Hello again Chile, goodbye South America!

Day 84 - 27th February

We left Mendoza in the morning and caught the bus to Santiago. The scenery we passed through was spectacular as we crossed the Andes for the last time. We went through dry rugged mountains reminiscent of Bolivia, followed by high granite peaks that reminded us of Peru. The bus was scheduled to take 8 hours but that failed to take account of the craziness of Chilean customs. Once we'd completed immigration, we were shepherded into a room and lined up behind a metal bench with our hand luggage (our big bags went through an x-ray machine), whereupon they were searched by the border control dog, who is apparently trained to sniff out contraband fruit. Most of us had read the declaration we signed so it was no problem, but one French family had their lunch confiscated. It was rather amusing to see them try and explain to their young son why the police dog wanted his banana! Once safely into Chile again we arrived at the port town of Valparaiso (Valpo), about 2 hours outside of Santiago, where we had decided to spend our last few days. We eventually found our hostel, which helpfully had no sign outside or number on the door and turned out to be a bit like living in a good-natured student house, had a gourmet dinner of pasta and Frankfurters and an early night.

Crazy mountain road

Aconcagua

Scenery on the drive from Mendoza

Day 85 - 28th February

we had a leisurely morning sorting out things on the internet and charging all of our electricals in preparation for tomorrow's flight to New Zealand. Some people from our hostel told us about a free walking tour of Valpo that they were planning to take this afternoon and we decided to join them. We tried and failed to find the post office to send back a parcel of all the things we'd bought in South America that wouldn't be allowed in NZ or Australia and headed down to the port to wait for our tour to start. Valparaiso is still a major port and there were large docks areas with cranes and shipping containers, which made us feel very at home. In the harbour were scores of cormorants, diving for fish really close to the harbour wall, and around a dozen huge pelicans – a little less like Gosport or Southampton! We spent a happy half-hour watching the pelicans crash land into the sea in an inelegant attempt at fishing and, by crazy travelling coincidence, bumped into Katia, the German girl we'd spent my birthday with in Mendoza. Katia decided to join us for the tour and we met our guide, Ben (dressed in a Wally-style red and white striped jumper, in the main square. Ben was an American currently living in Valpo and quite clearly in love with the place. His enthusiasm was infectious and we all had a great time exploring some of the best-known and lesser-known parts of the city. He explained the city's historical importance as a major port on the route around Cape Horn and how it suffered as a result of the opening of the Panama Canal. We walked along winding alleys, up steep stairways covered in the street art for which Valpo is now famed, we rode a funicular and a trolley bus and even visited Don Sergio, who gave us free cookies. All in all it was a wonderful tour, full of information and inspiration and we all left feeling well and truly charmed by Valparaiso. As it was our last night in South America we treated ourselves to a meal out and had delicious sushi and a glass of wine.

Jon in Valparaiso

Colourful houses

Pelicans in Valpo harbour

Valpo street art

Day 86 - 29th February

Our last day in South America! We checked out of our hostel and went to the post office to send our souvenirs home. In our now not-too-bad Spanish we managed to work out the price and what we needed to do, but the post office didn't have a box small enough for our stuff to go in. After wandering into lots of shops looking for a small box to buy, a friendly corner shop owner took pity on us and gave us one of his stock boxes to cut up. We fashioned a beautiful sturdy box using electrical tape and our trusty Swiss army knife and sent the package on its way. We spent another few hours wandering round the city, including heading up to Pablo Neruda's house on one of the hills, and a lovely long walk back to the hostel along a long, winding road that cut across the side of the hills, with beautiful views to the colourful houses above and the harbour below. After relaxing at the hostel for another few hours we caught a series of buses to Santiago airport and boarded our flight to Auckland. The flight left at 23:20 on 29th Feb, lasted 12 hours and got us into Auckland at 04:00 on 2nd March – the concept of that still makes my head hurt! Consequently day 87, 1st March, didn't exist at all for us!