Day 53 - ¿Eres un gringo?

Valparaiso

This morning we walked along Avenida Alemania, which took us along the top of the Valparaiso hills, with great views along the way and without too much variation in elevation either (yes, we are tired of walking up hills). We ended up at Pablo Neruda's house, which is now a museum. Pablo was a Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet and a bit of a national hero. The house was very interesting, and had amazing views of the city, which inspired him to write this great description of Valparaiso:

"‘Valparaíso, how absurd you are…you haven’t combed your hair, you’ve never had time to get dressed, life has always surprised you.’"

K had read about an authentic Chilean restaurant, J.Cruz, so after Pablo's house we walked down the very steep hill (passing many tired looking tourists heading uphill to the museum) to have lunch, The restaurant was so authentic that when we asked for the menu they said there wasn't one as they only served one dish  - chorillana - so we said we would have that then! It was a huge plate of soggy French fries mixed with fried onions and egg, with beef strips on top. To add to the atmosphere a local came in and played his guitar and sang. The restaurant was jam packed with all kinds of collectables, and the walls and cabinets were plastered with customer ID photos (passport size). People who didn't have a photo had written on bandaids, so we did the same. Although the experience was interesting, we're in no hurry to have any more chorillana after this.

Possibly the effect of a chorillana only diet

We caught the bus back to Viña de Mar as we had decided to visit the Natural Museum. Though small, the museum had really interesting exhibitions - Easter Island (with a statue out the front of the museum), real shrunken heads with an explanation on how it was done, a mummy, and many stuffed animals, which were quite interesting to see as it's not often that you can get up close to a condor or a puma.

Comes with instructions

We stopped in at a shop on our way to the funicular as we headed home when the girl behind the counter asked K, in Spanish, if she was a gringo. When K confirmed that yes she was (of course she is!), the girl asked her if she could teach her to say "my name is" in English (which she did).

Baa Baa Baa Baa Black Black Sheep Sheep