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Published: December 20th 2006
Well, well, well, we've finally made it to Valparaiso. After recovering from our overnight flight, we ventured out to discover it. Valparaiso is a comprised of a big port and many hills, called cerros, (we've heard there are about 41) that are filled with houses of various colors jumbled up on top of each other (or so it looks). The view of the bay from up on the hills is awesome.
There are actually little pasajes (passageways) that allow you to walk away from the streets and between many of the buildings and it is a pleasant way to travel because there are no cars. People have painted their houses fun colors and there are murals all over the place. We found the Palacio Baburizza, which has a little plaza or park in front of it where a puppeteer happened to be doing a great show with puppets made of recycled materials. Nice time.
The hills are pretty steep here and we now hear “pick me up, please” (or levante me, por favor) from Ben and Oliver all the time. Luckily, Valparaiso has these fabulous ascencores (steep, slow trains) that take you up and down the steep parts. I
can't believe we don't have a picture of them that actually shows how steep they are.
We're staying at a great hostal with really interesting guests and a really nice homey feel. Some mornings we sit around the breakfast table until 10:30 not able to stop ourselves from hanging out! We met Sarah, who also has a travelblog at this site, and who is trying to make a go with living in Chile also. We met two great guys from England who are traveling around the world trying some new food everywhere they go. They had some great stories for the boys, and it was great to see their eyes widen with their story of drinking snake wine with a dead bird in it somewhere in Asia. Many people here seem to have really done some interesting traveling. The boys made friends with a fun Canadian dude who loves legos maybe even more than they do!! We also met a gal who was a fellow Bishop Montgomery graduate (Steve’s high school)!!
Our second day in Valparaiso, we headed to the National Botanic Gardens in the nearby town of Vina del Mar. This little excursion started with a ride
overhead wires
The overhead wires seem to be jumbled up as much as the buildings. It's fun the watch the cable guy look and look at the cables which they always seem to be tinkering with. on their new subway (only 3 months old). Of course, it is fabulous -- just what trolleyjolleys love! It runs along the water and has great views and a smooth ride. At the Botanic Gardens we found a ropes course and we all had a great time running through the courses.
But the time has come to focus on finding a place to live - we need to get out of our suitcases for a while. We have looked all over, but have mainly found places suitable for one person, nothing big enough for our little family. We checked out more obscure hills, with no luck. As we explored Valparaiso, we found that many of the streets are crowded, noisy and narrow - not particularly kid-friendly. Sometimes it is hard to tell the murals apart from the graffiti - sometimes it can just seem a little trashy.
There are dogs everywhere here, which makes Theresa miss Stella. All the dogs see very friendly and tame - not your typical stray. Unfortunately with the dogs, comes their poop - just about everywhere.
Ben and Ovie played soccer with a boy next to our hostal in one of the
puppet show
The spider kills the bug passageways. The ball hit a wall and ricocheted in such a way that it went all the way down the hill. Kids must lose a lot of balls here.
But it’s just like our guide book says - it’s not for everyone. So we checked out nearby Vina del Mar, Renaca and Con-Con. We want to stay in this area to rendezvous with our friend Paul, who is coming in from Montana in mid September. So far we are thinking Vina del Mar is the place to be - it has many parks, a nice beach, and wide, flat sidewalks -- definitely kid-friendly. And it has the ropes course the boys like so much. We'll be visiting the beach there and invetigating housing there next.
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Tim Keller
non-member comment
Great to hear from you
Dear Teresa, I was hoping I would hear from you on your big adventure, thanks so much for copying me on your blog. I look forward to keeping abreast of your family. How is the Spanish going, I imagine it is overwhelming at first, I hope Ben can use what learned this summer at Spanish Champs. Merry Christmas!