Around The World In 80 Waves

After landing in Santiago Chile I picked up my hire car, but only after:

• Having to try and sleep stretched out on my surfboard on the floor of the airport as the cleaner repeatedly went past my head with an industrial buffer
• Waiting more than three hours for the AVIS office to open despite all the other being open through the night.
• Refusing to accept the 50% increase in price they tried to add onto the booking I had made online.

I then drove to Valparaiso, which is a short distance away on the coast. Chile is actually quite wealthy compared with most of Central and South America and you can see that in the wonderful buildings throughout the town. 

Almost all of them are painted with bright colours, which makes and impressive sight stretching up the hill away from the ocean.

To save wearing out their shoes on the cobbled roads leading up the hills throughout the town thirty of these ‘Ascencores’ or funiculars were built for he benefit of the population. 

Checking out this view from he street outside my hostel you can see why the novelty of the daily climb up the hill would inevitably wear off.

Thankfully I have my hire car to make scaling the hills completely painless, but I have to say that the vivid colours of the town are like a breath of fresh air, even at times if some areas are a little dusty.

The locals have spiced things up further however by adding graffitti to a great many areas around the town.

From what I can gather it is embraced rather than being frowned upon because it adds to the character of the place.

Such a funky town!