Valparasio

I wrote most of this post already, but it was lost and now I have to write it again, so this might be a little short.

Valpo!  Great town.  Used to be a port city (and still is), but it's glory days ended when the Panama Canal opened in 1915.  It used to be a place where ships going to the Cali gold rush would stop, but the Panama Canal ended that.  So now it is mostly an artist/tourism city.  

There are many street art murals pretty much every where in Valpo, especially in Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Allegre.  "Cerro" is Spanish for "Hill", and Valpo has 48 of them.  I was staying on Cerro Mariposa, which was a bit far from the main action, but the hostel was great.  There were a lot of English speakers there, so I could actually talk to people.  We had a great patio with a great view of the city and myself and the other guests spent a lot of time there.  

I started with a Tours4Tips tour of the city and got to meet some other travellers.  In the city I visited the Bella Artes museum which was built by an Italian immigrant and renovated by a Croation later 

on.  I also went to Pablo Nerudas house there, which was interesting to see.  It was the five story residence of the famous poet, and he had a lot of interesting pieces still in the house.  He had a bar off of his dining room, with a see through door to the bathroom which few guests had the confidence to use.

All in all I loved the city.  But then after a couple days I tried to go to Mendoza...