Feliz cumpleanos de mi!

Nice guitar, shame about the voice

Yesterday I turned 26 in the cobbled coastal city of Valparaiso. It's a very memorable place because most of the houses are painted bright colours and built on hills so brilliant views all around.

My day started with watching the Royal wedding while eating breakie in our B & B. Yes, we don't miss out on anything here. In fact, it was a welcome change after almost solid coverage of the Pope's death for the last week.

We wanted to really take in the city so spent much of the day losing ourselves in the streets and getting up those hills via the 'ascensores'. They call them lifts but to us it was more like getting in a shed which runs steeply up tracks but get you to the top for about 10p. You didn't think I was going to walk up all those hills!?
Reminded me a lot Sorrento, Italy and it's quaint charm. Just watch out for the dog poo. They love their pups here but have not heard of the 'poop scoop'.

We also discovered the Museo a cielo abierto - literally translated as the 'open air museum' where on one of the hills, the house and streets have been turned into a art gallery and you can do a walking tour of all the exhibits.

All this exercise was followed by an intimate dinner where Jody found a guitarist to embarrass me by singing 'Happy Birthday to you', in espanol of course.

Now we're heading off to the driest desert in the world, San Pedro de Atacama. We're taking plenty of water but we may not post for about a week while we explore the region.