So where were we? Ah yes, Valparaiso... probably my favorite city I´ve been to on this trip.
This place really took me surprise. I knew it would be interesting
city, but I was completely mesmerized by the shapes that comprised the
roads and the buildings, and street art covering all of it. It reminded a
little of San Francisco, but the roads continued to wind and criss
cross until you could completely lose track of where you were. The city
was placed right along shimmering bay that yawned out into the Pacific,
and the weather could not have been better; each day was cloudless and
breezy and the nights were cool and calm. For me, the contrast of the
aging beauty of the city with it´s current state of disrepair was what
made it most appealing. Ever since the Panama canal was built the city
lost its value as a sea port and all the rich European-wannabees were
replaced with a poorer working class. However, the city seems to have
never lost its touched and remained a vibrant, and fertile place for all
kinds of art, many of which we got to experience while visiting. To see
a beautiful mural painted on a house fallen into desrepair, next to an
beautiful mansion with walls shaped to match the curve of the hill, and
belwo all this an open and used trash pit is what really drew me to this
city.
After making our way up one of the city´s many winding hills, we
came upon a hostel called Patapata. Although it wasn´t in the guidebook,
a young couple walking out of the place could not stop raving about it,
and since we were a little worn out from trekking uphill with our bags,
we thought it would be a fine choice. The place was cramped but
friendly and had a nice courtyard covered by trees. The ohter travelers
seemed gregarious enough and one of the staff members, Jorge, made it
his job to make sure we always knew about the most interesting things
happening in the area, as well as the best places to get a delicious
cheap meal. After eating a full course $2 lunch at what looked more like
a convenience store than a restaurant, Carl and I decided to check out
some of the city. After wandering up and down the roads staring at the
street art and taking in as much of the epic views of the city as we
could, we started to make our way down to the fish market, in the hopes
that we could make ourselve another delicious seafood dinner.
Unfortunately it was closed, and in my attempt to take a picture of the
city, we were hounded after by two men desperately trying to get us to
follow them into an alleyway. It was annoying, but eventually they
realized we weren´t in the mood to get mugged and trudged off.
As we continued to make our way through the city, we came
across one of the functioning ascensors, elevators into certain
neighborhoods. Valparaiso is built on a very steep hill, hence the
winding streets, but at one point the city decided to build around 20
wooden diagonal elevators so residents wouldn´t always have to trudge up
and down for their groceries. Like most things in this city, most of
the ascensors were broken down and did not look like they were going to
be fixed any time soon. But we were lucky enough to stumble upon one of
the few working ones. We took it up for a mere $0.50 and found ourselves
on a patio with an excellent view of the city. We got our picture
snapping urges out of our system and began enjoying the surrounding
neighborhood as well.
We eventually made our way back to Patapata where Jorge had
decided to invite a local band to play in the courtyard. Carl and I
worked up the barbeque and made some shish kabob while listening to this
very indie band. It was a lot of fun and we made friends with many of
the backpackers and Chileans who were vacationing for a 3-day weekend.
After a few more communal libations, the locals and Jorge introduced us
to Valparaiso´s excellent nightlife. We all had a blast and were easily
up past 5am (which became a reocurring theme in this town).
The next morning, after a notably good breakfast, Carl and I hit
the streets of Valparaiso again. We eventually came across one of the
old cemetaries that was filled when the city was still incredibly
wealthy. It had the panache of some of the cemeteries I had seen in
Paris, but with a Latin American/Sea-side twist. We spent a good hour
wandering around this slowly decaying site, peering into masoleums with
broken angel statues and cracked but still beautiful stained glass
windows. After having a stand-off with a pack of dogs (while I´ve had a
great experience with stray dogs so far, Valparaiso definitely had a
problem with turf fights between the packs) , we came across a cultural
park with some amazing exhibitions of local artsists. The work was quite
impressive and totally free to the public, I felt incredibly lucky to
have access to so much wonderful art directly from the city, and wished I
had a reason to stay in this city for much longer than would be
reasonable for my trip.
We eventually made our way to Plaza Bismark as Jorge had told us
there would be an incredible clowning show at the TeatroMuseo (which of
course I couldn´t say no to). After getting another amazing view of the
city from the plaza we were excited to see the ´museum´ filled with
clown puppets and carnival cannons, from which we got some pretty
amazing pictures (take a look at Carl´s profile on facebook to get an
idea) After enjoying the museum itself, we sat down on the back
bleachers for one of the funniest shows I´ve seen in quite awhile. The
clowns were amazing, and managed to sneak in a ton of adult comedy
without the kids sitting in front understanding it in the slightest.
Carl and I even got a little bit of attention since we were the only
gringos in the audience, with the clowns hitting on us in English across
the room. There were many moments where we almost fell off the risers
from laughing so hard, and they managed to keep up some great skits for a
good 90 minutes. It turns out they tour around the world quite
consistently, even though they´re based in Valparaiso, and so I hope
I´ll be able to see them again in the near future.
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