South America - Day 2
Thursday - Valparaiso
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Thursday was warm and sunny as we looked out over the house-covered hills from our room in this small (7 rooms) hotel in a Victorian heritage house. After continental breakfast it was off to explore some of the city, and to buy an adaptor for our North American gadgets (we thought we had the right one – a europlug – but it didn’t fit). First we headed from our hilltop down into downtown in search of an ATM and Chilean pesos. Alas every attempt to withdraw cash was an ‘invalid transaction’. I later think I figured out the problem – my limit for daily withdrawal is $500; $100 is 50,000 pesos; I’m sure the machine reacted as if I wanted to withdraw $50,000 (if only!!). So we converted some cash to pesos, and bought our adaptor for 550 pesos ($1.05) in a funky little electrical shop straight out of the fifties – it was even wrapped for us in a little brown paper parcel. In the Plaza Sotomayor a wonderful cappuccino smothered with a topping of shaved chocolate, then up the funicular to our heritage neighbourhood and a stroll among the colourfully painted buildings. The majority have siding of corrugated steel and our guess is that’s a more economical way of ‘restoring’ crumbling original stucco – but that’s only a guess ‘cause my Spanish doesn’t stretch to that kind of conversation. Talking of language, staff in hotels and restaurants have some limited English, but you won’t find much if any out in the ‘real world’. Even in the tourist information office, asking where to buy an adaptor was like playing Pictionary to convey what I was looking for. Along the way we stopped in at a fine Lutheran church to be greeted by a very gung-ho pastor – a former navy man of Scandinavian descent. The church was built by German shipbuilders in 1897 in the same way as the hull of a wooden ship – but inverted. Thanks to the strong influence by then of the German settlers, it was also the first non-catholic church in all of South America to be allowed a steeple and an external cross – previously illegal in these Catholic lands. The day ended with a nice meal of pasta and seafood in a little Italian restaurant. Like Spain, meals are later here – we were early eating at 8.30, and the lunch hour is generally from 1 to 2.30. Tomorrow along to coast to Vina del Mar...
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