Vibrant Valiparaiso

Valparaiso is known as the “Jewel of the Pacific”.  The glory days for this port are in the past but it is still a UNESCO World Heritage Site, earning that designation because of its history, the late 19th century architecture found here, and its cultural diversity.  It was a place that many English, German, French, Italian and Yugoslavian immigrants made home during its heyday, as well, of course, as the Spanish who had been here for centuries.  Much of it is looking a little the worse for wear these days but we had a wonderful day touring.

We drove north to Viña del Mar before beginning our exploration of Valparaiso.  Vina, or the Garden City as it's also called, was founded as a weekend retreat for the wealthy of its sibling, and of Santiago.  It is a place of beach resorts and tourists, although not as laidback as Valpo.  This was the first of many mansions that we would see that was left from the glory days of the port, this was in a spot called "Castle Hill".

Keeping with the large home theme we stopped by this home that was built in the 1930's by descendants of the founding family of Viña del Mar.  The original was destroyed by the earthquake of 1906.  Multiple times the city has been partially or mostly destroyed by the quakes that this area is prone to, especially the one in August of 1906, an estimated 8.2 magnitude quake caused mass destruction.  This building is now a museum.

We really stopped here to enjoy the garden/park area on the property, not the home.  These flowers were from a beautiful jacaranda tree.

We've seen a lot of these interesting Brazilian Pine trees all over South America with their long thin limbs.

Just a sign that was part of the landscape.  I tried to find Karl to have him stand next to it but he had disappeared.

This tall Chilean Palm is one that's native to the country.  What makes it unique is its smooth bark.  You'll notice I found Karl again!

The cool thing about this Ombo tree is that most of its roots grow above the ground.  Hopefully you can see here where the actual tree begins.

Exiting the property we saw this wall of street art commemorating a group of musicians from the 70's.  There were influential at the time, playing instruments of the Altiplano region and writing songs that promoted the socialist president of their era.  After a political coup in Chile they were all pretty much exiled to Europe but not forgotten.

Besides street art there was a lot of graffiti all around both cities, even on the nicer stores around town.  Manuel said it was a real problem, with too many parents saying that they just needed to let kids be kids.

One of the coolest things we saw in Viña was this statue from Easter Island, or Rapa Nui., which is a part of Chile  It's one of only two statues that have been removed from the island itself.

The statue was behind a location called the Palacio Corrasco.  You can see how the graffiti is such a problem when you look at the front of the house in the next picture.  Who would think this is what it looked like in the back?

Palacia Corrasco belonged to a good friend of the famous sculptor, Auguste Rodin.  This sculpture in front is one of the latter's originals.

It was sent to Valparaiso as a sample for a commemorative naval monument that was to go in the city's main square.  However, when the committee saw it they decided it wasn't what they were in the market for.  

Jumping ahead for just a moment, here's the actual sedate and manly monument that sits in Sotomayor, Valparaiso's grandest square.  Rodin was just a man ahead of his time.

Our furthest north stop in Viña del Mar was a spot that Manuel said the locals call Michael Jackson rock.  When I looked at him quizzically he looked a bit sheepish and said it was because the rock had once been black but now it was white.  Enough said.

The rock was where we saw all the sea lions, hundreds of them lying on the rock, sleeping, making noise, and swimming. 

It took a few moments to actually see them as they were well camouflaged by the rock itself.

These sea lions were having a grand time jumping in and climbing out of the water repeatedly.

We made a quick stop at Playa Los Marineros in Viña.  This was the first time I'd seen a soccer field on sand, the kids here were just finishing a game.  I also had to do a double take every time I saw kids out playing, wondering why they  weren't in school, until I remembered that it's summer here!

This spot seemed to be a unique kind of a playground, it was still early so there wasn't really anyone on it yet.

Another playground had this group of oversized kids handing around on it.  We had a great time touring the area with Michelle & Dave and Laura & Bob.

I took a quick selfie along here as well after snagging some more sand for my collection for Heidi.

Heading back to Valparaiso we passed  this spot they call "Sea Castle", which used to be a restaurant but is now empty.

On the hill above the castle is the Chilean president's summer house.  The capital of Chile is in Santiago, around 70 miles away where it gets hotter in the summer so hence the beach house.

This little shack is called Cerro Castillo.  Valparaiso was one of the most important merchant ports on the Pacific coast sea routes during the 1800s and early 20th century since the harbor could handle large ships.  Chile’s first banks and stock market were created here, as well as the country’s first public library.  It was a place where there was a lot of wealth thanks to mining operations.  The city went into decline after the opening of the Panama Canal and continued to slide until the 1990s when a grass roots effort restored some of the ailing funiculars and various shabby homes were painted bright colors once again to help it look like the charming port of old.

Lots of pretty poinsettia bushes here in Chile, along with lots of other beautiful flowers, more coming later.

We saw this cute little cat on our way in to our next stop in Valparaiso, I knew Lydia would like it.

This colorful place is  La Sebastiana, the hilltop home of Chile’s Pablo Neruda, Nobel-prize winner for poetry in 1971.  Anyone familiar with his works? I've read a couple and might be willing to read more.  

One thing was for certain, there was an excellent view of the hills around Valparaiso from La Sebastiana.

Another direction, the locals call their city “Valpo”, and it’s also been called “Little San Francisco” for the dozens of hills that surround its bay, with colorful houses dotting the hillsides.  Most of these homes are made of corrugated metal as lumber was scarce and precious.  There are a few wooden houses around town that are built from Oregon lumber and are in need of restoration.

I'm just having a heart to heart here with Pedro Neruda.  Most of his poems were love poems, but he also liked writing about pets, and has one called "Ode to My Socks", a tribute to a pair of socks a friend had knitted for him.

A bit of street art not far from La Sebastiana depicting Mr. Neruda.

We saw his wall mosaic of a handsome young man on our way to a local bakery so I asked Manuel who he was.  He told us the story of how he was an American journalist, born of Chilean parents, who wrote against Chile's dictator, Augusto Pinochet.  While in the country he and his girlfriend were set on fire, he died but she lived.  The mosaic is a memorial to this sad tale.

Manuel took us to his favorite bakeries in Valparaiso, one he'd been coming to for 20 years.

These delicious treats here didn't disappoint, nor did the fabulous Chilean empanadas we ordered that they cooked and handed to us.

While waiting for our empanadas Karl found a new soda to try called Pap.  It's supposed to taste like papaya but really tastes like bubble gum, or Inca Cola if you've ever tried that.

We shared these two empanadas that were giant!  The one on the left was a ham and cheese one made using a puff pastry.  It was crispy and crunchy with gooey cheese plus lovely ham.  On the right is a traditional pino empanada filled with chunks of beef and lots of sweet onion.  Both were good but I could easily have eaten that whole ham and cheese one myself, soooooo good.

As I mentioned before, Valpo is known for its street art, which is everywhere and varies from whimsical to weird.

This piece is just a third of a wall that tells the history of the city.

The planters on the roof above this mural were all made from old computer monitors, great way to repurpose.

Here's one that was on the ground nearby so you can get a better idea of what they looked like.

Other paintings had messages like the one above commemorating the 2019 riots where students protested train fares.  These protests lasted for months and turned pretty violent with some demonstrators being gassed.

A few more to show you the variety.

Even the stairs were decorated in some places, and there were lots and lots of stairs throughout the city. 

A mural of Valpo itself.

Here's one of the old homes that had been beautifully restored and turned into a hotel.

I had a hard time to stop taking pictures of the colorful art that literally surrounded us.

I also have a thing about door pictures, they fascinate me for some reason and I had lots to choose from here.

Besides the art there were just marvelous views throughout the city as we wandered up and down the hills

This was one of my favorites streets to look down, then before you knew it we were looking back up to the top.

On a hillside across from us at one place was a large cemetery that would have been interesting to wander if we'd had more time.

In this picture I just liked the contrast of all the colors.  

Definitely some whimsy here with the hanging tassels, wooden dog, flowered bike and painted post.

Lots of opportunities for me to take my beloved flower photos around the city as well.  The honeysuckle in the bougainvillea was probably my favorite.

I throw this one in here because it was mind boggling to see these guys working on this ladder braced by the phone lines on the edge of the hillside.  Safety first men, safety first!

Ascensores are the Spanish name for the funiculars that ply the hills and are the city’s trademark feature.  There were thirty of them built between 1883 and 1916 and of those there are a few still in use.  They are cheap to ride and we had a good time trying them out.

We rode up and down this particular ascensore, it cost about 10 cents each way, payment is only made at the bottom.

Here's a view of the same ascensore later on, we watched it go up and down just like we had.

After all the hills, stairs, and walking Michelle and Karl were happy to get a chance to sit for a moment or two under a pepper tree.

Next to this small plaza is this massive place that was called the Croatia house, it's pretty self explanatory why with the country's colors and flag plastered all over it.  The man who built it was at one time one of the most wealthy in Valparaiso, but later lost his wealth and donated the home to the city.  It's now an art museum.

The red home in this photo is one of the oldest in the city, built on the site of a former fort in 1840 by Thomas Cochran, a Scottish born sailor who helped fight for the freedom of Chile from Spain.

One last panoramic city view

Heading back to the port in our van we passed the impressive Naval headquarters on Sotomayor, same spot as where the naval memorial statue shown above is located.  Chile's navy is supposed to be one of the best in the world, makes sense with all their coastline.

Manuel told us this building next to the port, which was probably a half mile long, was one day supposed to be the new cruise terminal.  I think it's going to be a while before that happens.  No matter whether the terminal was good or not we had an excellent day in Valpo!