Residencia en El Cerro, Valparaíso, Chile

Arrived in Valparaíso yesterday night and checked into a cute old wooden villa on Cerro Concepción. The street leading to the villa is filled with cats and nicely smelling trees (one was an orange tree, the names of the others I don't know). The accommodation is the most expensive one that we have had so far, 11,000 CLP (21 USD) per person in a private double room without a bathroom (but a basic breakfast is included, and there is wireless internet and one can use the kitchen).


Today walked around in Valparaíso, mostly climbing up and down from cerro (i.e. hill) to cerro. Many artists seem to live in Valparaíso, every second building in the hills is covered with graffiti, there are small restaurants and cafeterias.
Very few signs indicate that an earthquake hit this area just two days ago: at the port the pavement was cracked a bit, and the facade of several buildings has fallen off and some sidewalks have been sealed off for that reason. In the hills many of the buildings are old and shabby but strangely the earthquake doesn't seem to have harmed them at all.

We finally ended up at the bus station and tried to buy a bus ticket to Puerto Montt for tomorrow. All companies except for one claimed that the roads are broken and at the moment there is no service to the South. So we decided to buy tickets to Mendoza (Argentina) and will try to reach Patagonia from the Argentinian side, i.e. on the other side of the Andes.