Valparaiso, the port of for Chile’s capital of Santiago (the cities are about 100 km apart), is set on a large and lovely harbor (below), and perched on a series of hills overlooking the port. The population in 2012 was 284,000, and here’s the location:
Our departure has been delayed 20 hours by the troubles in Chile, and here is the 18-day itinerary (the ship heads south by the Chilean fjords, Patagonia, and Terra del Fuego, and then further south through the Drake passage to the Antarctic peninsula, where we’ll potter about and, I hope, see whales, seals, and PENGUINS. Then back to Punta Arenas, where I take off for voyage 2: another 18 days or so retracing the trip to the Peninsula, but then east to the Falkland Islands.
Here’s the port (photo taken from Wikipedia). Our hotel is right behind those three blue cranes: a convenient location:
The thing that strikes the casual wanderer, besides the busy port, is the art: many houses, hotels, shops, and even outdoor staircases are covered with murals and artistic graffiti, many commissioned by property owners (see below). Here’s a bit about that from Wikipedia, but I put a video at the bottom.
During the second half of the 20th century, Valparaíso experienced a great decline, as wealthy families de-gentrified the historic quarter, moving to bustling Santiago or nearby Viña del Mar. By the early 1990s, much of the city’s unique heritage had been lost and many Chileans had given up on the city. But in the mid-1990s, a grass roots preservation movement blossomed in Valparaíso where nowadays also a vast number of murals created by graffiti artists can be viewed on the streets, alleyways and stairways.
A view from atop the main staircase to the hills above the port. (There are steep funiculars, but the turmoil in the city has closed them.) You can see some of the murals on the buildings below:
A zoom in to one of the murals shown above:
And more murals:
Close up of the series above:
Some of the lovely houses on the hill (I believe these are hotels):
A weathered door:
Artsy closeup of the weathered door:
A nearby cafe had a special breakfast. I’m not sure that the Bern ever ate like this, but he sure won’t now!
More art:
Biology break: a lizard chomping an insect it had caught on a dog dropping. I asked Greg Mayer for an ID, and he said this:
My guess would be Tropidurus, a common and widespread South American group, which is sort of the equivalent of the North and Central American Sceloporus (the swifts and fence lizards). There are lots of species– I’d have to work on a species-level ID.
Back to art (somebody besmirched this mural with graffiti):
A van Gogh replica:
And a CAT MURAL. I photographed it pawing a passerby:
These appear to be golden poppies, the state flower of California:
This was painted on a house in one of the most famous areas of street murals; the owner clearly didn’t like the tramp of tourists, both Chilean and foreign, in her area. When we were reading the sign a woman inside the house gave us a baleful glare. But I hasten to add that she’s an exception: so far I’ve found the Chileans extremely warm and hospitable. And, to her credit, the woman clearly despises Trump:
Finally, here’s a video of “street art” in Valparaiso:
All of the panting and art certainly makes the city less boring and very colorful. They should do this in more places around the world. The gantry cranes and container ships are the modern import/export business. Really nice photo. Hope the ship gets there soon.
Lovely. I really like the colourful houses on the hill.
I’d be interested to know whether a profusion of art, of murals and colourful designs like that, has a sociological effect on the area – does it drag down crime figures just a touch? Does it ever-so-slightly improve life-satisfaction reports?
Wow – how exciting, how fascinating! And it’s only the beginning!
Those murals and doors are absolutely charming.
Lovely photos
What? One little heart attack and the Bern’s spozed to give up fried eggs and topped home fries for cream of wheat?
Better to abandon one’s ill-fated presidential ambitions than a tasty breakfast. 🙂
Is Bernie Sanders really that popular in Chile?
With the actual neoliberal billionaire president/government squeezing the life out of the Chile’s lower class, I suspect the majority of voters would love to have someone like Bernie as president. In fact Chile did have a legitimate Bernie-like president, Salvador Allende, before the capitalists had him murdered. Toast me!
One of the many international war crimes Henry the K was complicit in.
Oddly enough, while Pinochet was a terrible dictator who killed political rivals and citizens, he also was the one who modernized the Chilean economy and made it one of the best in the region.
Maybe not so oddly. After all, the Nazis promoted German industrialization, and Mussolini famously (if apocryphally) made the trains run on time.
Well, not exactly the same thing. While there were a couple of hiccups along the way, the Pnochet governments reforms made Chile’s economy the most powerful in all of South America, and it’s continued to be one of the most powerful through today. It wasn’t just a blip on the radar, but a complete restructuring (to be completely accurate, multiple restructurings) that was aimed at both short and long-term goals.
While nobody can say how Mussolini’s Italy or Hitler’s Germany would have turned out decades later, they very likely didn’t enact the kinds of long-term reforms needed for continued economic prosperity and stability.
Presumably the people engaged in the current demonstrations and riots would question the extent to which the fruits of the success of Chile’s economy have been shared amongst the population.
If you don’t think Ken’s examples of 1930s Germany and Italy are quite comparable how about China? Brutal dictatorship there has certainly been accompanied by astonishing economic growth. It would be hard to describe China’s economic might as just a blip on the radar.
They may question how the fruits have been disbursed among the population, but if you read about what Allende’s policies did to Chile, his policies would ensure that there would be no fruits for anyone. The people rioting now would be dirt poor, not just living with inequality.
China is a better comparable, but still difficult because (1) it’s more of a totalitarian regime than a mere dictatorship, and (2) the growth has not resulted in as big of a middle class as Chile’s.
One can speculate about what the economy under Allende would have become had Pinochet not carried out his putsch and it may well be the case that it would have tanked under his policies but so what? Pinochet was a murderous tyrant and no achievements can justify that.
As the examples of 1930s Germany and Italy and modern China show, vicious dictators and totalitarian regimes can in some circumstances achieve ‘great’ things (though many dictators of whatever political stripe just trash their countries). If you believe in democracy, freedom of speech and the rule of law these achievements do not begin to justify the brutality.
As to Pinochet’s economic prowess and its supposed legacy, if it has left a significant proportion of the people struggling to put food on the table then it cannot be said to have been that great. To speculate that it might have been worse under Allende is just what-aboutery.
My[rough]translation of the Bernie breakfast: Two fried eggs in a toast nest, a sauce of fresh tomatoes, sauteed potatoes [hash browns?] and an exquisite dressing. Valparaiso’s wall art must attract many Bernie-type tourists.
I wonder how food is holding up in the big cities with so much disruption from the unrest. Is difficulty in restocking supplies holding up the ship?
The exquisite dressing is “exquisite aliños”. Apperently, aliños is a seasoning paste or sauce which has many versions depending on the region. Here’s a recipe I found. You put all the ingredients into a blender and blend to a rough puree. Don’t know what sazon Goya with azafran is. I am familiar with the Goya brand, but not that spice.
Ingredients
½ medium green pepper, chopped
½ medium red pepper, chopped
½ medium onion, chopped
4 scallions, chopped
½ teaspoon cumin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Cup water
½ tablespoon sazon Goya with azafran
Looks like a perfect match for eggs and potatoes.
Azafran = Saffron
Aha, thanks.
The curfew must have put a dent on your dining experience, or did it?
Have a great trip,
Yes, many restaurants were closed. But we went to a good one yesterday, and will go to another good one tomorrow. Both specialize in fish.
Amazing doors! I am so inspired again to put more art (my own) in front of my house. Beautiful.
Some talented artists at work in Valparaiso. Thanks for the lovely sampling. The “Starry Night” interpretation was especially beautiful.
I also especially enjoyed the mixture of elements from from Van Gogh paintings. Many of the other murals were most lovely.
Thanks for the nice mural photos!
I took a day trip to Valparaiso when I was in Santiago in May and greatly enjoyed the graffiti. The funicular was working then, although I walked down from the upper city on my own. I didn’t see among those pictures all the lovely depictions of cats that I took pictures of – I can e-mail them to you if you like 🙂
All beautiful!
Wonderful stuff! I love all the murals and the butterfly one goes exceptionally well with the house growing up from the garden.
“A weathered door:”
Where ever I’ve ever gone around the world it’s the doors that do it for me. Old, worn, well used, grand or simple wooden doors. Everything that shows the passage of time and the endless passage of people through them.
+1
Something about old doors