Before the Panama Canal existed, Valparaíso was the major port for ships travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Straits of Magellan. Understandably Valparaíso (with its fog, hills and painted houses) was known as ‘Little San Francisco’ and ‘The Jewel of the Pacific’ throughout its golden age in the 19thCentury, though crucial for…

Finally managed to get to an authorised Mac Repair Centre for my ailing (new) Mac Book Pro. You may remember back in Mexico that the screen packed up and I had to import my old AirBook from Australia to Mexico. Well, that was a costly and rather stressful undertaking let me tell you. This is…

A riot of vivid colour splashes across the hills to the misty horizon – greens, oranges, aqua, lilac, blues, hot pink and raw rusted tin houses beautifully patina’d all glow in the morning light. Impossibly steep streets are just one car wide – tricky when these are two-way streets – more honking of horns, if…

This morning the Humboldt current cools the spring air deliciously, producing tendrils of fog that curl over the cerros with, later, crazily high kites bobbing in the pale blue sky. Valparaíso’s oldest street elevator (opened 1893) Ascensor Artillería lurches up and down a steep, rough and ready 30-degree hill which provides spectacular views over the…

We’ve arrived in wonderful Valparaiso in Chile To find our apartment in the photo first locate the near vertical railway (Ascensor Artilleria) in the right of the image, then pan left until you see a pale mint green building nestled between the dark roofs of the white (Maritime) museum on the horizon – we’re on…

We said a sad farewell to Zipolite early this morning, taking a ‘free-spirited’ taxi with no seatbelts down windy jungle lanes before hitting what passes for the main coastal road. We clocked something en route you don’t see every day – a cowboy on a horse galloping alongside speeding cars and pursued by a pack…

If you’re looking for a super chilled out place in Mexico with nothing to do other than laze in the sun, swim, read, snooze, eat delicious fresh food and oh, veg out, then Zipolite is for you, specifically El Alquimista. You can leave your worries, work, cares and… er, clothes… behind you and slip into…

Up at dawn as usual, though as previously mentioned that’s not too hard as it’s 7.15 in these parts. Sunrise here is invariably spectacular on the beach, casting long playful shadows with rich dark reds and yellows. We spent the day like every other day here lounging with our books under palm-leaf sunshades on the…

We enjoyed a wild storm towards dawn, our first night back in the cabana, and what a night it was. Lying in bed underneath an untethering mosquito net, looking straight out to sea, the wind roaring around, and being blasted with sand and other debris from the beach, was quite an experience. The night sky…

There’s a very rustic place on Zipolite in a prime beach setting called Lo Cósmico where for AUD$3 a night you have a hammock, strung up under the palm trees with the entire stretch of the beach in front of you. It’s more dorm hammock than private nook, so definitely for the free-spirited youngsters who…