Dates visited: April 19, 2014
Our earlier plan was to spend three days in Santiago, but based on our interests, I realized we did not have enough things to do in Santiago. Thus, we decided to make a day trip to Valparaiso.
Valparaiso, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, means valley of paradise (as our guide told us). The city has a beautiful bay and the people are friendly, but given that it is largely poor, the infrastructure is in dire need of improvement. Most of the houses are built on hill (cerro) slopes and are so tightly crammed that it is difficult for fire trucks and emergency vehicles to reach them. I mention this because we visited Valparaiso just a few days after the April 12th fire that that killed 15 people and destroyed 2,000 homes. Over 10,000 people were evacuated. Our guide showed us abandoned houses from previous years that had been burned to the ground as the people did not have the money to rebuild them. But the touristy section of the city (Cerro Bellavista) was a different story—there were pretty, colorful houses with murals on them. There were very many fancy restaurants and you could feel a distinct difference in the vibe being here as opposed to other parts of the city.
We reached the hills by taking the few ascensores (funiculars) that are still in operation for tourists. Some seemed rickety and the operators filled in people with no regards to the maximum weight. It was particularly scary on Ascensor Reina Victorio that has a gradient of 52 degrees!
- View of the Valparaiso Bay from one of the hills
- Mural on a building
- Planning what to do next
- Buildings sprawled across the hills of Valparaiso
- Funicular, Ascensor Baron, built in 1906, and still in working condition
- The gears, the cogs, the cables… …everything that’s required to keep the funicular running
- No idea why he’s grinning, and no idea what the mural means
- Mural depicting the wide nets of Angelini and Sarkis fishing corporations
- The National Congress of Chile meets in this building
- The Treasury Building
- On the streets of Valparaiso
- Corrugated sheets (left overs from the port supplies), jazzed up with colors and used for buildings
- Walking along Prat Street in the old financial district
- This bar has a unique decor combining celebrities with marine paraphernalia
- The Chilean Navy building
- Ascensor Reina Victoria has a 52 degree incline
- Winding streets in Cerro Bellavista – the touristy section
- Whipped cream, martini, fishnet stockings, pole… …well, you get the picture
- Colorful buildings in bohemian Valparaiso
- Mural on the side of a building
- Surely, they can’t be in a time out
- View of the seaport city
- Chameleon with a colorful personality
- Loved this building perched on a hill
- A huge mural… …see the next picture to see how big it is
- That’s one huge mural covering the building
- Locals watching a soccer game
- A bunch of weird characters… …Rohan felt right at home
- A swing in any part of the world gives the same awesome feeling
- Shopping for souvenirs in a local market