Coastal days: Valparaiso and around

On Wednesday we got into 'Valpo' earlier than we expected and rougher than we had hoped. The bus from Pucon had been far too warm and it was just not an ideal sleeping environment (again with the randoms getting on and off). Thankfully we were booked into a hotel and they let us check in straight away, and we had a nap. In the afternoon we went on the tours 4 tips walk because we didn't feel like doing much and everyone says said how great they are. It was good, in that we got some knowledge of the area and we got tips about where to eat.
But it was more of a history tour than a tour of the sights, which is sort of what we were thinking of. You also get a free caramel filled biscuit and a taste of chechon (no idea how to spell it). We had wanted to do the grafitti tour that is for tips as well, but it was booked out unfortunately. Our English friends said it was really good though. We got our hotel to ring Austral Divers in Quitay for us to organise our diving with them and had a massive feed of sushi for dinner at Morisushi. It was nice for a change but rather flavourless other than the cheese, which they put in every single one so they all tasted the same.

Valparaiso's colourful houses

The next morning we had a huge sleep in before deciding to try and make our own graffiti tour. By the way Valpo is filled with graffiti and murals,  it's one of the major draw cards to the area. That and how colourful the houses are, this is because the people just used left over paint from shipbuilders to paint their houses, so some are multiple bright colours. We walked to the north end of town and went up the vertical elevator, there are a number of feniculars around Valpo but just the one that is actually an elevator, it has spectacular views from the top. We wandered around for w little before we decided we had no idea what we were doing and walked down the hill, viewing graffiti on the way. We then walked all the way to the south of town to get some highly recommended carrot cake, only to discover they didn't have any. We headed back to the hotel for a well deserved rest before a nice dinner with the English people, and a farewell as they were going on to Argentina the next day.

A bit of Gogh graffiti that I thought was clever

Friday was our day for diving! We walked to Aveneda Argentina and got a colectivo taxi to Quintay. Which is basically a cheap taxi that waits until it's full to leave. There seemed to be three dive shops in Quintay but the one we had organised our dive through was the only one with anything happening at it. The equipment was all in very good condition too, probably the best stuff we've used, including in Australia. Quintay is a very small fishing village and it was a nice change from the congested streets of Valpo. We all had to help pull the boat in over wooden poles and then they took us not too far out into the bay. We went down near a broken up wreck and had a chilly swim through kelp and around the wreck. We saw a fair bit of sea life, all different from what we have seen before. Our dive leader, who was actually leading our dive as part of his dive master course, passed us a star fish. It was pretty cool, it had all these little suckers on the bottom and it made it feel like velcro. We went back to shore to refill and then set out for the second dive. Unfortunately my left ear wouldn't cooperate and I had to go back up while Brandon finished the dive. It was at another wreck which was more whole and they swam through it.

Whale skeleton!

When we were finished we had some food and then walked along the shore to kill some time because buses only go between Valpo and Quintay about every 3 hours. There was some kind of museum surrounding the lookout area we wanted to go to and so we paid the small fee and went in. We then promptly stumbled into what seemed to be a university research area. Before we got shooed out we took some pictures with a cool whale skeleton, it's the first time I've seen a whale skull. From what we could tell from the museum, it seemed the used to hunt blue whales here, crazy.

The sand dunes near Concon

On Saturday we had to try and find a bus up the coast to Concon to catch up with Carson for the day. We only had a vague idea of where to get the bus from but a nice man we asked on the street walked us right to it. When we got to where we thought Concon was we got off, then we had to walk an hour to where the beach actually was... it ended up being a chilly day and since Brandon hadn't brought a jumper and the ocean is ridiculously cold, we didn't go surfing with Carson and his friends. Instead, we had a very average lunch and an expensive coffee. After the others were finished we went to the sand dunes that are between Concon and Valpo. Then back to Valpo for a very average dinner, seriously mine was so flavourless!!
And that's pretty much it for Valpo. I can't believe how close we are to coming home, but I can't wait for a tasty home cooked meal!! I'm already dreaming of what we will make (eat), including cake. Lots of cake...