Valparaiso, Chile: Artistic, Funky, Seaside City

What It's All About:
Valparaiso is this cool, hippie town on the Western Coast of Chile, about 1.5 hours away from Santiago. The whole city has an artist/musician/free spirit vibe, and people always rave about the city. To me, it's kind of like a cross between San Francisco and Brooklyn: there's the narrow, super hill-y streets with crazy inclines/declines, and street art/graffiti all over the place. It's also right on the ocean, and the entire city is super cool looking.

All the crazy colored houses on the hillsides of Valparaiso

And it sits on the ocean! And it's foggy! See why it's just like SF?

Some of the street art, which is all over the buildings

I spent two days in Valparaiso wandering the adorable streets (aka getting super winded constantly; altitude is high here!), taking walking tours, sitting in cafés, and hanging out.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Took a short 1.5 hour bus ride from Santiago to Valparaíso - there's literally a bus every 15 minutes, so it was super easy.
• I took two walking tours of the city, which were super interesting and gave me the chance to see all the different neighborhoods and areas. The "Cliffnotes of the Day" are basically going to be a photo dump of all the photos I took of the city (with accompanying awesome descriptions and observations, of course!).

A mural of Valpariso! In Valparaiso! (They should have painted a building with this same mural on the wall! Like Inception!)

And there are so many colorful stairs that go up and down all the hills!

Uhhh love this

The houses are all so colorful!  Our guide said people in Valparaiso paint their houses the same color they were originally, which keeps the colorful house vibe the city's got going on

Valparaíso used to be the main stop for ships going around the southern tip of South America on the way to California after the Gold Rush of 1848 (as it was the halfway point) - which made it a super prosperous/rich city, with influences from all around the world. The area near the port sits on flat ground, which is where the rich used to build their mega-mansions.  After the Panama Canal was built (and ships no longer had to sail all the way around S. America), many people left or moved further into the hills. Which results in the ruins of some of the former stately mansions, evident here.

One of the crazy-long staircases going up to the hills. Next to it on the right, you can see an ascensor - tons of lifts/trams the government originally built on the hillsides to help make it easier for residents to go up/down, rather than going up/down a million stairs. Only about 6-8 of these acensors are still functioning today.

We rode an ascensor! This one's called Reina Victoria, was built in 1902, and felt like it was built in 1902.

One of my walking tour guides in front of a graffiti wall. The mural above is some kind of ironic statement against McDonald's & consumerism (see Exhibit A, where it says "12:00AM: Comida basura", which basically means "12:00AM: Eat trash").

I like this one. I want a leopard-cat-kitten.

Looking out onto the ocean - and you can see what different levels the houses sit on due to all the hills

At the end of the first tour, we were given a tiny free traditional Chilean drink called kalimotxo - which is red wine mixed with flat Coke. Delicious? (ok it wasn't so bad; Coke makes everything delicious)

I sat in an adorable café and had a breakfast sandwich for dinner, while an accordion/guitar player entertained.

The Chile Armada building in Plaza Sotomayor

Artistic.

• I did go on my own to visit Pablo Neruda's house, called La Sebastiana. Pablo Neruda was a famous Chilean poet who won the Nobel Peace Prize - his works are super famous, and he had 3 eclectic houses that are now museums you can tour.  They wouldn't allow us to take photos inside, but the house was pretty crazy - he definitely had some interesting, and incredibly particular, tastes; i.e. he thought water tasted better drunken out of colored glasses, so all his water glasses were green. And he loved Walt Whitman, so there's a giant Walt Whitman painted on the wall of his study.

Here is a photo of La Sebastiana that I did not take

View of Valparaiso from the top deck of the house. Apparently while he was house-hunting, he asked his friends to look for a house that had a view of the ocean, wasn't too expensive, looked over Valparaiso, and had a good size and look.  WOULDN'T WE ALL LOVE THAT, PABLO.

The walk down from La Sebastiana is unofficially titled the "Open Air Museum" due to all the graffiti murals and street art.  And clown-themed light poles!

A very strange mural. This mural looks out onto a two-story deck - to get down, there's a giant slide you can take! Or you can take the stairs, if you're boring.

This giant street mural is a lady....holding a burning tower in a glass vase? Art is weird. Also, my mom and I went to Colombia last year and took a street art tour - and as a result, I actually recognized some of the graffiti artists! Like this one!  I don't remember his name or anything about him, but I recognize the style. Street art expert, present.

An adorable colorful street decorate by residents, using everyday items

Just a casual afternoon tea (called the "happiness tea") and a giant slice of choco cake

CRAZIEST STORY: My friend Sam's friend Andrea was also going to be in South America and had sent a couple messages asking for some tips. And then RANDOMLY, in the middle of the street in Valparaiso, we ran into each other!! How small is this world!?!?

Fun Facts of the Day:

• Chileans also speak super different Spanish - they often drop the "s" at the end of words and add a "po" onto the end of a sentence, as a kind of slang. So instead of "Cómo estás?", they would say "Cómo estai-po"?   WEIRD. I feel so useless trying to figure out what people are saying sometimes, but not my fault!>
• Valpo is also super-prone to fires, as the crazy electrical wiring (there are seriously wires everywhere) is not a good combination with the strong winds that come off the ocean.  Luckily, there are multiple fire stations in the city (all named after certain countries because each country wanted their own fire station in town due to the large populations of people from their country that immigrated to Valpo). 

Moment of the Day:

Wandering down one of the artsy streets one morning, I got myself an ice cream (which is super prevalent here, thank goodness) to enjoy on the walk. I seriously had turned the corner and was about to take my second lick, when the ice cream ball rolled off the cone and onto the street with a splat.

DEVASTATION.

I froze for a moment and stared sadly at the ice cream ball on the street - and out of the corner of my eye, I saw that there was a construction worker on the empty road, carrying a ladder, who had witnessed the entire spectacle - he had also stopped and was also staring sadly at my ice cream ball on the road. He caught my eye, and we seriously just stood there on the sidewalk motionless for what seemed like minutes, alternating between frowning at each other and frowning at the dirty ice cream ball on the road. It was one of those moments that transcended all cultures - we just sadly looked at each other.

He eventually gave me a sad look and in a small, hopeful voice said: "Cinco segundos?" (5 seconds?)

CUTE. I laughed and picked up the ice cream ball and threw it away, and bought myself another one farther down the road. But it was the cutest moment ever.



Meal of the Day:

Another weird thing? Chilean food.  On my last night, I went with a walking tour friend, Gavin, to a hole-in-the-wall local joint our guide had suggested earlier.  We tried a dish called chorrollana, which is basically french fries, smothered in meat, smothered in cheese, smothered in fried onions.

It was delicious. Nobody said this stuff was healthy.

This doesn't look that amazing, but fries with meat and cheese and onions!? Yes please. Also, there was a lettuce leaf to balance it out.