Valparaiso and Vina del Mar city tours

Our hostel recommended a "free" city tour of Valparaiso. Free as in based on tips. You show up and get a free three hour tour of the city - on foot - and then pay a reasonable tip like 10-15 USD depending on how much you like your guide and the places you went to. 

We went for the morning trip and showed up at 10 am on the main square at the harbour. And found Wally - and the other Wallys. Four in total. And then we waited a bit more. 10 am here is after all a relative time. 10:15 or 10:20 also counts.

We had a super walk around the harbour, up a few of the many hills that makes up the town, a few stops at some small shops for candy and other treats, a free trip on the worlds oldest running trolley bus service - and many stops at the places with street art. Impressive to see just how many different places there are in this town. As our guide told us - some places you go to bed and the next day your front door or whole house is decorated.

Three hours later we were back at the square. Now knowing everything about Valparaiso including the many different fire brigades in town (different fire brigades sponsored by countries such as the UK, France, US, Germany, Italy to mention a few) - also going back more than 100 years.

We decided to take the Metro train along the coast to Viña del Mar - the city next to Valparaiso. 15 minutes by train at it was some kind of different world. Much more tourist feeling and it felt a bit soulless compared to "our own Valpo". We had steak and red wine for lunch - why not, we're backpacking, then did a long walk along the beach. Barely warm enough for short sleeves but there were plenty of locals enjoying it in the afternoon sun so we decided to hang out and feel asleep.

Just a short power nap on the beach but a good indication. Lets take the day off tomorrow and rest. And that's the plan for tomorrow. Relax.

Valparaiso Main Square at the harbour

Fishing and harbour tour boats

Old lift connecting the different neighbourhoods

Valparaiso street art

Spring is here

Alfajores - yum

Old trolley buses

Beautiful house interior

Viña Playa