Valparaíso

Our guide Lucy and driver Jorge picked us up from our hotel for the 1.5 hour drive to Valparaíso. To get there we drove through wine country and Lucy explained there are a lot of boutique wineries in this area. She also explained the history of the name Valparaíso, basically they mushed the phrase "go to paradise" or "Va al paraíso" together into the name.

Lucy explained also that it was at one time a more wealthy city but has over the years become a poorer area. It is a port city, so historically people from Europe came to settle there. Lucy pointed out as we drove through town the many fire houses that were supplied as resources by the French, English and Germans. Apparently the city used to have a fire station every couple of blocks--because of the hills it was difficult to access town in event of fire. You can see the european influence in many of the architecture styles of the buildings.

Lucy explained that the area of Valparaíso we were going to visit was established as a UNESCO world heritage site in effort to preserve it's character. The buildings reminded me of the houses we saw in Cinque Terre we saw last year in Italy which is also a UNESCO site.

The first stop after driving through the newer part of town was at a viewpoint overlooking the port. Most of the supplies coming to Santiago arrive there, although more recently another port was built that offset some of the deliveries.

After this stop we drove by car further up the hillside and began our walking tour. Lucy explained that they believe the bright colors of the houses were a way to communicate to others where you lived, as the streets didn't have house numbers.

We ate lunch at a hillside restaurant called Fauna. We sat on the balcony and could watch the water as well as see all of the different colored houses. After lunch we drove around to visit several tall murals around the city that were painted by the same couple. There were 4 of them, meant to portray the different seasons. Before heading back to Santiago, we also stopped to see Pablo Neruda's house. We did not go in, but admired it's character from the outside.

On the way back to Santiago, we drove by a train station that was designed by the same architect as the Eiffel Tower. You could certainly see the resemblance. It also took us an hour and a half to go 5 km in traffic from the outskirts of Santiago back to our hotel. It was a long day! I don't think we have ever been stuck in traffic for that long before in our lives!

Once we got back and rested, we had dinner at Buffalo Waffles across the street from our hotel. Waffles wrapped like a cone with savory filling! They had crispy potato 'fries' in them. Off to bed, getting back on a plane again in the morning!Read more