Bits of Buenos Aires, Santiago, Valparaiso and Concon

The boy and I arrived in Valparaiso after a crazy week in Buenos Aires and a few days in Santiago. Buenos Aires consisted in me dragging the boy around to show him all the sites, boozy nights with old and new friends, and a rowdy world cup football game where we were seated with the locals in a barb wired section (thank god Argentina won). Santiago was quite interesting, we stayed in a Barro called Bellavista which was full of bohemian cafes, restaurants and galleries.

After a few days exploring we jumped on a bus and headed to the coast, to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a combination of a slightly grungy city port and steep hills covered in art. Valparaiso´s houses paint the landscape in bursts of colour which are connected by funiculars. The graffiti is pure artwork, ensuring the long-standing reputation of Valparaiso as artists´ coven continues on. We stayed in the midst of the colour, a top Cerro Conception. The surrounding streets twisted into connecting alleyways, murals that carry on from wall to wall which each bend and dip, whispering the cities stories to those who listen closely enough. Loveable street dogs roam Valparaiso, joining tours, chasing cars, getting kicked out of shops and funiculars, begging for a bite of an empanada, and making friends (or enemies in the case of one particularly boisterous pup called Wolvering, due to his ability to withstand multiple car hits). Afters making friends we found ourselves at the Chilean food and wine festival which was rather fancy for us backpackers but was enormous fun nonetheless, especially in part to the copious amounts of Chilean and Argentinean wine. 

To carry on this luxurious lie of a life we headed to the coast to Concon for the boys birthday. Concon is a tiny little town on the seaside and I was once again so happy to be next to the ocean again. We ate ridiculous seafood and rested our weary heads in an incredible boutique hotel where our room opened up onto the ocean. Pure bliss.