Day 51: Valparaíso, Chile

Saturday morning, Dan and I walked around the hills of Valparaíso and continued to admire the street art. It seemed that around every corner there was a new mural to admire, and we did our best to uncover as many as we could.

At lunch, we talked about the two events that were taking place in the city that weekend. The first was a tattoo convention; we had seen several banners advertising this expo and the numerous body artists who would be present to display their work. Intrigued, Dan and I stopped by the event that afternoon. 

The setting of the convention was just as one would imagine. Outside the exhibition were several beer stands set beside a stage where a heavy metal band was rocking out. Inside...well we heard before we saw. We were greeted with the consistent sound of buzzing needles, and then turned a corner to see booth-upon-booth of makeshift tattoo shops. At nearly every stand sat multiple individuals who were in the process of getting inked. Some of the tattoos, even if not in line with my own taste, were impressive in their accuracy and detail...

Clearly, I was drawn to face tattoos

Then there were others that were simply terrible...

Yes, that is supposed to be Megan Fox, and no, her face should not be that wide...nor should you be getting a tattoo of Megan Fox. Ever.

The whole event (both the atmosphere and the people who comprised it) felt like a portal into an alternate world to which we visibly did not belong. Dan and I walked around for a little while before we had our fill of tattoo-viewing and left the venue. We made it back to our bed and breakfast about an hour and a half later. By that point, we had we had gotten lost a total of three times in one day. During our third mishap, we completely missed our bus stop and wound up all the way at the bus depot. Though all the experiences were frustrating, the compassion we were shown through each instance cemented our belief that Chileans are the friendliest group of South Americans we have met so far.

Saturday night, we met back up with our friends Suze, Sarah, and Chloe to get dinner. We went to a restaurant heavily recommended by a local, and discovered there were two options on the menu: a plate for two people or a plate for three. Given that there were five of us, we decided to go crazy and ordered one of everything. The food came out a short while later; it was a heaping plate of fries topped with meat, cheese, and carmelized onions. It was a well-balanced meal of meat, dairy, and vegetables,  rounded off with some bread and beers. And for my part, I couldn't have been happier; it was really good. 

After dinner, we went back to the girls' hostel where we played some drinking games and then ended up at a nearby party. There was a live band at the bar, and they must have been playing some great cover songs because all of the Chileans were going crazy over the music. We hung at the bar until the band stopped playing and then went back to our B&B for the night.