I’m a Wanderer

During breakfast this morning, we spotted a Lonely Planet guide book to Chile. So, having spent yesterday wandering around the city, we took at a look at it to see if there was anything of significance we’d missed. And what did the Lonely Planet say about Valparaiso? That, apart from a couple of museums, the best thing was to wander around for a couple of days soaking in the atmosphere!!

So off we went again for “Wander around Valparaiso” #2!

We did manage to take a different route today, passing through more commercial areas than yesterday. We spent a long time wandering from square to square and shop to shop, looking at clothes that we had no real intention of buying, and just taking it quite easy.

Our impression of Valparaiso was pretty much confirmed by today. There isn’t a great deal to do here apart from walk around, but it’s quite a unique city and a good experience to have done it. And its been nice to have the (almost) luxury of not having to chalk off sight after sight after sight for a couple of days.

We headed back to the funicular after about four hours,

and headed back to the room to get our packs ready for leaving tomorrow.
About 5pm, we caught a memorable sight from our balconey, where the moon had risen early and was hovering large, full and bright above the hills and Valparaiso bay.

It was then that I encountered a reverse-werewolf moment. For normal werewolves, a full moon signifies extreme hair growth and madness. For me, I didn’t experience any less madness than usual, but I decided to finally irradicate the beard!

So, after two months to the day without shaving, I started on an epic one and a half hour battle to get clean-shaven.

And it was a battle. Not only did I break my electric shaver, I couldn’t get through it with scissors or a razor either! My appearance through this time ranged from Herr Professor to Mexican Roadsweeper to Nu-Metal before, finally, finally, finally, I managed to irradicate the facial fuzz and adopted my new image of Fresh Faced Schoolboy!

So, apart from scaring myself with my reflection and wondering where my chin had suddenly vanished to, that was the end of our second and final day in Valparaiso!