Valparaiso and Vina del Mar

Leaving Patagonia behind, but with Patagonia not leaving our memories for anytime soon, we returned to Santiago and immediately caught the evening bus to Valparaiso, a bohemian town home to art, poetry and stunning alleys and funicular trams running up and down sheer cliffs and steep hills, offering respite from the thousands of steps to be climbed when navigating this coastal Chilean city.

Some of our highlights (so we can catch up with where we are now)

We travelled on the funicular tram network, walked from Valparaiso to Vina Del Mar. Encountered a baby elephant seal stealing fish from the fish mongers at the coastal Valparaiso fish market. We discovered one of the only Moai, large Easter Island statues outside a museum in Vina del Mar.

We returned to Santiago from the coastal delights of the two “V” cities and immediately caught a plane to Calama, a city in the Atacama desert, in the north of Chile.