High on Aerosilla.
Graffiti, grime, drunk dudes playin soccer in the park, the occassional whif of urine, degraded roads, tiny-dark pathways leading to your inevitable death, or at least robbery; this is what welcomed us to possibly the worlds coolest UNESCO world heritage site.
My parents ingrained within me a certain amount of disdain for graffiti at a young age (my mom's side are cops, enough said. My dad's side mandated I help with Yucaipa's graffiti busters at the ripe old age of 12, adopting the preemptive "even if you are graffiting, you'll be cleaning" policy, (probably the most effective deterent for me.), which has lead to the inevitable backlash: I love graffiti art. Not the self-promotional kind (for a good time call: 951-505-1959), nor the industrious type (909'ers 4life), but the pure artistic expression type (think bansky, well not him, but his "art"). Valaparioso is littered with the latter, which is just one of its many appealing, if quirky, eccentricities.
We arrived with one night booked in a small, friendly, out-of-the way hostel and ended up staying an extra two nights (technically one, but our bus left at 11pm the third night), because we enjoyed wandering the city so much.
We spent our days walking the streets, taking boat taxis through the gorgeous bay, checking out the home of Pablo Nuruda, riding the funiculars and eating the delicious street food, such as the sopapillas adorning many of the street blocks. The city's real highlight, though, lies in its grittiness, which can only be found amongst the city itself, in its streets. So, that's where we spent our time.
Many of the streets meandering up the hills are narrow, pedestrian highways, like the streets of Venice, but vertical, like the streets of San francisco. They are equal parts mysterious, alluring and scary,especially considering the general seedy nature imbued upon the hilly city. At one point Beth decided that she wanted to venture no further down an intriguingly dark street, that seemed to have no end, because she was sure some latino criminals were lurking in the shadows. We went. We saw. We survived. And we loved it. Which pretty much sums up our time in Valaparaiso.
The hills are San Francisco steep, but the people here are a bit more industrious, creating funiculars to transport people up to the top...for a nominal fee.
Panorama from the far left of the city. It was one of the biggest ports in South America before the creation of the Panama Canal. A big portion of the city's bay is still dedicated to this endeavor.
The sun setting over the palm-lined posh portion of Valpo.
The city's layout is akin to your Camp Edwards amphitheatre, with the bay serving as the main attraction. These steep hills combined with an overload of people leaves the land bursting at the seams with people. Small, twisting and incredibly steep alleyways lead up through the hills. This is one of probably 1,000's of similar walkways, dirt and all.
i tried calling 951-505-1959 but there were no good times to be had. sigh.
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