Valparaiso

Yesterday Paula, Lola, Daniel (Lola's son), and I took a trip south to the neighboring city of Valporaiso. Viña del Mar and Valparaiso share the coastline here and going from one to the other is a quick (and adrenaline filled) ride on one of the local buses. Valparaiso is the "Everett/Tacoma" to Viña del Mar's "Miami Beach" - it's the home of the Chilean Navy and also Chile's major port for shipping. Historically, Valparaiso was a required stop for ships going around the bottom of South America - if heading east it was a last chance to prepare for the brutal passage around Tierra del Fuego and if heading west it was a first chance to repair the damage from the passage. It's a very old city with a lot of history.

We arrived safely after the harrowing ride on the city bus that wove through traffic screeching to stops to pick up passengers, honking at any perceived delay by other drivers, and careening through tiny breaks in the traffic to get an advantage on other buses. After a short walk we reached the Artillery Elevator - a cable car that goes up one of the hills (there are several hills and several different elevators) in Valparaiso. The picture above was taken from the box-like car (see the other picture with the orange car) and shows the tracks up the hill. There were maybe 25 people waiting when the car arrived (one goes up while, at the other end of the cable, one comes down). I was surprised when only about 10 of us got on and the elevator employee told the other people that they would be taking the next car. There was easily room for at least 25 people in each car, so we all had plenty of room and a private window to look out. I then noticed that we could also look down, because between the floorboards half inch spaces had developed. Actually, as I looked around it appeared that the car had had some much better days and wasn't maybe in tip top condition...

At about that same time a child on the car shouted, "Se va a desarmar!" Everyone laughed loudly (except me) and I asked Paula what he had said. She translated, "It's going to fall apart!" Now I understood the laughter. But in the end, gracias a Dios, we made it to the top.

The views were fantastic over the city and harbor. The various hillsides were covered with bright reds, blues, and yellows. Housing here uses very distinctive colors. The harbor was filled with naval ships and container ships were taking on their cargo for trips around the world.

We strolled along the ramparts for a while looking at stands selling souveniors and handicrafts and then found some stairs for a walk down to the city. The narrow twisting sidewalk and stairs took us through an old neighborhood with bright scenic cafes, beautiful houses, and right next door houses that barely stood up on their own. A real mix.

On the flat ground near sealevel we started walking towards the Plaza Sotomayor - the main plaza in town. But on the way we came across a hotel/bar named Lousiana. Here's a picture of Lola with the hotel sign (Lola's actual name is Luisiana, she's named after the state that Jazz Capital New Orleans resides in - remember that Paula and Lola's father was a bit of a jazz nut...).

Plaza Sotomayor was the home to the Naval Office and other stately old buildings. Paula noted that around town the naval buildings all looked very well taken care of - clean, painted, and repaired where necessary. Other buildings were in various states of disrepair or grime from the city. One building on the Plaza was in the middle of a restoration and this photo shows the new color the building is taking on.

A stroll around town, a stop for coffee (aka Nescafe) and sodas at a sidewalk cafe, and a discovery (at 6:15pm) in the guidebook that Pablo Neruda's (the famous Chilean poet) home here closes at 6pm pretty much filled up the afternoon (we had gotten started at the crack of 3:30pm, so we'll have to view the poet's house some other day). The cafe that we had stopped in was named Cafe del Poetas - Cafe of the Poets - and with the check they gave each of us a piece of paper with a short poem. A nice touch.

We also stopped at Plaza Victoria where the ground tiles have amazing optical illusion qualities. Even in this picture I think you can get the feeling for ground with ocean swells. It looks like it rolls up and down across the plaza - but actually is totally flat.

It was also here that Paula experienced a huge earthquake when she was young - while watching a movie in a theater on the Plaza the roof suddenly started to fall and everyone dived under their seats. Coming out of the theater the city was in shambles.