And lo, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Paradise

My favourite way to start the day, up bright and early (ish) and off to the bus station. Well, I say THE bus station, Santiago has four of the damned things, but I had at least worked out in advance which one I needed (Pajaritos) to get to Valparaiso. Whilst waiting for all of 10 minutes or so there, I got chatting to an American girl called Mollie, who had also been in Bellavista hostel (though we'd never actually talked there or anything) and it turned out was going to the same hostel as me, Luna Sonrisa ("smiling moon" - means something like crescent moon) in Valpo - for the sake of my poor typing fingers, I'm afraid I'm going to be using a local abbreviation for a name again, whereby Valparaiso (Valley of Paradise, literally) becomes Valpo. There being two of us, and Valpo being composed largely of hills, we agreed taking a cab was a good plan, and thus made our way speedily rather than sweatily or stressfully to our hostel.

Having been checked in by Nadja, another German-speaker (though actually Swiss) working in a hostel and on her first day (deja vu, anyone?), we headed off to find a cafe for some late lunch, and made our way to El Desayunador, which translates literally to "the breakfaster" such that, to be honest, I definitely prefer the Spanish version. There we were awed to have found a place which actually had proper brown bread, a thing most rare in much of South America. After our feeding, we split up, as Mollie wanted to go to one of Pablo Neruda's houses, whilst I needed to sort a few things on the internet (llike my hostel in Mendoza) and then wanted to explore a bit more around town.

Luna Sonrisa is on Cerro Alegre which, along with Cerro Conçepcion, is one of the most popular areas for visitors to Valpo, being both within easy striking distance of the centre and far enough removed to keep at some remove from any of the noisier antics down near Chile's busist port. I wandered down to several of the lookouts from the hills down over the city (many of them, unfortunately, obscured somewhat by ugly high-rise buildings), and then went down into the city itself. After a bit of drifting, I discovered a large local supermarket, where I decided to stock up on a few supplies and make another of my occasional curries that evening, to the accompaniment of the Chilean equivalent of goon, the ubiquitous cask-wine so familiar to backpackers in Australia, though I have to say I think the Chilean stuff is somewhat better quality, and at about GBP2.50 for a couple of litres, exceedingly good value. Thus laden with shopping, I made my first use of Valpo's ascensores, the Victorian/Edwardian-era funicular railways and elevators, many of them still using totally original machinery, which ease passage up some of the 40-odd hills on which Valpo is built.

Having done my usual thing and got rather too much food for me alone, I invited Millie and Nadja to join me in my curry-fest that evening, and we were also joined by a lad from my room, Pete, who had been happily and soundly asleep at 2pm when we arrived but had now surfaced to face the day. After feeding, Pete, Mollie and I headed down the hill again a wee bit for a drink at a local bar, but made it back to the hostel for around midnight-ish, ahead of the trip we had planned the next day, to Chile's "premier beach resort", Viña del Mar.