Chile, Valparaiso

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Valparaiso has a split personality. On one hand it's colourfully bohemian with artists on every corner and graffiti on every wall. On the other, there's festering political resentment, abject poverty and some of the worse slums in Chile. We experienced both. On arrival, we walked straight into a non-peaceful student protest against rising bus fares, the army was dealing with it by shooting jets of water at them. We made a hasty get away as soldiers with batons started to storm the crowds. Spent the rest of the day meandering round mellow streets and visiting the quirky home of esteemed Chilean poet and artist, Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973). This was followed by a great evening drinking with some local film students at a haunt you can imagine Che Guavara visiting as he crossed South America. The next day things went pear-shaped as we got mugged after taking a funicular elevator up to a lookout over the city. An older guy grabbed hold of Tom, jabbed a broken wine bottle at his face and demanded money. He took the equivalent of £20 while his sidekick tried to nick Tom's DSLR camera. Luckily they were disturbed by a passer by and we managed to run away. They gave chase but we were faster and made our getaway, shaken and £20 down but thankfully uninjured and still in possession of our cameras and credit cards. Funnily enough we were glad to be on a bus out of here the next day. [Clare]