Valparaiso – hills, art and more hills

Leaving Mendoza behind we jumped on the bus and wound our way through the Andes, alongside deep ravines and giant snow capped mountains and across the border to Valparaiso. As we arrived in Valparaiso we were greeted by the Pacific Ocean and a drop in temperature of about 10 degrees compared to Mendoza, making it much more comfortable.

Valparaiso was once one of the world’s busiest ports, transporting goods from across the western Americas to the rest of the world. While it remains the most important part of the economy today it took a massive hit from the development of the Panama canal. The result is that many of the grand buildings are now derelict and decaying. Now designated a UNESCO world heritage site (seems to be the way for old port towns as Paraty was one too) the architecture cannot be changed and the government has an obligation to maintain the facades of the buildings. This often means they clear out the whole structure except the facade as it is easier to keep them standing this way, making you feel like you are walking in a film set.

The first thing you notice about Valparaiso is the street art culture. It is literally everywhere, with a number of Chilean street artists now famous across the globe. Interestingly they specifically distinguish between graffiti (tagging) and street art (murals). Building owners even pay artists to paint murals on their walls to prevent them being graffitied on. The combination of narrow winding streets, colourful houses and street art makes it a incredibly picturesque city to walk around.

On our first day we took a walking tour of the old town and up into one of the first cerro barrios (hill neighbourhoods). Here they explained how Valpo was not “founded” by the Spanish, originally it was considered to be the port of Santiago (3 hours away). This means that unlike most colonial cities it is not planned, there is no central square with a church and all building developed organically. Once you know this it becomes very obvious, one of the main squares is intersected by about 4 roads, with no pavement and cars and buses driving erratically inches away from tourists.

The streets are often narrow and wind their way up alongside the hills. As we headed up the hill neighborhood our guide explained some of the differences for people who live here. For example it was 1,000 steps from the bottom of the hill to his childhood home. He also pointed out that most of the roads on the hills are only one car wide and are often parked up meaning that the neighborhood have to be the first responders to emergencies as firemen / ambulances take time to reach them. Pall bearers jobs were also very difficult as the tradition is to carry the coffin from the house to the cemetery…

The main tourist activity is just wandering around, up and down the hills and admiring the view from various miradors (viewpoints) so that is what we did for 5 days. Meandering through the streets, taking pictures of the art and eating a variety of mil hojas, a pastry Dominique found which is essentially a millefeuille with Dulce de leche instead of cream / custard.

On one of the days we took the long walk uphill to Pablo Neruda’s house, being a famous poet / diplomat he obviously had a pretty impressive house. Set over 4 floors on near the top of a hill it has unobstructed view across the whole of Valparaiso. Each room was designed and decorated by Neruda and featured an eclectic mix of artefacts from his travels around the globe.

Having exhausted our legs from walking up and down the hills (we did hop in one of the old funiculars at one point, there used to be 27 but a lot seem to be out of action now) we also managed to squeeze in a couple of late afternoon visits to the beach. Despite being on the coast there isn’t much in the way of beaches, luckily our hostel was between the town and one of the “main” beaches, which was probably 50m wide and 20m deep…we did pop down a couple of afternoons but didn’t brave the Pacific!

Next we set off to the very south of the continent, heading to Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia.

Tim