Valparaiso
Pete Writes: JETLAG… ARGHHHHH!!
After an 11 hour flight to Chile (which is living up to its name, its Cold!), but going back in time 15 hours our body clocks have been thrown into complete chaos, we have been going to sleep at 5am and getting up at 2pm, and it is starting to get a little tiring!! Especially when hunger kicks in at 2am :o(
We arrived in Chile to discover that English is not a widely spoken launguage :o( So instead of using pigeon Spanish we decided our first mission would be to enrol into a Spanish school and try and learn the lingo! So we are due to start school in Santiago next week and use our brains again?¿!
With jetlagged heads and the little Spanish we know we decided to get out of Santiago and head towards the coast. We spent an afternoon wandering the streets of Valparaiso, where all of the houses are a multitued of colours set into a hill towering over the busy port. There is also alot of talented artists around that have left their work on the walls for everyone to see!
Chloe Writes: Well after 3 months of having our own transport and living space, it feels suprisingly good to get back on the road with our walking shoes on our feet and our back packs on our backs (although i had to upsize slighly and buy a new one).
What we have seen of Chile so far has been a really pleasent experience. The place has so much charácter, the buildings an old European feel and the people have a really warm sense of humour. The lack of English spoken was a bit of a supprise to be honest and I now know what it is like to be spoken to in a slow and repetative (even slightly patronizing) kind of way and to stare back with a gormlas, clueless, unknowing look on your face. Hopefully we will change all that with a couple of weeks of lessons, were already starting to get by in certain situations. “Dos vasos de vino, por favor”.
Like Pete said it´s slightly Chilly in Chile and the lack of heating anywhere does mean weve had to layer up somewhat. The casseroles and bean stews have been a god send and an escape from the unfortunate (in my eyes anyway) staple diet of hot dogs with tonnes of mayo and guacamole, pizza and huge plates of chips with lots of fried stuff on top. The advocados are top quality though and at the moment pleantyful (sold on every street corner), not to mention the amazingly rich and cheap chillean cabernet´s (we had one the other night wearing an Asda label, probably left behind on the export, but only cost us a pound).
We are saying our good bye´s to Chile, but only for the week, as we are heading to Argentina tomorrow, but will be back in Santiago for school next Monday.
NB: sorry for the bad spelling but the spell checker is in spanish and neither of us can spell 
Page Gallery
Well you´ve got to park it somewhere!
A cute little restaurant
A typical looking house in Valparaiso
Mines the yellow one…you can´t miss it!
An old looking bus
Some of the amazing graffiti in Valparaiso
We thought this looked like Harry Potter after a good meal!
We saw different images in this one though
Mad hair
Mad cat
Green face
Flower
Lots of eyes on the door to the restaurant
Tree in house
Rusty car
Kids perform to the traffic awaiting the lights
Tags: Chile
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Hola u2,
Amazing graffiti and can I see that you have HAIR Pete. I didn’t recognise you thought Chloe had strayed with a Chillian.
Looking forward to the pics of Argentina!
Keep warm. At last it’s HOT here in the UK….hope it lasts.
Have fun
Loads of love Mx
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:12 am
Looks like Banksy has visited Argentina!
July 25th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hola Mum E!,
Pete does have a lot of hair now for the first time in 8 years!
Argentina is fatastic so far but were heading back to chile in a day or two. Will tell you all about it when do the blog.
Am jealous of the hot weather, its cold here but will be freezing when we head down south!!
Anyway, lots of love x
July 25th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Mum and Dad,
I did not realise you were up to date with Graffiti artists!
Is there something your not telling us?
Pete x
July 26th, 2008 at 9:27 am
If you look at the blog can you phone Dad my e-mail not working.