Valparaiso: 6th - 10th April 2026
6th April – Monday
I am not sure how I did it but I booked myself into business class for the journey back to Santiago, where I am staying for one night before heading to Valparaiso. I have been getting messages all week from LATAM about premium business class and that my seat was 1D. I double checked yesterday, thinking they may have been scam emails, but they were not. When I got to the airport and stood in the business class lane to check in a woman came over to me, she thought I was in the wrong lane – well I may not look like business class but I certainly am today. In fact it was premium business class, in a cabin with a fully reclining seat/bed, a huge TV and a comfort pact.
The old man sitting in the cabin next to me was so lovely. He lives in Seattle and is departed wife was from Ontario. We had such a lovely conversation about travelling and not stopping just because age is creeping up on you. He ordered us pre flight drinks, he had vodka and I had gin. Then they came around with a menu for lunch, I had the tenderloin and he had pasta. And all the drinks came in glass and we had proper cutlery, not the plastic stuff you get in economy class.
There isn’t really much else to report about the flight. When they did the safety instructions the guy just stood there and didn’t do any of the action. After I mentioned that my unfinished gin had disappeared it was replaced and from then on my glass was never empty. I watched a film and then reclined and had a nap. Pure lush. I am defo booking business class for the journey back to the UK, if I can afford it.
Being business class my luggage came onto the conveyor belt first, with a priority tag on it – lol and to top it all of my Uber driver was such a hotty and we had a good old chat, my Spanglish is getting far better. Once settled into my room I went for a walk, Google maps said there was a burger king near here – total lies thank god as I didn’t really want a shite burger. I found a street stall and got an extremely delicious chicken burger. The lady and the guy were so lovely and we just laughed at my Spanish but we managed. Anyway I am so glad I went there because when I saw her phone I noticed her time was 2 hours ahead of mine. That could have been disastrous, morning, I would have been 2 hours late for my bus! Now I have the right time, a full belly and a delicious savoury taste in my mouth. Life can’t get much better really at this point in time.
7th April – Tuesday
I am now in Valparaiso and I cannot say I am that impressed. The journey here, by coach, was bloody cold, I am so glad I still have my Amazon River trip blanket. The senary wasn’t that much to report on, we went up into the mountains, it was a slow undramatic incline, the mountains were bare but the lowland was green and a lot it was being used as farmland. We passed through a couple of towns, again they were nothing memorable.
Arriving in Valparaiso reminded me a little of Central America, it looked very poor and there were a lot of street markets with people selling goods from blankets on the floor. Valparaiso is on the side of a mountain, shaped a bit like an amphitheatre with the port being the stage, I am glad my hostel is not too far up, as the Uber was climbing I began to get worried, then it descended a little and I felt relief. The hostel is, as the name suggests, an art hostel. It is covered in arty stuff, some of the painting are actually quite nice but some of the stuff, in my opinion, is just rubbish. And the place is so grubby, just because it is an art house does not mean it should be grubby. After being shown around and seeing the state of the shared bathrooms the first thing I did was pull back my bedding and as I suspected it was not good. The Fluff levels were disgusting and I really do believe that a lot of these places do not change the sheets after every guest. One of the pillows smelt of BO, but the other fresh. I politely raised the issue and used my hair as a good excuse, which it actually is, I would be pulling fluff out of my locks for weeks if I hadn’t had the bedding changed. And I am not sleeping in someone else’s BO, thank you. And they were quick to make the change, no questions asked,
which also makes me think they knew they were not fresh. Not the first time this has happened and I am sure it will not be the last.
After that I went for a walk down the hill in the hope of finding the supermarket. I didn’t find it, but I didn’t look that hard. I found the square which had a fabulous second hand and hand made market going on. Lots of old artifacts and plenty of hand knitted jumpers, shawls and hats. I stopped and had a coffee and expensive ham, cheese and mushroom panini before heading back. I am very disappointed, there is some amazing street art, in fact there is tons of it along the street my hostel is on but there is a lot of trashy graffiti on top of it. Like a few people have deliberately defaced it. So it looks really ugly and the area is so grubby and tatty, such a shame. I so enjoyed the street art in Santiago and was looking forward to it here but so far I just feel dirty looking at it. I hope this all changes tomorrow. I am going to go on a free walking tour and hopefully have my feelings changed. But for this evening I am staying in as I have not really felt that good and my stomach has been playing up, I am wondering if the burger I had last night was as well cooked as it should have been, Although she did cook it in front of me and I was not concerned at the time.
8th April – Wednesday
It has been a good day but it has only reinforced my feelings about Valparaiso. Usually, when I arrive somewhere I am quite negative about it, but then the next day everything changes and all I have is positivity. Not here. It was a really cold night, even with two duvets and my red blanket I was still freezing cold, I should have put on socks, but it was too cold to get out of the cold bed. I woke cold and spent all morning trying to warm up, even the hot shower left me feeling cold. And being so cold has only heightened my dislike for this town, I was so looking forward to sunshine and warmth, however ‘despite its Mediterranean latitude due to the Humboldt Current there is cold ocean current flowing north along the coast that brings cold air and fog. Additionally, strong cold winds from the South Pacific and a dense coastal marine layer contribute to lower temperatures, often making it feel colder than inland areas’. Thank you Google AI
I eventually decided that going for a walk may warm me up and I need to see the city as well. I must admit it did work, I actually got hot and had to remove one of my layers, and past 1 pm the sun started to rear it’s beautiful head. However, it was the only beautiful thing I saw today.
I started of in a quirky little cafe with the walls lined with news paper articles and adverts from the 40’s and 50’s and several of the chair backs made from old cast iron bed headrests. The food, a mushroom, cheese and avocado toasted sandwich was to die for and it really did set me up for the rest of the day. From there I continued up the colourful stairs and turned right towards …… unfinished!
Valparaiso is a grimy, dirty, grim mess. So far I really cannot see anything nice about this town. I can see how it was once beautiful but that was many moons ago. I can truly say I don’t recall going anywhere as dirty and covered in as much garfiti as this before and I am quite surprised that it still has it’s UNESCO world heritage status.
9th April – Thursday
The weather has been shit today, but at least I was not cold in bed last night. I stayed in my room until early afternoon in the hope that the sun would break the clouds but it didn’t. So I went for breakfast at the same place as yesterday and had the mushroom, cheese and avocado toasty but this time with a hot chocolate. Yet again I was not disappointed. I also booked my flight from Quito to Cusco, so I am almost booked through to meeting my mum in Lima. I just want to check our itinerary so that I don’t double plan anything, then I can decide on how to work my time between Cusco and getting to Lima on the 3rd – I am so excited.
After eating I did a walk to the mural de los gatos. The first part of the journey to Plaza San Luis was the same as yesterday but from there I went to Plaza El Descando, so I basically went uphill only to go downhill again and then to go up the opposite hill, but via some stairs. I had to access the stairs through a gate at the bottom and by the time I zigzagged to the top I couldn’t tell if the exit gate was open, so I sat and procrastinated for a while and watched a guy come from the bottom, past me and out the exit. I happily followed to find there were a lot of locals playing basket ball on the plaza, so I was not able to get any photos of the street art there, which was disappointing but such is life. I was now just around the corner from the cemetery, which was next on my hit list so I went there. I was now out of town and far from the tourist area. It was quite an eye opener to see how run down the houses really are. It much easier to see their rust and how much they have degraded when they have not been painted or covered in street art and graffiti. It is actually really sad, the higher I climbed the worse the buildings became, rusted corrugated panels, most appear to be made from this, crumbing wood and cracked crumbling concrete. The cemetery was closed so I continued my journey upward and went to the Plaza Bismarck. There a few people just hanging out here and a few street artists were painting a wall outside a shop. They were actually painting over something and I couldn’t make out what they were covering or what they were creating. One thing I will say is the street art is cleaner the further out of town you go, in that it is not defaced with graffiti, it is so much nicer, and a lot of it is really beautiful.
I tried to follow G maps to my final destinations, the cat mural, but it lead me up some dead beat stairs and I was quite concerned I was in a ‘mugging’ area. Anyway a woman opened her door and looked at me in an angry fashion so I asked her the way to the cat mural, she didn’t have a clue what I was talking about but did politely tell me I could not go up any further as there was no exit. So I went back to the plaza and up the other way, and I went up and up and up. My back was hot with sweat, my calves were complaining and I was definitely not were tourists are supposed to go. But I was not giving up and finally found the cat mural, I was so disappointed. I had the impression that it was an area with lots of cat murals, it was one mural which was
overgrown with green moss and on a very run down, dirty crumbling street. This town would be amazing if they pumped some money into it, cleaned up the street art and tidied up the streets. I am finding the fact it is so run down so sad.
I took the quick, and more direct way back down to my room with a stop for a chemical based fruity drink, it was rather delicious but I could not read what was in it, probably nothing too good for me. I’m now laying in bed, drinking red wine. I had to buy a bottle opener, the one at this hostile is broken. I am now debating weather to go down the road to get food or to just go hungry tonight. Not that I am particularly hungry but all that I have had is that toasted sandwich early this afternoon. I think even a packet of crisps would be better than nothing. I should stop being lazy, put my trousers and shoes back on and go out.
10th April – Friday
I cannot find my diary entry for the 10th April even though I do remeber writing it. On this day I went for a walk to the market, I took a route running close to and parallel to the coast. I passed lots of market areas, many with blankets on the floor on which the goods were displayed. I bought a new bum bag as the day before the strap broke on my old one. This walk was very different from the areas I had previously been. There was very little street art, a university and very much everyday local life was happening around me. The market sold mainly fruit and veg and was very similar to many of the other markets I have been to out here, but the fruit did look and smell amazing. On the way back I bought a few vital bits and stood watching a couple of street musicians for a while, one of whom have about 6 different sized pan pipes which he kept alternating between.
