We had a choice to make for our last few days in Chile. Do we head straight down to Santiago, to explore the capital city, or do we take the opportunity to head down the coast and explore the nearby port of Valparaíso? A good friend back home talks about Valparaíso as being the other side of the coin to Santiago: artistic, bohemian, funky and more than a little grungy. That appealed more to us than spending more time in a big city – especially as if we come back through Chile, at some point, we’ll almost certainly be passing through Santiago; it being the major Chilean hub for international flights (and of course the airport from which we’re flying to Easter Island, in this case a domestic flight) – so we decided to try Valparaíso instead.
We booked another Airbnb, which turned out to be a great find: a little up from the town – and just a few blocks from the bus station – we had a fantastic view over Valparaíso. Certainly the best value we’ve had at an…