30.01.11 - 01.02.11 Valparaiso & Vina Del Mar

‘Valparaiso is Chile’s principle port and naval base. It is also said to be perhaps the country’s most vibrant and liveliest city’ at least so it says in the guidebook. Imagine our surprise when we got off the bus into what felt like downtown Beirut. Our first impressions were of a run down city in dyer need of redevelopment. It had a spookiness I just couldn’t place. We checked into what felt like a very weird hostel. Our macabre host showed us to our room in the huge yet deserted building next door. Picture Norman Bates in Psycho showing a couple of freshers around a student house…. Somewhat confused and under whelmed we ventured out to explore this apparently dead city.

Streets of Valparaiso. Check out the telephone cables. Mayhem!

Of course, it hit us. Not only was it Sunday it was siesta time, everything was shut and people were indoors – this has happened to us before. Note to self - avoid arriving in a city on a Sunday. It’s bleak.

Valparaiso’s biggest attraction is without doubt it’s hills accommodating different neighbourhoods each overlooking the city. The hills are all served by funiculars, extremely cheap antique trains transporting the lazy, and us, up and down.  We stumbled across the Ascensor Concepcion, the oldest antique funicular in the city. Once numbering 33 but now down to 12, Valparaiso’s ‘ascensors’ were built between 1883 and 1916. We spent a couple of hours just meandering up and down the area’s winding narrow streets linking Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Alegre for panoramic views of the city and the port. After a quick beer in a sailors bar we headed back to our hostel, to our delight the streets were busier and our host had very quickly developed a personality, he was even rather chirpy.  Better still there was life in the hostel helping to dispel the Hitchcock like ambiance.

Ascensor Artilleria, One of the cities antique funiculars painted with the Chilean flag. Chileans are extremely patriotic

The hills are popuilated with the residential neighbourhoods whilst the valley bottom accommodates offices, shops, the port and the nightlife

The narrow streets are lined with bright colourful houses giving the town a unique character

The following day we caught a bus to Vina Del Mar 15 minutes up the coast having been told it was one of Chile’s most popular beach resorts. In short, it was poor and not worthy of many words. The beach was dirty and full of dogs, real dogs. We spent a couple of hours chilling on the grass adjacent to the beach before calling it a day and heading back.

Vina Del Mar beach. Popular but not our thing

Our final day was spent exploring more of the city’s hills and ascensors. It was then that this city’s bohemian culture made itself known. We came across striking murals painted on buildings by local artist stretching far across the city. It was in fact an open air gallery created by local students. The streets we had walked down on Sunday had been transformed into bustling markets and cafes each competing for our money. It was then, on our last day, that we really ‘got’ this city. Its rough crumbling exterior masks a quality of street life, culture and art that we have not yet seen in Chile. In contrast to our first impressions, I would even say I liked the place. I will be recommending it to other travellers as we move north towards the Atacama Desert.

We just loved the name of this one..

 Open air art gallery by local students. Literally painted the town an array of different colours and designs with somewhat risky sculptures too!