Up the hill and up again

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Chile is an extremely long country, apparently as far from top to bottom as from Scotland to Nigeria (thanks Barney), so before we faced another long bus journey, we decided to take it easy with a short hop to Valparaiso. The city was an important port during the Gold Rush, used by European and American ships on the route from Cape Horn to California, but fell out of favor and fell into disrepair early in the last century. However, the city has now been revived as the cultural capital of the country and is certainly a unique place, with 42 cerros (hills) surrounding the city center and port area, full of colorful houses and beautiful restored mansions, with chaos still in between. dilapidated.We forgot that it is also the second largest city in Chile, so when we arrived we were a bit surprised by the size of the place, expecting a small seaside town. We were staying on top of Cerro Alegre, one of the most beautiful hills with a great view of the city and the bay, so after a quick check-in we explored and took the opportunity to ride one of the "elevators" down into town. the city is well known. Since a large part of the population lives on various steep hills, 14 cable cars have been built over the years to facilitate their ascent and descent, making it one of the most fun commutes in the world for sure.Our first task. it was lunchtime, we found the area around the market to be the place and soon found a place with friendly locals providing good fish and chips while the waiter insisted we have a Jaegermeister. -esque (for the soul) shot later to aid digestion. The market was in quite a congested area, but the day went well and every stall had lots of sea urchins. Visitors to Japan must be in heaven. However, we were warned to avoid the area at night and one of the hills behind it was not recommended at any time of the day, although the rest of the town felt completely safe.A walk after lunch took us through the town. . in the lower town, but we somehow managed to miss most of the interesting streets until we started walking back from the place disappointed. Of course we eventually found the squares and shopping streets where all the locals hung out on a sunny Saturday afternoon. However, the prettiest and most atmospheric areas are in the various cerros, such as Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion, which abound with independent shops, bars and cafes - one of which we spent most of Saturday night in. It even had a huge vinyl collection, so we made friends with the bartender and treated other patrons like the Blacksmiths and the Cure.The famous poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda lived in the town for many years. . After researching him at university, we decided to visit his strangely designed house specially built there, which has an amazing view. However, I have to admit that I still don't remember much of his poems.We heard that the Cerro Bellavista "open air museum" had several interesting murals in town, but honestly, they were beautiful. uninspired The uncommissioned murals and graffiti closer to where we were staying were much more interesting and deserved more than a few photos. After all, who could deny the need for a home of pies?.

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