Santiago & Valparaiso

From Punta Arenas we flew back to Santiago, for a second more extended
look at the city (the first time we flew in and flew out at the start
of our tour but saw little more than a couple restaurants and the
airport). I can´t say that I explored this city very extensively even
the second time, but I managed to get up a couple of the hills in the
city and sample a few more restaurants.
Santiago to Valparaiso on the coast was an interesting journey due
mainly to the fact that we got on the wrong bus! Luckily it was
heading to the same place, but unluckily it was a different company so
we got to pay twice to get to Valparaiso. My introduction to this
port city was a negative one because we found after heaving out bags a
couple of blocks that our accommodation had been given away (or never
booked online in the first place). A bit of a haggling (or pleading)
at the bus station got a cramped space for a night in a nicer part of
town. After that rough introduction I warmed up to Valparaiso and its
very close neighbor Viña Del Mar. While the first has much more
character with and colourful and eclectic mix of houses piled on top
of one another through the numerous hills, Viña Del Mar is the beach
resort that all the Chileans go to.
We were lucky enough to be in Valparaiso over Easter, and a strange,
but quite normal tradition for Chileans is to burn an effigy of Judas
on Easter Sunday. We wondered what all the numerous dummies with a
cup for change in their hand were for but all the pieces came together
that night. Kids from all over the neighborhood gather around a
burning effigy stuffed with change trying to grab the coins that drop
while the dummy hovers overhead occasionally dropping a fiery leg or
arm on top of an unsuspecting child. We all held our breath several
times as a lump of change was thrown under the dummy and dozens of
kids gathered closer, only to have the man holding the burning dummy
swing it more vigorously! A fun and exciting ending to Valparaiso and
to Chile.