Valpo (as the locals call it) is a city you could lose yourself in (literally and figuratively). It’s a gritty port town (think Baltimore or Long Beach, California) but is bohemian like Venice (in L.A.) and VERY VERY hilly, with beautifully colored row houses (like S.F.). Street art (grafitti) is pervasive – beautiful colored murals are painted on walls, doorways and buildings. It is an artists town – the famous poet Pablo Neruda had a house in Valpo. Many young students come to study art from all over the world. We see these students sprinkled around town with canvas or drawing pad in hand, sitting on the curb of a street sketching the view of the colorful hillside. More about the history of Valparaiso on Wikipedia.
Here’s a major part of life in Valpo – the super busy port which ships copper, fresh fruit, and wine:
And not far from the bay, the streets start to go up all the hills around Valpo. You can see below that the streets are VERY steep and windy. One can literally stumble upon hidden restaurants and cafes which is the really unique and very cool thing about Valpo.
And because of the steepness of the hills, the locals often use rickety wooden ascensores/funiculares (elevators) to ride up and down the hills. This is very typical of the Valparaiso experience and there are about 15 of them in operation right now:
Here’s another street – feels a bit like San Francisco no?
Here are some examples of really cool murals:
Many of the buildings have roofs and siding lined with metal that has rusted over. In Valpo, it simply adds to the character of the already speckled skyline.
Here are more photos of Valparaiso as well as the Bicentenario event in the bay: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony-chen/sets/72157623760943531/show/
Next, we’re headed down south to the town of Santa Cruz in the wine region called Colchagua Valley. You’ll see from the photos that there was severe earthquake damage. Stay tuned…