8. Chile - Valparaiso, The Return

Covering 22 Feb - 28 Feb 2019      

I never knew he got to Chile !  - who ?

You join us on a return visit to Valparaiso.  This really is one of the great cities to visit, not just in South America but anywhere.  So let’s meet the teams – Les and Heather, Bonnie and Newt.

We had got back a day before B and N and our coach was running about two hours late so we arrived well after last check-in time for our Airbnb.   We weren’t even in the area until 10.45pm.  Text messaging from the coach meant that we had an address to collect the key from and our taxi stopped outside in a silent and empty street.  Almost immediately a top floor window opened and a couple leaned out, then another, then a door opened.  This was the key holder who then struggled to open another door in order to actually collect the keys.  Then her and a man with her piled into the taxi with us and we drove to our apartment four hundred yards or so away.  Our cases were carried in, we got a quick tour and they were off.  All extremely friendly and very Chilean I’d say.  It’s a stylish little apartment with a much better furnished kitchen than most Airbnbs and it has a roof terrace with views across Valparaiso dropping down to the shore with the ocean beyond.  Lovely.

view from our apartment block roof terrace

The city is as colourful as we remembered it and there are different pictures to see at almost every turn on buildings, walls, kerbs and flights of steps.  Less colourful and not far from where we’re staying are two large cemeteries, imaginatively called 1. and 2.  One of them, I don’t know which, is known as the Dissident’s Cemetery because this is where the non-Catholics are buried.  Both are full of those imposing mausoleum structures whose size I presume is to reflect the wealth and/or perceived status of the resident.  This is also a city that requires some agility eye-wise.  The place is full of dogs so on a walk you have to keep one eye on the views, one eye on the street art and one eye on the pavement in order to avoid the simply huge amount of dog mess that litters the streets.

very good Jazz busking band - with groupie

Bonnie asked that if we had one word for Valparaiso what would it be.  We couldn’t stick to just one each so this is the list which immediately came to mind to us in no particular order.  Whimsical, Quirky, Artsy-Fartsy, Eclectic, Playful, Wacky, Intriguing, Surprising and Colourful.  We all contributed but you’ll just have to guess which words are whose.


Here's a selection of some more Valpo artwork -

Grandma Giles' rather louche sister

Trolles here is the name for the old electrically powered trolleybus system which is still in operation with a claim of the oldest working trolleybus rolling stock in the world.  The oldest date from the late 1940s.  It appears that they haven’t been cleaned since they began operation but at least they’re not pumping out diesel fumes into the city and they run a decent circuit for 300 pesos (45 US cents/36p).  Many cities across the world are re-installing trams but I’m not aware of new trolleybus systems which surprises me.  After all, the road has to be dug up for tram rails but a trolleybus runs on ordinary tyres.  They both need overhead power cables but even so a trolleybus system must be a lot cheaper to put in place and they’re quiet. 

I think this must be one of the really old ones

Pablo Neruda, a poet I imagine many of you will not have heard of was a Chilean Nobel Literature Prize winner who lived in Valpo.  His rather wonderful and unique house is now a museum.  It was a

Neruda's house

couple of miles walk from our apartment along what must be the longest stretch of level walking in the city other than right down at the water’s edge.  Set high up with views over the city and the sea and set on five levels it is impressive and allegedly full of his possessions.  I say allegedly because the house was looted in Pinochet times and not restored until some twenty years later.  So, either the looters were very methodical and kept excellent records or the stuff inside is similar to the sort of possessions he owned.  It is still a very interesting place.   






Neruda said about Valparaiso (this is an extract) “what a crazy insane port, your mounded head, disheveled, you never finished combing your hair”.  If you’d been there you’d agree with him.

Ascensor Artilleria - about time for
some restoration on this one

This is now a sad occasion, where the four of us go our separate ways, Bonnie and Newt to Cuzco and Machu Picchu and us to The Galapagos Islands, probably the most famous wildlife destination in the world.  We’ve had a really good six weeks or so travelling together so you can tell they are excellent travelling companions, they put up with us and laugh at my jokes.  What more could we ask for ?   We had a last night good dinner and said goodbye.  It was only later that I realised it was the sort of goodbye to someone we’d be meeting up with in a week or so.  So that was a mistake, it should have been a bigger goodbye because it might be a year before we see each other again.  That said, whenever we do meet up, it seems a very short time since we last met, however long it actually is.  They really are very good company (not bad, Newt).

not sunny absolutely every day

We found the best price for our air fares to Quito but then asked Ben at DialAFlight to see what he could do.  Well, he managed them a bit cheaper and as I said in an earlier blog, we're always happy to recommend him.  To get to The Galapagos we had to go via Santiago, Lima and Quito, then stay overnight before our flight six hundred miles into the Pacific to the islands.  It wasn’t the smoothest lay-over.  At 8.15pm we were too late for dinner, then in the morning there was no water to our room and we were too early for breakfast so it was off to the airport by taxi.  We queued at check-in, only to be told that we had to get our Galapagos entry pass first, so we had to queue up for that.  Then it was back to check-in, queue up and then to be told our bags had to be x-rayed first.  Anyway, the woman on the desk kindly sorted out our check-in and told us to just come straight back to her desk when we cleared the rather cursory x-ray check.  Then we went for breakfast.

Prior to us going to the Galapagos Heather had been checking accommodation for our land based part of the visit which will be after the sailing.  She found a long review which ended ”on a positive note, the locals were extremely friendly and the care received in the hospital was excellent”.  Turned out that whoever wrote it had been bitten by the hotel dog.  Encouraging or not ?

our last supper together - this trip !