We had hoped that the first night in a hotel with the bed not moving might encourage a good night’s sleep except that it did not work out that way.
After the very poor dinner the night before we were ready for bed and although we are not far from the main town this place is so quiet you can hear a pin drop or a dog bark. The lack of air conditioning was not so much a problem but the lack of noise was, and with the occasional dogs having a midnight chat all was deathly quiet to the point that we could not sleep as we are not used to such quiet times.
At about 0200 hrsin the morning. there was a minor earthquake which Jennifer slept through, it did not last long, I guess about 5/10 seconds but had it lasted longer then I would have woken Jen and then get out of the building but in the end this was not necessary. The building was shaking and making worrying noises So not a great night’s sleep.
In the morning after a late breakfast Jennifer read her book on the balcony with the great view and Noel did photos, email and made taxi arrangements for later in the trip as there is nothing worse than arriving at an unknown airport and looking for a taxi.
In the early afternoon we headed down town, which was a little difficult as there are major, and I mean major, road works taking place all over the area where we are staying and the roads are either complete but mostly big holes and lots of earth with the occasional road partly finished with well laid stones waiting for the concrete.
To get down to town we took a funicular which had been built in Valparaiso in 1886, so a little old, and still going strong apart from the holes in the floor and a shaky ride all for 50 pence each way.We had a lunch in a small café bar and then walked for several hours around the old town looking at the food shops and a market area selling meats and vegetables and then ended up late in the afternoon at a tea house where we had a nice cup of Whittards English breakfast LEAF tea, excellent.
As usual there are dogs lying all ovcer the place and mostly fast asleep, a little bit like the cows in India which hacve the run of the place
Walking back uphill again after another ride on the funicular was hard work on unfinished roads but we expect in another year the finished and to be excellent. Very few cars frequent this area as roads are too narrow and steep and so after a lot of panting and high heart beats we made it back to the Hotel and collapsed on the bed to recover.
For dinner we took the easy route and walked about 200 yards through upturned roads to a Pizza place which was very good and two pizzas with some nice Chilean Merlot went down a treat. We met a couple of Americans in the restaurant and chatted to them for a while, he had lived in Santiago for a time some years ago and does not like the place, oh well let’s see.
