We arrived back from San Pedro de Atacama with little incident, except for
nearly missing the first plane, but that’s all par for the course when
travelling in Chile, (Note to Self..., never trust the information boards...!). We sat around
chatting and imparting news of our travels and adventures in the Grand North to Christine and Andres for a little while but headed to
bed soon after as we knew we need to be up reasonably early the next morning, as we had another trip planned for the weekend. We were heading
west to Valparaiso.
The only thing I knew about Valparaiso was that the houses there are
vibrantly painted and they hold a Red-Bull Downhill cycle race there every
year, not what you would call a lot of knowledge really, so I was looking
forward to this trip. We managed to rouse ourselves out of bed and left the
apartment around 10:00am, and after a swift metro ride we were back at the bus
station that we had used the weekend before for our trip to Vilches. It amazing
to think what we have already done in less than 2 weeks in Chile. The bus ride
was a casual 2 hours jaunt and we arrived in the bustling port city just before
1:00pm. If you can imagine a place where mountains meet the sea in a steep cascade
of brightly coloured houses, each of which seem to be on the verge of tumbling
down the hill into the sea, then that would be Valparaiso. Add to this a
melange of architectural styles from the late 1800’s right through to today’s contemporary
tastes, with the distinctive infrastructure of a busy working port. I would put
it somewhere between ‘Shabby Chic’ and ‘Urban Funkiness’.
As an example of this, Christine & Andres took us to a
favourite little bar of their called ‘La Playa’ for a spot of lunch, which
could have been a set of a Hemingway novel if it wasn't for the myriad of
black and white posters of Hollywood’s
great & good with a mix of Rock Stars from 1960’s thru to 90’s. It
was an amazing place right out of another time. After lunch we made our first
use of a Valparaiso institution, the ‘ascensores’ or small funicular railways,
that climb the steep slopes from the port level, about 100m. These historic and
rickety boxes save you a heart pounding climb up near vertical streets, and as
far as I am concerned, there are not enough of them..!
After the lift and a further calf-busting climb to find our
hostel, we eventually found it in the beautiful historic seaport area called ‘Cerre
Alegre’. Once we had checked-in and dropped off our bags we went on a gentle
stroll around the area, looking up colourful stairways, along steep streets at distant
pastel shaded hillsides, and vistas out over the harbour and to the hazy Pacific
Ocean. Eventually we found our way to one of Christine’s favourite spots, the ‘Brighton’,
a brightly painted yellow/orange
After a couple of hours on the terrance, the next treat in
store for me was a trip to a local ‘Beer Bar’ called “El Irlandes” which had a great
selection of Craft Beers from all over the world, strangely excluding New
Zealand, but then I have tried so many NZ beers it was good to try something I
had not had before. So in that vein I had a Mikkeller Double IPA called ‘Cracked
Moon’ and a Clown Shoes porter called ‘Genghis Pecan’, as you can imagine I was
in seventh heaven. But the evening was still young and the best was yet to
come.
Around 8:00pm we went to a restaurant called ‘Cinzanos’ which
appears to be a bit of an institution in Valparaiso, where the stage was set
for an evening of old time crooning. The main stars of the evening were a dashing
star of yesteryear and his 2 piece show band, all of whom were in their 70’s if
not older. As the music started and the singer started belting out some South
American classics to much appreciation from the building crowd, we started to
get in to it, helped in part by a few bottles of Chilean red wine and a hearty
meal. We had bagged a great spot just in front of the action and what started
as a mildly entertaining evening soon became raucous affair as the evening
moved on, different singers took the stage and at our table the wine flowed
freely. I seem to remember something about Fiona kissing the band members and
some dancing may have taken place, but to be honest my memory of the final hours
is a little patchy. I remember little after leaving the restaurant, but my calves
were very sore the next day...!
The next morning, nursing our hangovers, we met downstairs
for breakfast to plan the day’s activities. We were going to take a wander over
to the non-catholic cemetery, which like many parts of the town, was again perched
high above the port streets. This started out okay, but the uphill stairs
section was a real killer for 2 out-of-shape middle aged, marginally overweight
people, especially when both Christine & Andres skipped jauntily up the
staggering climb like new born mountain goats...! Still it was worth it in the
end as the cemetery is full of foreigners that ended their lives here in Chile.
It was remarkable just how many tombs and gravestones had many Scots and
English names on them, of adventurous souls who were trying to make a life for themselves
so very far from home. Very poignant.... From there we wandered up-hill again, ever-upwards
but this time not quite so steep, to a converted prison that was now a cultural
centre, with a wonderfully flat green space in the middle that seemed under
utilised in this steepest of locales.
Next we caught a bus to see one of the houses of Pablo Neruda,
a Nobel award winning poet & writer that Chileans are fiercely proud of. I
can’t say that I am too familiar with his poetry or writings, but when it came
to designing houses, another passion for the man, he knew what he was doing.... The house, called “La Sebastiana”, was
stunning, both in its unique and somewhat nautical 1950’s design, and its pristine
location above the city with almost 360 degree views of Valparaiso, the
surrounding towns & bays, and over the port far out into the Pacific Ocean.
Neruda described himself as a ‘Land Captain’ and his house in Valparaiso was a supreme
vessel of his imagination. So impressed were we that Fiona & I will make
some time to visit his house in Santiago later in the week.
We returned to ’Cerre Alegre’ and had a splendid lunch just up
from our hostel at a place called ‘El Desayunador’ which literally means ‘The
Breakfast’. This was followed by some more walking around, and unfortunately
some more severe climbing, when we discovered that the funicular we wanted to
use was not working. I wish I had switched on my GPS this weekend, just to know
what vertical elevation we had climbed; I think you would have been impressed...!
Christine & Andres were going to head back to Santiago that evening, but
Fiona & I decided to stay an extra
We bid our farewells to Christine and Andres as they left
to head back to Santiago, and Fiona I went for a late afternoon siesta back at
the Hostel. We did managed to drag ourselves out again to go to a little French
style restaurant not far from the Hostel, but we soon returned to the warmth of
our little room and a couple of hours of watching BBC World, and some other English
language rubbish.... The perfect way to
end a perfect weekend in Valpo, as the locals call it....
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