Day 8 — Assault and Flattery

No travel diary would be complete without a couple of cautionary tales. As it happens, our second day in Valpo furnished not one, but two. Both involved thefts, and one involved violent Chilean self-proclaimed lesbians.

Let me explain.

Day 7 — Valpo

Sixteen hours travel – give or take – took us from the Humboldt penguins to the cultural heart of Chile, Valparaiso. Known as Valpo to its inhabitants, the port city was for a time the home of Pablo Neruda, one of Chile’s greatest poets. It is a quirky place, combining dockside grit with urban escapism, all in a picture postcard perfect setting.

We rolled in to town early in the morning, fresh as daisies after another oh-so-wonderful all night bus trip. As we wandered bleary-eyed through the streets, Valpo woke up around us. Empty streets filled with vendors, then workers, and then shoppers; the pre-dawn peace gave way to the noise and colour and bustle in the streets near the water’s edge.

Day 6 — Penguin Island

We awoke early to the sound of the ocean, the gentle rhythm of the surf gradually reminding us of where we were — in a tent on a beach on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. All in all, not a bad place to be.

Jose and Patty were already awake by the time we stumbled out in to the daylight, and after a quick breakfast, Manuela and I piled into Jose’s truck and headed out to the wharf. As we drove, Jose explained to us that it never, ever rained there. It promptly started to drizzle, but Jose valiantly pointed to his useless windshield wipers as evidence that this was the exception, not the rule.

Day 5 — The Road Less Travelled (is Really Empty)

Most locations we visited during our South American travels were profiled in our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook. If not profiled, they were at least mentioned in passing. Today, however, we resolved to step off the beaten track, to go where no Lonely Planet editor had gone before — to visit the National Humboldt Penguin Reserve.

Day 4 — The Beach!

Following our escape from Uyuni the previous day to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, we caught an overnight bus to Bahia Inglesa. Bahia Inglesa (literally, “English Bay”) is a beach resort located on the Pacific Ocean near the city of Copiapo, Chile. It’s known for seashell-white sands, good surfing, and turquoise blue waters. In the high season, it’s packed with vacationing Chilenos, but we arrived during autumn.