Judas in the Alleyway

Hola

We arrived in Chile to met by one hundred and twenty seven taxi drivers but eventually found the family that we had arranged to stay with. They are the Pino family and theyhave been very generous and patient with our terrible spanish. We´ve been on a few trips into the city and taken the fenicular (cable car) up to the top of San Cristobal where there are good views and an open air church with a statue of the Virgin, we´ve been to O´Higgins park and seen the new uni students on the booze and done a whirlwind tour of Central Santiago.

Santiago is a huge sprawling dry splurge of a city with chaotic traffic. There is a serious problem with stray dogs and noone can agree what to do about it. There are times though when partsof the city remind me of NZ, NZ in spanish that is.... We went out on Wed night with Katyta, one of the family, and wound up dancing and drinking Pisco to the wee hours.

We have spent the last two days in Valparaiso which is out on the coast from Santiago. The area we stayed in is called "Bohemian" by Lonely Planet which seems to mean its pretty grotty and grungey. There is some really wicked street art through a maze of steep windy streets. There are delapidated cable cars all through town which allow you to head up and explore the hills.

While we were searching for our hostel at night down some sketchy looking alleys, we turned a corner to find a man slumped asleep\unconscious in a window sill with what looked like a white scarf across his face. This quite rightly put the willies up both of us and we scarpered away from there pretty quickly. BUT, as it turns out there is an easter tradition here of making "Judas", i.e stuffing old clothes full of paper and using a plastic bag for a head, and burning him. Turns out Judas was just biding his time in the alley before his ultimate fate.

I liked Valpo for its diversity. Along with old sketchyness, was a hectic naval port and a vibrant town centre. Everyone we have met here seem friendly and happy to help us out.

Anyways, we be catching a plane to Ecuador tomorrow so I better be off to bed with me then. Hasta Luego.