Around the Horn on a South America Cruise: In Praise of Valparaiso

Welcome to New York!

Our big adventure began with a flight from JFK in New York City to Santiago, Chile, and it was a pleasant one for several reasons. We used LAN, a highly regarded South American Airline that we had flown before. This flight was an especially good one with seats that were actually somewhat roomy – but it was good mostly because we were flying with an empty seat between us!! Yesssss!! That never happens to us anymore. Wow, imagine all the extra room we had in economy class to spread out for this long flight. Plus the crew was extremely polite and attentive, offering us multiple drinks (including decent free wines) and constantly looking for ways to make everyone more comfortable. We had to ask ourselves why aren’t all airlines (United, we are talking to you!) like this? We flew on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, something that we’ve never done before. Frank was a little nervous about that since he was aware of the 787’s major battery problems just within the past few years and wasn’t sure these problems had been corrected. Obviously they were, because all was OK. It was a 10 hour flight, and we arrived intact, 4 days ahead of our scheduled cruise departure, all in one piece. Yes, in 4 days, we will board a Holland America Cruise ship (MS Zaandam) right here in Valparaiso and head for the “Horn” at the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic!

Michael, "The German Pirate"

We hired a superb driver who calls himself “The German Pirate” to get us from Santiago airport to the coastal city of Valparaiso, only about 1-1/2 hours (100km) west of the inland city of Santiago. “The Pirate,” whose name is actually Michael Arnold, was a lot of fun and provided a relaxed and safe ride, along with an introduction to the area.

Casa Blanco, blanketed in early morning fog

Santiago has a dry inland climate, but once we crossed over the coastal mountains, the air became cooler and the vegetation changed from parched brown to lush green. This coastal area is often compared to San Francisco, and just like in that city, the morning fog was only beginning to burn off as we drove into a valley called Casa Blanco. Casa Blanco is known for its delicious wines, and the whole valley is covered with row after row of vines in the many vineyards.

Wall mural that welcomed us to Valparaiso

Valparaiso, or Valpo as it is often called by the locals, is one of the more interesting cities that we’ve visited thus far. In Spanish, they call it “La Perla del Pacifico” (The Pearl of the Pacific). It starts on the water at the harbor (sea level), and rises abruptly to about 1500 feet, with homes, streets, and businesses built on the rising hillside to give the city a “terraced” effect. Any of you who have ever visited Santorini in Greece can best envision this situation; but this is on a larger scale, since Valpo has millions of people and homes where Santorini is much smaller.

Harbor and terraced homes of Valparaiso

In its heyday, Valpo was a major port for ships sailing around the tip of South America (known as the Horn) from Europe. European immigrants came here to run lucrative shipping and mining operations and built majestic European-style mansions. The two big commodities at that time were shipping and mining, and especially mining of saltpeter (Potassium nitrate), a major component used in explosives. The city unfortunately suffered a major economic collapse after the Panama Canal was built in 1914, since all the ships preferred the shorter canal route to the long, dangerous trip around the Horn. All the wonderful hillside homes that were built here during the “golden years” were vacated and left to rot (and become home to squatters). When the money and commerce left, so did the people. But about 30 years ago, young people (backpackers and hippies) started to move in and bring the neighborhood back to life.

Shantytown shacks on the Valparaiso hillside

Today the city is a chaotic mix of faded elegance and shantytown poverty. The city’s down-at-heels Bohemian charm is often missed by tourists, as Valpo seems a bit rough-looking in places at first, and is possibly the underbelly of the region with severe poverty. We were told that Valpo is now the poorest city in all of South America. It has mucho petty crime in certain districts, but the historic center is very attractive and very safe for all. For us, the ramshackle, diamond-in-the-rough quality of Valpo is part of its charm!

Looking up the steep incline of the
Concepcion Ascensor

As the city grew in the golden years, the people moved up the steep hillsides so that everyone could have a view of the bay. Fortunately, there are 15 old-fashioned elevators or funiculars (called ascensores in Spanish) around the city that will whisk you up the hillsides for only about 300 pesos (less than 50 cents American) for a one-way ride. We watched the locals and discovered that they do NOT use the ascensores. They all hike up the steep steps and trails to wherever they are headed, carrying groceries, packages, children, etc. as they go.

Cable cars on the hillside of Valpo

We, however, convinced ourselves that while we could hike to the top if we wanted, we were old enough to have earned the right to spend 50 cents to ride to the top! And besides, we were only here for 4 days and couldn’t waste precious time every time we needed to hike to the top of the hill; so that ended that argument for us. Give us the ascensores – heh, heh!!

Single ascensor with the port of Valpo
in the background

We loved these old ascensores. Originally, there were 29 of them, but now the number has dropped down to 15. We found these creaky, aging wooden cable cars to be a real treat for getting up and down the hilltops quickly. And once we arrived up on the hillsides, it was a different world. Many refurbished ramshackle homes dot these hills now, while many others are still in the throes of decay. Burned-out homes, termite infestations, and just plain old erosion from age has taken its toll.

Colorful restored town houses
on Concepcion Hill in Valpo

Valpo has been declared a UNESCO sight, and as such, rebuilding is a tricky business. Certain codes must be adhered to such as corregated tin siding to cover outside walls and roofs so that the outward “look” of each home & business conforms to the original color/appearance standards. One unifying factor in this hodge-podge of a city is COLOR! Valpo is one of the most colorful cities anywhere on the planet with townhouses painted in sparkling pastels of yellow, blue, purple, and green and street art on display everywhere.

Valpo mural on the wall of a home

You might consider some of these murals as graffiti, but these hand-painted murals done in brilliant colors cover the sides of houses, businesses, walls, and even the cement steps on the hillsides causing an incredible visual overload to the onlooker! People pay big money to have artists do a mural on their door, or if they can afford it, on the side of their house.

The distinctive style
of street artist "Mena"

One famous artist named “Mena” charges upwards of $500 to put his mural and signature on your home’s front entrance. And there are many more.

At lunch with new friends Michael, Marianne, and Regula

To help us make sense of this crazy but wonderful place, we spent a day with our German Pirate exploring the many hidden nooks and crannies that Valpo has to offer. Our 6-hour tour flew by as we wandered by ascensor and private car, but mostly on foot (over 5 miles of steep terrain!) across the hillsides. We were joined on this tour by two delightful women from Switzerland, Marianne and Regula (aka Pia), making a fun walking group of five.

We are not hippies. We are happies.

What a day we had! Frank took so many pictures he ran down his camera battery and had to use his back-up. Every block held new wonders. One favorite of ours was a gorgeous pedestrian-only street lined with brilliantly painted houses and featuring a garden of colorful, flowering bushes where the road used to be. A row of cement seats (like bleachers) at the top of the block displayed these words, “We are not hippies. We are happies!” Maybe this whole town appeals to our latent “hippiness,” but we have fallen in love with Valpo. It is an artist’s paradise!

Frank bonding with a local street guitarist

Frank loves to chit-chat with the people we meet; he says it is just because he wants to learn how to speak the Spanish street language from the locals, but we all know it is mostly his personality. The locals of Valpo are probably all wondering about this friendly dude “Frank” from the USA running around yakking it up with anyone who’d kibitz with him. Anne and the tour group thought this was pretty funny.

Wall mural in Valpo

BTW when you travel in South America and someone asks where you are from, it is very important to say that you live in NORTH America, not just “America.” It’s an important distinction because these people live in America too. If you aren’t careful, you risk leaving the impression that you think the United States is the only important country in the Americas.

Snow-covered Aconcagua is just faintly
visible on the left

We were lucky enough to have such a clear day that we could see Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of Asia, from one of the viewpoints above the city. Our German Pirate told us that the weather is clear enough to see Aconcagua from Valpo only about five days a year!

Frank checks out some of the funky art

Another day, we visited the Naval Maritime Museum. Just another museum and no great shakes, but we did learn that passengers who go around the Horn are dubbed “Cape Pigeons” – a sad comparison with a ship’s captain who gets the honorary title of “Albatross!” If all goes well, in a few days, we will circumnavigate the Horn and become a couple of Cape Pigeons ourselves!

Frank with school kids at the
Naval Maritime Museum

We arrived at the museum at the exact same time as a horde of literally hundreds of schoolkids. You would think this would be a big annoyance to us old codgers, but it turned out to be a highlight of our visit. The kids were very polite, well behaved, and anxious to talk to us. The boys especially gravitated towards Frank. Anne took a picture of a group of them gathered around Frank, and as we said our goodbyes, one little boy yelled, “I love you, Frank!” Haaaa….. Everybody including Anne cracked up laughing. So cute!

Pretty Vina del Mar

On our last day, we took the Metro along the coastline to Valpo’s sister city Vina del Mar. Vina, as the locals call it, was clean and pretty but felt more like San Diego than Chile. The town was loaded with shops and restaurants, and we enjoyed wandering around. However, Vina felt pretty soulless compared to our vibrant Valpo!

Fountain in the main square of
Vina del Mar

One note of interest before we end this blog: we discovered that gasoline prices here in Valpo run about $4/gallon. It always amazes us that poor countries such as this are paying almost double what we are paying in the USA. Makes you wonder what actually drives the prices of a barrel of oil.

Tomorrow we board our ship, and the around-the-horn adventure begins!

P.S. As we were preparing to publish this blog, we’d like to report that at 8:05 PM on 21 November, here in Valpo, we felt the whole Ibis Hotel shake for about 30 seconds. We are sure we just experienced an earthquake (or at least a tremor), and sincerely hope that it has finished now with just a bit of shaking. Kind’a glad we’re boarding our ship tomorrow morning!!

More pics of Valparaiso: