Valparaiso

It’s New Year’s Eve. We land back in Santiago about 11am. We are headed to a town called Valparaiso about 90 minutes outside Santiago. We head to the bus terminal and are told they are sold out of tickets to Valparaiso. We proceed to meet a man that speaks little English and has “transport” to Valparaiso. We are not sure if this is a car with his family or an actual bus. Luckily it ends up being a small bus with a bunch of locals. The driver was acting like he was paid by the minute swerving in and out with not a care in the world. Also the town is normally a population of two hundred thousand but on New Years swells to two million. There are normally only two lanes that go to Valparaiso but on New Years they shut down the other side of the highway and have four lanes. We eventually arrive at a town called Vina del Mar where half the bus gets off. The other half of the bus proceeds to think the driver is taking us all the way to Valparaiso and starts to yell when he tells us this is the last stop (all in Spanish of course). Eventually after a debate the driver wins and everyone must get off the bus. We then follow a crowd to a subway we must now catch. After an hour detour we eventually arrive at city center Valparaiso. Valparaiso is what I think an Italian seaside would be. A very hilly city with tons of stairs and beautiful scenery. We head out to find our accommodations. We met a nice security guard and Katherine pulled a “I am going to act like I know Spanish moment.” He points and speak and points and speaks and Katherine nods in complete agreement. Then we head around a hill and up what seemed like a thousand stairs. We then learn we climbed the wrong hill. We then go back down the hill and up another hill. This is Chris sweaty and out of breath…

What feels like two thousand stairs later we find our room.

Stairs

More stairs

Few more

People selling beer in the street

At this point we are out to find food. After this we continue to walk around. The city is bubbling with atmosphere and everyone getting ready for the new year.

Town of Valparaiso

The crowds starting to gather

There were all kinds of people selling wares in the street

At about 10pm we pick up a couple empanadas and a perfect spot on the hill top to watch the fireworks. We ended up making friends with some locals. It was a great night with a 30 minute firework show. Sorry the camera doesn’t do it justice.

We follow our Chilean friends to a park with music and people partying everywhere. At about 1:30 we are tired and ready to go to bed. We try to say goodbye to our new friends and they tell us it’s early; they plan to stay out all night. We woke up at 6:30am to music and people still parting through the night.

Late night empanada

Chris at midnight with everyone celebrating. By this point we are covered in champagne.

The next day we explored the city and got some great shots from some beautiful spots. Our camera shots do carefully cut out the sleeping people in the parks, the beer bottles and the smell of urine in the streets.

The morning after… Yes, the people in the very back of the picture are still going strong (it is about 10am)

View overlooking the city and coast line

At the end of the day it was sad to call it a trip and start to make the journey home.

On our journey home, we reflect on the year behind and felt so blessed and lucky to do everything we have and have so many wonderful people in our lives. Thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way and made this trip and our life as a whole so wonderful. Cheers to 2016!