Valparaiso

"Valparaiso es un monton, un racimo de casa locas"....Pablo Neruda

I have a weakness for rundown port cities, specifically for the faded grandeur of Latin American ports. Cartagena de las Indias, Barranquilla, & Veracruz are a few favorites of mine. I love their decaying charm and their bonhomie. They are old-fashioned, yet hedonistic, clinging to a romantic past that never quite dies.

Valparaiso - La Perla del Pacifico (Pearl of the Pacific) - has enraptured my imagination for years. Home of Pablo Neruda; place of steep hillsides and colorful houses; known throughout the world as one of the most charming, bohemian cities in all Latin America. Valparaiso was the first stop for ships coming around Cape Horn: many would-be California goldminers, and Klondike refugees ended up in Valpo, another reason it's always captured my imagination. Valparaiso was a thriving port until the Panama Canal eliminated traffic coming around the Horn. Valpo is still a busy port (though not Chile's biggest), and there is a significant Navy presence.

The city encircles a small bay, where sunbathers and shipping containers compete for prime beach space.

 

With its alluring personality, colorful facade, and incredibly rich history, I knew we had to enjoy many days here.

We decided to spend no time in Chile's capital city, so after our arrival and a painless pass through Santiago airport´s customs and immigration, Audie and I hopped on a bus outside the airport and proceeded to one of the city´s main bus terminals, where with three minutes to spare, we got on a bus to Valparaiso.

We passed through the serene, vineyard-clad Casablanca Valley and after two hours arrived to a very much hungover and tired Valparaiso. We arrived after one of the world's most festive and wild New Year's Eve parties: confetti covering every square inch of sidewalk and pavement; drunks drooling and supine on the streets; revelers just waking up from their park benches. Some diehard carousers were still carrying bottles, singing indecipherable tunes, and encouraging us to drop our bags and dance a new year's waltz. 

The sudden heat hit us as we were carrying our bags and backpacks through the crowd of still merry drunks, so we hopped on a bus and hoped it would take us to where we needed to go: Ascensor Artilleria. Valpo is famous for its ascensores, or funiculars. There must be ten or more in the city. Rattling, wobbling, hastily hammered together little wooden boxes, which can hold about 10 persons each, trundling up the hillsides. 

I had booked a B&B in Valpo for our three nights there, called The Yellow House which is next to the aforementioned Ascentor Artilleria. We asked our fellow bus passengers where we should get off and they directed us to the exact spot to go. Very friendly people, but whoa!!!....is that Spanish? I may have had seven years of formal Spanish training, and spent a small chunk of my life living in Latin America, but this couldn't be Spanish becuase I could barely understand it! I had heard that Chilean Spanish is difficult, especially when I'm used to the crisp, clear Spanish of Bogota, but both Audie and I felt that years of Spanish training had disappeared. We hoped our ears would get used to it! 

After getting settled in our room, we attempted our first excursion in the city, upon which we promptly got lost and I got one of the worst sunburns of my life. We wandered for five hours under the strong southern sun, discovered the Gran Brentana street of old mansions with parrots squawking in the back yards, and we visited the Esmeralda, a real treat for Audie. An avid reader of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, Audie was thrilled to take the helm of a ship that stars so prominently in Chile's history and in O'Brian's novels. O'Brian's character Captain Jack Aubrey is based on the extraordinary life of Thomas Cochrane, a Scottish officer who, while Commander-in-Chief of Chile's navy, captured the Spanish flagship Esmeralda, which was a major factor in Chile gaining its independence. The Esmeralda now sits in Valparaiso's harbor when she's not out on training missions. She is the second tallest and longest sailing ship in the world. The Esmeralda is the favored beauty of the Chilean navy and is adored by thousands of Chilean visitors when she's in port.....as well as by naval fiction fanatics from Alaska.....

Valparaiso was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2002, which belies the fact that the town, truthfully, is a bit of a dump. A charming, authentic, and vibrant city, but very gritty. You don't visit Valparaiso for chic shopping and galleries, for perfectly preserved architecture in genteel neighborhoods. Many buildings are closed up and behind the colorful houses on the hills shantytowns are growing. No gentrification here, and Gracias a Dios for this! Valparaiso is not fake, telling tourists a story so they'll hand over a peso. Valparaiso is real, living a little off its glorified past, but still real: a place of poetry, tangos, and sailors.