Much of Valparaiso´s charm stems from all the little cafes and bars tucked away in different parts of the city. After a very long walk up and down hills yesterday, Thoughtful Travler - we share the same couchsurfing host - and I stopped for some fresh fruit juice at a cafe featuring natural food on a small plaza downtown. In addition to the shock of finding out the place was vegetarian, we were amazed to discover they actually serve brown bread. In two and a half months, I have seen non-white bread about four times - and at least three of those times the bread was simply a mix of white and whole wheat flours. This bread, on the other hand, was dark and flavorful with some seeds and spices.

Although the plethora of bakeries in Chile and Argentina means freshly baked bread is always available, TT and I are plenty sick of the white bread. Thus we decided to invest some time finding the bakery that supplied the bread to that cafe, which is on a street that isn´t on the map. Knowing generally where to go, TT and I walked into several dead ends and got some bewildered looks from locals before we finally navigated through the maze that is Valparaiso to the small pedestrian street where Panadería Feliz is located - Pasaje Galvez. Three turns on this tiny, residential path later, I noticed a small mural about bread making. We had arrived. No sign or name or actual shop - just someone´s home that they sell bread out of.

We purchased two large loafs, baguette style, from the baker: one with poppy seeds (a word neither TT nor I knew in Spanish, so we had to have a funny conversation about seeds and opiads with the baker) and an even more flavorful one with oregano.

Pasaje Galvez

The mural outside Panadería Feliz

TT, holding both loaves of bread, talks to the baker and his wife outside their house/bakery

Eating the baguettes with fresh avocado on a bench overlooking the water and the city