Mar 14 & 15 - Valparaiso

Valparaiso 14 March

Off today to explore Valparaiso. We headed down to the lower level and had to decide between a bus trip (which all look like they came out of Heartbeat) or a trolley bus. The trolley buses are great, really old and amazing they still function at all but they are one of the main methods of transport for the locals or portenos as they are known. Decision made, we hopped on the trolley bus to the terminus. Not having enough small change, the trolley driver let us travel for free – very embarrassing but very kind !

Ancient trolley bus but go every 5  mins ...with bumps

Brilliant fun on the Trolley bus -
even compete strangers were talking to us !

The journey took us along the main streets and through all the squares. The lower area has a very colonial feel to it in the squares with palm trees and statues and the streets between are busy, seedy and full of graffiti. 

The Terminus - and head quarters !!

We got off at the terminus to find the station was a converted trolley bus with the control depot in the front cab and a little waiting area in the back and paintings of locals on the windows !

Having done the full circuit, our next foray was the metro train which runs from the port along the coast to Vina del Mar. 

Vina del Mar - rich playground with gated
communities, luxury cars
and more quality restaurants that
you can shake a stick at !

This area is the upmarket part of town. Expensive sea front apartment blocks along a stretch of white sand beaches with lifeguards. Ferrari’s and Range Rovers here instead of rust buckets ! The gap between the have’s and the have not’s quite distinct in a country with no welfare system for the poor.

View of Valparaiso from Vina del Mar (beach)

Vina del Mar (above)

We then hopped back on the metro and were back in time for a walking tour of the main areas and hills. 

The old quarter of Valparaiso - pretty and different

This explained why the houses were all brightly painted here, same as in Ushuai, the first immigrants used paint from the ships. The corrugated iron facades were to protect the clay from humidity.

The tourist quarter (or one of) with
their brightly painted houses

Unesco made the main square and two of the hills World Heritage sites in the 1960’s and this has really helped the city protect its heritage and encourage tourism to support the local economy.

The reason street art is so prevalent here is that graffiti is rife, so the people who own the buildings commission a street artist to paint the building and the graffiti artists won’t desecrate these paintings.

The city is very prone to fire, so on the lower level there are fire stations every few blocks, sponsored by different countries and all with volunteer firemen. We saw the American, German and British ones near the main square. 

Dont worry about the house burning down
it happens all the time !!

The need for them was demonstrated visibly this afternoon when a fire broke out in the lower part of the city while we were doing our walking tour on the hill above. The guide hardly broke stride in his talk as the sirens went off and within minutes it was all over, fire out and on we went with the walk.

By the end of the walking tour up hill and down steps on top of our entire day walking we were ready for a beer and a sit down !

Another pleasant evening with good food and wine.

If all else fails then there is always...

Valparaiso 15 March

Shopping day today ! We needed a soft bag to add to our travel bags, Janette’s case has now turned into wine transportation and Paul made to suffer excess load due to Janettes wine habit….so off we went into the main local shopping are on the hunt for a bag, bubble wrap and sellotape. No mean feat given our limited Spanish but with the help of some very kind, friendly and patient locals we managed them all.
Steve was loving his commannd of Latin Spanish as he discovered the bubble wrap was "plastica bublia bublia" 

Lovely weather today, clear sunny and warm with a breeze so coffee in the sun, some more street art photgraphs and a wander round the little artisan shops dotted around the hills and the afternoon was gone.

Nice city, Valparaiso and given the dire warnings we were given about petty crime and watching cameras etc, we again found the people to be unfailingly pleasant and kind. 
We had walked the length of the city twice and met just lovely people so we will leave it with very happy memories once again.