A Weekend in Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a weird city. Weird, but beautiful. Mostly. We certainly made the most of our short weekend there. The bus ride out to the coast cost $6000 round trip, or about $6 USD each way, and was about 1 hour 15 minutes. We got off the bus with our backpacks and started walking south in search of a hostel on the other side of the city. At the top of Cerro Concepción we discovered a pink and green building, Casa Familiar Carrasco, in which we found lodging, breakfast and a gorgeous roof view included. After dropping off our crap, we wandered downhill through alleys and stairwells in search of dinner. Along one of the main flat roads, we noticed a large quantity of American flags in the window. We wandered in and announced that we were from the United States. They gave us punch and cake. Then we ran into some other kids from the program on the street randomly. We found a place for dinner, then explored more of “El Plan,” the downtownish area. Once we ran out of things to do, we went to Huevo, a five-story club that played reggaeton til the wee hours of the morning.
The next day, Saturday, we explored cemetaries No. 1 and No. 2, as well as the Cemetary of the Dissidents. Trying to find the Open Sky Museum was a happy disaster. We couldn’t find, but we instead found people on Cerro Bellavista setting up for an event to raise awareness about and protest against the building of a 15-story building in the neighborhood. We rode Ascensor Espíritu Santo to the top and somehow ended up at La Sebastiana, one of Pablo Neruda’s three houses in Chile. We explored the grounds for a while, then found some amazing once (the lighter meal between lunch and dinner, not served at eleven as one might think) at a delicious vegetarian restaurant. After that we headed back to Cerro Bellavista for the program thing, which included traditional music with pan flutes and dancing, modern music, speakers, and a slideshow. Then we went back to the hostel and tried to shower. We couldn’t get the hot water to work, so only Lily was brave enough to really shower. Another adventure for dinner followed. Gnocchi all around. Delish.
Sunday we had planned to go to Viña del Mar, but the weather was rainy and discouraging, so we didn’t. Instead, we wandered further south, as we hadn’t really checked that area out yet. We found an art gallery, but I can’t remember the artist’s name. Then we rode Ascensor Artillería (built in 1892) to the Naval Museum. We also ate a rather tasty lunch up there and enjoyed a beautiful view of the bay as the weather slowly cleared up and the sun came out. Then we picked up our bags and walked slowly to the bus station, stopping here and there to enjoy plazas and markets. My legs were rather sore from walking up and down hills all weekend. Exhausted but happy, we rode the bus back to Santiago, where I ate a large and tasty dinner and promptly fell asleep in my warm and cozy bed. I give Valparaíso two thumbs way up.

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Part of trip: Chile

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