Football and Fairy Tales

Like a fish out of water we started to crave unpolluted oxygen so we left Santiago de Chile for a quick jaunt to Valparaiso. The city has always been a fairy-tale place for Nina so going there we almost expected to be disappointed. What can we say - it was a great place to be! We call it the San Francisco of the South with rolling hills covered with half derelict half exquisite buildings, windy cobbled streets, thousands of little galleries and wicked cafes and bars. If it wasn`t for the MASSIVE industrial port the place would have been a real fairy-tale. But to be honest we barely noticed the port except for the sailors wandering around. Being so hilly the place was littered with ascensors (funicular) leading up to the posh districts. We spent few days in Valparaiso just drinking coffee, trying to speak bad Spanish (well we tried for the good Spanish but somehow it always turned bad) and of course drinking great Chilean wine.

As there was not much to do in Valpo we thought we would check out Viña del Mar, the posh sea side resort for Santies. Viña isn´t that great but there was a footy match going on that afternoon, Viña´s own Everton vs their local rivals Santiago Wanderes of Valparaiso. As we were walking to the stadium we were trying to decide who to support. Once we got there there was really only one choice, the home side, Everton. Fortunately we were in the semi expensive seats (tribuna Andes) and away from the manic fans in the cheap seats. The game wasn´t up to your normal South American standards but the fans definitely were. At one point they had to stop the game as one side of the pitch was covered in burning flares thrown by the Wanderers fans in disgust at going one nill down. Their side of the stadium became a sea of red smoke. It was wicked thing to see. The everton fans were also great as they didn´t stop singing for 2 hours. It almost felt like a concert. Turns out we picked the right side as Everton won 2:0 and they were much better sportsmen. At the end of the game we quickly dashed out of the stadium before it turned nasty. Next day we read that 20 people got arrested.

One last thing, we popped into the coolest bar in Valpo, the Cinzano bar. It had an average age of about 60 and a never-ending supply of retirees singing sad songs spanish with voices like Edith Piaf. It was fatastic. With our quality spanish we tried to order some meze as we sat watching from the bar, but ending up with a steak. :) Must practise some more.

Now we are back in Santiago for one day to sort out a few things before we head south. First Lake District then Patagonia.