Open Skies

Morning brought a rather abbreviated goodbye to Mollie who, despite our entreaties to also head over to Mendoza and keep our little band of musketeers intact, was heading down south through Chile for a while. After goodbyes and breakfast, I caught up on a bit more internet time on Pete's laptop and read for a while, before we headed into town to get him a ticket to Mendoza the next day (I had already got mine the day I arrived). On the way there, we had a nice set-lunch deal at a little bar-restaurant called Palta's, and afterwards we headed up to Cerro Bellavista, to see the Museo de Cielo Abierto.

Now, Valpo is known as the artistic capital of Chile, and quite a bit of this is visible around town in the form of street art - some of this graffiti is spectacular, and some of it is the usual mindless vandalism that comes to the fore when certain people get their hands on a spray-can, and some of it, in the form of the "Open Air Museum" is done by recognised artists on a trail around one of the more central hills. To be honest, by the time Pete and I had finished the trail around the hill, we were both of the opinion that much of the amateur stuff is better than the stuff done by these professionals.

Still having some time left that afternoon, we headed over to Cerro Artilleria which, as the name might suggest, has something of a military connection, being home to what was once a military college and is now the Naval Museum. Unfortunately, we were a bit too late to see around the museum, but we could still enjoy some of the best views we'd had out over Valpo, as the haze and mist which had blighted much of our time there had now cleared off somewhat. For our evening meal we paid another visit to Mastodonte, where I had chicken in a pepper sauce and Pete broke the habit of a lifetime by getting fish and finding he actually quite liked it, then we went back to the hostel where we sat around in the yard chatting to Nadja and 2 French ladies, Sylvaine and Clemence.