A gloomy old day, no rain, just overcast and cool all day, a perfect day for working. Mid morning a siren went off loudly in the port, reverberating around the city and sending the dogs howling and barking. Hmmm we thought, could this be an earthquake about to happen? There was a mild shake or…

A perfectly balanced day of working from the apartment, some grocery errands and a brief exploration of the hood and beyond – including a much needed haircut at A$10 each. A really nice experience despite some language difficulties, but Ants persevered and our requests were understood and meticulously carried out. A good haircut! (A short…

  Today is September 11th and is marked here not for that terrible event in New York 2001 but for an altogether different one, no less sinister and disturbing. The 1973 Chilean coup d’état led to the rise of Pinochet and the army-backed junta, which violently suspended all political activity in Chile, ‘repressing’ all left-wing…

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…