Viva Valparaiso

The picturesque port city of Valparaiso, surrounded by 45 cerros (hills) full houses, mansions, churches and streets haphazarded built along the sides and tumbling to the downtown below. The city gained
prominence during the Calfornia Gold Rush in the late-1840s and 1850s as Europeans made their way around the treacherous Cape Horn to go north along the Pacific Ocean. Valparaiso became the leading port stop-over for these merchant and passenger ships. Some of these merchants simply stayed and the port grew with many immigrants from Germany, Italy, England, France, America and Yugoslavia. It had South America´s first stock exchange, telegraph office, fire station, publicated newspaper (El Mercurio De Valparaiso), Presbyterian church, and yes, heated showers. With the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, Valparaiso went into decline and its prosperity and prominence began to fade.

The once elegant streets around Plaza Sotomayor are filled with crumbling historical buildings, drinking holes for sailors and dock workers, and the occasional prostitute. The cerro neighborhoods are great places to explore and get lost. Full of winding cobbled stone lanes, alleys, stairs, and streets full of graffitied or mural painted walls and buildings. Often aspiring mural artist will approach house or building owners to offer a design to paint on a new wall to showcase
their talent for free. They are often accepted or soon the wall will be covered with graffiti as there is an "agreement" between graffiti taggers and mural artists not to paint over each other's pieces. Most of the street murals are quite unique and beautiful and some are several stories high. There are also 18 great little ¨ascensores¨ (funiculars or elevator cars) dotted arund the city built from 1880´s to 1910´s that can take you
 up the hills to get different views of the city or simply just take the many stairs up.

Full of atmosphere, I can see why famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and other artists have fallen under the city's charm. Much less publicized, it was also the birthplace of Chile's former dictator (from 1973 to1989), General Augusto Pinochet.

Off to explore the port docks on this bright, sunny day and maybe visit the nearby city of Vina Del Mar. The sun really brings out the colours in this wonderful city.