Valparaíso

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Hello again,

Well, we hit the half-way point. We have exactly ten weeks left in the trip, but that´s OK. All trips have to have a half-way point. Knowing we get to spend the same amount of time down here as we already have is a wonderful feeling. Our trip is by no means long by South American travel standards. The average trip to South America for people we have come in contact with is about 3 months. And many of the people are doing this trip as one leg of their year-long around-the-world trip.

Today we find ourselves in a city called Valparaíso, about 1.5 hours from Santiago on the Pacific Ocean. Our guide at La Chascona in Santiago described Valparaíso as San Francisco on a LSD trip, but we think it may be closer to San Francisco and Venice, Italy combined into a fantastic city of hills, passageways, and general craziness. We like it! The city has so much character and is quite different from anywhere else we have been. The city is spread over many cerros (small hills) set around a large bay. Like San Francisco, the houses are built completely over the hills, but they did it using the Chilean civil engineering system. The streets are winding, there are small passageways all over the place, and a lot of stairs. In addition, there are 15 ascensores (elevators) to move people up and down the hills.

We are staying on Cerro Concepción in Casa Aventura and enjoying our stay. The hostel is small (max. 14 people), but has a communal table that has managed to suck us in for way too many hours just sitting around and sharing stories with other travellers. Cool vibe.

We came here on Friday, May 20. We first went to a small town called Isla Negra, about 1 hour south of here, to visit the second of Pablo Neruda´s three houses. This was his beach house and once again reflected his very eccentric personal style. The house has marvellous views of the Pacific from just about every room. Neruda designed it long and narrow to reflect the geography of Chile. He even built a room to mimic his childhood home in Temuco. This house was unscathed during the military coup of 1973 and has most of the original furnishings, including several ship figureheads and a seashell collection complete with narwal tusk.

After seeing the house, we got a quick bite to eat and caught the next bus to Valpo. Ryan went out to a club that evening with several people from the hostal, but Ana was tired and decided to stay in. Being Chile and all, Ryan didn´t get back until 4:00 am. (And he actually left early).

On Saturday, we explored the area around our cerro. We followed the different passageway, checked out the viewpoints (of which there are many), tried to get lost, and of course, went to another Pablo Neruda house, La Sebastiana. This house was started by an architect who had spent years searching for the perfect site to build a house that would take in all of Valparaíso. The house is a tower that rises up on one of the cerros. It is also filled with Neruda’s eccentric character.

Sunday we took a day trip to Viña del Mar, a beach resort next to Valparaíso. This is where the rich Chileans live or at least vacation. We saw the summer palace of the Chilean president, Cerro Castillo, up on the hill. We also visited the Museo Fonck and learned a bit about Isla Pacua (Easter Island).

Tomorrow we head on north toward La Serena and Pisco-Elqui.

Ciao,
Ryan & Ana

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Photos

Valpo
Look at all the houses on the hills.

More Valpo
That's the Pacific in the background.

Ryan at Museo Fonck
This is the closest we're going to get to the moais on this trip.