Two months in Santiago, Chile.: Valparaiso..."Paradise Valley"

This past Saturday we hopped on a Tur Bus and headed about an hour and a half northwest of Santiago to a little city known as the cultural-capitol, Valparaiso.

Valparaiso,

how absurd

you are...you haven't

combed your hair,

you've never

had

Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso

time to get dressed,

life has always

surprised you.

-Pablo Neruda

Kimmy and I went with our friend Scott who has been there a few times before and was a great tour guide. The city is made of 42 cerros (hills) that resemble mazes made of steep streets, alleys, and stairways. Each hill is topped with old, crumbling houses yet at the same time is full of color and charm.

The city sits on the edge of the Bahia De Valparaiso (Bay of Valparaiso) and stepping off of the bus, the smell of the ocean was the first thing I fell in love with. I have missed that smell!

We took the funicular up to the top of Cerro Concepcion. From there we spent the day walking; in and out, up and down, all around the backs of the different hills. Our first stop was at Museo Lukas (Lukas was a local cartoonist). There, we wondered around his artwork and sipped on coffee as we planned our day. After leaving there, we walked for a long while admiring the colors surrounding us. From the houses to the cars and the cement walls; everything was full of color. Finally, we stumbled upon Le Sebastiana which was another home to Pablo Neruda. This house was amazing; five flights of beauty. Each room was made up of big windows facing the bay. The views were breathtaking and became more impressive with each ascent. One thing that is always talked about is how Pablo would have big parties on New Years Eve and everyone would go to his house to watch the fireworks over the bay. I only wish I could have seen that!

Continuing our walk, we ended up walking through Museo a Cielo Abierto, Open-Sky Museum. It's a casual outdoor walk made up of 20 colorful murals that were painted between 1969 and 1973 by students from Universidad Catolica's Instituto de Arte. The murals cover the cement walls and stairs throughout the walk.

Afterward we ended back on El Plan, the congested, flat, commercial part of the city closest to the water. We had lunch in Mercado Central which is a market of produce, meats, and fish similar to the one in Santiago. We had three delicious meals of fresh seafood, bread, and a bottle of wine for 17.000 pesos (under $40).

While we're sitting in the market there were all types of vendors walking from table to table trying to sell jewelery, kids toys, etc. This one man was selling some type of noisemaker and he was making noise with this thing the entire time we ate circling the dining area. It drove us crazy. A couple hours later we ended up at the bus station to head back home and the three of us are sitting on a bench outside and Scott goes, "OMG look who's here" we turn our heads in suspense and it was noisemaker man, THE noisemaker man, trying to sell noisemakers!...one of the many laughs we had that day.