As was common during our South American leg of the trip, we pulled into Valparaíso in style. Stretch limo and groupies….okay maybe not. Once again, it was another bus and bus terminal scenario.
We weren’t sure how to get from the bus terminal to our next hotel. So we decided on using Uber which appeared to working for us in Chile. It wasn’t long before we picked up from the side of a hectic road and driven up the hills.
Wowza, were we glad we had gotten in a taxi for this trip. The hills were something else, and wouldn’t be out of place as a black run in a ski resort. Walking up them, laden with backpacks would’ve been a foolish error!
Arriving at our hotel, the owner greeted us warmly. Payment settled and bags brought upstairs, we admired our new little den. We had a beautiful window overlooking the interior courtyard of the building. The one downside was that this place did not have air conditioning, nor a fan. However, we did look for this as an amenity on booking.com; it didn’t seem unusual for the area. Perhaps the coast would make for a more refreshing nights sleep?
Given we had arrived in the early afternoon of the day, we had missed out on the free walking tours of the area. However, not to be put off from exploring the streets, we donned our most elegant backpacking attire and headed out into the town.
The first impression from looking around was the number of murals. They were everywhere! It was more of a challenge to try and spot a patch of a wall which had not had any of the graffiti art sprayed upon its surface.
The second impression was that this city was incredibly hilly. Doing a sweep of the area, it was possible to count multiple funicular systems in the area. We decided we would see lots of art, and get photographic shots (recommended by google maps highlighting POI’s on the map) done before the sunset came in.
We stopped off at a Chilean restaurant for our dinner. They seemed empty due to the fact we were currently in low season for tourism, but that didn’t stop their enthusiasm. We were given VIP treatment and told about the local cuisine and wines.
We were rudely awoken throughout the night by the annoyingly loud birds. The resident seagulls of Valparaíso must take great joy in having the ability to ensure everyone can wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
The room was sweltering! So much for the refreshing coastal breeze I wrongly assumed for. Our efforts to combat this through opening the window resulted in the loud sounds of the overhead gulls entering our chamber. Not being able to get back to sleep, we mooched around in bed for a while until it was time to get breakfast! We fueled up and headed into the town for our morning walking tour.
The morning walking tour, provided by tips-4-tours, was about presenting the history of Valparaíso. Due to meet by the main square we had underestimated the walking time (the elevation of this city makes it hard to appreciate how long it can walk). Thankfully Katy had a copy of the itinerary to hand, and we were able to hunt the group down.
The guide did not attempt to hush us away from the tour and let us join in mid-way through a stop. We were informed about how the city was once a thriving international shipping hub. Almost all goods from Europe to the new world travelled through this place. However, when the Panama Canal opened, the death warrant had been signed. What is left behind is a clear sense of abandonment.
However, with all places that seem to lose a function, the area has developed into a thriving cultural and arts location. It was UNESCO listed in 2003. This has both good and bad effects; buildings that have since been damaged through accident or vandalism struggle to be repaired/replaced due to the conditions of UNESCO listing.
Our next new experience within Chile was provided during this tour. Very helpfully, we were told about how the micro-bus system worked in Chile. These little whizz-machines are slightly longer versions of mini-buses, but still smaller than a standard city bus. Rather than a big flashing sign indicating what route it was on, a series of stickers on the front window informed of destinations and price brackets.
Somewhat miraculously, the entire walking tour managed to fit onto the one micro-bus. This thing whizzed up the hills of the area at top speed, taking little care for those on board. One of the few other passengers on the bus disembarked mid-turn (it was quite a feat to witness), as the bus didn’t need to slow down or stop for this to happen.
Annoyingly, when we got off the bus, we noticed that we were now in the same place where we had walked the day before. We had a quick think as to if we would stay on tour. We decided to stick with it to see if we could glean any additional information we didn’t get on our own.
We got a few extra sights in and were given a history around the recently modified prison. This former correctional facility had been turned into a community centre which was being used by the locals in the recreational endeavours. During this part of the tour, we were also informed on how the facility, when I correctional mode, was used to house a mixture of violent criminals alongside political prisoners. The outcomes, as you may imagine, did not make for happy listening. However, it was fascinating, and if you too are interested, I would recommend searching the interwebs for more on this (a simple search along the lines of “Chile Pinochet Political Prisoner” should do the trick).
Our guides then opened the floor for a wander around the site, or to stick around and ask questions. A member of the group quickly, and bravely, dove straight in to ask about the present political situation within Chile. The guides were sincere about the current circumstances and why the protests were important to them. Again, this topic and discussion would make for an entire spread in the economist and is far too complicated an issue for this blog. Yet, if interested, it is worth a google.
After our lunch, I wasn’t feeling so great (turning 30 is a real drag!)! I headed back to the room and lay down for a while Katy joined the start of the next tour. We had sussed that the afternoon tour would be taking a route that passed our hotel. As a result, I asked Katy to message when they were nearby so I could join in! The meeting point turned out to be at a funicular nearby, which I’ll be honest, I was very jealous Katy had ridden.
The afternoon tour focused on the graffiti on the walls, and our guide explained what each drawing depicted as we walked through the main parts of the town. The guide also gave us a lesson in graffiti etiquette. For example, people are not allowed to do their artwork over someone else’s without the other artists’ permission. Entirely how this is controlled beyond a “scouts honour” type thing was not clear; however, it did seem to be a well-respected rule.
During our walk around the city, we had picked up a dog. This particular dog was the one mentioned during the morning walking tour, and she took a liking to us all. We were introduced to her as Maggie.
One thing that we learned about Maggie reasonably quickly was that she did not like was bikes. As we were following our guide across town, she spotted a bike and chased it. Barking at the rider and trying to bite their leg, she was not happy. As soon as the bike had left, she calmly joined us by our sides again.
The tour came to an end near where we had visited the night before. Feeling like we had mastered the local area, we decided to eat dinner where we had drinks the night before.
As we started to walk, Maggie had joined us once more. This time just following Katy and I. We walked around in various circles trying to shake her from our tail. Eventually, she got bored of us and found some other tourists sitting at a restaurant. She had no hesitation in ditching us and sat by her new friends, assumingly in the hopes for some craps to come her way.
We were a little disappointed with the meals this time as they weren’t really what we had expected. Added to this, we could not partake in the happy hour specials because they had run out of the happy hour pre-mix. Fancy pisco sours it was!
Dinner ended, and we were ready for bed! I still wasn’t feeling great, and so I thought an early night might help speed my recovery up from whatever illness seemed to be chronically battling.
Our stay finished, we asked reception if the nearby funicular was running today (Monday). Sadly it was not so we worked out what we believed to be the shortest walking route to the station. On our way down we had spotted that the tourist locations for photos were much quieter than during the walking tour. We had a quick walk around, making sure we could grab our insta-worthy shots before carrying on.
We got to the station and hoped that our metro card from Santiago would work in this new location. Sadly, unlike Japan, this appears to be a place where each location would use a different transportation card. Adding a new card to our collection, we topped up the correct amount to get us to Viña Del Mar to carry on our journey.