Time to start in earnest

So after three blurry days in Santiago, I've arrived in the port town of Valpariaso in Chile to see a new area and hopefully do much more than just drink with other young travelers in Hostels. Not that my time in Santiago wasn't spectacular, I just didn't sleep for more than three hours a night for 4 solid days and was hanging out with an extremely odd and diverse group of young people. I went out every night with a group consisting of three jet-setting party series's from Sydney, a perky Jewish Canadian girl who turned out to be an Isreali army veteran, an College student from Montana starting a semester abroad, a few English and Dutch guys that were all super tall and blonde, and a bunch of Brazilian girls from Rio and Sao Paulo. It turned out to nbd a spectacular recipe for looking fir places to dance and drink all night and a race to get up the next morning and pretend that you're not hurting in the least bit. Mostly this was due to our hostel's location in the center of the Belles Artes comun of Santiago, which was the hippest barrio of the city where all the best bars and clubs were situated in a strip of colonial style houses covered in spectacular street art that made in like a combination of the unique aesthetic vibe of Silverlake with the raucous party scene of westwood. Very interesting.
One of the unforseen results, however, of this experience was that Gabriela, who was the most lively of the Brazilian delegation, invited me to stay at her house for Carnival in Rio. Given the hostels in Rio that generally charge $15 a night jack there prices up to $120 for Carnival, it was an offer not to be missed. Thus the need to make some definite plans for the future with the end goal of getting a visa for Brazil in Buenos Aires and making it to Rio in time for the March 4th kick-off. And that means I can't spend as long as I'd lo,e in Chile... But really, there's not muter to complain about.
What I really did want to see while I was in Chile's district 5 was Valparaiso. Valpo (as everyone here calls it) has almost the same climate, geography, and bohemian status as San Francisco in California. it spans tons of hills along it's embarcadero that are sometimes so steep that "ascensores," which here are large elevators built in the 30s or 40s, carry walkers and commuters up the nearly vertical inclines. It's famous for it's nightlife and also for being considerably more dangerous and edgy than neighboring Santiago, but I really just hope to be able to meet some couch surfing hosts to show me some of the fun, laid back, Chilean get aways,although if everyone in Valpo follows in Neruda's footsteps as closely as they say, even those will be pretty wild. You see, Valparaiso was the favorite city of Chile's favorite son Pablo Neruda, the world famous poet,communist activist, and notorious womanizer whose erotic poetry was likely responsible for the Latin population boom mid century. His house, which I visited today with the Brazilians, is a fascinating "work on progress" that seems like it was built for the ultimate leisure lifestyle with a full bar, lounges which overlook the impressive bay, and napping nooks atevery turn. This town truly has a Bohemian character that trickles down even to every dog on the street, as even they pose for photos and