Valparaiso and couch surfing

We arrived in Valaparaiso as sun was setting on Thursday night, to see the lights twinkling on the 20 or more hills that sit in a bowl around a port area. We promise you you have never seen anything like this, a truly unique city.

After an "interesting" short taxi ride (who'd have thought you could do a hairpin bend, going up a 45 degree slope, while in 3rd gear), we arrived on the narrow street where our couch surfing hosts, Celiane and Fabian live.

But what is couch surfing? No Simon, it is not the lowest form of swinging. It is a way to meet locals as you travel and enjoy seeing a place from their point of view. www.couchsurfing.org for more info.

Within an hour of arriving we were tucking into a hot meal, a glass of wine and having a complicated but fun 3 language conversation in French, Spanish and English with Celiane, Fabian and Celiane's uncle.

Yesterday Fabian showed us round his city. It is hillier than Bristol. Much hillier. So hilly in fact, they have a series of very old lifts to take you up them. Which were all shut yesterday. Our legs hurt. Fabian said the local obesity is quite amusing as no-one can put weight on their lower halves leading to a lot of top heavy poeple (not in a good Page 3 way. Note - this is Martin's comment!!)

Valparaiso (or Valpo) is described in guidebooks as having a "faded charm" ie it is run down and dirtier than anywhere else we have been, with lots of street art / grafitti, the mangiest dogs yet spotted in South America, a compliment of cats living off all the fish from the markets, and chaotic traffic. But... it is great. It's lively, beautiful, loads of hidden gems, and surprisingly friendly for a big city.

We spent yesteday taking in the different scenes, with Fabian taking us to fantastic view points. We had lunch at the local fish market, where there are quite a few restaurants, cats, kittens, and people playing football with dogs. Then in the evening they took us to their favourite restaurant in a very well known barrio, with lots of brightly coloured houses clinging to the edge of hills.

Today was market day. So much fruit and veg. So many colours. Such great prices. Great fun, great atmosphere.

Errr... we kind of caused the loo to flood (clean water not dirty) so have just spent a bit of time mopping the floor of the three storey house we are in... all part of the fun...fortunately our hosts are out and it's very warm, so we expect everything to dry nicely. If they ask any questions, we'll say we mopped the floor out of gratitude...