Santiago to Valparaiso...30th - 31st Oct

We decided to leave Santiago and get started on our rugged adventure. We needed to get a good road map of Chile so we caught the metro to Providencia to the Organization Automovil Club of Chile. For 5000 pesos we picked up a through map with all the camping spots and detailed roads. we then went to the tourist information center and picked up camping guides of Chile- very handy tools. After a nice lunch we packed the bikes up and took off through the streets of Santiago.

The first stop was Valparaiso and a B&B called LaNona. It was only a short ride there but it was great to get out on the open roads and see the country side. Valparaiso used to be a bustling port before the opening of the Panama Canel in the 1920`s which ment the shipping slowed to the city. the town is still busy but for the tourists to see the historic architecture. Valparaiso, as we were told by our host rene has 15 universities and approximetly 30% unemployment-so they relayed heavily on the tourist trade. This also ment that we were keen to lock our bikes up safely at night. Our hosts at La Nonas we really helpful here and found us a local guy who had an art gallery in his basement so we could leave our bikes there for the weekend.

Valparaiso has some really great restaurants in the old destrict and we enjoyed some great tapas, local wines and woodfired pizza`s... really good considering the dodgy camping food we will be eating soon! The town has some great graffeti works done by local artists (perhaps done by some of the unemployed university students!) and you can walk around and enjoy these. We left Valparaiso wanting to see more so we promised Rene at La Nona`s we would drop in o our way back to Santiago for another look at the town. If anyone is looking for somewhere good to stay in the town we would highly recommend La Nonas as the local knowledge and information about what is good to see in Chile is extremly helpful. After the great weekend we were keen to hit the road and head down to the much talked about lakes distict and see what other amazing sites Chile had to offer!