Wake up at 8:15am, have a really good sleep last night in my beloved B&B room. Breakfast starts at 9am, I get downstairs and meet the other people who stay in this B&B. Martin takes the troubles to introduce me to everyone. We are served with fresh bread he goes to buy in the market every morning, with some sandwiches meat and cheese, fresh brewed coffee (no instant - that tastes good!), a glass of juice, a small biscuit, yogart and banana if you want. It's a very cozy breakfast, guests are talking to each other, for this day or maybe tomorrow, we are like a family. Martin again asks where I would plan to go today, he is ready to give any advice he can give. If I have no idea where to go, he would be happy to suggest something. He is just a big nice fellow, never pushy, just leave you to make up your mind, but advices are always ready. I takes his advices happily and visit the fruit and flea market that occurs every Wednesdays and Saturdays. There is a lookout I am planning to go but apparently some ascensors (escalators up and down the hills) are closed because they are government owned and their employees are still on strike. Oh well, I walk up to a less steep hill on the other side of the bay and look back to where my B&B is.
When I get back down, I enter a big shopping mall, oh god, the Hong Kong part of me act up and I do some shopping. Buy myself a T-shirt after I walk around that same counter like 10 times. Do I really want it? Yes.. Hmm...but, I should save money. Oh well, but I will not bump into anyone in Hong Kong who wears the same T-shirt. I don't need it really, just gonna be more weight on my backpack. It's just a T-shirt, man! How heavy can that be? Yeah...that kind of truth, you son of a bitch. Alright, I get it. That internal struggle is so shitty, I just want to strangle that part of me. After the T-shirt, I walk back to the market and buy a poster of Pablo Nerude which I have seen earlier, planning to get before I leave that part of town. I think he deserves a place on the wall of my room.
Try another restaurant Martin recommended yesterday, called Anita, before he gives me the gringo menu, I already say, a menu set please. Not knowing what it is really, but I just want to try. Surprise, surprise! The starter is a salad with an avocado, some chopped ham and some lettuces. And the main course is actually that seafood soup, oh my god, it fills with tons of seafood in the bowl after I dig in. It's really tasty too, and costs only CH$2500 (less than US$5). Before the meal, usually they bring you a dish of lemon, a dish of salsa and some breads. The salsa is always good, I find. Their onions are extremely fresh and tasty. I find it strange to say, never claim to be an onion lover, but for some reasons, I find the onion in their salsa really empowers the tastes. Finish my meal, they offer me a shot of liquor (vanilla, mint or another one which I don't remember what), I decline trying to explain that I don't drink alcohol. I hear that it is not polite to decline alcohol here. But I have to, especially it's a strong liquor. A beer may be still ok.
The plan for the afternoon is to get lost in the two hills in Valparaiso that is listed in the UNESCO's World Heritage: Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Alegre. Lost, I am, those winding and hilly streets, I try to avoid long and quiet side alleys, and because some ascensors (escalators) are closed, it probably takes me longer to find my ways down. After I come back to the main street, it is like 4pm already, I feel like this is all for the day, just start heading back to the B&B, pick up my laptop and sit in the cafe by the hillside, looking at the port and write a little bit. And here I am, looking at the port, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or whatever day is really meaningless, as a traveler, there is only two days: good day or bad day. I think I have had a good day.
Dinner gonna be light again, and tomorrow, I am planning to go to a fish market and see the sea lions by the pier, then maybe do some sunbathing in the afternoon on the beach. We'll see.
Photos here: Day 44
