago. Over the years there were plenty of big fires and the fire stations became very important in the lives of the people of Valparaiso.
The Fire brigade in Chile is mainly run by volunteers and the support they are getting from the government is barley enough to keep the trucks running. In recent times potential young firemen are preferring to move away to Santiago to make some money in the big city. I told him about my time in the THW (Agency for technical relief) in Germany and he mentioned that they are sometimes travelling to Germany for some events to keep their ties alive.
Also interesting is that some of the commands that they are shouting to each other during an incident are still German words.
It was really cool to get to talk to a local about these things. I haven't always been able to do this on my trip and often stuck to the tourist path but sometimes, like here I am able to get some local experience, which is great. There were two active fire trucks and an old American Ford truck from the 1940s.
In the end the Chief even opened the garage gate so that I could take a picture with both trucks.
Now it was definitely time to get back to the hostel and grab my bags.
I took a little mini bus to the bus terminal this time, which seems to be much easier than the train. These mini buses have a predefined route and I wasn't sure which one was the right one but somehow it all worked out and I found one that was going the right direction and just needed to shout when we were close to the bus terminal.
I didn't have a ticket and just walked up to a counter and asked for a seat on a bus to Santiago. This place seems to be well connected and I could walk straight onto one of the many buses of different competing companies and soon we were on our way to the capital again.
I slept most of the trip... It has been a busy couple of weeks and my thoughts were already on the beach in Mexico where I planned to relax for a few days.
When I arrived at the Central bus station Universidad de Santiago it tried to get into contact with Matias, so we could meet up somewhere as I was going to stay at his place for the last two nights.
Unfortunately I couldn't get any wifi connection working that was around the terminal, so I decided, to just head into the general direction and hope to find some internet over closer to th place where we wanted to meet - Metro Station Hernando de Magellanes.
I got there pretty quick on the metro but there was no wifi around. I spotted a Burger King a bit down the road and thought, surely this place has free wifi. No it didn't, but fortunately there was Chris, a nice Chilean who would share his 3G with me - for which I had to ask in spanish.
So I was able to contact Matias and he came around and picked me up.
At his place we had some food and got ready for a party later that evening. We headed to the supermarket and got some beer and Pisco (they only way to prepare for a proper Chilean Party). It turned out that this party was at his relatives house and that his parents were going to come as well.
It was a a great, fancy apartment in an expensive neighbourhood with a view over the city. A few more cousins and friends our age came around and while we wer chillin' on the couch the older generation was sitting on the balcony. It was very nice and I was glad it was a relaxed party.
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