A sleepy day in Valparaiso...

Sunday afternoon, and we are both enjoying a relaxing day of not doing much... the sun is shining on Valparaiso bay, and Paul has taken a walk to La Sebastiania, one of the many homes of Chilean poet Pablo Naruda, which is now a museum dedicated to his works... I have decided to stay behind and help the staff here at the Ultramar switch our room from number 7 to number 18: there was a mix-up with the bookings, and they have moved us to a much nicer suite on the top floor of the hotel, in order to accommodate a guest who is checking into number 7 this evening... no worries, as we are getting a bigger room for a greatly reduced price! So we like this.... We have decided to spend our savings on getting remedial massage: an Australian massage therapist is coming to the hotel this afternoon to work on us both for an hour each: Paul has been suffering with a sore shoulder since we arrived, and I decided to go ahead and splurge for a massage as well... it has been over a year since my last one! Yesterday was really enjoyable, despite the fact that I was once again feeling pretty nauseous: the past few days, my stomach has decided to become irritable, which I think comes from accidentally brushing my teeth with the tap water back in Santiago... a major concern. We caught the bus yesterday to the near-by town of Viña del Mar, directly north of Valparaiso about 6 miles... It is actually more of an upscale beach suburb, complete with a dilapidated Brighton-style pier and seaside alfresco restaurants. We wandered around, bought a few postcards, laughed over a horrible Mexican lunch (if one could call that luke-warm mess Mexican food), and then headed back to Valpo... We spent the evening at Cafe Ocho y Medio (8 and a half), which has become our favorite little evening haunt: they show art films every evening in the tiny downstairs cinema (last night we watched The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover, and the cute cafe upstairs serves tapas and drinks until 2am... We have befriended the manager Marco, who recommends the best food choices, with one notable exception: the "8 Leaves" cake, which tasted something like a combination of bland custard and salty white fish... That one plate aside, we have really enjoyed hanging out there and soaking up the artsy, "film student" vibe, which seems to predominate the town's social scene... The night before last, we were told by Marco about a showing of one of my favorite films, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, which was taking place downtown at the Cinema Insomnia... We searched the ultra-busy Avenida Correll to located the address, only to realize that the venue was actually a porno cinema, which during normal operating hours, shows only skin flicks... The owners seem to have decided to ride the wave of Valpo's indepedent cinema scene, and have started showing foreign art films every Friday night... The place itself was straight out of a David Lynch film: located in a cavernous basement, with dim red lights and an old-fashioned bar and popcorn machine from the 1950's... The bizarre, deadpan, elderly couple running the place were dressed in vintage formalwear and never once cracked a smile; they both stood there robotically serving glass bottles of orange Fanta and cheap beer to the packed house of goth kids and nerdy student types... What a freak show! Needless to say, we really enjoyed the weirdness of it all. Valpo continues to impress and we are getting used to schleping ourselves up the steep hills and avoiding the packs of stray dogs that roam the streets at night... something we won't miss to much. Going back to Santiago on Wednesday, and have booked into a different, nicer hotel: www.hotelfundador.cl We'll be there for 3 nights, then off to BA on Monday! So looking forward to arriving in Argentina... More soon! xxx Jason